BlackwaterPark

Giving it a 9 just because everything went as expected, no surprise factors, but everything was staged perfectly. Maybe the Rickon part was quite unexpected, but the vale coming to the rescue in the last minute was quite disgusting. They could have joined the battle before it started and resolve it from there.

I'm also naively hoping expecting Shaggydog's head to be false. It looks small and his fur was darker. I hope it's a plan of the Umbers/GNC to take down Ramsay, after the Kastarks notified them that Roose was dead. Roose Bolton's next question would have been "And how do I know that's Rickon Stark direwolf?", but Ramsay is easy. The direwolf had to be alive to be of some proof. BTW, after Mel and Jon's little talk, am I the only one who though funny that now Jon actually knows "nothing"?

Did I miss something on the Bolton's scene? Did they mention the Umbers are bringing Rickon in? And regarding Balon... I agree, probably show only people are yet missing some Ironborn lore to see that the death made sense. Though if I remember correctly, the official version is that he "fell" due to that heavy storm and murder at the hand of one of his brothers was just a suspicion by some characters. Yet Yara/Asha is completely sure he was killed.

I gasped more with Roose's death than with Jon's rebirth. Probably because we all saw the latter one coming. Now... The Warden Of The North dies poisoned by their enemies just as his new son is born... then this child and his mother mysteriously disappear too. Can Ramsay really get away with this? Nobody among Bolton's bannermen will think something is wrong? Why would Lord Karstark allow it without saying anything? Seems really weak so far. That said, I hope the famous "episode 9" of this season consists completely of Bran's flashbacks. Can't get enough of those.

I don't think the Davos scene looking at the blood was for us to detect a shape on it, but just a resource to remind us there is blood there and Davos noticed that. I don't think it will (or can) be used to revive Jon, but Mel could use it for another purpose. She did want it before, or at least a child/shadow from him.

A 6 will do. I usually shake of expectation the whole episode and I lost that really soon with this one, but it wasn't bad. I don't like to compare the series to the books but the Dorne plot just gets worse and worse. Can't believe Ellaria will be leading Sunspear now, I hate the character. And the sand snakes... loved them on the book but they just look lame here. The other storylines range from decent to good. The ending was shocking, being Mel my favorite character... The purpose was to remind the audience what happens to the widows of the Khals I guess. Something like that needed to happen, taking her directly to Vaes Dothrak would have been weird. I felt Emilia was skinny btw, her face looks different.