House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

Sunday night’s episode of House of the Dragon, the fifth in Season 3, focused mostly on resentment. The many resentments and deep bitterness that drives so many of our cast of lords and ladies, kings and queens, vagabonds and Gold Cloaks.

Aegon resents his younger brother, Aemond, and sets out from Rook’s Rest with a much-beleaguered Larys Strong at his heels. Two cripples slowly making their way toward somewhere. Wherever Aegon can go to find his brother, Aemond, and kill him. Everything he’s suffered, Aegon tells Larys, is because of Aemond One-Eye. “Mother indulged him,” he grumbles. “She loved him more" because he was so good at everything. So talented with the blade. Fluent in Old Valyrian. The golden child.

Larys has, at last, had enough. “I must say, your Grace,” he says evenly. “All this time we’ve been together, from the moment you were injured flying drunk into a battle you were not invited to, you’ve done nothing but whinge and self-flagellate with a tenacity I find astonishing. You, who had every advantage in life, who had every chance to shine. A dragon so beautiful they named him after the sun itself. You could have risen to greatness, but instead you trampled your birthright in the mud. You lazed in mediocrity . . . I will tell you the truth,” he says, standing over Aegon. “You were a terrible king. But worse than that, you are a terrible man.”

I must say, this is among the finest bits of dialogue this series has yet offered, rivaling some Viserys’s very fine monologues in Season 1. I spent the first two seasons disliking Larys quite fiercely, but he’s become one of the best characters in the show. And Aegon, despite being a terrible man, has won my affection as well. His crippling, his stubborn arrogance and refusal to be humbled, has somehow humanized the spoiled brat king.

When they return to the encampment, he tells Varys to hire the ship.

“What ship would that be?” a man says, and we realize that Tyland Lannister, former Master of Ships, is not dead. His twin was slain by the Starks, but Tyland did not drown in that heavy armor Lohar, the worst character in House of the Dragon, told him he surely would. The Lannister lord survived and is now traveling with sellswords, if not particularly good ones, as Larys points out. As they debate which direction they should travel – Tyland wants to go to Lannisport, naturally – the chief rogue of the encampment searches Aegon’s things and finds the crown. When he shows it to the crippled king, Aegon does what he does best and shanks the bastard to death, which must have been very satisfying for him after all his many humiliations. “You will call me Your Grace,” he says to the corpse.

We should not underestimate Aegon.

The Ghosts Of Harrenhal

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

At Harrenhal, headhunters arrive. They’ve come for Aemond, but they find the witch, Alys Rivers, instead. She taunts them and they are clearly frightened, both of her and this strange, haunted shell of a castle. She summons bats, whether through magic or a trick, and when they recover themselves, she’s gone. They flee in terror.

Aemond awakens from nightmares. We hear his brother’s laughter as he wakes, and Aemond tells Alys that he saw him, his face aflame – words echoed by Helaena later to her mother, when she says that Aemond burns but not with fire. A fever, no doubt.

In Alys, Aemond sees something of his mother, and she comforts him as a mother would. I suppose that kiss earlier between Aemond and Alicent was all leading to this, as it’s clear enough that Alys’s mothering will soon lead to something more. Unlike the swaggering Daemon, this wounded Aemond is vulnerable. Vhagar has fled Harrenhal. He is a dragon rider without a dragon.

Like Aegon, Aemond’s thoughts return again and again not to Daemon or Rhaenyra, but to his brother. “He tormented me!” he cries. “I worshipped him!”

When more headhunters return, climbing up the steep cliffs behind the Godswood, they find Alys again, but these men are not intimidated. A witch, perhaps, or perhaps just an imbecile, they say. And then they attack her, a lone woman against four armed men. Before they can rape her, Aemond appears. He cuts into them, and death swirls down. It’s a fast and brutal fight, and far more gripping than Aemond’s first assault on Harrenhal. For one thing, he’s fighting not out of some boyish need to prove himself, but because he’s protecting someone he’s come to care about, a surrogate mother, soon to be lover.

"You recovered quickly," Alys remarks as the red leaves of the heart tree flutter in the breeze above them. All is grey here save the blood of the would-be rapists and the leaves against the sky.

Meanwhile, In King’s Landing, Murder Most Foul

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

Trouble dogs Rhaenyra at every turn as she scrambles to secure her seat of power in the Red Keep. The only thing that seems to be going well is the abundance of cats. At least she heeded Alyn’s advice. Cats are everywhere, even in the dark places, as Alicent and Helaena discover later in the episode.

There is much grumbling and disagreement at her meeting of the Small Council. Daemon is concerned about the unrest in the city, unrest he blames on Rhaenyra’s heavy-handedness with her detractors.

Mysaria has her own agenda, of course, but the rest of the Small Council merely observe and speak to one another under their breath. Addam and Baela volunteer to go hunt Aemond and Vhagar, but Rhaenyra wants Daemon to do the honors. He refuses, telling her the enemy within is a greater danger than the Targaryen princeling.

