Before we dig into House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 “Tumbleton,” please be warned that spoilers abound; furthermore, if anyone tries to label this reviewer as “King of Spoilers,” rest assured that the Gold Cloaks will be notified, and the perpetrators forced to remove their treasonous words.
Now, on to the business at hand.
Things got quite metafictional this week. If it weren’t for the fact that Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith, Doctor Who) is so hungry for violence and conquest, one might have mistaken him for that time-travelling “Mad Man With a Box,” The Doctor. Think about it, Daemon’s mythical mode of transportation refuses his commands and instead delivers him to the doorstep of a former companion in need. Sadly, the needs of his daughter, Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell, Midsomer Murders), are met with fear and panic rather than support and guidance. Despite the fact that she finds herself in “command” of an unruly wild dragon and bears the weight of her role in the death of the Jacaerys Velaryon, her dear old dad seems to have no interest in the situation beyond making this new problem go away.
Of course, even Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor sometimes lost faith in the people closest to him, but every time he tried to replace trust with a scheme, it blew up in his face. It seems that pattern is about to repeat itself on HOTD. In yet another move out of The Doctor’s playbook, Daemon declares himself “the clever one” after presenting shoddy evidence that he took care of the mysterious dragon rider in The Vale. Unfortunately for Daemon, he isn’t nearly as clever as he believes. His delivery and mannerisms are suspicious as hell as he presents the conveniently disfigured head of an innocent shepherd, and doesn’t even bother to string together a feasible story. He leaves Rhaenyra hungry for justice and lacking key information. Daemon attempts to cover his clumsy footsteps by reminding us that, “a dragon is not a precise instrument,” and the rest of the episode goes on to remind us that people, especially leaders, share that lack of precision.
In fact, our smoothest operator, Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton, House of Guinness) proves to be something of a powder keg himself. It all starts with his management strategy. After HOTD went one whole week without a full sexual assault, a Hightower soldier can’t even wait for nightfall to assault Kat (Ellora Torchia, Midsommar) after taking up quarters in her brother’s Tumbleton home. In response to this transgression, Ormund seems to make good on his promise that the Hightower men will be on their best behavior during their stay: he punishes the offending soldier with castration and a broken arm to match the one he gave Kat’s sister-in-law. Once again, Ormund seems to be defined by his cool confidence, but we quickly learn that his outward behavior conceals a much less precise instrument.
We are taught to better understand Ormund through the introduction of his ward, the real Daeron Tagaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Son of a Critch). Daeron is presented as a gentle, obedient, and emotionally attuned young man. He smiles and nods, but is perpetually braced to receive abuse at the hands of his uncle Ormand. For instance, when news of the disappearance of Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell, Saltburn) disrupts Ormund’s scheme, Daeron swiftly ushers a nearby serving boy out of the room before Ormund throws a full Kylo Ren temper tantrum and bludgeons the nearest table with his sword. Not only does Daeron’s quick thinking preserve his uncle’s facade in front of the help, but it feels like he may have also saved an innocent bystander from a hack-and-slash death at the hands of an angry Ormund.
Our suspicions about the unhinged engine powering the heart of Ormund Hightower are ultimately brought into focus when he unleashes a full Hightower-supremacist monologue to his nephew Daeron, a boy whose genetics are “tainted” by Targaryen blood in the eyes of his uncle. After reprimanding Daeron for showing affection to his dragon, Tessarion, he explains that “The Targaryens are a savage race, poor in intellect, but rich in cunning. With dark spells, they created abominations to subdue what was rightly ours. We are the superior men, but against that [dragons], we could not stand.” Despite this “impurity,” we learn that Ormund intends to place his nephew on the throne to serve as a shadow ruler and usher in an age of full Hightower superiority.
Furthermore, we learn that one trait Ormund deems necessary for rule is duplicity. During his final confrontation with Daeron, guards drag Kat’s brother-in-law out of the shadows and Ormund commands his nephew to execute the man for striking a Hightower soldier. Apparently Hightowers want to have their cake and eat it, too. After publicly punishing the rapist, Ormund takes to the shadows to meter out tough justice that can be whispered in fear amongst the smallfolk. It’s also worth noting that, despite all of his disdain for dragons, Ormund seems more than happy to feed the body of this murdered subject to Tessarion – how very Targaryen of him.
As far as viewers are concerned, we are left to wonder if this is what Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, Katie Says Goodbye) had in mind earlier in the episode when she confided to Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy, Truth Seekers) that she wanted her youngest son to be raised a Hightower. As it turns out, all of the Hightowers seem to have a knack for raising monsters. This pattern is all the more troubling when we consider the revelation that Alicent’s daughter, Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban, The Last Kingdom), is pregnant with another child who could challenge Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne. We’ll have to wait until next week to see how Alicent navigates this spiderweb.
Speaking of Rhaenyra and the throne, our new queen still isn’t feeling very confident. She sits in a room devoid of her Hand, Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, Before We Die), and several key advisors: “Gods, this council’s thin,” remarks Rhaenyra. In fact, Rhaenyra is so hungry for support that she appoints the desperate-to-survive-regime-change Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan, Skyfall). At the suggestion of Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno, Devs), she also appoints an enemy, Ser Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler, The Rainmaker), as Master of Coin so she’ll have someone to blame for The Crown’s absent resources.
