The more I think about it, the more I love this episode.
First of all, the first 20 minutes or so are just fantastic. The tension and anticipation, the mystery of keeping the army of the dead in total darkness, Melisandre lighting all the Dothraki swords on fire, and then that charge. Just awesomely done all around.
Then when **** hits the fan, the director did a great job of really making you feel the chaos, the fog of war, etc. That literal wave of dead just washing over everything was scary as ****.
That dragon on dragon fight above the clouds was just breathtaking. And I love that you're barely able to make out Viserion for most of the first half.
And you really get the sense of desperation when it looks like everyone is ****ed. When the Night King raises the dead, and he starts walking up to Bran, and that awesome music kicks in - perfection.
Arya killing the NK - LOVED it. If Jon had somehow charged in there and heroically killed the NK with a flaming sword, more people would have complained that it was too predictable, guaranteed. But it being Arya was surprising, yet perfectly set up and perfectly in character, but it still shocks you.
This is one for the books. Sapochnik is a fantastic director.