That was kind of weird, wasn't it? Last night's Game of Thrones didn't feel quite like a normal episode. This was a good thing, in large part—there was a freshness to much of "The Broken Man" and its mood of introspection. But it was also, well, a little weird: We saw very little forward momentum in any of the main plot lines, and it seemed like the show almost wanted to give us a bottle episode, then backed away from the idea. A long-lost character made a welcome return, and we saw the introduction of some great new characters, followed by some just plain crazy shit in Braavos. But for a show that's felt like it's been condensing and strengthening its narrative this season, this episode ended up with a lot of spillage. Rather than shrinking in scope as it heads to its conclusion (we've only got 16 hours of Game of Thrones left, apparently), the show continues to sprawl.

"The Broken Man" immediately thrusts us into new territory, with an unknown location and a group of new characters. And before too long, we learn who the broken man is: It's Sandor Clegane!—AKA the "Hound," who we haven't seen since Brienne ran him through in Season Four. I'm not sure where this remote valley is situated in Westeros, although logic suggests it's somewhere in the Vale. And it looks like this group of religious zealots—led by Ian McShane, who I'll get to in a bit—is either taking part in a good old-fashioned sept raising, or is about to start filming The Wicker Man 2: Still Wickin'.
THE GOOD: This is the first "cold open" the series has done since the very first episode, isn't it? The pre-credits sequence feels thrilling, but by busting the format, they're also maybe inflating the import of the Hound. Nevertheless, it feels right to have him back—he's always been one of the show's best characters, so it's good to know he'll be playing a part in things to come. Hopefully, what's happened to him hasn't made him too mopey and morose to be his usual bad-ass warrior self. I don't think we need to worry—seems like the show really wants us to know he's good at chopping stuff.
THE BAD: This valley, gorgeous as it is, looks positively inaccessible. Not exactly the most convenient place to build a church unless you're trying to keep people away.
THE HUH?: The first scene between jolly ol' Pastor Ray (McShane) and the Hound is one of those helpful exposition scenes where they talk about past events solely for the audience's benefit. Is this the only time the two have spoken? Of course not, but it sure is handy of Pastor Ray to explain to the Hound how the Hound ended up joining their little bible study group.

In King's Landing, the High Sparrow urges Queen Margaery to get busy in the bedroom with King Tommen by saying, “Congress does not require desire on the woman’s part, only patience." This one sentence perfectly sums up the awful historical attitude of western religion toward female sexuality. Ugh, religious people are the worst. And Septa Unella proves this further by creepily staring at Margaery and Grandma as they have the most awkward tea party in the history of the Red Keep. Margaery is pretending to be all brainwashed and pious, but she slips Lady Olenna a crumpled up note. Sneaky!
THE GOOD: Later, Olenna and Cersei have a heart-to-heart and say what's really on their minds. "I wonder if you're the worst person i've ever met," Olenna casually spits. And Cersei takes it!! What is this world coming to?
THE BAD: Seven hells, this religion stuff is sooo boring. Either explain who the heck these Seven Gods are anyway, or get to the revenge-y murder parts, please.
THE HUH?: I could not make heads or tails of Margaery's secret drawing of the rose. What does it mean? It's Highgarden's sign, or sigil, or something, right? So is Margaery simply saying, "Don't worry, Grammy O, despite me acting like a brainwashed zombie I am totes still part of House Tyrell"? Seems kind of weak sauce. I wanted the note to read, "At three bells after midnight, meet me at the Iron Gate and we'll stick pins in this Sparrow asshole until he wishes he never stopped making winklepickers."

