How much is too much when it comes to a show like HBO‘s House of the Dragon? This week’s episode certainly tests that with an hour that – spoilers past this point – includes plenty of prophecy, several betrayals, and more to the point, so much incest. And that’s sort of what I want to talk about first with House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 7.
Look: Game of Thrones ended its first episode with a brother boning his sister, so we’ve been living with the whole incest thing for years now in this franchise. But that episode also didn’t go “hooray for incest!” that’s just a slow march the shows have taken over time, or at least more of a sunglasses falling on the face “deal with it.” But this week’s episode really tests the resolve of those of us who are still on the fence about the whole “sex with family is cool, actually” thing.
First, there’s the dream sequence Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) has where he finally gets what he wants: sex with his mom, Alicent (Olivia Cooke). And while it’s just a dream, there’s an uncomfortable tension the whole episode when the real Alicent shows up that seems to indicate to the viewers that while Aemond knows he probably shouldn’t have sex with his mom, and his mom definitely does not want to have sex with him… Hey, maybe it’ll happen, who knows? Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) certainly seems to view Alicent as a romantic rival, and that’s how the storyline at Harrenhal plays out.
Meanwhile, far less fence-straddling is the love triangle between Baela (Bethany Antonia), Alyn (Abubakar Salim), and Addam (Clinton Liberty), which is seemingly presented as non-controversial though both dudes are her half-uncle (if I have my family tree right). Add in that Helaena (Phia Saban) is dealing with a pregnancy from her own brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and we’ve got the regular array of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) being married to her uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith) and I’d argue this is the episode when we hit critical mass with the whole incest thing. Hot take: yuck! Yucky! This is very yucky for me!
All this adds up to a sense of relief whenever the show cuts away from these characters and we don’t need to think about incest for a few blissful minutes. Even the Godzilla fight between three dragons mid-episode is marred by the weird familial relationships between everyone involved. So much so that when Rhaenyra and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) have regular, non-incest lesbian sex towards the end of the episode… I mean I don’t want to say “I love it.” And sure it’s complicated for both of them and motivated by unsound reasoning. But at least they’re not related, right?
In any case, it’s not going away any time soon, and with the season finale coming up next week maybe they need to get all the incest out of the way so they can move on to the final battle between Ormund Hightower (James Norton) and Rhaenyra. But [Italian chef voice] that’s a lotta spicy incest!
Okay, review portion out of the way, let’s get into the recap for the episode. As usual, HBO hasn’t sent over the episode title in advance with the screeners, so let’s assume this week’s episode is titled “Corlys Got Fingered” and see how close we get. Also as usual, I’ll mostly break this down by area of Westeros, so let’s go.
Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 7 past this point.
King’s Landing
Another week, another quiet opening though this time it’s in Helaena’s dreamscape, as it turns out. We begin with the entrance to the Red Keep, silent and empty. Helaena sees a cart, drawn by a horse and smiles. As she walks, the doors open, and light pours through…
…Interrupted by Rhaenyra calling her name. What does this dream mean? Book readers will likely know better, but on the surface it does seem to indicate Helaena leaving her imprisonment some way, some how, though a pale horse often indicates death. So perhaps that’s how she “escapes,” i.e., dies, and there’s more evidence for that later in the episode.
After her rude awakening, Rhaenyra is there seemingly making idle conversation, while Helaena cross-stitches, but really Rhaenyra is clearly plugging her for info. We do get some teases for dreams later, as Helaena talks about how as a girl she wanted to fly on dragons, but now, when she’s with Dreamfyre it’s “too much.” Helaena also thinks that the dragons alter them in “some way.” Rhaenyra laughs, thinking that she hasn’t changed at all… But of course, she has, calling Helaena “sister” and positing she’s a dreamer, asking her what she’s seen last before grasping Helaena’s arm and demanding to know what she’s seen of Daemon, or the Winter Wolves, or Tumbleton. Side-note here: there’s an odd theme of people grasping other people’s arms this episode, and how those who are arm-grabb’d feel about it. Not sure whether that indicates anything other than “don’t grab people’s arms,” but perhaps I’m wrong.
