I do understand what they intended and I wished they had done the better job. I am not complaining about Stannis, I am actually complaining of the episode itself. When you haven't made sure that your characters for such centric episode are fleshed out enough, you do have a problem in maintaining the attention for 50 minutes. This was like never ending marathon. I do wanted nice NW episode, I wanted it to be as epic as Blackwater, but it wasn't. It failed where it should have been the strongest.
This was all about Jon's growth? yes, it can be said that way... But, this episode failed to make a nuance in that approach. It was basically "OK, here I am, nothing changed, let me take control" There were ways to make this episode better, even without being super purist about it. the structural issues, no fleshed out characters, some strange pause, and illogical gate subplot (why do they need a mammoth, when a single giant could have pulled it up?) Yes, Sam saying "open the fucking door" might have pushed the right buttons for some, and it was indeed funny, but at the end, that's just not enough.
This... I mean, the characters on the Wall are just group of extras, with exception of Sam and Jon... When you have this type of episode, you make sure you have enough to make it through the end. Blackwater had Tyrion, Sansa, Cersei, Hound, Bronn, all established characters. This one had nothing. It had Jon whose "learning to lead" path was done in such weird way that it is almost hysterical, and Sam who was more or less confused about what to do, with a deal of courage... The rest of gang is flat line... This just didn't push the right buttons, as the episode, not as adaptation.