House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6 Review: Glory Fades Across Westeros in ‘Faceless Men’

This week in Westeros, tensions rise as the season marches toward what promises to be a bloody resolution of the Hightower holdout within the walls of Tumbleton. Meanwhile, “faceless men” fight for scraps of food and scraps of honor – and they aren’t afraid to bite the hand that feeds them. Before you join us on this grim field of battle, be sure to watch “Faceless Men,” the sixth and episode in House of the Dragon Season 3. Otherwise, you may find yourself set upon by spoilers.

We open on an abandoned military camp as we bear witness to the end of Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel, Task)  and his suicide campaign to slow the forces marching toward Tumbleton. Hidden amongst the dead, Rivermen and Winter Wolves lay in wait to ambush the wasted remains of Cole’s army. After an ugly victory in this grim opening salvo, reality rides in as Team Green’s band of guerilla fighters find themselves surrounded on all sides.

For Criston Cole, this is the sweet escape he has longed for. This horde may be ready to eat him alive, but he won’t have to go out in an indiscriminate blaze of dragonfire. He wraps the favor of his lady, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, Katie Says Goodbye) around his sword and attempts to call the enemy commanders out for an honorable battle. Sadly for Cole, his romanticized vision isn’t very practical. Instead, he goes out as a pincushion for Alysanne “Black Aly” Blackwood (Annie Shapero, Saccharine) as she unceremoniously pierces him with arrows from afar.

Criston Cole doesn’t die a death fit for songs. Instead, he becomes the first of many faceless men in the episode; he is just another sacrifice to the pride of the lords of Westeros.

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy, Truth Seekers) would give anything to be a bit more faceless. All eyes remain fixed on her as her claims to authority crumble through bad luck and her unfortunate tendency to voice her frustration and desperation to everyone in sight. Her bummer of a Small Council is so useless that they still haven’t figured out how to shield her from every peasant in the realm demanding candles. Another supplicant, a mother for the Faith of the Seven, informs her that a young girl has been kidnapped from the nunnery; Rhaenyra rolls her eyes and promises to “light a candle” for her the next time she visits the sept. It’s a wildly tactless and passive aggressive “fuck you” to both the desperate commoners and the leaders of the Faith that have refused to anoint her as queen. It’s fun to watch as a viewer, but it feels like Rhaenyra is pretty far past the point of no return. In fact, by the end of the episode, she has to suffer a heavy “I told you so” from Alicent when she sends her childhood best friend to assassinate her own son.

Just as Alicent predicted, the weight of the crown has pushed Rhaenyra beyond her previous moral bounds. While Rhaenyra is understandably angry that Alicent tried to escape with her daughter Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban, The Last Kingdom) last week, it’s tough to root for her asking a friend to murder her own son while her daughter stays back as collateral. It gets even uglier when we consider the glint in Rhaenyra’s eyes when she hears of Helaena’s ability to prophesize…because when has giving a desperate leader with a god complex access to prophecy ever gone wrong? If that’s not bad enough, Rhaenyra also cuts her finger on The Iron Throne, a sign that also marked her father’s decline as infection slowly ate away at him until his death.

Of course, not everything is Rhaenyra’s fault. Yes, her failure to secure funding for paychecks for the Gold Cloaks has led to mass resignations amongst the city guard, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Faceless assassins sent by Ormund Hightower (James Norton, House of Guinness) continue to murder the remaining guardsmen and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith, Doctor Who) is starting to realize that he can’t maintain order and discipline amongst the men based solely on vibes and nostalgia for the good old days. 

When Daemon finally decides to don a Gold Cloak himself and confront the assassin, he learns that his small victory won’t stem the tide. Sure, he puts a knife through the ear of this killer, but a whole sea of disenfranchised citizens are still brandishing their knives in the shadows. In hiding his own visage, Daemon comes face-to-face with the harsh realities of life at the top.

Even as Daemon and Rhaenyra stare down these harsh truths, they remain blind to the faceless men in front of them that they continue to undervalue and abuse. This reviewer generally avoids book spoilers (jump to next paragraph if you’d like to avoid this one), but listen, even the least attentive viewer on the planet can tell that Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew, Warrior) and Ulf the White (Tom Bennett, After Life) are getting ready to kick their Team Black overlords to the curb. They haven’t received any of the wealth Rhaenyra promised, they are constantly verbally abused and discounted by the royal family, and Ulf doesn’t even have the freedom to grab a drink with his crew at the local watering hole. Hugh puts on a more stoic front, but this week we learned that even with all he has acquired, he has become a faceless man in the estimation of his own wife. She hates that he has been chasing status when she needed his love and protection at home. These Dragonseeds have nothing left to lose, and it is clearly going to come back to bite Team Black.

As the tides continue to shift, another faceless cog in the machine rises to prominence this week: The Baratheons. Borros Baratheon refuses to show his face when Rhaenyra calls him to King’s Landing, instead sending some Minnesota-nice confidantes to essentially tell her to fuck off. In retaliation, Rhaenyra robs the men of their armor and uses it to mask the assassins she sends to Tumbleton. Her faceless assassins, bathed in filth to trigger Ormund’s olfactory sensitivity (thanks for the tip, Alicent!), nearly complete their mission to assassinate Ormund and new claimant to throne Daeron Tagaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Son of a Critch) – but Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox, Slow Horses) senses the deception and stops the attempt in its tracks. His cousin Ormund even stops making homophobic jokes at Gwayne’s expense as thanks for the rescue.

Ser Gwayne isn’t the only character rising above the episode’s faceless men to make a name for himself. Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim, Raised by Wolves) continues to earn Rhaenyra’s favor, stands up to his absent father’s petty hypocrisy, and even earns some smooches from Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia, Get Even).

Of course, nobody has their eye set on a new face more than Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell, Saltburn). While he has felt lost without his dragon, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin, GLOW) now pushes him toward a new future. She has discovered all of his desires, she has mothered and molded him. She has let him ride to her rescue, and she has killed in his name. This week, she seals the deal by revealing a clutch of old dragon eggs and the promise of a new future: The Lady of the Water and the Dragon Lord. Certainly, another power couple bent on prophecy will calm things down in Westeros…right?

As a reminder of the chaos to come, the episode ends on a cliffhanger. In the closing moments, Ormund strikes back at Rhaenyra as his agents capture her hand, Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, Before We Die). Ormund also sends Rhaenyra a warning: “Kick this dog and it will bite your hand.” It’s a threat, sure, but it’s also pretty good advice. Rhaenyra needs to learn to stop kicking her subjects while they are down – but will she listen?

Who Won the Week?

This week, Team Green clearly takes the upper hand. Sure, things aren’t looking great for our girl Alicent, but Aemond teamed up with a badass witch, Corlys and his reinforcements are out of commission, and Ormund is weathering his slings and arrows much better than Rhaenyra.

As for the individual performances, Freddie Fox walks away with the trophy for his performance as Gwayne Hightower. Freshly unburdened from Criston Cole’s crusade of doom, Gwayne has stepped up as a much more honorable role model for Daeron and seems to be the one person who knows how to keep Ormund (somewhat) in check. Watching him tactfully navigate his cousin’s abuse and bring solace to his nephew while still having the wherewithal to suss out assassins adds some legitimacy and appeal to the Hightower claim. Hopefully, we will get to spend a lot more time with Gwayne in the weeks and years to come – but first, we have to find out who walks away from Tumbleton.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6 “Faceless Men” is now streaming on HBO MAX.