Rhaenyra, back to the plot, is losing it, demanding to know that she “must prevail” as the gods surely intend that… She’s grasping at straws (and arms) and hoping her sister’s prophecy provides the confirmation she wants, when merely taking some sort of action – as Daemon keeps preaching – is likely better than wandering the halls of King’s Landing steadily going insane like her Targaryen forebears.
Harrenhal
Meanwhile, over in spooky castle land, Aemond is practicing sword with his shirt off like he’s a 15-year-old incel from Minnesota. He’s very injured, still, and falls to the floor when Alicent shows up. She explains about how she escaped – it’s a lie, of course, she was sent to kill Aemond by Rhaenyra – and welcomes Aemond into her arms, grasping his face and kissing him on the cheek. She kisses him again, and Aemond seems confused about what’s happening.
As Alicent removes her cloak, she tells her son that Aegon is most likely dead, then begins crying that she failed him. Their eyes lock, Aemond recoils, and Alicent leans in to kiss him, softly, tenderly. He kisses her back, hungry, and throws his mother on the bed. She undoes his pants, and he enters her. She flips him over so she’s on top, riding him, and says “And in this moment, I will give you a son.”
Er, oops, it’s not Alicent at all, it’s Alys who is having sex with Aemond. Whether she used her witchy wiles to enchant him or started having sex with him before he woke up… Unknown, though she does ask him “what have you seen?” But freaked out, he jumps up and runs out while Alys generally looks annoyed.
Wonder of wonders, as he stalks the halls, who shows up but the real Alicent, much to his stunned surprise. Unlike Dream Alicent, she A) does not want to have sex with her own son, and B) is a little more frazzled with her lies about her “escape.” Mid babbling rant, Aemond grabs Alicent, making sure she’s real, and she takes his face the same way as in his dream, saying “you’re all I have left,” but this time Aemond pushes her away.
She brings him to Ser Adrian Redforte (Barry Sloan), who she explains protected her on the road and saved her. Aemond takes his hand, and then stabs him straight through the neck, killing him. Alicent is horrified – mostly because Adrian was probably supposed to kill Aemond, and now it’s going to be up to her – while he apologizes because “there are secrets here, and I can trust no stranger.” Which is when Alys shows up to a surprised and confused Alicent, explaining it’s time for supper.
Over dinner, Alys plays the aggressive girlfriend, plugging Alicent for info about her journey and drawing a line between her and her boyfriend’s mom: she marches to her own beat. She’s not a regular mom, she’s a cool mom. Alicent, meanwhile, doesn’t understand who Alys is, while Aemond confusingly explains that she has care for the castle, and he’s decided to stay at Harrenhal.
Without revealing the existence of Dreamfyre’s eggs, Aemond explains to Alicent that he thinks Rhaenyra is doomed to fail, and he and Alys will “raise our own throne in the mud of the Riverlands.” He takes Alys’s hand, and seems uncommonly patient for Aemond, explaining they only need to bide their time… Then reaching out his other hand for Alicent, explaining that she will also stay at Harrenhal.
“I’m sure your mother will wish to move on?” Alys says pointedly, but Aemond is insistent that Alicent stay.
“We’re out of wood,” Alys says, basically telling Aemond to cash her outside. And he does, where Alys correctly warns him about his mother. Alys thinks Alicent has come to do Aemond “some evil” (correctly), but he won’t listen. Alicent, meanwhile, panics, and heads to the body of Ser Adrian, looking to perhaps grab his sword or dagger, before finding a weapon that will allow her to kill Aemond less personally: berries. Uhoh, is Aemond about to get cyclospora?
