The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 3 has landed on HBO and HBO Max, and just like the winged beasts of legend it’s named after, it makes a resounding impact. The Game of Thrones franchise has a vaunted tradition of making its penultimate episodes barn burners, and that’s been true for House of the Dragon’s first two seasons as well as the first season of its sister show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
The seventh episode of House of the Dragon season 3 doesn’t quite break that tradition, but it’s clear the best is yet to come in the season finale. “The Dragon in Winter” does a lot of set up, as well as deliver a few payoffs — including one of the most immensely satisfying scenes of the series. However, if there’s one thing to be said for this latest installment of the series, it’s that it’s wildly inconsistent. Some storylines soar, others fall flat, and yet others left me wonder how we got to this point and if there was any return.
FULL SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7, “The Dragon in Winter” beyond this point.
Helaena Targaryen the dreamer
“The Dragon in Winter” begins with Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). It’s sadly clear right away that Helaena is dreaming, because she’s in the courtyard of the Red Keep and not under guard. She wanders over to a gray mare hitched to a cart, gently petting it before being drawn to the gate of the castle, which sweeps open, spilling light across her face. As Rhaenyra’s voice intrudes on Helaena’s dream, we see her eyes watering with tears as she looks away from the exit.
This first dream had beautiful acting from Phia Saban, as well as great lighting and music from composer Ramin Djawadi that perfectly sets the tone of this ethereal moment. The episode makes the viewer experience Helaena’s disorientation as she wakes up to Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) insistent nudges, and it’s very effective. From a peaceful dream, Helaena is thrust into an uncomfortable conversation that feels more like an interrogation, with Rhaenyra swiftly devolving into more of her paranoid ravings when she demands Helaena tell her if she’s seen specific elements of the war effort in her dreams, like Ormund Hightower and the Winter Wolves. Given her conversations with her father King Viserys back in season 1 about these sorts of prophetic dreams, Rhaenyra should know full well that this is not how it works, but she’s too obsessed with the things that are plaguing her to stop herself.
The scene culminates with Rhaenyra clutching Helaena’s arm as she demands reassurance that she’s meant to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Rather than give Rhaenyra what she wants, Helaena recoils into herself, twisting her arm from her half-sister’s grasp. Emma D’Arcy does a really good job of selling just how awful Rhaenyra has become; Helaena claims the dragons change a person, and Rhaenyra has six under her command. The queen may try to deny she has been changed by this power, but the proof is undeniable in their interaction.
We return to Helaena one more time late in the episode, where we experience a string of three more dreams from her perspective while she tosses and turns in her bed. In order, these dreams show the birth of her third child, who is promptly taken by Rhaenyra’s Queensguard; Helaena riding her dragon Dreamfyre and ordering her to breathe fire on a mob rushing through the gates of the Dragonpit; and the cold winds of the White Walkers blowing over a farmyard where Helaena and her children Jaehaerys and Jaehaera are feeding chickens. There’s a lot to unpack in these dreams; enough that it requires a whole separate article to get into all the details. Check out our deep dive analysis of Helaena’s dreams here.
Alicent and Aemond, reunited at Harrenhal
House of the Dragon wastes no time plunging us into my least favorite plotline of the season next, so we may as well hash it out here at the top. From Helaena’s beautiful dream and waking nightmare, we jump to Harrenhal, where her brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is similarly experiencing a haunting dream that leads into an unnerving reunion. We start with Aemond training with the Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre, working through the pain of his recovering wound, when his mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) suddenly enters.
Alicent arriving so abruptly is our first clue that something is off. Our next is that her attitude is far more affectionate toward Aemond…too affectionate. Yup, we make it about 30 seconds before they’re making out, and Aemond begins having sex with his mom. Why do you keep forcing us to watch these mother-son incest scenes, House of the Dragon? This is the third one to feature in the show so far, and since none of them are drawn from the source material I’m just left wondering why this show has such an insistence on the Oedipus of it all.