Later, they speak in the sept, mostly in Old Valyrian, as he tells her that things are, indeed, more dire than she believed. More Gold Cloaks have been murdered in broad daylight, their guts ripped from their stomachs. Rhaenyra, much like Aegon, rails about her missing half-brothers. She tells her uncle-husband that a darkness follows her, that some dread thing conspires against her every movve.

“You hear the wind in these vaulted towers and imagine omens when there are none,” he replies. Only men.

“Then why can’t you find them?” she snaps back, mocking him. He smiles and stands and as he walks away he says, “You are more than this.”

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

Daemon rallies the Gold Cloaks, who are also filled with resentment over the murders and unrest and because none of them have been paid. Daemon tells them that they’ll be rewarded twice over for their bravery, when Rhaenyra’s empire grows, when Dorne finally breaks and the Seven Kingdoms become nine, become twelve. They, the city watch of King’s Landing, he promises, are the heart of the Empire. It’s a pretty speech, though it won’t be enough.

They catch one of the killers and torture him, and eventually he gives them an answer. While he doesn’t know who paid him, he does have the coin. A newly minted coin bearing the likeness of Daeron Targaryen. We’ll come to that little twist momentarily.

Daemon’s words are eloquent enough, but words are wind. Later, he comes back to the Gold Cloak barracks to find it empty. Ominously so. He wanders through the empty halls until he comes to a grim and terrible scene. A table is set and men sit around it as if to sup, but each has been slaughtered hideously. Their bulging eyes stare back at the Queen’s Consort, empty in pallid faces. Above them, the words “A Feast For Traitors” are written in blood on the wall.

There’s a bit of an echo of Rhaenyra’s own dinner scene two episodes back, when she served her highborn guests rats for supper. Neither is particularly appetizing, in any case.

A Flight Into Darkness

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

Deamon’s horrifying discovery comes at the very end of the episode and corresponds with two other scenes. In one, Ser Criston Cole gives his own rallying speech to his disheartened troops. In the other, Alicent and Helaena have found their way into a dark, secret passage in an attempt to flee King’s Landing. A cat surprises them when they come to a dead end, and they drop their lantern, plunging into darkness. Darkness and death and the longing for death all weave together as the episode closes.

Alicent decided that fleeing was their only option when she learned of Helaena’s pregnancy. First, she tried to get her daughter to abort the baby, using a potion given to her in secret by Grand Maester Orwyle, who told her that from that point on his only aid for the imprisoned Targaryens would be made with full disclosures. Of course Mysaria, Master of Whisperers, was aware of Orwyle’s visit and confronted Alicent, who lied about the potion, claiming it was she who had taken a lover (after her first lie, that Helaena had terrible headaches, was too obvious).

But Helaena would not take the tincture. “It’s mine!” Helaena shouts at her mother. “It’s my own. It’s mine.” At last, Helaena is standing her ground, not letting her mother or anyone else push her around. Though when Mysaria catches them trying to escape, and she asks to be let outside because she needs to see the moon, she’s shushed and nobody bothers to ask why. It seems to me that listening to Helaena, whose visions thus far have been almost entirely true, would be wise. I’m not sure Alicent is particularly wise.

Even in their escape, Alicent tries to convince her daughter to leave Jaehaera behind. She’ll be safer here, the Queen Dowager argues, than on the road. Rhaenyra won’t harm a girl and her rivals won’t attempt to elevate a girl to the throne. Helaena, however, is not concerned with thrones or successions. She simply does not want to be parted with her one remaining child.

Of all the royal women left in the Red Keep, I find myself most sympathetic to Helaena. I want her to find some small cottage far away where she can plant a garden and talk to bugs and birds and live in peace. If only this were that kind of story.

Ormund Hightower and the Tale of the Yellow Toad

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

Lord Ormund Hightower despises the Targaryens. He also knows that they are powerful because of their dragons, but that even dragon riders can be beaten. It is his machinations that have led to the deaths of the Gold Cloaks in King’s Landing. Somehow, he’s orchestrated the Feast For Traitors, and who knows what other mischief his spies and assassins are up to. While Rhaenyra flails from one problem to the next, Ormund plots and schemes and uses his wits to undo his enemies. Another man not to be underestimated, it seems. And his plans have not yet come to fruition.

He is also a teacher, always giving his young ward, Daeron – who he is carefully unmaking, in a sense, trying to weed out whatever bit of Targaryen he can from the boy – some lesson or other. As they play a game of Cyvasse (the Westerosi version of chess), he lectures Daeron on, Meria Martell, the Yellow Toad of Dorne.

She was “the only woman ever to be gifted with a truly military mind,” Ormund tells Daeron, “though the gods divested her of beauty.” Squat and blind and horrible to behold, she nevertheless outwitted Aegon the Conqueror, and “Dorne remains unbroken even today,” he says, an interesting echo of Daemon’s words to the Gold Cloaks, whom he promises will play a role in finally breaking Dorne.