Later, Aemond is again doing his best Star Wars Kid impersonation when Alicent enters with two drinks, and asks about Alys, offering that she’s coming between the two of them. It’s a good bit of acting from Alicent as she’s like “no, I guess you want your girlfriend more, not your mommy, I guess I’ll just go,” [NOTE: that’s paraphrased, not an actual quote], and he’s like “no mommy don’t go I love you” [also paraphrased].
She explains that she brought him some spiced wine, just like she used to back when she used to put him to bed. He takes the cup, touching her hand, and explains that Alys doesn’t trust her. “Who do you trust?” she says, stroking his cheek.
…To which he confesses that he tried to kill Aegon. “I know,” Alicent says.
Later, Alys is hanging with her owl, when who stumbles in but Aemond, clearly poisoned by Alicent. “Idiot,” she says as Alicent flees from the castle, believing her poisoning plot successful (it almost assuredly is not).
The Vale
Daemon returns to The Vale, bursting in on Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) and demanding to know where Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) is. Of note? There’s a woman with Jeyne who may or may not be her canonical lover Jessamyn Redfort, though mostly it’s an indicator she’s a lady lover (something Rhaenyra shares with her by episode’s end).
Jeyne explains that Rhaena left, and Daemon is freaked out: if Rhaenyra sees Rhaena on Sheepstealer, she’ll figure out that the burnt skull he handed her was not the rider that led to the death of Jace (Harry Collett), and go after his daughter, instead.
Jeyne, though, doesn’t really care… The people in the Vale are talking about a dragonrider “living amongst nettles and sheep,” which is about all the confirmation Fire and Blood fans will get that Rhaena is replacing the character Nettles in the narrative, and she’s done with all of it: she’s telling Rhaenyra.
Daemon begs Jeyne to give him a day, and as she says there was a sighting near Fairmarket – well, she doesn’t get to finish, because Daemon exits.
Also searching for a dragon and dragonrider? Baela and Addam, who find another charred farm and think they are “two days behind Aemond at best,” though they don’t know Aemond and Vhagar have separated. Baela is exhausted, and thinks she’s being punished for her role in the death of Jace.
Addam has some other things on his mind: he’s hoping Baela can put in the good word with Rhaenyra to get him and Alyn legitimized. Why does Addam want the Velayron name? Well, he’s curious about if “either of us gained the favor of some highborn lady,” it might help with the whole marriage thing. And it gets real awkward, real quickly as Baela thinks Addam is talking about her and Alyn hooking up, when he was clearly talking about his own intentions towards Baela.
They don’t have time to unpack that, though, as Sheepstealer flies by in the distance. Bum ba BUM.
King’s Landing, Part 2
On the Small Council, Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler) is complaining about something getting smeared on his door, and Rhaenyra could care less. He’s frustrated – why is he taking the blame for the financial hardships of the city? And he’s so close to getting it that he’s the fall guy, but he’s not quite there yet.
Rhaenyra continues to not care, wondering where everyone is, and reaches her breaking point when Sabitha Frey (Sarah Woodward) asks for the umpteenth time about Harrenhal, with Rhaenyra exclaiming, “Just take it.” Sabitha is thrilled, but her frustration is going to get some Freys killed, most likely.
In the middle of this, Baela and Addam return to report about Sheepstealer, revealing the dragon has a new rider. Leaving the meeting, Mysaria gets in Rhaenyra’s ear about Daemon delivering the fake head, which again causes Rhaenyra to bust a gasket, not willing to believe that Daemon is betraying her. But the real breaking point is when – you guessed it – Mysaria grabs her arm, crossing a line.
On The Road To Maidenpool/Rook’s Rest Again
Riding from Rook’s Rest, Aegon, Larys (Matthew Needham) and Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) are on their way to a boat out of Westeros to Braavos, when they encounter peasants fleeing. An army of Mootons, who are aligned with Rhaenyra, are marching their way, which of course is bad news for the presumed dead King. Aegon is confused, though: how can they be after him when everyone thinks he’s dead?
