Game of Thrones season 6 has done what we knew Game of Thrones season 6 would do. It has brought Jon Snow back to life. And it has done it in the lamest way possible. Don’t get me wrong, Jon Snow was destined to come back to life, and that’s a good thing. But the show just executed the whole story wrong. It’s not what happened: It’s the pacing, the timing, the way it’s structured. It’s the show’s biggest beat since the Red Wedding and they whiffed it.

The Problem With Jon Snow’s Resurrection

Apparently, the Internet disagrees, and thinks the resurrection of Jon Snow was cool. The Internet is wrong. While big chunks of the newest episode of Game of Thrones were pretty solid—despite the number of deaths, which are now so excessive they’ve become comical and meaningless—the return of Jon Snow was totally mishandled.

The biggest problem is with Melisandre and the ritual. The whole thing turned out to be extremely easy. Say a few words and Jon Snow comes back—just as Beric Dondarrion had done when Thoros of Myr revived him (over and over again). That’s not the problem. The trouble is, the show makes us think the ritual doesn’t work. Melisandre’s amulet doesn’t light up, as it usually does when she’s magicking. Jon Snow does not react while they’re there. The group pronounces it a failure. They leave, there’s a long beat, and he wakes up.

In other circumstances, that would be all well and good. But this is Jon Snow’s resurrection we’re talking about here—a seminal event in the series and the most-talked-about television event of the year. And it was handled in the most cliché and lame way possible. There was no tension. Tension would arise if the ritual actually failed—if they had to find some other way to revive Jon Snow, if they found out his soul was trapped in Ghost and couldn’t get out. It could have taken until the end of the season.

Game of Thrones could have handled Jon Snow better if the ritual had simply worked immediately. What was the point of delaying it until Melisandre left the room? How does that relate to her removing her necklace at the end of the season premiere? Her emotional beats could have been explored much better if she was still in the room. And it would have felt less hammy.

There are so many other problems with Jon Snow’s resurrection. It shouldn’t have happened in the second episode—that’s just anticlimactic. He should have come back in the premiere, or in the middle of the season, or in the finale—not early on but not right at the beginning. Davos shouldn’t have fetched Melisandre to do the deed. Davos barely knows Jon Snow, and pretty much hates Melisandre. He basically straight-out says he thinks Jon Snow is important for some reason—why’s that? Has he been reading the script? There’s no reason for Davos to think that. Melisandre doubting her powers is just fine, but the quick turnaround after the premiere—from an old lady giving up to a resurrectress—doesn’t give her character much time to breathe.

And, most of all, Jon Snow should have warged into Ghost. It’s foreshadowed so well. It doesn’t make sense for it not to happen.