The funeral that opened Sunday’s episode of HBO’s prequel to Game of Thrones was followed by a wedding.
Last Sunday’s episode 6 of House of the Dragon was arguably the most important one to date. For starters, actors Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke took the place of Milly Alcock and Emily Carey after a 10-year time jump. And perhaps more significantly, we witnessed the start of the inevitable Targaryen civil war at the episode’s conclusion.
Larys Strong, who orchestrated a hit on his brother Harwin and father Lyonel out of a combination of extortion and devotion to the queen, is to blame for that. As a result, King Viserys no longer has a Hand, and Rhaenyra’s children no longer have a (biological) father. It turns out that while a lot can happen in one hour of television, very little can happen in ten years.
There were many significant events in that episode, but the majority of the viewing experience was spent getting used to the time jump. We see the culmination of a lot of last week’s buildup in Sunday’s episode 7, Driftmark. The situation worsens in this episode more than any other so far. A lot.
Below is a detailed summary of episode 7 of House of the Dragon. There are spoilers ahead.
Remembering Laena Velaryon
Laena Verlaryon’s later life and death were rushed plotlines in episode 6, but House of the Dragon honors her name at the beginning of episode 7. Laena’s funeral is held in Driftmark to start things off. There are all of the familiar faces.
Once more, Rhaenyra and Daemon are in the same location at the same time. Otto Hightower himself is back. Hightower is once more the King’s Hand since the passing of Lord Strong.
We learn at the wake that Aegon Targaryen is engaged to none other than… his sister, Helaena Targaryen. Aegon, who is in the stage of adolescence where he isn’t excited about anything, complains to his brother Aemond that they haven’t been able to
He said that they had nothing in common and that “she’s an idiot.”
Aemond comes off as a brooding young man who frequently brings up things like the family bloodline.
We learn that “Clubfoot” Larys Strong was made the new Lord of Harrenhal as payment for killing his father and brother. What cold shit is that?
To console Rhaena and Baela, Laena and Daemon’s daughters, Rhaenyra sends her kids Jacaerys and Lucerys. Given that the children don’t resemble either Targaryens or Velaryons, the claim that Laenor Velaryon is the father of Rhaenyra’s children appears especially absurd.
King Viserys approaches his brother Daemon and talks about striking contrasts. Viserys seems to be around 900 years old, while Daemon hasn’t aged at all. Viserys urges Daemon to go back to King’s Landing, saying, “I know we’ve had our disagreements, but let them pass with the years.”
Daemon quickly fobs off his brother because he has absolutely no interest. However, as they converse, we notice Rhaenyra circling with her eyes fixed on Daemon.
There must be sympathy for Viserys. Everyone treats him like a chump despite his attempts to be a good guy.
We see Lord Corlys and Rhaenys Targaryen relaxing by the fire in their Driftmark castle after the rejected King goes to bed. She questions whether Laena’s death was retribution for their ambition and chastises Lord Corlys for pursuing the Iron Throne in light of her own disastrous experience with it. The succession of Driftmark should then, according to Rhaenys, go through Laena’s line rather than Laenor’s — “to true Velaryon blood.”
“Hubby, we are by ourselves here. You have the ability to say what we both know to be true “Says Rhaenys. “The offspring of Rhaenyra are not of your blood. However, Laena’s are.”
The first dance of dragons
All those years ago, in episode 3, Rhaenyra and Laenor decided to fulfill their responsibilities to the realm while loving whoever they chose as they strolled along a Driftmark beach.
Rhaenyra now strolls along the same beach with her uncle Daemon in the moonlight as she has grown older and wiser. She worries that Laenor won’t be able to maintain their marriage’s façade once she is completely overcome by grief.
She says, “We did try to conceive a child. “We did our best to carry out our duty. But it was in vain. It was not enjoyable. That was discovered elsewhere.”
Ser Harwin and Lady Laena are both briefly mourned, and Rhaenyra blames herself for allowing Ser Harwin to return to the Riverlands. Daemon suggests that Queen Alicent might have planned his slaying. Rhaenyra responds, and she is right, Queen Alicent is not capable of cold-blooded murder.
Rhaenyra claims that Daemon abandoned her years ago. He responds, “I spared you. “You were young.”
Rhaenyra gives him a kiss. She tells him that she is no longer a child when he tries to stop her.
Prince Aemond is doing Targaryen things, like controlling the largest dragon in the world, while they get to dating and finish the flings they started uncomfortably many years ago.
In the mythology of A Song of Ice and Fire, Vhagar is a significant dragon. She is the dragon that Aegon the Conqueror successfully subdued. Vhagar was eventually passed down to Lady Laena after Aegon’s passing. However, with Laena’s passing, Vhagar is now free to be bonded with, and Aemond seized his opportunity.