Meria poisoned her own wells when the invaders came. Abandoned her castles. And when her enemies slept, her forces crept into their camps and slit their throats. The Targaryens and the “obscenity” of their dragons could not defeat the Dornish matriarch. Ormund sees himself in her, his own cleverness reflected in her victory.

And then Daeron places the winning piece on the board. The boy immediately flushes. “It was luck,” he says. “We’ll start again.” Ormund, furious at having been outwitted himself just as he delighted in imagining his own cleverness, sweeps the pieces to the ground. He stands, collects himself, and then stands behind Daeron, placing his hand on his shoulders. “Never apologize for victory,” he tells him.

Unbowed, Unbent And Very, Very Broken

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

In the Riverlands, the forces of young Lord Tully and Roderick “Roddy the Ruin” Dustin and his Stark bannermen have been suffering nightly attacks by the smaller, quicker forces of Ser Criston Cole and Ser Gwayne Hightower. The guerilla warfare tactics have harried the larger force as it marches to Rhaenyra’s aid, burning bridges and tents, killing men from the shadows.

But the Riverlanders and Starks have had enough of these indignities. They tire of being harried on their march and take to the forest, planting crow’s feet to injure Cole’s horses. The retaliation works, and soon Cole and his men are marching on foot, scrabbling their way through thickets and swamps. Gwayne plucks a leech from his thigh. They are muddy and weary and broken.

Gwayne tells Ser Criston that he would like to take him back to Oldtown, to show him the Hightower itself. A knight of his stature would be welcomed there with open arms, to serve the Hightowers with honor.

Ser Criston Cole, more than perhaps any other character in this story, is seething with resentment. He practically embodies it, and his pride and bitterness are boundless. He presses on even as Gwayne argues that they should stop their pursuit, find allies, meet up with Ormund at Tumbleton – anything other than this death march.

When they discover that the enemy host has crossed the river and burned the bridge behind them, Cole says they’ll simply make rafts or swim if they have to, and Gwayne realizes the truth. “This was your goal all along,” he says.

“Our fate was always assured, Gwayne,” Cole replies. “We were doomed to death and defeat. You have offered me service to your House. I am grateful, but I’ve been a servant all my life to Green or to Black, defined myself by my oaths and devotion. The Highborn made their use of me when it suited them. I will not return spurned and rejected. I am the Realm’s greatest warrior and I will die as such. Glorious. Unbent. And they will sing songs of it. And queen Alicent herself will hear them.”

Gwayne packs his things and leaves the host as Criston gives his rallying speech, as Daemon finds the grotesque banquet, as Alicent and her daughter are plunged into terrible darkness.

This was a genuinely terrific episode of House of the Dragon, perhaps the best written of the season and one I enjoyed enough to watch twice before writing this recap. I think a part of me enjoyed the relative lack of Rhaenyra/Alicent scenes, with Alicent mostly trying to avoid the new queen and even escape from her, going so far as to try to convince Mysaria to play both sides. In so many ways, this relationship / friendship / friends-to-enemies-to-whatever this is now has played out long enough, and it’s time to move on. Rhaenyra’s focus on Aegon and Aemond signals that perhaps we finally are.

Yes, we continue to set the table for war, and war remains elusive and war is what will make or break this season (we can only wait so long especially since Season 2 was already table-setting enough). This season, other than its opening salvo, has been much like Ormund and Daeron’s game. Pieces moved around the board. Ormund scheming. Aemond convalescing. Aegon whinging to an increasingly exasperated Larys. Rhaenyra stumbling from victory to baffled indecision. Daemon’s ambitions too big by far, crashing up against reality time and again. Our newly minted dragon riders, Ulf and Hugh, slowly stoking the fires of their own resentment.

But it will all come to a head soon enough, I fear, in fire and blood.

House of the Dragon

Credit: HBO

What did you think of this week’s episode of House of the Dragon? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

“Unbowed and Unbent” was written by Philippa Goslett and directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado.

Read my past reviews of Season 3 below:

‘House of the Dragon’ Cast

House of the Dragon stars:

• Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen
• Emma D'Arcy as Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen
• Olivia Cooke as Queen Dowager Alicent Hightower
• Rhys Ifans as Ser Otto Hightower
• Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon
• Ewan Mitchell as Prince Aemond Targaryen
• Tom Glynn-Carney as King Aegon II Targaryen
• Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole
• Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria
• Harry Collett as Prince Jacaerys Velaryon
• Bethany Antonia as Baela Targaryen
• Phoebe Campbell as Rhaena Targaryen
• Phia Saban as Queen Helaena Targaryen
• Matthew Needham as Larys Strong
• Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower
• Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull
• Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers
• Tom Bennett as Ulf the White
• Kieran Bew as Hugh Hammer

Newcomers include:

• James Norton as Ormund Hightower
• Tommy Flanagan as Roderick Dustin
• Dan Fogler as Torrhen Manderly
• Tom Cullen as Luthor Largent
• Joplin Sibtain as Jon Roxton
• Barry Sloane as Adrian Redfort
• Annie Shapero as Alysanne Blackwood