Up north, by the Wall, Jon and Sansa and Davos enlist the wildlings to fight with them against Ramsay Bolton. So many beards! The best beard of all belongs to the giant, who, I think, says "Snow" and that's that. (Raise your hand if you didn't catch this on the first try. To be fair, giants are not great communicators.) Later, Team Stark visits Bear Island, an awesome-seeming place where we get the best new character the show has introduced in some time. (When your character debuts the same week as a character played by none other than Al Swearengen, that's no small feat.)
THE GOOD: Lady Lyanna Mormont is so fucking cool! Best thing by far about this week's episode. Props to the young actor, who didn't for a second ever sound like a little kid reciting grown-up lines. I hope we get lots and lots of Lady Mormont. I hope she becomes King in the North, and then sits upon the Iron Throne, and then beats Daenerys and her dragons. She is the BEST. All hail Lyanna!
THE BAD: Sansa's entreaty to Lyanna isn't very effective, but at least her lip gloss is kickin'.
THE HUH?: It takes Ser Davos to get Lyanna on board. As we learned with Shireen, Ser Davos is weirdly good with children—young girls, especially. Uh, should we be concerned?

Jaime and 8,000 soldiers arrive at Riverrun, but let's get real: There's only one soldier in this army we give a shit about, and that's Bronn, the most reluctant-est knight in the Seven Kingdoms. Glad to have you back, you old grouch! The Freys, meanwhile, threaten to knock off Lord Edmure, but the Blackfish isn't biting. This really was some horrible diplomacy on the Freys' part. It took the Blackfish all of 20 seconds to call their bluff.
THE GOOD: We get a great scene in which Jaime parlays with the Blackfish on the drawbridge. This was all great fun, including the dramatic lowering of the bridge across the moat and the rather cold-blooded conversation that followed. "Sieges are dull," the Blackfish says, but we know otherwise. Battle, please!
THE BAD: As terrific as all this is to watch, nothing actually happens. We're in no different place that we were at the start of the episode.
THE HUH?: Anyone notice that during that long shot of Jaime's army's arrival, the river is weirdly motionless?

Time for a brief layover in Volantis, where the buildings are all built on bridges and the bridges are all full of whores. It's like the Ponte Vecchio, but with a TV-MA rating. Theon and Yara gather themselves over a few pints after their flight from the Iron Islands, and it turns out Yara likes the establishment's girls a lot more than Theon does. (Did we know this little fact about Yara already?)
THE GOOD: Yara's pep-talking skills are unorthodox: Drink this ale, and either slit your wrists or join me.
THE BAD: Very little new intel here. We learn the Greyjoy siblings are going to Meereen to find Daenerys and make a deal, but didn't we already guess that's where they were headed?
THE HUH?: Oh, maybe this mean Theon is going to meet Varys and the Unsullied! They're going to have so much to talk about!

Back in the North at Deepwood Motte, the current Lord Glover is having none of the Girl Scout Cookies that Jon and Sansa are selling. Well, that, and he really hates wildlings. He's also got a legit grievance: When the Ironborn took over Deepwood Motte, it was the Boltons who helped the Glovers get it back. Later, at Stannis' old camp, it looks like there's going to be plenty of in-fighting between the Northern soldiers and the wildlings. And Sansa is all complain-y and unhelpful, just like old times.
THE GOOD: I hope we see a lot more of Lord Glover, because he's pretty fun to watch—and wow, Tim McInnerny looks very different than he did during his Black Adder days.
THE BAD: Urgh, maybe it's because she's back in the North, but it seems like Sansa is reverting to her old, mean-and-annoying self.
THE HUH?: Who is Sansa's raven addressed to? Either Littlefinger or to someone at the briefly-mentioned Castle Cerwyn, most likely—but we all know the reason for this particular plot development is that her raven's going to be intercepted by Ramsay Bolton. Damn it, Sansa!

