What's wrong with surprise? Nobody called Arya as the killer before this episode. I think that's fun -- or at least more fun that Captain Emo grimly charging his mortal enemy and swinging a broadsword.

I didn't connect to the larger Stark family (I mean, Robb? Ew) so the Frey scenes came across as almost unbearably cheesy and highly implausible. I think there's a point where you just gotta shrug it off though because the show has repeatedly demonstrated it has no interest in logistics (or even physics, lol).

This is not the first time they've jerked the audience's chain, eg: teasing The Hound's death as a late season cliffhanger and bringing Jon Snow back from the dead using magic.

I liked that it was characters on the periphery to the "game" who got shit done this episode -- mostly Arya and Lyanna, two teenage girls -- and everybody else was left standing around with their weapon in their hand and a stunned expression on their face. That strikes me as pretty damned subversive in itself.

And while I agree that they totally undercut the tension between Jon Snow and the Night King and cast off years of build-up, it's also not the first time the show (or GRRM) has used sudden death as an easy narrative out.