Melisandre coming out of nowhere isn't an example deus ex. Half the people in Winterfell right now seem to have teleported there from different parts of the world. (How did they all know to show up just as the Night King approached? Did Jon and Dany send out invitations last year?) Deus ex is traditionally a cheap way to resolve plot problems the writers can't quite figure out. Melisandre's actions didn't resolve anything; her lighting shit on fire was spectacle with no effect on the larger plot.

But her late presence indicated a real problem: There are too many characters, and most of em are pretty fucking thin. In practical terms, when you get all of them together in one spot it's tough to find enough for everyone to do. Hence Sansa and Tyrion sitting in the basement twiddling their thumbs, Jaime and Brianne's endless hack-n-slash, and minor characters like Tormund and Ghost disappearing in the middle of the episode.

I've read some wild complaints on twitter and reddit and most of em struck me as odd for a show that's obviously always been (a) a high toned soap opera and (b) built around "trailer moments" --- notable action beats, like Mormont versus the Giant and Arya versus the Night King, are intentionally short, totally gif-able, and designed to be shared on social media.

People elsewhere totally shit on the showrunners and the writing but I think there were some very good emotional swings in the way The Hound and Arya behaved over the course of the episode. The two people who should have been in their element, in a field of endless killing and aggression, both collapsed in the face of it and had to find a way back to themselves.

PS: Oh, and the Arya versus the Night King thing was total fan service bullshit and [
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