The episode's weirdest stretch comes in Braavos. From the start of this whole sequence, something seems off. Arya, with uncharacteristic flippancy, finds a Westerosi sailor and books passage, and she's carrying around a very suspicious amount of loose change to pay for her ticket. And Arya is also oddly off her guard—does she not know a faceless assassin is after her? After a quick dunk in Braavosi Harbor, she takes a leisurely stroll through the city streets, bleeding out all the while.
THE GOOD: There's more going on here than meets the eye. The internet—yes, you!—has offered several theories so far, most of which involve Arya not actually being the Arya that we see on screen. Has she switched places with the waif with the stick? Or maybe it was Jaqen who actually got shivved by the old crone? My own particular crazeballs theory is that Arya, as we see her, is ACTUALLY the young actress with the breasts who tried to have Lady Crane killed (her name is Bianca, but nobody knows this—I had to look it up). I suspect Arya lent Bianca her face somehow, and told her to get the hell out of Braavos. Remember, Bianca had enough money to pay for an assassin, so it stands to reason she has money to pay for a fancy cabin on a boat, too. Come at me, internet!
THE BAD: This whole part is disconcerting and confusing. I think we needed one extra clue that what we see on screen is not as it appears.
THE HUH?: Yeah, Arya does not behave like Arya, and her whole stabbing and swimming thing happens too quickly. My Bianca theory is likely way off—so I'm pretty interested to see where this is going. If what happened is actually what happened, then Arya just lost a couple points on my Game of Thrones Respect-ometer™.

Back in the unknown valley, Pastor Ray talks about his former life of violence and sin, offering foamy platitudes to what seem like very tedious people. What is up with religion and this show? Doesn't anybody know that peace and kindness never works out? To illustrate this idea, three riders approach, ostensibly to "protect the people." The Hound is too busy to be worried, because there's important chopping to be done, but the riders—who seem to be in service of the Red God, and therefore are possibly part of the Brotherhood of Banners, maybe?—have other things to chop, namely all the boring people in this isolated little valley. Chop, chop!
THE GOOD: The episode ends with Sandor Clegane picking up his axe, but I get the feeling it's not to chop more wood. Okay. I like where this is going.
THE BAD: We're ultimately let down by Ian McShane's character. I think we're supposed to feel comforted by Pastor Ray (to be fair, McShane's onscreen charisma is enormous) and find him completely fascinating (hey, a sept who expresses ambivalence and uncertainty about the nature of god—how novel!) and find his death emotionally affecting, but in the end, this episode did him a disservice. Pastor Ray was not nearly as captivating or interesting as the show wanted us to think he is, and he's out of the picture way too quickly for us to really give two hoots. This should have either been a bottle episode—a full hour taking place entirely in the valley (although I bet fans would've thrown a fit)—or they should have built this whole part of the story up more, with little glimmers of the Hound's new situation sprinkled throughout some earlier episodes.
THE HUH?: There was no good reason for those three riders to murder all those people. A proper band of bloodthirsty brigands would have simply stolen the food, raped the women, and called it good. Was this a religious hate crime? Are we on the threshold of a holy war?

FINAL SUMMATION: Lady Mormont notwithstanding, this episode was a little frustrating. I really enjoyed watching Jon and Davos and Sansa go around the North and try to recruit players for their pick-up game against the Boltons. And I liked watching Jaime and the Blackfish parlay in the middle of a drawbridge. Not to mention how great it is to have both Bronn back in action and the Hound on the scent once again. But there was far too much place-setting and not enough actual substance, which has always been this show's biggest problem. The King's Landing and Volantis parts didn't put us in any new territory, really, and the hidden valley interlude with Pastor Ray was meant to be a meditation on the nature of violence and stuff, but ultimately felt flimsy and inconsequential. And what exactly was all that shit with Arya?! This hour of Game of Thrones gave us more questions than answers; and sure, considering we're about to enter the home stretch of Season Six, maybe this is not such a bad place to be. Still, perhaps my biggest problem with "The Broken Man" is that a lot of the dialogue felt "written" and explain-y as opposed to natural, with characters like Lady Olenna and Pastor Ray and the Blackfish seeming more like immovable symbols than human beings. Game of Thrones's bread and butter has always been in depicting these various battles of wills; it's just more interesting when those wills are less blatantly expressed, or when those wills become flexible as outside circumstances change.

But in the end, this is likely to be a temporary and deliberately paced lull before the season ramps up for its final three episodes. And yeah—I really, really want to see what happens next.

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