Thankfully House of the Dragon doesn’t make us endure this uncomfortable scene for long before it’s revealed that Aemond is actually having sex with Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) — who very much wants to give him a son. Understandably freaked out, Aemond runs from Alys, only to encounter none other than the real Alicent outside.
While I did like the way Alicent appears at the end of this scene, I cannot emphasize enough how much I hate this entire Harrenhal plotline, and its handling of Aemond and Alicent. On Aemond’s side, the show’s commitment to making his entire personality center around his mommy issues continues to flatten his character, robbing him of the menace and nuance he had during the show’s first two seasons. For Alicent, it truly feels like House of the Dragon just has no idea what to do with her, so it’s forcing her into one demeaning situation after another, most of which are barely ever referenced again (I’m looking at you, Jasper Wylde). It’s an insane way to waste two of the best actors and characters on the show during its penultimate season.
Alicent explains to her son that it was the noble Queensguard knight Ser Adrian Redfort (Barry Sloane) who escorted her through the war-torn Riverlands. Obviously, this guy is here to assassinate Aemond, but he never gets the chance because Aemond kills him within seconds of meeting him, just because he won’t risk any strangers discovering the secrets of Harrenhal, like Dreamfyre’s dragon eggs. Regardless of my frustrations at the conceit of this plotline, Mitchell and Cooke act the hell out of it.
Cooke gets what might be my favorite line delivery of the entire sequence in the next scene, where she, Aemond, and Alys have an awkward family dinner. Aemond informs his mother that he plans to make Harrenhal his new seat with Alys as his queen, only for Alicent to amusedly reiterate that she “still doesn’t understand who this woman is.” The three’s-a-crowd vibes extend throughout the rest of the sequence, as Alys and Alicent each try to manipulate Aemond toward their own ends. The big difference between them is that Alys’ intuition that Alicent means him harm is spot on. Unfortunately, Aemond is too set on the idea of having his mom and his older girlfriend as his two loves to see she’s right.
After Aemond informs Alicent that he wants her to remain in Harrenhal with him and Alys, she decides to poison him with some berries she finds in the Godswood. It’s a slightly tragic turn for Aemond, as he finally confesses to Alicent that he tried to kill Aegon on purpose at the Battle at Rook’s Rest — which she of course knew, because it was obvious to anyone who knew Aemond well already.
We leave this plotline with Alicent fleeing the castle, as Aemond stumbles into Alys Rivers’ workshop, utters her name, and then collapses at her feet. “Idiot,” Rankin’s Alys proclaims, in another great line reading that got a laugh out of me.
In many ways, this plotline with Alicent and Aemond epitomizes some of House of the Dragon’s storytelling issues. It feels like we’re treading water, watching an assassination plotline that will obviously not lead to Aemond’s death, and instead ends by recycling the exact same ending beat from the season’s second episode, where he also collapsed at Alys’ feet begging for help. Alicent has now betrayed another one of her children, and while the episode did at least make it feel like she was in some danger from her son before that point, it mainly just served as a way to get her out of King’s Landing so that Helaena’s condition can presumably worsen while she’s gone (which I expect to pay off in the season finale).
I hope this is the last time that Alicent and Aemond see each other in House of the Dragon, and the last time that we have to hear anything about Aemond’s mommy issues beyond a bit of wrap up next week as he recovers from the poison. This has been by far my least favorite plot thread of the season — which of course has no basis whatsoever in George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. I’ve enjoyed Aemond and Alys Rivers together, but Harrenhal has proven just as much of a morass for their pacing as it did for Daemon in season 2. I say good riddance.
Behold me now, I am Aegon Targaryen!
Let’s wash the bad taste of Harrenhal out of our mouth by hopping next to the best storyline of the episode: Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his allies’ attempt to flee Rook’s Rest. In episode 306, Aegon, Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), and Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) decided they were going to charter a ship to bring them to Essos. Tyland would rather see Aegon stay and fight, but after mulling the prospect that he is not, in fact, a very good person or king, Aegon decided to leave the continent altogether.
