As always, check out Alyssa Rosenberg's review on Act Four and catch the two of us on Facebook Live at 2 p.m. Monday, when we break down the episode and answer your questions.

The Hound is back (just like we all knew he would be)

You know they are treating this return as a big deal if the Hound is reintroduced with a pre-credits cold opening. How many times has that happened over 57 episodes of the show? We don't know exactly where the Hound is, but we know that he was rescued by Ian McShane, whose character is named Septon Ray, but let's be real, it's just Ian McShane. (And it was Ian McShane who did a terrible job keeping this episode's big reveal a secret, and he could not care less.) He leads a small, ragtag bunch of peasants who seem to be building a temple amid some grassy hills in the middle of nowhere. In some helpful remember-what-happened exposition, the Hound tells us that it was a woman (Arya, duh) who felled him, and Ray says that he thought the Hound was dead for days when he found him — bugs swarming him, bones jutting out and the stench. Oh, the stench.

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The Hound says that it's hate that keeps him going, but Ray thinks it's something more than that: The gods aren't done with him yet. He's not sure exactly which gods — the Seven, the Old Gods, Lord of the Light, take your pick — but he's sure that "something greater than us" has plans for Sandor Clegane.

On a break from building, Ray gives a sermon to his flock, but it seems very clearly directed at the Hound. Ray used to be a vicious man, serving at the mercy of others, burning, pillaging, killing, whatever was to be done. He killed a young boy, a death that weighed heavily on him. (Remember the Hound killing the butcher's boy back in the day?) The moral of the story is that it's never too late to start helping people. "It's never too late to come back," Ray says. His speech is interrupted by some riders who approach the encampment and seem up to no good. Ray tells the visitors they've got no horses, gold or steel; the riders warn that the night is dark and full of terrors, which would seem to out them as members of the Lord of the Light-following Brotherhood Without Banners (also the fact that they rode in with no banners).

What wasn't very brotherly of them was to return a little later and murder the entire camp and leave Ian McShane hanging from the in-progress temple. Of course, the Hound wasn't at the camp when the killing went down; he was away chopping wood. And now it's time for the Hound Revenge Tour; have axe, will travel.

Who will save Arya?

After refusing to go through with her assigned killing of Lady Crain, Arya knows that she needs to get out of Braavos, and quickly. She arranges for travel back to Westeros, but before she's able to get away, she is approached by a meek old lady who is obviously a shape-shifting Waif. The Waif shanks Arya a few times in the gut — and does so with a big smile on her face — but Arya manages to slightly escape by throwing herself into the water below.

She emerges from the water to stagger through town, dripping blood and fearing for her life. Her distress is met mostly with scorn and disdain as she looks for help from those in the streets she stumbles through. So who will come to her rescue? Jaqen, who clearly has a soft spot for her but is also a stickler for rules of the Many-Faced God. Some Lord of the Light magic? Arya won't go out like this.

Margaery is a schemer, not a convert

When Margaery avoided the Walk of Atonement last week by becoming a convert to the Faith, it seemed highly unlikely that she had a true awakening and that was confirmed this week. She excels at keeping up appearances, though, reading up on the Book of the Mother when visited by the High Sparrow and continuing to repent for her past sins. (Pretending to love the poor when they really disgusted her, etc.) "They disgust us because they are us," the Sparrow says, but I think that may have been a Trent Reznor lyric first.

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The Sparrow gets a little pervy by asking Margaery about a "personal matter": why she hasn't joined Tommen "in the marriage bed" since their reunion. Gross, Sparrow. He says she has a duty to her husband, her country, her king to produce an heir. Margaery says the the desires that once drove her are no longer there; Sparrow says, "Congress does not require desire on the woman's part." Yikes, Sparrow. That is a problematic statement. Sparrow has another problem — Margaery's grandmother, Olenna, whom he calls "a strong woman" and an "unrepentant sinner." She must learn the ways of the Faith — or else.

This springs Margaery — the real Margaery — into action. Upon visiting with her granddaughter, Olenna is baffled by Margaery's transition and tries to get through to her. But with Septon Unella's observing their every move, Margaery must stay in character and says that her brother, Loras, must confess and repent his sins. This drives Olenna batty, and she tries to persuade Margaery to leave King's Landing and return home to Highgarden. Margaery turns the tables — no, Olenna, it's you who should return to Highgarden. Wink, wink. Olenna catches on, especially when Margaery manages to slip a note into Olenna's hands — a drawing of a rose, the sigil of House Tyrell.

Before she departs, Olenna manages to get in a few more digs on her favorite nemesis, Cersei. "Our two ancient houses face collapse because of you and your stupidity," she tells Cersei. If that wasn't direct enough, Olenna follows with: "I wonder if you're the worst person I've ever met." Cersei grins and bears it; she owns up to her mistakes and deeply regrets them. She makes another pitch for the Lannisters' and Tyrells' working together to defend their children and defeat the Faith. Olenna doesn't seem into it and lays it all out for Cersei: Jaime is gone, the rest of her family has abandoned her, the people of the city despise her, and she is surrounded by her enemies. "You've lost, Cersei," Olenna says. "That's the only joy I can find in all this misery."

