I watched the episode again and on second, unbiased viewing, I don't see how else it could have ended given the setup. The way they set it up, if it didn't end the way it did, everybody would have died. The living were completely overwhelmed and hopeless which I think is the feeling the showrunners were going for. They succeeded if that was the case.
I guess I, and many others, just feel like the showrunners should have gone for a different setup where the living weren't completely overwhelmed on some zombie apocalypse shit. Do it so the generals and The Night King actually fight the heroes themselves. Pay off some of the foreshadowing and prophecies built up over so many seasons that are now pointless.
The Arya escape scene was even better on second viewing. Had there not been certain expectations, and given the setup of the episode, she really is the only one who could have pulled it off so I'm not mad at it.
The dragon fights were dope and that was a good pay off on an expectation. The Night King got busy in this fight.
The Night King, other than the way he died and not having a hand to hand fight, was proven as a formidable big bad. He pushed the dead over the trench, took Rhaegal out of the fight, had Dany on her heels the whole dragon fight, took on dragonfire directly with no impact, raised the newly dead, took out a Winterfell wall with his dragon so more dead could get in, put his dragon on guard which held Jon off, killed Reek easily, and didn't budge an inch when he caught Arya mid-air. His only mistake was not blocking Arya's counter to his counter.
So with no expectations, great episode. I suggest people look at the episode as a standalone movie. Through that lense, you get a better appreciation for the episode.
