You speak the truth. Personally I didn’t like the last episode so much, only because some of the acting was pants, the dialogue wasn’t very good, and it came on the back of episode one which was just another reunion episode. Would’ve been better served in my opinion to have done episode one and two reunions interspersed with scenes of the White Walkers slaughtering their way through the North to get to Winterfell. Really build up a greater sense of their relentless ruthlessness, and increase the tension. The juxtaposition with the reunions at Winterfell, would’ve given the viewer more foreboding of the impending deaths of “beloved” characters to come.
Kit Harrington recently came out and said a big feck you to anyone who doesn’t like season 8, because they put their heart and soul into it. Thought it was a weird thing to say before it aired. But seems obvious to me that there is probably a general sense in the cast that it’s not actually very good.