Recruiting an army ain't easy, and the Stark name isn't worth what it used to be

In the North, Jon and Sansa need to (quickly) build an army to fight and defeat the Boltons. They must have Winterfell as a base to hold off the White Walkers, and they must defeat the Boltons to retake Winterfell. The first step is to make sure the 2,000 or so wildlings will fight with Jon. Tormund does his best to persuade his fellow free folk that they should take up arms with Jon. "The crows killed him because he spoke for the free folk. … He died for us. It we are not willing to do the same for him then we are cowards," Tormund says. This is inspiring enough to get the giant onboard ("Snow!" he said; so that's a yes?) and then Guy Who Looks Like an Older Tormund shakes Jon's hand. These two seem to speak for the wildling crew, so that's that. Part 1 of the plan is in place. But that was easy compared with what comes next.

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From there, it's a barnstorming tour of the houses of the North. First up is Bear Island, which is currently ruled by Lady Mormont, who is a young girl and won't be pushed around by anyone. She's skeptical of Jon's request for support — after all, he's a Snow and Sansa is either a Bolton or maybe a Lannister. "Why should I sacrifice one more life for someone else's war?" she asks, which is a pretty heavy question for a preteen. Leave it to Ser Davos, joining Jon and Sansa in an advisory role, to get things done. He can empathize with Lady Mormont — he's in a position he never thought he'd be in, just as she is. His closing argument: This isn't someone else's war. It's our war, between the living and the dead. And the dead are coming. Lady Mormont is in. "House Mormont has kept faith with House Stark for a thousand years. We will not break faith today," she says. Jon, Sansa and Davos are relieved. Until they find out that this negotiation has netted them a whopping 62 soldiers.

But that's more than they'll gain at their next stop, where House Glover will give nothing to the cause. Lord Glover wants to know how many other northern houses have pledged and Jon, Sansa and Davos all look at each other awkwardly before admitting that the bulk of their force is made up of wildlings. Lord Glover is disgusted. "House Glover will not abandon its ancestral home to fight alongside wildlings," he says. Sansa reminds him that House Glover is sworn to House Stark. He says that he served House Stark once, but now House Stark is dead.

So that's the situation Jon and Sansa find themselves in. Jon is ready to channel Rumsfeld and go to war with the army he has and not the army he might want. Sansa has higher hopes, though. As she observes a few of her soldiers brawling with each other at their camp, she knows improvements must be made, and she takes it upon herself to send a letter … to someone. Can we assume it's time to cash in a favor with Littlefinger?

Jaime and Blackfish meet face to face in Riverrun

After being exiled from King's Landing, Jaime (along with Bronn; hi, Bronn!) is sent to deal with the resurgent Blackfish (Brynden Tully, great uncle to the Stark children), who has taken the castle at Riverrun from Walder Frey's incompetent sons. Jaime and his soldiers march right up to the castle where they find the Frey sons threatening to kill Edmure Tully unless Blackfish gives up the castle. Blackfish is unmoved, as seems to be Blackfish's natural state. The in-way-over-their-head sons don't go through with their threat, at which point Jaime takes over the tactical planning of this siege.

Jaime walks up to the castle, where Blackfish walks out to greet him. A meeting of two great warriors, even if they are both a bit past their prime. Jaime says he'll spare the lives of Blackfish's men if they surrender. "As long as I'm standing the war is not over," Blackfish says. "This is my home. I was born in this castle, and I'm ready to die in it." So … that's a no then? The main reason Blackfish met face to face with Jaime was that he wanted to see him in person and get a measure of him. "Now you have," Jaime says. "I have," Blackfish responds. "I'm disappointed." This was a good night to issue sick burns to Lannisters.

Yara has some fun before sailing to Meereen

Yara, Theon and those sympathetic to their side of the Greyjoy family managed to escape Pyke with many ships before their uncle Euron was able to kill them. After you narrowly escape death, you've got to blow off some steam, right? So they make a pit stop at something resembling Daytona Beach spring break, where Yara is very much enjoying the company of the many topless women while Theon … well, he can't really enjoy that sort of thing anymore. "Some of us still like it," Yara says to her brother, which seems a bit harsh. But she doesn't want to rag on her brother; she wants to inspire him to return to being the Theon she used to know.

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"I know you've had some bad years," she tells him, which seems like maybe the greatest understatement in the history of the show? But she gets back on message quickly. "If you're so broken that there's no coming back, take a knife and cut your wrists. End it. But if you're staying, I need you," she says. Then she tells of her plan to sail to Meereen and "make a pact with this dragon queen" before taking back the Iron Islands. This is pretty similar to Euron's plan, so the race is on. But don't worry, Yara still has time to "[impressively filthy statement of sexual acts]" with one of those bare-breasted women before sailing off in the morning.