Tyland wants to head back to Rook’s Rest, and they do, encountering Tom Tangletongue (Lewis MacDougall), who is also fleeing. He reveals that the army isn’t looking for Aegon… They’re looking for Tyland, and the Queen’s gold. Whoops! Larys immediately suggests Tyland give himself up, which Tyland, of course, does not want to do. Instead, Aegon makes a surprising decision: he’s going to stay and fight. He won’t die “as a fugitive, unknown and covered in dust.” Instead, he’ll die as a king, with his dragon. Who is definitely dead. FYI.
Unlike Larys’s admonitions, Aegon’s speech gets through to him, and Tyland decides to stay with him, while Larys leaves them to live another day. It’s a neat little character bit from Larys, who ultimately is all about self preservation, though he hilariously says that it’s his honor to make sure Aegon’s final hours are “immortalized in song.”
Later, Aegon and Tyland sit around the fire waiting for their fate when they hear the army approaching. At first, Aegon seems surprisingly brave, standing to face them while Tyland pulls his sword. But seeing the scale of the army, he balks, turning around and babbling. But that’s just a moment, as he turns again, grabbing his sword and refusing to surrender to the false queen.
Aegon pulls his sword and stands before the army, announcing himself as Aegon Targaryen. The army looks surprisingly uneasy, but that could be, perhaps, the noises behind Aegon: growling, something pulling itself through the woods.
The army begins to back up, and Aegon thinks it’s his rousing, defiant speech. But nope: shocker of shocker, it’s his dragon, Sunfyre. A few episodes back Aegon had approached the body of the dragon and insisted the dragon wasn’t dead. Turns out, he was right: it was merely resting.
“Sunfyre,” says Aegon when he finally realizes his dragon is behind him. “Dracarys.”
The dragon fries the opposing army as Aegon screams and yells and laughs. All hail the king, baby!
The Vale, Maybe
Honestly don’t know where this is other than “Dragon Fight Time,” but it might be the Riverlands. Or The Vale. Or Pittsburgh. In any case, Caraxes is flying to search for Sheepstealer, but Rhaena finds Daemon first. They fight, and land, and Daemon disembarks to yell at his daughter. Rhaena tries to keep Daemon back from the wild dragon. She’s searching for Vhagar, and explains that she can’t live the way she has been, and is more willing to die absolved than live in exile. He offers to help fight Vhagar because he’s been a bad dad.
…But things get worse when Rhaenyra and Addam arrive on their own dragons. He tells Rhaena to run, but it doesn’t matter; Addam chases her down, while four dragons face off, and Rhaenyra confronts Daemon. Addam, by the way, is way faster, capturing Rhaena while the dragons all scream.
Rhaenyra is stunned, and is more mad at Daemon for lying to her than what Rhaena did or didn’t do. Rhaena drops to her knees, ready to sacrifice herself… But Sheepstealer isn’t ready to give up, and what follows is a massive, Godzilla-style dragon fight as the humans run around and stare at nothing in a very funny, very Toho movie way.
I’m not gonna break down every move the dragons make, but the outcome is that Rhaena gets taken back to King’s Landing by Rhaenyra, while Sheepstealer is grievously injured, and potentially fatally so – though it seems more likely the wild dragon will live to fight another day, which is very bad news for anyone in the Red Keep if the dragon comes back for its rider.
King’s Landing, Part 3
Mysaria brings one of her old co-workers (oh, you know the ones), Madame Sylvi (Michelle Bonnard) to see the Iron Throne. She’s not particularly impressed, with Mysaria explaining that Rhaenyra isn’t seeing petitioners anymore… Which she thinks is to the Queen’s detriment. She offers to hear petitioners in the Queen’s stead, but Sylvi ain’t buying it. “You are changed,” she says, drawing a parallel to Rhaenyra’s conversation with Helaena at the beginning of the episode. Sylvi doesn’t see a friend of the common people in Mysaria, she sees someone dressed in “silk worth a year of my earnings” standing in front of the Iron Throne, making herself the Queen’s proxy for her own elevation. Even worse, she thinks Mysaria asked her there to impress her. “Within the halls of the highborn, a whore will always remain a whore,” Sylvi ends.