They never make it to a ship, however. An army of Mooton soldiers sworn to Rhaenyra cuts them off, taking control of all the villages and cities in the surrounding countryside as they search for Tyland, who is the last living person who knows where the crown’s treasury was hidden. This makes for a slow escalation of tension, as Aegon’s party is forced to redirect for Maidenpool back to Rook’s Rest, only to get cut off again and find themselves with nowhere to run.
Rather than force Larys or Tyland to do anything on his behalf, Aegon decides to release them from their obligations. The Green king has had enough of running, and wants history to remember that he died bravely and was buried near his dragon, Sunfyre. Tyland decides to join him in this last stand, while the group’s two hired sellswords immediately run for the hills. Larys Strong gets a sendoff that left me surprisingly emotional, where he admits he’d be no help in a fight but will make sure that Aegon’s final moments are immortalized in story and song.
Between this episode and Criston Cole’s musings about how he’d be remembered earlier in the season, there’s a lot of talk about the long eye of history. That’s an obvious nod to Fire & Blood, which is an unusual novel that compiles several accounts of the fictional history of House Targaryen, each with their own biases. But it also makes a lot of sense for Aegon in particular in this moment. This reclamation of his identity at a point where he thinks there’s no way out is the only thing left he can do, and he decides dying with dignity is better than getting shot in the back with an arrow and vanishing from the story in anonymity.
All this set up pays off in the most spectacular fashion when the Mootons finally do track down Tyland and Aegon. True to his word, Aegon Targaryen draws his sword and gives an absolute banger of a speech, proclaiming himself the one true king of the realm, anointed by the High Septon, who refuses to bend the knee to the pretender queen Rhaenyra. As he does this, everyone around him starts to react to movement in the trees behind him, and out emerges Sunfyre, Aegon’s dragon who was drawn to the sound of his voice and is still very much alive.
Tom Glynn-Carney’s delivery in this scene might be one of my favorites for him of the entire series, which is saying something considering how consistently amazing his portrayal of Aegon has been. But here the material really rises to meet him, and it makes for one of the best scenes not only of the season, but arguably of the series as a whole. It reminded me of the moment in Game of Thrones season 3 where Daenerys Targaryen outwitted the Masters of Astapor; the rise of a Targaryen underdog, winning out with fire and blood when it seems like all hope was lost.
The return of Sunfyre is also welcome, because House of the Dragon can finally stop toying with viewers about whether the dragon is alive or not. He’s certainly looked better, with half his face ruined to match Aegon’s own burn scars, but he’s undeniably still a force to be reckoned with.
I don’t expect to see Aegon’s story progress much further in the season finale, but this payoff makes it all worth it. And Tyland Lannister evades capture to boot; I am still pretty nervous for him that he’ll get caught by Rhaenyra, since that lines up with his fate in the book, but for now both Lannister and Aegon get a well-deserved reprieve.
Sheepstealer’s big day out in the Riverlands
We move next to a sequence of events that I’m pretty torn about: the seeming resolution of Rhaena Targaryen’s (Phoebe Campbell) arc with the wild dragon Sheepstealer. We last saw Rhaena getting slapped around by Lady Jeyne Arryn (the ever-incredible Amanda Collin), who ordered her to remain hidden in her cave in the Vale. Rhaena didn’t listen, and is now off flying around the Riverlands in search of Vhagar. The rumors of Sheepstealer’s rider that have taken hold in the Vale have gotten bad enough that Jeyne wrote to Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), informing him of everything that’s been going on with Rhaena.
Daemon does exactly what you’d expect and flies straight to the Vale to confront Jeyne in her throne room. Amanda Colin and Matt Smith are two top tier actors, and any time House of the Dragon gets them on screen together it makes for exceptionally well-acted scenes. That’s the case here, as Daemon begrudgingly asks Jeyne not to tell Rhaenyra about Rhaena for one day, so that he has time to track her down and get her to safety. This scene includes a nod to Nettles, the book character who rides Sheepstealer, when Jeyne tells Daemon there are rumors of a “wild girl in the mountains living amongst nettles and sheep.” We also find out an important tidbit here about Jeyne Arryn: she prefers the company of women instead of men, which explains why there’s no Lord Paramount of the Eyrie kicking around the Vale.
