Introduced an alternate non-interesting character to replace Hoat, and made him completely pointless at the end. And the change in story beyond The Wall was just a farce. They could've easily continued as it was in the books. Maybe they changed Bran's storyline because they wanted to kill off this useless character.
Yes, eight episode is titled The Mountain and the Viper. So you can guess what it'll be about. The 9th episode will yet again feature a major shock.
Can't wait for the reveal at the end of the tenth episode though