As we approach the finale of House of the Dragon Season 3, there is a chill in the air. Bonds of duty and friendship bend and break; chaos descends as the factions in the Dance of the Dragons prepare to make their next bold moves. Before we explore all of the table-setting for the finale, please be warned that the dragon dreams ahead are laced with spoilers. If you don’t wish to disrupt your slumber, please take a moment to watch season three, episode seven: “The Dragon in Winter” and experience the buildup for yourself before reading on.
Speaking of dragon dreams, we open on our sweet, innocent dragon dreamer Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban, The Last Kingdom) as she wanders painfully through a dream tableau featuring a horse and cart that seem to represent her desire for escape. Before she has a chance to process this dream, she is awakened by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy, Truth Seekers), who attempts a few awkward niceties before proceeding to shake her half-sister like a Magic 8 Ball for supernatural validation. Sadly, prophecy doesn’t work that way. It seems Rhaenyra has only pushed any potential answers further from her grasp.
Of course, Helena isn’t the only dreamer in the house. Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell, Saltburn) continues to experience his own acid-trip dreams courtesy of his new goth girlfriend Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin, GLOW). In this particular dream, Aemond nearly senses that his mother, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, Katie Says Goodbye), is on a mission to do him harm, but instead, her dark seduction quickly devolves into a sex dream. Aemond awakens mid-coitus as Alys promises him a son to start the magical empire they envisioned together a week ago. Later, he senses treachery from Alicent’s bodyguard and kills him on the spot, but remains blind to his mother’s machinations.
Meanwhile, loyal Rhaenyra soldier Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty, Touchdown), finds a private moment to chat up Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia, Get Even). Clearly, he is feeling the chemistry that has been flying between the two all season. He hopes that Baela can appeal to the Queen and speed along the process of being granted legitimacy with the Velaryon name. When he continues their flirtation with the the hint that he may want to marry a highborn lady, he finds himself just as surprised as every HOTD viewer was last week when she put the moves on Addam’s “dutiful” brother Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim, Raised by Wolves).
It seems the creative team may have missed the natural chemistry these two share on screen, but in any case, poor Addam is left to sit with the realization that she is just not that into him. Luckily for him, the awkward moment is interrupted by the appearance of Sheepstealer bearing a dragon rider. This sighting shakes Rhaenyra to her core. It confirms that her husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith, Doctor Who) was lying to her when he delivered a suspiciously disfigured skull and claimed to have disposed of the rider. Viewers know that he was protecting his daughter, Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell, Midsomer Murders), but Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno, Devs) seizes this opportunity to cast further doubt on Daemon and shore up her standing with the Queen.
Over in Tumbleton, master politician (and asshole) Ormund Hightower (James Norton, House of Guinness) sits with his VIP captive: Hand of the Queen, Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, Before We Die). When his attempts to bro-out over Targaryen racism with Corlys fall on deaf ears, he decides to go for a more blunt approach and take Corlys’s finger with a knife from the dinner table. This act of violence happens mercifully off-screen, but the same mercy isn’t offered to Corlys’s son, Alyn when he receives the gift-wrapped finger later in the episode. We are left to consider Alyn’s shock on our own, but this reviewer spent more time wondering why Ormund is having such an easy time delivering threatening presents to The Red Keep after the bloody Baratheon armor he sent to Rhaenyra last week.
Back in Harrenhal, Alys is keeping her own political web in order. She instantly senses the danger posed by Alicent, but even with all the work she has put into this guy over the course of the season, she still can’t break her mommy’s boy from his self-destructive patterns. Later in the episode, Aemond falls for the clumsiest poisoning ever captured on screen at the smallest hint of reassurance from his mother. Later, it’s hard not to be on Alys’s side when a poisoned Aemond collapses to the ground before her; she simply rolls her eyes and calls him an idiot. Why can’t this badass owl-lady find a good Targaryen boy to manipulate!?
Speaking of struggling Targaryen boys, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney, Dunkirk) finds himself staring down the barrel of a difficult decision with added pressure from his guides. Larys Strong (Matthew Needham, Napoleon) implores his royal ward to stick to the plan to seek refuge in Braavos as enemy forces bear down on their position. Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall, Oppenheimer) continues to beg his Lord to take refuge at Casterly Rock. Aegon ultimately decides to forge his own path by embracing his identity and going out in a blaze of glory. Duty compels Tyland to stay at Aegon’s side, while Larys gracefully peaces out of certain death with a promise to immortalize Aegon in song (Tyland looks pretty jealous of this idea as he rides off toward certain doom).
