'Game Of Thrones' Season 7 Finale: 'We've Been Here For Some Time'

We've recapped Season 7 of HBO's Game of Thrones here on Monkey See. Spoilers abound.

First off: 85 minutes! Long for an episode of Game of Thrones, sure, but put that in perspective: It's roughly equal to the running time of any given movie based on a 90s SNL sketch. So even if you're one of the many who's found this season lacking, consider that "The Dragon and the Wolf" ate up the same amount of your lifespan as A Night at the Roxbury.

Also: The final season, when it comes, is going to be just six episodes long, and most if not all of those will clock in at durations we big-time professional media critics classify as "It's Pat!-or-longer."

Before tackling this season finale, with its artisanal mix of feelings-meetings and head-fakes, a few thoughts on season 7, writ large:

• Lots of folks are bothered by the tendency, this season, for characters to make their way across Westeros's vast distances so very, very quick-like-bunnies. I'm not among them. For one thing, when asked to list the factors I appreciate about a given television series, "assiduous attention to transit time" doesn't break the top 50. It seems an awfully ... specific critique, inasmuch as we'd otherwise just bet getting a lot more scenes of folks in mid-schlep. ("Oh, but what of the ? Whither the , man?" These are not questions that loom large for me.) I fully expect the people who complain about these characters zipping around the continent must absolutely choose Fast Travel when they play Skyrim. Me, I just want everyone to get where they're going already so that, you know: can happen. ("Why aren't more things ?" very much a question that looms large for me, but then I watch .) We're entering the endgame. Of Thrones. Give