my biggest issue was the final sequence from Jon pulling himself out of freezing water and the deus ex machina with Benjen.
I saw someone mention regarding Danny flying at top speed not just through the country north of the wall, but in the heart of the "winter" that the white walkers bring; how cold exactly is this environment? Because a regular dude dragged under freezing water, in armor, by zombies, is not going to just shake them off, swim back up, and pull himself back up through the ice. Speaking of the re-watch, Allister Thorn tells Jon and Sam how if you exposed a finger to the cold, you'd lose it almost instantly. So Jon shouldn't have survived that plunge, shouldn't have gotten out, shouldn't have been able to make it 20 feet let alone ride all the way back to the Wall without succumbing to the cold (unless this is due to some power he has had/acquired unbeknownst to all except the writers).
That entire sequence did not have to happen. It was clearly all a ploy to inject some extra drama and to kill off benjen for who knows what reason. But if they really had to kill benjen off, they could have very easily had him jump in and stop the wights who would have tackled Jon, fought and distracted the walkers while inadvertently revealing a key unknown weakness, allowing everyone to get on the dragons and ride out in safety. Part of the reason I can get over the strife in Winterfell is because that can somehow be resolved. But you can't go back and un-end a character arc. And Benjen deserved a way better ending than what we got. He got a Podrick-level heroic exit. Hodor's was better, more dramatic, and more heroic. A single "THERES NO TIME" are the final words of Benjen Stark? Incredibly disappointed in that. The time issues are lazy writing; the Winterfell stuff is confusing writing; that sequence was flat-out bad writing.