If that’s not bad enough, Rhaenyra is about to find out that Corlys has decided to peace out to the battlefield and dump his illegitimate son on her doorstep – if Rhaenyra won’t legitimize Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim, Raised by Wolves) in name, she’ll be forced to take his counsel. Of course, this turns out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise as Rhaenyra and Alyn bond over their confusing relationships with their fathers: “Fathers have a maddening capacity to at once inspire and incense,” observes Rhaenyra. This feels like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, even if it’s a bit worrisome that Rhaenyra needs advisors to provide simple advice like using cats to hunt the rats in the Red Keep or fighting Hightower soldiers with manpower instead of indiscriminately burning them with dragons alongside her subjects.
Meanwhile, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney, Dunkirk) and his advisor Larys Strong (Matthew Needham, Napoleon) have stumbled their way toward Rook’s Rest to pay their final respects to Aegon’s loyal dragon, Sunfyre. Surprisingly, Aegon insists that his dragon is still alive. While it’s unclear whether he is on to something or simply processing his denial, Sunfyre does look a heck of a lot better than what remains of Meleys later in the episode. During this touching moment between dragon and rider, a couple of opportunistic bandits loom over the proceedings and express their intent to kill the dogged travelers. Larys buys some time with his claim that they are men of the cloth, but they find even more danger lurking in the ruins of the garrison at Rook’s Rest.
Another opportunist has set himself up as lord of the ashes, and he is eager to demean the suspicious travellers who just wandered into his camp. He nicknames Aegon “Mangleface” and puts him on latrine duty before denying him rations at the end of a hard day’s work. Despite about one thousand desperate warnings from Larys to maintain a low profile, Aegon can’t shake his despotic tendencies, and threatens to cut the tongue from the mouth of this lowly lord. At this point, even Larys rolls his eyes in defeat; luckily the threat of a very real dagger wielded in his face finally silences Aegon as he supplicates himself before his “lord” and kisses his (feces-covered) boot.
Finally, Aegon seems to have learned the value of anonymity. That being said, if Sunfyre does wake up…people are going to burn.
Speaking of burning up in a rain of dragonfire, former Hand of the King Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel, Task) and his reluctant ally Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox, Slow Horses) are left to regroup when Aemond fails to show up for their rendezvous at Harrenhal. Ser Gwayne makes the prudent suggestion that they meet up with the Hightower host back home; he isn’t privy to the plan, but he knows his wily Uncle Ormund will have some plot afoot. Much to Gwayne’s disdain, his commander has his own plan: suicide by Riverlanders. They will throw their meager army at the enemy troops and try to put a little dent in their enemy as they sacrifice themselves on Cole’s terms.
Cole’s nihilism has reached the point that he would rather go down fighting a losing battle against humans than risk burning up like a speck of dust beneath a powerful dragon. We feel the severity of Cole’s plan as the emotion and vigor slowly dissolve from Gwayne’s face; if that weren’t enough, Cole monologues about having one foot in the grave as he articulates his…strategy: “Let us become wraiths – with fear as our standard, strike from the quiet and the darkness. Our fight will not be clean, but it will be pure. It will be man to man, and it will be free from dragons.” It seems that Ser Criston agrees with Daemon’s claim that dragons are not “precise” instruments; he would rather die than wait for that lack of precision to leave him alone and burning on some apocalyptic battlefield.
Next week seems to promise a lot of hand-to-hand combat, but Tessarion sure looked hungry in the closing moments of the episode and Vermithor is currently lording over Tumbleton. Until then, we can only guess at how the powers of dragons will make themselves known.
Who won the week?
Things still aren’t great over in The Red Keep, but with Rhaneyra slowly finding her footing and the Hightower military operation on its heels – Team Black gets the win this week. If they can find a way to play this wisely, they should be able to defuse the threat and maybe even track down some of that missing gold.
As for individual performances, this week’s winner is James Norton as Lord Ormund Hightower. His ability to mix calm confidence with an ever-smoldering spark of malice has captivated this reviewer from Norton’s first moments on screen. Furthermore, this week’s insight into Ormund’s machinations leave Norton’s Hightower lord poised to stand alongside the greatest villains in the Game of Thrones franchise. Here’s hoping that we get to have some more fun with this character before his wretched cruelty catches up with him.
Let’s also go ahead and give an honorable mention to Tom Bennett (After Life) as Ulf for his full-on comic mastery. After being ignored time and time again as he brings his own petitions, he has the absolute audacity to request favors for his old tavern buddies, like tax exemptions and pardons for some small-time crimes: “we don’t have to get into that,” he quips. Rhaenyra, in turn, seethes.
Despite the comedic fun, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that Rhaenyra continues to scorn and patronize the Dragonseeds who risked so much to put her on the throne. Will they continue to suffer these injustices next week?