Despite Jeyne agreeing to help, Rhaenyra finds out anyway because Sheepstealer is sighted by Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty). There’s an awkward moment where Addam tries to hint to Baela that he has feelings for her, only for Baela to think that his brother Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) told him about their kiss. The love triangle between these three feels a little like House of the Dragon had no idea what to do with Addam of Hull, so it’s injecting a fluff plotline that will probably go nowhere, similar to Alicent’s assassination plot with Aemond. It should go without saying that Addam and Baela have no romantic feelings in the book; Addam does have quite a bit of reckoning with his new position at court though, and I’m at a loss for why House of the Dragon hasn’t focused more on that instead.
They bring this news to Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) in the middle of a Small Council meeting which is full of small dramas. Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler) is correctly convinced Rhaenyra appointed him Master of Coin to serve as a scapegoat, since she publicly directed the angry smallfolk toward his policies despite the fact that she hasn’t approved anything he’s suggested to fix the situation so far. Sabitha Frey (Sarah Woodward) is concerned about what will happen to Harrenhal if Alicent’s bodyguard Ser Adrian Redfort is successful in killing Aemond, which tells us that Rhaenyra actually made the smart move of looping in her Small Council about Alicent’s mission. Rhaenyra rather exasperatedly tells Sabitha to just take the bloody castle, and Woodward has a somewhat hilarious reaction conveying the Frey matriarch’s excitement. I wish we got a little more of these side characters outside the Small Council chamber, because the castings for them have been great.
When Addam and Baela tell Rhaenyra about sighting Sheepstealer with a rider in the Riverlands, the Black Queen immediately decides to go investigate. Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) dials up the manipulation, trying to pit Rhaenyra against Daemon in a way that’s so clearly forced it almost feels sloppy of her. It’s still not one hundred percent clear why Mysaria is so insistent about pitting Daemon against Rhaenyra, though. Jealousy over Rhaenyra’s attention? An opportunity to get back at a former lover? A little bit more development would have gone a long way toward selling it better.
And the dragons danced
From there we jump back to the Riverlands, where Daemon and Caraxes have tracked down Sheepstealer and Rhaena. They force the other duo to the ground, where Daemon and Rhaena confront one another while their dragons snap in agitation. This scene finally gives Matt Smith a chance to play Daemon as a father, expressing regret for neglecting his children for their entire lives. Rhaena has come to the Riverlands in hopes of killing Vhagar as a way of ingratiating herself to Rhaenyra, since the queen blames Sheepstealer’s rider for the death of her son, Jace. To her surprise, Daemon offers to help.
They don’t get the chance, however, because Rhaenyra and Addam of Hull arrive on their dragons. This begins an extended sequence where Rhaenyra learns the identity of Sheepstealer’s rider, before all four dragons duke it out on screen. The drama is high and Emma D’Arcy plays up Rhaenyra’s wrath so well, but this scene as a whole felt lifeless to me. House of the Dragon’s visual effects work with its dragons has been astounding in the past, but it’s never felt more transparently like a bunch of people running in a circle in the middle of some blue screens than it does here. It’s cool to see the dragons fight each other, but ultimately this is a far cry from the penultimate episode of season 2, which featured some of the most detailed dragon work of the series.
It’s even worse for the fact that this scene is a complete invention of the show. It’s not like this is a key part of the narrative the show had to find some way to adapt well, like the Battle of the Gullet; instead, i’s a brand new scene tacked on, which is so heavy on the digital effects that it strays into the sort of visually exhausting CGI slop commonly seen in Marvel movies.
And then of course there’s the reasoning for it all. This scene seemingly caps off Rhaena’s Sheepstealer arc, with the wayward princess “rescued” by Rhaenyra and brought back to the Red Keep, where she has a teary reunion with her sister Baela, who promises that she’ll have the chance to start anew. Campbell has been doing some of her best work on the show this season as Rhaena, which has been so important because House of the Dragon jettisoned an important book character named Nettles and opted to give all that extremely juicy material to Rhaena instead.