He can be seen running onto the sand, braving Vhagar’s roar, and then mustering the courage to jump onto her back. She then performs a cool loop while flying in the air. This is very How to Train Your Dragon.
Baela approaches Aemond while carrying Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Rhaena. She declares, “Vhagar is my mother’s dragon.” She belonged to me to claim.
“If so, you ought to have claimed her. Perhaps your cousins could help you find a pig to ride “In his response, Aemond makes a reference to the joke the boys pulled on him in last week’s episode.
Around this time, shit starts to get brutally real.
Aemond and Rhaenyra and Daemon’s four children engage in combat on opposite sides of the conflict. Aemond prepares to hit Lucerys with a rock while taunting him by saying that he will burn alive like his father. Aemond instructs Jacaerys to inform his younger brother of the truth regarding their father after a perplexed Lucerys declares that their father is still alive.
Sand is thrown in Aemond’s face by Lucerys, allowing Jaecerys to draw his dagger and stab Aemond in the face.
The king’s justice
Even though Viserys is old and sickly, the dragon’s rage still burns within him.
Aemond’s eye is gone, but his skin will heal. King Viserys holds court in an effort to ascertain the truth about what transpired when Joffrey Baratheon was stabbed in the eye by Arya Stark, in a scene that is reminiscent of King Robert’s quest for the facts in that incident.
He scolds the Kingsguard Knights for being careless. It turns out that Aemond referred to the boys as bastards, which is why he was fired. I personally believe that Aemond should have been held accountable for attempting to break Lucerys’ skull open with a rock, but hey, I’m not a lawyer.
Viserys demands that Aemond provide the source of the vile claim that Laenor is not the father of the boys. Aemond does what all young boys do when they look at their mothers. He holds his older brother Aegon accountable.
Aegon, the disobedient adolescent that he is, glibly says, “We are aware, dad. Everyone is aware. Simply observe them.”
Viserys erupts in a fit of rage. He demands that there be an end to the squabbling, that everyone apologize, and that they “show goodwill to one another.” Thank God he tried.
Eye demand it, the queen says
According to Queen Alicent, goodwill is insufficient. She states, “There is a debt to be paid. I’ll get one of her son’s eyes in exchange.
Ser Criston is ordered by the queen to bring her one of Lucerys’ eyes. Call her 21; that’s savage behavior. Ser Criston bemoans his inability to fulfill her request because he has sworn to protect the queen rather than defend her.
“Alicent, this issue is over. Do you comprehend?” Viserys yells. “And make this known. Anybody who dared to cast doubt on Princess Rhaenyra’s sons’ conception would have their tongue cut out.”
The queen takes matters into her own hands because she is dissatisfied with the king’s sense of justice. She pulls Viserys’s dagger, which belonged to Aegon the Conqueror, from him a knife to Rhaenyra. Alicent tries to attack Rhaenyra during their altercation, but the princess pushes the queen away with her arm and shoulder.
Alicent is commanded to stop by the king, and Otto Hightower even orders his daughter to put down the blade. Before doing so, though, she slashes Rhaenyra’s arm. For the first time, Princess Rhaenyra’s blood has been shed. It won’t be the last, I think.
Unsure of what to do, everyone in the room is just staring at each other.
Breaking the silence, Aemond says, “Don’t grieve for me mother.” “It’s a just trade. Even though I may have lost an eye, I now have a dragon.”
Battlelines are being drawn
Otto Hightower agrees with Aemond. The Hand of the King goes to see his daughter in her chambers. She admits to acting unbecoming of her station. Hightower says it’s a dirty game they play, and for the first time he sees Alicent has the determination to win it.
He advises her to go to the king, act penitent and he’ll eventually forgive her. Hand of the Queen, more like it.
“I promise you, in time you and I will prevail,” he says. “What that rogue Aemond has done in winning Vhegar to our side… the boy was right. It’s worth 1,000 times the price he paid.”
Meanwhile, Princess Rhaenyra, in the process of getting her arm stitched up, has a visitor of her own in Laenor Velaryon. Laenor had been who-knows-where during the chaos, and says regretfully that he “should have been there.”
He beats himself up for being a bad brother, father and husband. His sister is dead, his “children” got in a crazy fight with their cousins, and now his wife is injured. I’d say his self-critique is valid.
Rhaenyra is conciliatory, though. “I had hoped to bare your children, the few times we lay together. Things might’ve been different,” she says gently.
“I hate the gods for making me as they did,” he says.
“I do not. You are an honorable man with a good heart. It’s a rare thing.”
