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THIS ISSUE: Game of Thrones, Feed the Beast, Preacher, Miss USA TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT The Return of The Hound HBO BECAUSE: Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones started with a rarity for the series -- a cold open -- which revealed something that's becoming a real staple of season 6: the return of a fan favorite. Before those signature credits even rolled, we were taken to an idyllic little commune whose people are building a large wooden structure. And the main man chopping up all that wood? He turns slowly toward the camera, revealing scars marring his face...The Hound is back, baby!

Game of Thrones HBO WHAT HAPPENED: But there was also fierce little Lady Lyanna Mormont. In Sunday's, episode, Jon and Sansa begin their tour of the North, and their first stop is Bear Island, home of the Mormonts. It happens to be ruled by an adorable 10-year-old girl, who could 100 percent kick your ass, and nearly does when Jon and Sansa suggest that she hand over more men after House Mormont already lost so much fighting for Robb Stark. But one should always keep a Ser Davos Seaworth by their side for occasions such as these; he talks to the fierce girl-warrior like an adult, explains the whole "white walker" sitch, and wins her allegiance. Unfortunately, Lyanna Mormont doesn't speak for every Northern house. Speaking of rejection, the High Sparrow lets Margaery know it's time for her sinner grandmother to repent and take up with their cause, so Margaery has a little discussion with Lady Olenna about all the joys of her new religious awakening... and then she secretly tucks a note with the House Tyrell sigil drawn on it in her grandmother's hand. Don't count this queen out of the game of thrones just yet. Arya, though? You might want to loosen those emotional attachments because homegirl just got attacked by the Waif and it's not looking so good. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: And as for the Hound... well he's got a whole emotional journey going on. Game of Thrones co-executive producer and writer of Sunday's episode Bryan Cogman told EW he considered the Hound's scenes at the remote sept like "a beautiful little three-act play." From his philosophical conversations with Brother Ray, played by Ian McShane, to his grappling with the idea that "it's never too late to come back," to returning to his new little village to find all of Brother Ray's followers slain by the Brotherhood without Banners, it's clear that the Hound is on a very different journey than when we last saw him. And if you're someone who's been wondering why some journeys in Westeros that should take weeks (like Jon and Sansa's northern tour), are shown over the same course of time as a little jaunt through Bravos, Cogman gave EW some intel on that too: "We realized awhile ago that if we tied ourselves in knots trying to make all the 'story days' line up between all the characters the momentum would suffer." And surely there's already enough suffering on Game of Thrones.

Feed the Beast AMC WHAT HAPPENED: EW recapper Kyle Fowle calls new series Feed the Beast, "a strange little show (which our TV critic Jeff Jensen gave a C review) that blends high and low art, like having a filet mignon with a side of Doritos." But if fine dining, sad middle-aged men, the mob, and former Mad Men actors are your thing, then it might just be the Dorito-filet for you. Feed the Beastfollows Dion (Jim Sturgess), a man just getting out of prison and immediatelybeing hunted down by a mob boss called -- we kid you not -- "the Tooth Fairy." Dion goes to hide out with his former best friend and business partner Tommy (David Schwimmer), with whom he was supposed to open a fine dining restaurant before Dion went on a coke-fueled binge and lit the place on fire, the event that both landed him in jail and in trouble with -- still not kidding -- the Tooth Fairy. Tommy is still grieving the death of his wife a year ago, but Dion thinks he has a solution for all of their troubles: they try again to open their restaurant. Sure, that has a record for success... WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Reviews from fans and critics are mixed onFeed the Beast, and perhaps that's because the series itself is a bit of a grab bag. The New York Times defines the show's weaving together of plots as having "a Frankenstein's monster quality." And while the premise seems to be about two old friends opening a restaurant which "allows for a certain amount of prettily photographed chopping and sautéing," The New York Times points out that, "The show isn't really set in the New York restaurant world, and judging it for its depiction of cooking or the food business would be completely beside the point. While it drives the plot, the restaurant is a garnish for the more prominent, and equally unconvincing, parts of the story." But the acting is good and the potential is there, so y'know... pour another glass of wine, settle in for this series, and try not to piss off any tooth fairies.

Preacher AMC WHAT HAPPENED: Jesse Custer, preacher of Annville. See, he was recently infected (possessed? invaded?) by... something, and he's got a pair of mysterious Brits after him trying to cut that something out with a chainsaw. But that's when it comes in handy to have a 119-year-old vampire with a penchant for moonshine as your new bestie. When Cassidy discovers the mystery duo preparing to cut Jesse open, he steps in to give them a beatdown that fully -- FULLY -- earns the episode its title, "There Will Be Blood." He kills them, and packs them up in the car they came to town in. So Jesse still has hissomething, and it seems like he's starting to figure out the kind of power that gives him -- the power to use a little bad to do a little good. He goes to the house of a man who confessed to having bad thoughts about a child, and compels him to forget about the little girl (which he immediately does), and then Jesse heads to a young woman in a coma and commands her to open her eyes. We don't get to see if Jesse's powers extend to consciousness, but we do see something else... the mysterious pair of Brits walking through town, very much no longer dead. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: We may not know much about the mystery men hunting Jesse's new spirit-friend, but EW caught up with two people who do: Anatol Yusef and Tom Brooke, the two British actors who play them. Yusef filled us in on filming that insane fight scene: "It was kind of mad, really, because it was one of the first things, if not the first thing we did... It was an interesting way to establish our characters, our relationship, what we were trying to do. In a way, the actor experience and the character experience was quite similar in trying to get this job done, and, before we were allowed to do it, in walks Cassidy. And Hell ensues." And of that Hell, Brooke added that the gore was no joke: "There was so much blood that the carpet tiles in the motel room were sticking to the bottom of our feet. They were soaked in blood."

One More Thing...

Miss USA Finds Its Patriotic New Queen Fox SHE'S BEAUTY AND SHE'S GRACE: Miss District of Columbia became this year's Miss USA on Sunday night, which she can add to her resume that currently includes being an IT Analyst for the U.S. Department of Commerce and a Logistics Commander for the 988th Quartermaster Detachment Unit.