Off-screen, Rhaenyra finally shakes off her advisors and takes to the sky on dragonback to investigate the conflicting reports about Sheepstealer on her own. She and Addam find Daemon meeting with Rhaena. Unfortunately, they interrupt a rare moment of vulnerability and love from Daemon as he finally makes a genuine attempt to connect with his daughter. Instead, a dragon Royal Rumble ensues. It’s chaotic and bloody, but in the end, all four dragons survive. Sheepsteler takes the most damage and Rhaena is carried off to the Red Keep by Rhaenyra so she can have some time and space to pick up the pieces and unpack her role in Prince Jacaerys’s death at the Battle of the Gullet. While Baela suggests that Rhaena will have a chance for a fresh start, there are still a lot of unresolved emotions and blame to sort out. Only time will tell if this story has a happy ending.
Of course, Rhaena isn’t the only one facing a reckoning back at The Red Keep. Mysaria gets an earful from her old friend and confidante Madam Sylvi (Michelle Bonnard, Salvable) after she looks a little too comfortable in her royal silks and starts offering to whisper into the ear of the Queen. While it seems like Sylvi might be wise to honor this low-risk networking opportunity, it’s hard not to admire her audacity and condemnation of the selfish lords and ladies who constantly plunge the realm into chaos over their individual beefs. Sylvi encapsulates her frustration with the best description of The Iron Throne yet uttered in a Game of Thrones property. She says that the throne brings to mind, “a hundred sharp little cocks, all vying for attention.”
Later, she drives home her position by reminding Mysaria that her new bosses will never see her as more than the “whore” who once served Daemon in the brothels of King’s Landing. Mysaria seems to heed this advice in her next audience with Rhaenyra; the Queen is distraught over the truth about Sheepstealer, and suggests that Mysaria has overplayed her hand and attempted to shape her through manipulation. When Mysaria turns the conversation back in her favor through a not-so-subtle seduction, viewers are left to decide whether this is the move of a champion of the people weaponizing her talents to her own benefit or the consummation of her desire to turn her back on her old life and shore up her current position. Of course, it’s possible that Mysaria still hasn’t quite figured that out for herself. In any case, it seems likely that she will be excited to taunt Daemon with this victory.
Helena also continues to struggle with her place and purpose. We rejoin her to experience another troubling dream in which her vision of an idyllic life in the countryside with her chickens turns into a dark, cold winter with a total eclipse of the sun. To make matters worse, she also sees herself astride her dragon, Dreamfyre, laying waste to an incoming army. Based on what we know of Helaena, this type of future seems to represent her worst nightmare, and the vision certainly won’t please Rhaenyra’s hunger for approval. Helaena has never been more alone; and this is all the more distressing when we imagine what might befall her mother, Alicent, after poisoning her son in the halls of a powerful witch.
Speaking of troubling powerful forces stirring across Westeros, a hesitant Aegon finds his foes and makes a final stand. His delusional grand speech draws laughter from the enemy forces…until it doesn’t. Slowly, the horde starts backing away in fear; Aegon’s delusion allows him to believe this is a sign of his divine power. It turns out he is both right and wrong to speak with such confidence. We soon learn that the enemies are not backing away from Aegon so much as they are backing away from his freshly revived dragon, Sunfyre. While his confidence feels a bit unearned, he did try to tell Larys that Sunfyre was still alive a few weeks ago, and her appearance at this critical juncture certainly feels like a deus ex machina befitting a ruler with great purpose. We leave Aegon in the midst of a maniacal laugh and wondering what chaos he will create now that he is drunk on his newfound power.
It seems we will find out more next week when forces finally converge at Tumbleton.
Who Won the Week?
It may be time to retire this segment soon. It’s hard to break the factions of the Dance into clearly-aligned rival sides any longer. Team Black’s allegiances are falling apart, and Team Green is divided amongst itself. Not only did Alicent poison her son, but her Uncle Ormund is getting ready to prop up his own proxy on the throne; it seems the newly-invigorated Aegon won’t take very kindly to this development. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to give Team Green the W this week. Rhaenyra is a mess and her small council and family continue to eat themselves alive. Meanwhile, Ormund has captured the Hand of the Queen and stoked unrest in King’s Landing. Furthermore, the closing moments of the episode reveal that he has also turned Ulf the White (Tom Bennett, After Life) against the Targaryens who repeatedly fail to honor him. Based on what we saw last week, it doesn’t seem like it will take much convincing to bring his fellow Dragonseed Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew, Warrior) along for the double-cross.
When the tables turn next week, it seems that Rhaeynra and Company will be in for a rude awakening. In any case, we will find out together during next week’s finale!
