Helaena’s House of the Dragon ‘beast beneath the boards’ prophecy, explained

House of the Dragon featured a prophecy that appeared to come true in episode nine.

On Sunday (16 October), the HBO show broadcast its first season’s penultimate episode, which explored the fallout from the death of King Viserys (Paddy Considine) in the previous episode.

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

Mistakenly assuming Viserys’s dying wish was for his son Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) to succeed him as ruler, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) informs her father Otto (Rhys Ifans), who jumps to action in order to prevent Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) from taking her rightful place on the Iron Throne.

In an early scene, Alicent, looking for Aegon, tells her daughter Princess Helaena (Phia Saban) that Viserys has died.

Helaena echoes a mysterious phrase that she said in the previous episode: “There is a beast beneath the boards.”

Viewers will know that Helaena has some sort of intuition regarding future events. In a previous episode, when Alicent tells her son Aemond he’ll get a dragon one day, Helaena says: “He’ll have to lose an eye.”

Sure enough, in the same episode that Aemond gains the dragon Vhagar, he loses an eye while fighting his nephew, Lucerys Velaryon.

Those wondering what Helaena meant with her “beast beneath the boards” remark did not have to wait long. In the closing moments of the latest epiosde, Viserys’s sister Rhaenys (Eve Best) crashes Aegon’s coronation by bursting through the floorboards on her dragon Meleys.

Instead of burning the usurpers, though, she flies off, preumably to Dragonstone to inform Rhaenyra and Daemon (Matt Smith) of what’s been happening at King’s Landing.

The episode’s writer Sara Hess has explained the idea behind the divisive scene that’s been branded “bizarre” by viewers who didn’t understand why Rhaenys would choose to fly away instead of ending the forthcoming civil war.

Meanwhile, fans have been left in disbelief over a scene involving Larys (Matthew Needham) and Alicent’s feet.

‘House of the Dragon’ continues in the UK on Sky Atlantic on Mondays at 2am, before repeating at 9pm later that day. It is also available to watch on NOW.

Find all the talking points from the latest episode here.