Except what we got for Rhaena never lived up to the promise; even if you liked Rhaena’s story with Sheepstealer — which I did — we hardly spent any time with them after the season premiere. What is there relationship even like? Does Rhaena love this dragon, or is it a captive situation like Ann Darrow with King Kong? Does she sleep curled against the gargantuan beast, or pressed in the corner of their cave as far from him as she can get? We have no idea about any of it, because House of the Dragon hasn’t bothered to give us a single intimate scene between Rhaena and Sheepstealer as dragon and rider after episode 1. Instead, it basically relies on costume changes for Rhaena each episode to convey how her situation is changing, which tells us nowhere near enough to sell the emotional weight for a massive sequence like this one.
All this is to say, I think this big dragon fight failed on multiple levels, both as a visual set piece and a climactic story beat for several important characters. This is a sequence House of the Dragon clearly decided to sink time and money into, and it’s a shame, because those resources could have gone to the Fishfeed or the Battle of the Honeywine or any number of other important moments from the book narrative that would have enhanced the story. Instead we got this — and that’s without even touching the fact that wrapping up Rhaena and Sheepstealer’s story in this way will drastically alter the set up for the Battle Above the Gods Eye, one of the most crucial events of the entire war that will take place in season 4. It’s just a mess.
A point of no return in the Red Keep
Since the dragon fight takes place around the halfway mark of the episode, we get a pretty decent wrap-up for it at the Red Keep, which is essential so that the season finale can focus instead on the First Battle of Tumbleton. Much of that wrap-up revolves around Rhaenyra, and who is or isn’t in her good graces any longer. While Rhaena and Baela have a teary-eyed reunion, Rhaenyra and Daemon’s debriefing is much less cordial. Rhaenyra insists her lady-in-waiting Elinda Massey (Jordon Stevens) remains in the room with them while they talk, presumably to give herself a stronger out when she decides it’s time to dismiss Daemon.
I do appreciate how Rhaenyra is written here: hurt, but not blind. She is upset Daemon deceived her, but is surprisingly understanding about the fact that it was to protect his daughter. That fits Rhaenyra’s character, and pushes back against the manipulations of Mysaria. It seems like Rhaenyra expected some far worse scheme from Daemon, and was almost relieved that the root of it all was a family matter. Regardless, she does tell Daemon to leave her for the night, which represents a significant schism for Westeros’ first family.
Meanwhile in the Iron Throne room, Mysaria invites the brothel madam Sylvi (Michelle Bonnard) to discuss the fact that Rhaenyra will no longer be hearing petitions from the smallfolk. Both women regard this as a mistake, but Mysaria is quick to capitalize, offering herself as as a stand-in for hearing petitions, which she can then bring to Rhaenyra using her best judgment. In an unexpected turn, this leads to Sylvi calling Mysaria out for changing thanks to her newfound position among the nobility. Mysaria tries to dismiss her so she won’t have to listen, but Sylvi insists on a parting piece of wisdom: whether in the Red Keep or Flea Bottom, the powerful will always view a whore as a whore.
This advice comes to roost later that very night, when Rhaenyra cannot fall asleep and goes to Mysaria’s room unnaounced to discuss what happened in the Riverlands. She wants to forgive Daemon, and again, I appreciate the clarity from Rhaenyra that she’s aware Mysaria has been trying to manipulate her. If only she could have kept that resolve. Instead, Mysaria puts the moves on her, and the scene cuts away as the two start having sex.
I actually really like this development for both Mysaria and Rhaenyra. Mysaria hasn’t had many major developments this season, but the reminder of her previous life right as she reaches a point where seducing the queen would help her was a great way to bring the character full circle. For Rhaenyra, this is yet another mistake, because it puts her at Mysaria’s mercy; this is no genuine romance, and the show makes it clear that Mysaria has an agenda to stay in the queen’s good graces. This romantic scene between Rhaenyra and Mysaria also tied things back around to their kiss in season 2, making it a more integral part of the story rather than yet another plot beat House of the Dragon introduced and then forgot about.