Meanwhile, Rhaenyra returns with Rhaena, giving her a room. And later, while getting her hair brushed by the chambermaid, she stares at the fake skull from Daemon, who conveniently enters. The maid goes to leave, but Rhaenyra tells her to stay, which leads to one of the most awkward scenes of an episode that includes a lot of incest, so that’s saying something. He tries to explain what happened with Rhaena, but she only cares that he lied to her. He tries to tell her he only did what was best for her, and touches her cheek. She isn’t over it, though, and turns her cheek from him. “It’s late,” she says, and he leaves.
That same night, Baela comes to look at Rhaena, who says, “I am sorry to Jace. To you. You would have been Queen.” Unlike Rhaenyra and Daemon, Baela forgives her sister, telling her that, “You will begin anew,” and frankly it’s nice to see Rhaena having taken a bath and getting to sleep in a comfy bed. I’m happy for her! Even if her crazy dragon is probably coming to burn everything.
Tumbleton
Somewhere in Westeros, the Winter Wolves and Oscar Tully’s (Archie Barnes) armies ride towards Tumbleton, carrying the severed head of Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) on a pike, the arrow still stuck under his eye. Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) rides post-haste back to Tumbleton to warn Ormund of the news, and let him know the opposing forces have crossed the Blackwater Rush, 20,000 strong, a day or two out. Despite building the battlements of the trading town, there’s no way the Hightowers can fight back against this, right?
Ormund is rude about the death of Cole, and enigmatically tells Gwayne he has a piece on the board that will “bring the bitch to her knees.” He doesn’t say what it is yet, and we’re left with Gwayne, taking a brief moment to mourn Cole.
Over dinner of fat (which the maesters tell Ormund is good for the bones), Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) is silent, as usual, while their other guest turns out to be… Corlys Velayron (Steve Toussaint), who is also mostly silent and seething but at least he’s still alive after last episode’s cliffhanger. Corlys wants to know what Ormund is up to, suspecting that he’s about to be killed. But Ormund explains they’re planning on holding Corlys for a while, which he suspects will cause the Velayrons to hesitate to enter King’s Landing, turning the city lawless.
“How will that help, when the Winter Wolves are clawing at our gates?” Daeron asks, and when Ormund tries to murder him with a stare he shuts up. He then turns back to Corlys, and tries to get him to turn against the Targaryens. And given Corlys has himself had problems with them this season, perhaps this line of questioning could have worked… Until Ormund speaks dismissively of Corlys’s wife Rhaenys (Eve Best), causing him to abruptly stand up from the table and leave… But not before Ormund takes one of his fingers to mail off to King’s Landing.
Later, Daeron and Gwayne pace, frustrated about Ormund’s moves. Corlys, in their opinion, is not the Rhaenyra killer Ormund seems to think it is (they don’t know he has several irons in the fire). Daeron, meanwhile, is starting to think of himself as the king, and is worried about his men all dying. Gwayne, though, is lamenting the death of Criston Cole, who wanted to die; but he’s still sad anyway. He also doesn’t see many ways out of this situation, suggesting Daeron fly off on his dragon. But Daeron won’t leave the people. He doesn’t want to be king, but he also doesn’t want to abdicate the responsibility… Which honestly makes him perhaps the best candidate for King on this entire darn show?
King’s Landing, Part 4
While Rhaena is getting tucked into bed by Baela, Alyn is getting some bad news. Or rather, bad fingers, as he’s delivered a box with Corlys’s finger in it, clearly with his ring still on it.
