Full spoilers comply with for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 5.
Is Rhaenyra paranoid, or is somebody actually out to get her? Well, positively the latter – however she may additionally be paranoid, and that’s the downside. There is plotting on all sides: some comparatively benign, and a few doubtlessly deadly, and it’s onerous to inform the place the actual risks are coming from. Things proceed tense, in different phrases, and that’s holding this present as gripping as Game Of Thrones ever was.
We open on a pissed off Lord Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), whose makes an attempt to get his Rivermen military to Tumbleton have been stymied by Christen Cole (Fabian Frankel) and his guerilla warriors burning bridges alongside the route. Cole assaults the Rivermen camp that night time, however that’s nearly as good because it will get for him. The Northmen quickly get forward of him and lay caltrops on the street to Stony Sept, the subsequent river crossing, forcing Cole, Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) and firm off their horses and into woods and bogs, by way of rain and leeches.
Gwayne provides up at the finish, however Cole continues to be decided to make a mark for himself. “I will not let them diminish me now…I am the realm’s greatest warrior, and I will die as such, clear-eyed, unbent, glorious in battle, and not in their service, finally, but in my own. And they will sing songs of it, and Queen Alicent herself will hear them.” Somehow this explicit show of conceitedness makes him extra likeable and never much less; after spending all of final season moping, this man is fascinating by comparability.
Alys (Gayle Rankin) continues to be claiming that she is aware of nothing about Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) to the varied bounty hunters that flip up at Harrenhal, however upstairs she’s busy nursing him again to well being and likewise giving the terrible little monster some of the affection he craves. There’s an attention-grabbing thread right here the place Aemond is suffering from visions of his brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) dying and satisfied his household doesn’t love him, whereas Aegon harps on about the wrongs executed to him by his brother and is satisfied the household doesn’t love him. Alys comforts Aemond whereas Larys (Matthew Needham) calls Aegon out on his bullshit – arguably the proper response in each circumstances – but it surely’s not clear if it is going to be sufficient to pressure both to alter his methods.
At least Aegon and Larys are reunited with Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), whereas Aegon kills his tormentor Janos (Oliver Coopersmith) with a purpose to cowl up his id (and for vengeance). It’s a form of return to type after his latest helplessness, even when “form” on this case means “bloody viciousness”. Aemond, too, is out of his sick mattress and swinging a sword about, so put together for these two to trigger bother once more quickly.
This is also a really interesting episode for their sister, and Aegon’s wife, Helaena (Phia Saban). She refuses to drink the abortifacient her mother procures from Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) because she won’t give up her baby despite all of Alicent’s political realism. She speaks confidently of Aemond’s mysterious whereabouts, and fights hard to escape the Red Keep – but only if she can bring her little daughter Jaehaera and the babe in utero. Luckily for her the devil works hard, but Alicent works harder to keep her daughter alive, sometimes in spite of Helaena’s own wishes. By the end of the episode Alicent has downed the potion herself, given up the symbol of her faith to facilitate their escape, convinced Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) to keep her secrets, and is trapped in a secret passage inside the castle trying to flee.
Things are tougher for Queen Rhaenyra, still hounded on all sides. Lady Frey (Sarah Woodward) has come to King’s Landing to join her council and to harangue her for promising Harrenhal elsewhere. Addam (Clinton Liberty) and Baela (Bethany Antonia) are out searching for Vhagar and, at least on Addam’s part, flirting madly in an attempt to cheer her up (she’s still feeling guilt over Jace’s death at the Gullet).
In the council, there’s chaos. Mysaria speaks for the people; Daemon for the Gold Cloaks police force; Rhaenyra focuses only on Aemond. Everyone is at cross-purposes. Rhaenyra tries to rein Daemon in, but he points out that there’s no rush to find Vhagar and that there are other priorities. After a theological debate in the High Sept, their dispute becomes clearer: she thinks the gods made her queen so can’t understand why they now seem to abandon her; he is baffled by this fatalistic faith. However, he has his own faith: a speech to the Gold Cloaks about turning the Seven Kingdoms into “Nine Kingdoms, Twelve, the new Valyria” looks like a glimpse into Daemon’s perception system.
Still, Rhaenyra is ungrounded and losing perspective; she can’t bring herself to spend time with her younger son, Joffrey, and is convinced that there’s a dark power out to get her. Her tunnel vision is becoming a problem; she lacks the flexibility of mind to see problems beyond her own status, her own family. That is thrown into sharp focus by the episode’s finale, where Daemon – who has kept the Gold Cloaks on side with stirring speeches and promises of double pay one day in future – returns to their headquarters to find a massacre, the bodies posed in a grotesque tableau.
Behind it all, Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is less of a focus this episode, but has one scene to make his presence felt. He’s getting messages from the assassins of the Gold Cloaks, and still terrorising / mentoring his nephew Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), this time with tales of the military leadership of Meria Martell, the “Yellow Toad” who defied Aegon I and his Conquest of Westeros. He’s so distracted by his history lesson that he loses their game of cyvasse (aka not chess), terrifying Daeron.
But Ormund is merciful, too pleased with his shadow war and the coins he’s had minted with Daeron’s face on them, the ones he’s using to pay his assassins, to lose his temper this time. Everything is still on track for him, if only he could find Vhagar. The giant dragon feels like the wild card that everyone is waiting for, the one element holding them all in place. Let’s hope we see more of him than a shadow and a footprint next time.
