Yahoo News House of the Dragon Episode 3 Surprise: Someone We Thought We Wouldn’t See Again Returns — Read Recap
Why hello again, young Rhaenyra!
That’s right, Milly Alcock returns in this week’s House of the Dragon for the best possible reason: to make Daemon feel like dragon droppings. The actress’ brief, yet pointed, appearance comes during an episode that also includes the appointment of a new member to Aegon’s small council, the introduction of two new characters, a reunion (however fraught) for Alicent and Rhaenyra and Aemond’s most revealing moment so far.
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Read on for Episode 3’s highlights. (Plus, read our post mortem with Bethany Antonia and Harry Collett.)
THIS MEANS WAR | House Bracken and House Blackwood have hated each other from time immemorial, which is important information for you to have at the top of the hour. It’s not helping matters that the Brackens have declared their loyalty to Aegon, while the Blackwoods are backing Rhaenyra. We watch as a petty squabble between Blackwood and Bracken youths about the moving of boundary stones turns into the war’s full-on battle (known as Burning Mill), leaving many dead on both sides.
Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, news of the battle reaches the small council. Aegon immediately declares it a victory for their side — though that’s not 100 percent accurate — and demands to know what his army’s next steps are. There’s a lot of yelling, and Alicent has to use her mom voice to tell everyone to get it together, but eventually Ser Criston pipes up: The Riverlands are the key to the war, and Harrenhal is the key to the Riverlands, so he’ll ride and take the seat of House Strong. Alicent balks — there’s not enough men or time — but she’s generally ignored.
Before Cole leaves, Alicent introduces him to her brother, Gwayne, who will join the soldiers riding to Harrenhal. “We have a full compliment, your grace,” Criston says. “Then you shall have a fuller one,” she replies crisply. Things remain chilly between them as she halfheartedly blesses him, but he asks for her favor, and she seems to thaw a little as she hands him a handkerchief pulled from her bodice. As the troops ride out, we get a shot of a crow perched on the ratcatcher’s rotting corpse, nibbling on an eyeball. That’s what you get for kicking a dog, friend! (Er, and killing a kid.)
POINT, LARYS | Throughout the episode, Aegon repeatedly says he wants to ride Sunfyre and help Cole take Harrenhal, which is a terrible idea. Larys is the one who eventually talks him out of it, telling the king that there are rumors that he was outwitted into flying to war so that Alicent and Aemond can reign in his absence. Aegon is highly bothered by the idea that people are talking about him that way, and orders Larys to “tend” to the lies as they spread. He then asks Strong to be his master of whisperers. “You honor me, your grace,” Larys says, head bowed as though he didn’t engineer every single moment leading up to that interaction.
After Larys leaves, Aegon decides not to fly into battle. Instead, he and his hooligan friends — er, the Kingsguard — hit up a King’s Landing tavern. They don’t happen to overhear a guy telling a table full of dudes that he’s Daemon and Viserys’ bastard brother; despite the guy saying that he has to be watch his back, he’s not very quiet about his supposed lineage.
Anyway, once the king and his pals are very drunk, they move to the brothel in hopes of getting one of the young squires bedded for the first time. The inebriated king careens through the pleasure house with abandon, pulling aside curtains as he looks for the lady he’d like the squire to meet. In due course, he rips aside the cloth hiding a completely nude Aemond — who’s cuddling with the madam we saw in Episode 2 — and starts mocking him loudly, giggling like a loon.
I’ll give this to Aemond: He is as regal as one can possibly be as he stands, starkers, and acts like he wasn’t just two seconds away from sucking his thumb as the madam sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to help him drift off to sweepies. He says “one whore is good as another” and walks away as his brother laughs.
BAELA IS KIND OF A BADASS | On the way to Harrenhal, Cole is irked to see that Gwayne and his friends plan to stay in a tavern instead of sleep with the rest of the soldiers. They’re arguing about this when the clouds part and Ser Criston realizes they’re exposed to the skies… just as Baela rides by, doing recon. She zeroes in on them and dives as the men and their horses ride, hellbent for the trees. They make it to cover just as she’s upon them; when she can’t see them among the trees after a few passes, she leaves, and a chastened Gwayne thanks Cole for saving his life.
‘YOU WILL DIE IN THIS PLACE’ | Let’s pause here and catch up with Daemon, who’s flying Caraxes on a raining evening. He lands at an absolutely decrepit and crumbling castle, where he wanders through the halls — such as they are — in darkness lit only by flashes of lightning. His sword is drawn. His guard, and is sword, are up. He eventually takes down the one guard he runs into and enters a room full of candles and a couple of men. “I’m claiming Harrenhal,” Daemon announces. (Oh, so THAT’s where we are! What a garbage heap! But points for getting there before Ser Criston!) “Apparently so,” an older man seated at the table says calmly.