Also during sleepy-time? Another dream for Helaena. This time, she’s giving birth to her son, who is taken by a soldier while she watches. She then sees herself on Dreamfyre, an army approaching. She’s dressed for battle, calls Dracarys, and flames shoot out. But that’s just as quickly replaced by another vision. This time, she’s on a farm with two children, the horse in the background, and a solar eclipse occurring. As it does, snow begins to fall from the sky, and an icy fog begins to envelope the land.
First things first: boy do I hate prophecy. Second, let’s see what we can unpack here. Working backwards, this seems to be a mix of her telling Alicent earlier this season that she’d like to live on a farm, and the children are likely Jaehaerys and Jaehaera (likely signifying descendants and the future versus actually them, particularly since Jaehaerys was beheaded last season), with the horse from her earlier vision (again, likely symbolizing death). And the whole eclipse/snow/ice fog thing is clearly the white walkers/A Song of Ice and Fire prophecy that’s always looming over everything.
As for the “dracarys” scene, while this could be a vision of the future, it almost seems like a riff on the moment when Rhaenys did not say dracarys, frying Aegon at his coronation and potentially halting everything that came after. Alternatively, this could be Helaena seeing Aegon reactivate Sunfyre in this episode. But also, it’s Helaena on Dreamfyre, so could be something else — a look at what could have been if she was able to ride her dragon.
And as for the birth scene, that seems to be her, uh, giving birth and having the baby taken away by Rhaenyra, something Alicent said would likely happen.
Beyond prophecy, my best guess here is that this sure seems like either Heleana is going to die and seeing futures she won’t get to be a part of (including the birth of her baby), or there’s a lot of death coming around her (which seems guaranteed). We’ll see which one it is, soon enough.
As Helaena dreams, Rhaenyra, unable to sleep, picks up the skull and throws it into the fire. She goes to see Mysaria, and it’s pretty clear she wants the adviser to slam Daemon for his actions with Rhaena… She’s staying defensive, but Mysaria isn’t telling the Queen something she isn’t feeling: Daemon will betray her. But Rhaenyra is also looking for someone she can knock down a peg, which she can’t do with Daemon. And she plays on Mysaria’s worst fears, brought up in the throne room earlier, that she’s nothing but someone who whispers in the Queen’s ear for her own gain.
Mysaria counters that she is only aiming to help encourage her Queen in the direction her father would have taken… And that’s a problem in and of itself. “My father was not a dreamer,” Rhaenyra says, countering what she told Helaena towards the beginning of the episode, though he did “dream.” Seeing this, Mysaria switches tones, and also pays off on what her friend told her earlier: once a whore, always a whore. Here, she does drip honey in Rhaenyra’s ear, telling her she’s a great conqueror and on the “precipice of a great victory.”
Telling Rhaenyra everything she wants to hear, Mysaria approaches her, takes her face, and the Queen kisses her. They proceed to have sex on the couch (the bed is right there, folks), and this is what Rhaenyra wants – but almost definitely not what she needs.
Outside Tumbleton
One last scene to end the episode. Outside Tumbleton, dragonrider Ulf (Tom Bennett) is drinking a good ale with – guess who – Ormund. Turns out this isn’t the first time the two have drunk together, and after Ormund talks about Daemon striking Ulf in front of everyone in Flea Bottom last episode, and whispering his own honey into Ulf’s ear, they strike a bargain: Ulf – and his dragon – will ride for the Hightowers, in exchange for Driftmark.
Yeah, that piece on the board Ormund was talking about? It wasn’t Corlys… It was Ulf. And now Ormund has two dragons going into the finale. Yuh-oh.
House Of The Dragon Season 3 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in House of the Dragon Season 3 with premiere dates.
- Sunday, June 21, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 1
- Sunday, June 28, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 2
- Sunday, July 5, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 3
- Sunday, July 12, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 4
- Sunday, July 19, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 5
- Sunday, July 26, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 6
- Sunday, August 2, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 7
- Sunday, August 9, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 8 *Season Finale*
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