Mysaria is a schemer, and no matter how much Rhaenyra brought out her idealism, it was always bound to crumble. The sad thing about it is that this idealism fading seems linked to Rhaenyra’s own decline. Not only is the Black Queen’s inability to rule both the realm and herself damaging her integrity, but it’s now firmly spilling over and dragging down everyone else around her as well.
It’s an ominous way to leave Rhaenyra on the eve of the season finale. Mysaria may insist that she’s bound to win a great victory at Tumbleton, but as we see elsewhere in the episode, that victory is far from assured.
Traps are laid in Tumbleton
Battle looms in Tumbleton, where the Winter Wolves and army of Rivermen are only a day’s march from the city, and carrying Criston Cole’s head on a pike no less. Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) brings news of this to his cousin Ormund (James Norton), but rather than get concerned, the Hightower lord insists he has a secret that will bring Rhaenyra to her knees.
His reticence to share with his allies causes some frustration to Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), who vents to Gwayne in private about how Ormund is a madman who will get them all killed, while Gwayne mourns the death of Criston. We also find out an important aspect about Daeron’s character: that he could care less about being king, or even being notable at all. “Rhaenyra may keep her crown for all I care,” he tells Gwayne, proving that actually, he would probably be a surprisingly good king if he ever got the chance.
The episode makes it seem like the trap Ormund is setting has to do with Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), Rhaenyra’s Hand of the Queen who was captured at the end of the previous episode. There’s a tense meal scene between Ormund and Corlys, which is a great way to get in a bit of verbal sparring between two very formidable adversaries. It comes to an abrupt end when Ormund insults Corlys’ late wife, Rhaenys; something which is a hard line for the Lord of the Tides. No one talks smack about Rhaenys Targaryen on his watch.
As Corlys goes to return to his cell, Ormund bids him wait. We find out later in the episode that this was so that he could cut off Corlys’ ring finger, in order to send it to Alyn of Hull in King’s Landing. The implication is that the Velaryon men will be more hesitant to help Rhaenyra with their lord held hostage, but I can’t help but wonder if it will have another side effect: Rhaenyra legitimizing Alyn, so that the Velaryon line will persevere no matter what happens in Tumbleton. It would remove one small bit of leverage from Ormund’s plan, even if it might have the bitter side effect of making it less crucial for Rhaenyra to rescue Corlys.
But then, in the final moments of the episode, we find out Ormund’s real plan. Corlys isn’t his ace in the hole: it’s Ulf the White (Tom Bennett), the peasant dragonrider who has been getting crapped on all season by Rhaenyra and Daemon. Ormund brings ale up to Ulf on his hillside where he keeps watch on the city, and even shares drinks with him while he inflates the dragonrider’s ego. This isn’t their first meeting, but it does seem to be the one that seals the deal for Ulf’s imminent betrayal, when Ormund condemns Daemon’s attack on Ulf in Flea Bottom during episode 6. He also offers him the castle of Driftmark and title of Lord of the Tides should he flip sides, which is so tempting that Ulf can’t possibly refuse.
Tom Bennett has always played Ulf as a jovial sot, but in this scene he’s actually a little scary. It’s a great way to leave things before the First Battle of Tumbleton in the season finale.
Verdict
“The Dragon in Winter” is one of the weirdest penultimate episodes of the entire Game of Thrones franchise. It features some good material, including an incredible payoff for Aegon Targaryen and Sunfyre, but is sadly hampered by the loose plotting and even looser staging for its big dragon showdown. From the thin set up with Rhaena to the over-reliance on CGI, the dragon showdown might be one of the most underwhelming large setpieces of the series to date. Throw in Alicent Hightower’s misguided journey to Harrenhal and the show’s adamant decision to flattern her and Aemond as characters to one or two defining characteristics, and it makes for an extremely mixed watch.