I like your criticism, but the rating seems a bit too harsh.
And while the murders in Dorne may not have been very shocking, the still gave the feeling that something massive will be coming from the South
To me the murders seem like a desperate move to gain more momentum for the Dorne storyline. It would have been more compelling if they had developed Doran's character to be more like he is in the books, since the sand snakes by themselves aren't that interesting, they're like your average saturday cartoon villains at this point with their "witty" cringey one-liners and all. Also my rating reflects the my disappointment in the recent seasons of the show. I loved season 1-2 so it hits extra hard to see the current state of this show, biggest waste of potential I've probably ever seen.
Shout by SaltfishBlockedParentSpoilers2016-04-26T02:27:39Z
This episode has it all, from small and forgivable mistakes such as randomly disappearing attack dogs to plot-breaking and totally unrealistic killing of characters who could have been interesting and worth keeping alive. It's clear now that the show's creators don't really understand the source material and they are now trying to improvise some fanfiction to hold their story together. They are trying too hard to add shock value by killing off characters who haven't really been developed enough for anybody to be shocked about their deaths. The episode's ending was also trying to go for shock value, but ended up quite random and unnecessary. Most actors and production values are still good as ever, but even those can't carry a flawed story.