Laenor says they made an agreement to do their duty to the realm so that they can get on having fun with whomever they want. He says that time is past: He now recommits himself to Princess Rhaenyra. Ser Qarl, his lover, is going to fight in the Stepstones soon, and after that Laenor is all hers.
“You deserve better than what I have been. You deserve a husband.”
This isn’t a bad omen at all.
Rhaenyra’s second marriage
Everything in the episode has thus far taken place at Driftmark. But now the king, queen and their court are sailing back to King’s Landing. While Viserys is sleeping, Queen Alicent stands on the ship’s side and watches the ocean breeze by.
“A perversion of justice,” Larys Strong says as he creeps up to the queen. “The young prince defiled. An outrage.”
“If it’s an eye you want to balance the scales, I am your servant,” he says.
Alicent rebuffs him, but without any of the indignation we saw last week. She says his services aren’t necessary — for now. “The time will doubtless come when I require such a friend. With not only skill, but discretion as well.”
At the very same time, Rhaenyra and Daemon stand on the Driftmark coast, watching the king’s ship sail. Rhaenyra says she too needs a friend.
Well, more than a friend.
“I cannot face the greens alone,” she says to uncle Daemon, a reference to the Hightowers. “Let us bind our blood, just as Aegon the Conqueror did with his sisters. With you as my husband and prince consort, my claim would not be so easily challenged.”
Daemon objects that he can’t marry Rhaenyra as long as Laenor is alive.
She looks at him blankly. “I know,” she says.
Next we see Daemon in a black cloak, the same black cloak he killed his Lady Royce in. His killing cloak! Only he isn’t killing this time; he’s bribing. He finds Ser Qarl, about to depart to fight in the Stepstones, and offers him gold in exchange for the public death of Ser Laenor.
So, in a montage, Qarl storms into Driftmark castle and challenges Ser Laenor to a swordfight, as you do. A nervous servant runs to get Lord Corlys and the castle guards. When they arrive, Laenor, first son of Lord Corlys, is burning in the Driftmark fireplace.
Princess Rhaenys cries over the burnt body of her dead son.
“I love Laenor,” we hear Rhaenyra say over the montage. “Then grant him this kindess,” Daemon says, “set him free.”
As the montage ends, we see the hastily organized wedding of Rhaenyra and Daemon. Only their four kids are in attendance, as well as a maester. It’s official: Rhaenyra and Daemon are now husband and wife.
The last shot of the episode shows two hooded figures running toward a boat on a coastline. It’s Driftmark’s coastline. It’s Ser Qarl. His accomplice takes off his cloak, revealing himself to be Laenor — except with a freshly shaved head.
Next we see Daemon in a black cloak, the same black cloak he killed his Lady Royce in. His killing cloak! Only he isn’t killing this time; he’s bribing. He finds Ser Qarl, about to depart to fight in the Stepstones, and offers him gold in exchange for the public death of Ser Laenor.
So, in a montage, Qarl storms into Driftmark castle and challenges Ser Laenor to a swordfight, as you do. A nervous servant runs to get Lord Corlys and the castle guards. When they arrive, Laenor, first son of Lord Corlys, is burning in the Driftmark fireplace.
Princess Rhaenys cries over the burnt body of her dead son.
“I love Laenor,” we hear Rhaenyra say over the montage. “Then grant him this kindess,” Daemon says, “set him free.”
As the montage ends, we see the hastily organized wedding of Rhaenyra and Daemon. Only their four kids are in attendance, as well as a maester. It’s official: Rhaenyra and Daemon are now husband and wife.
The last shot of the episode shows two hooded figures running toward a boat on a coastline. It’s Driftmark’s coastline. It’s Ser Qarl. His accomplice takes off his cloak, revealing himself to be Laenor — except with a freshly shaved head.
Major takeaways
The major takeaway is that, finally, it’s on. In fact, not only is it on, it’s so on.
We always knew House of the Dragon would build to a Targaryen civil war. If House of the Dragon has been criticized for anything, it’s taking its time in getting there. There’s been lots of talking, but not much in the way of action thus far. But now the Targaryen Cold War has essentially turned hot. Rhaenyra’s blood has been spilled, and Prince Aemond has lost an eye. The tensions that’ve been building have officially erupted.
Perhaps the most striking scene in the episode was the one between Larys Strong and Queen Alicent. Alicent reacted with horror at the end of episode 6 when she discovered Larys had organized Ser Harwin’s and Lord Strong’s death. Now, when Larys suggested having Lucerys’ eye carved out, the queen didn’t even wince. She’s out for blood, and Rhaenyra knows it.
The big question is how much longer Viserys survives. Conventional storytelling would have his death coming in the finale, but now that it’s on, it feels like we’re just waiting for the king’s death for the Dance of the Dragons to begin in earnest.
