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  ===Critical reception===
  "The Dragon and the Wolf" was praised by critics, who listed the meeting at the Dragonpit, Cersei's lack of cooperation to defeat the White Walkers, Aidan Gillen's performance as Littlefinger, and the demolition of the Wall as highlights of the episode. The episode has received an 87% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 47 reviews, with an average score of 8.7 out of 10. The site's consensus reads "While much slower in pace than the season that preceded it, 'The Dragon and the Wolf' delivered satisfying conclusions to several story arcs, and masterfully set up the series' final season."
  The pacing of the episode received mixed reviews, with Matt Fowler of IGN praising its ability at, "Delivering lengthy meaningful scenes filled with dialogue, deception, revelations, twists," and assembly the dragon pit. He gave the episode a 9.3 out of 10. On the other hand, Erik Kain of ''Forbes'' believed the episode to be too rushed, but praised it nonetheless for being one of the most "ultimately satisfying episodes HBO has given us to date." He listed the reveal of Jon Snow's lineage as one of the most important moments of the episode, and praised it for paralleling Jon and Daenerys's intimate sexual encounter.
  Myles McNutt of ''The A.V Club'' wrote that the episode returned to the slow pace of the premiere and criticized its pacing and some of the characters motivations, but gave it a B+ overall. Jeremy Egner of ''The New York Times'' also gave praise to the episode, albeit with some criticism towards the episode's predictability, stating that while there were "Plenty of enjoyable moments and blue fire-fueled spectacle, and effectively set up next season’s culminating clashes, it didn't offer much in the way of surprise."
  Kain and McNutt were also critical that Rhaegar Targaryen bore too great a resemblance to his brother Viserys Targaryen.