Commence the “winter is coming” puns. The fifth season of HBO’s big-budget, high-octane fantasy series Game of Thrones befell April 12, attracting 8 million viewers — and that’s not counting web streamers. Meeting highly favorable reviews, “The Wars to Come” revisits Tyrion, now on the run with Varys; Cersei and Jaime, reeling after their father’s murder; Jon Snow, acting as a go-between for Stannis Baratheon  and Mance Rayder; Daenerys, choosing dictatorship over politics in Meereen; Loras Tyrell getting laid, while his sister Margarey plots; and a quick glimpse at Brienne and Podrick lamenting the disappearance of Arya.

For all the new, exciting questions raised in the season première, there are plenty of old threads left to be tied or even acknowledged. Here is a shortlist of the characters I pray pull a Barristan Selmy or Needle and reappear out of the blue in Season 5. Everybody loves a good comeback.

The Hound

Having lost a battle with Brienne of Tarth in the Season 4 finale, we last saw Sandor Clegane at the bottom of a cliff with myriad critical wounds. A hardened Arya refuses to put the Hound out of his misery, despite his pleas, but it’s safe to assume he later died of his injuries — or is it? This is “Game of Thrones” after all … and it would be rather fateful if Beric Dondarrion and his Miracle Max priest friend saved Clegane after the Hound (temporarily) killed Beric in Season 3.

Drogon 

The Mother of Dragon’s largest, most aggressive “child” is still on the loose, as Daenerys reminded Daario Naharis during some serious pillow talk Sunday. Drogon’s antics — specifically, murdering children and livestock on the countryside — got his two siblings locked in the Meereen dungeons last season, and who knows what the jet-black behemoth has been up to off screen. If the Season 5 promotional poster is any indication, Drogon may soon darken Tyrion’s doorstep in the Free Cities. 

Personally, I pray the exiled Jorah Mormont is the one to find, tame, and return the dragon to Daenerys, winning back her affections in the process.

Gendry

Robert Baratheon’s bastard son has had a tough time of it. After narrowly escaping execution under King Joffrey, Gendry flees King’s Landing with Arya, is imprisoned at Harrenhal, escapes again, is sold to Melisandre by the Brotherhood Without Banners, and has his blood sucked out by leeches and used in a freak ritual. The young blacksmith catches a break when Davos Seaworth helps him escape Dragonstone on a rowboat in the Season 3 finale — but Gendry has been absent from the show ever since. Here’s hoping he washes ashore in Braavos this season and is reunited with Arya.

Benjen Stark 

All but the hard-core “Game of Thrones” and/or “A Song of Ice and Fire” fans have probably forgotten about the suave Stark uncle, portrayed by Joseph Mawle. Remember that guy who encourages Jon Snow to join the Night’s Watch back in season one, then, in the third episode, embarks north of the Wall never to return? Whether Benjen was killed by White Walkers or became one himself, we can only hope the winds of winter uncover some answers in Season 5.

Nymeria

Arya’s poor little direwolf was the first character to fall off the “Game of Thrones” radar. In Season 1, episode two, Nymeria goes out swinging — more precisely, mauling Prince Joffrey’s arm after he brandished a sword at Arya. While immensely satisfying, such an attack is punishable by death; Arya encourages Nymeria to split and run, and Sansa’s wolf Lady is sentenced in her place. Apparently the lone wolf darts in and out of battles in George R.R. Martin’s books — but watchers have yet to see a full-grown Nymeria in all her glory.