The older man kneels in front of Daemon and says he’s Simon Strong, castellan of Harrenhal, and pledges his fealty to Rhaenyra. He invites Daemon to eat dinner with them, but he refuses, thinking the food might be poisoned — after all, Larys Strong has sided with Aegon. Simon, who is Larys’ great-uncle, calls the newly minted Master of Whisperers “a scourge upon this castle and this family” and all but accuses him of having his brother and father burned to death. OK then!
They talk about fixing up Harrenhal and making it a garrison for the army Daemon is there to raise. One thing about that, though: Because the Blackwoods and Brackens hate each other, it’ll be tough to unify them. And Tully, the liege lord, is old and insensate. But Daemon is undeterred. “Perhaps the presence of the Crown, and a dragon, will sharpen minds around these parts,” he drawls.
Daemon stays at Harrenhal for the evening, where he has a very unsettling experience. His doors rattle, but when he opens them, sword drawn, no one is there. He creeps into the hallway and winds up in a room with a fire in the hearth. “Always coming and going, aren’t you? And I have to clean up afterwards,” says young Rhaenyra (hi Milly Alcock!) as she tidies up little Jaehaerys’ corpse, stitching his neck. A shocked Daemon drops his weapon and suddenly finds himself outside next to a tree; Alys Rivers (played by GLOW’s Gayle Rankin), whom we briefly saw when Daemon arrived at the castle, is standing nearby. “You will die in this place,” she says, matter-of-factly, then walks away as Daemon freaks out on the inside.
RHAENYRA WILL HAVE NUN OF THAT | At Dragonstone, after burying the Cargyll twins, Rhaenyra and Rhaenys talk about how the men on both sides are ramping up to war; Rhaenys suggests that Alicent may be the only hope for peace, but the queen steadfastly rejects the idea. “Alicent is in King’s Landing. Her son sits my throne. There is nothing more to be said,” she says, defiant.
Next, Rhaenyra takes care of some domestic stuff — making a pact with Mysaria (a place at court in exchange for intel on the Red Keep), sending away most of her kids and stepkids, as well as two baby dragons and some dragon eggs, so they’ll be safe (which doesn’t sit well with Rhaena) — and then heads to a black council meeting where the men present brief her on the Battle of the Burning Mill and advise that she hide somewhere, too. “You propose to conduct the war in my absence?” she asks frostily, adding that to do so would be treason. The males present are impatient with the queen’s wait-and-see approach, but Rhaenys backs her.
Later, Rhaenyra asks Mysaria about the best way to get to Alicent, face-to-face, without warning and without causing a huge incident. Next thing we know, Rhaenyra — dressed like a septa — is taking a fishing boat to King’s Landing and walking with a purpose as she heads toward the sept.
ARE YOU OK, OLD FRIEND? | Rhaenyra’s bodyguard waits outside while she creeps in, blending into a group of similarly robed sisters, and sidles up to Alicent who is praying alone. She kneels and pulls out a knife, then stops her shocked former friend before she can cry out. “We watched a tourney together, you and I, the day my brother was born,” Rhaenyra whispers, speaking quickly; they could be seen, or the dowager queen could scream, at any moment. She makes a case that they can avert the worst of what can come, especially because she knows Alicent doesn’t desire blood and glory.
“So you’ve come to surrender then,” Alicent says, clipped. Rhaenyra explains she wants to come to terms, but Alicent says there aren’t any that she’d agree to. Rhaenyra maintains she’s not responsible for Jaeherys’ death. Alicent says she hates that Aemond killed Lucerys. But that’s about as warm and fuzzy as it gets before the pair are engaged in a whisper-fight.
Rhaenyra doesn’t believe that Viserys changed his mind about her succeeding him right before he died, but Alicent swears on her mother’s memory that she’s not lying. “I have been at times unkind but never untrue,” she points out, and Rhaenyra is near tears when she asks about her father’s final moments. “What did he say at the end? Did he speak my name?” Alicent shakes her head, which clearly wounds the black queen. “He spoke Aegon’s name. He said he was the prince that was promised to unite the realm,” she explains, and you can almost see WAIT WHAT? spelled out across Rhaenyra’s forehead.
“He spoke to you of a song of ice and fire?” Rhaenyra asks, clarifying that it was a story her father told her about Aegon the Conqueror.” Alicent doesn’t say “Oh s–t,” but it is very clearly what she’s thinking as she instructs Rhaenyra to leave before she’s discovered. “There has been a mistake!” Rhaenyra says. “There is no mistake,” Alicent replies, but her face gives her away. Rhaeynra tearfully begs her old bestie to admit she misunderstood her dying husband, but the dowager queen won’t give an inch. “It’s too late, Rhaenyra,” she says, then leaves.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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