Episode 6 of House of the Dragon drew the lines in the sand and if the teaser for Episode 7 is anything to go by, things will be coming to a head next week. ‘Driftmark’ packs in a funeral, a dragon theft, children coming to blows, allegations of treason and that scene from the main trailer where animosities are laid bare. Let’s look at what we can expect from what looks to be a very intense episode.
[Spoiler warning for anyone who wants to go into the show blind!]
A funeral
The trailer opens with Laena Velaryon’s ornate casket being lowered in the sea. In attendance are Rhaenyra and her two sons, Laenor, Aegon, Alicent, Viserys and Helaena, as well as everyone who is anyone and we know how large gatherings like this tend to go south quickly in Westeros. We see Rhaenys, the grieving mother, and Vhagar taking flight.
A fight and a flight
Alicent is on a ship, probably heading to the funeral and Rhaenyra is already there. A dragon (we guess it is Vhagar) is getting ready to breathe fire and the Catspaw dagger makes an appearance.
The next few shots seemed to be put together out of order but from what we infer, this is what probably went down (again, time to stop reading if you don’t want spoilers from the book): Remember we had mentioned that Aemond (Alicent’s second) didn’t have a dragon and Vhagar is now riderless in our review of Episode 6, as well as Helaena talking about “closing an eye” when Alicent assures Aemond that he will have a dragon soon? Well, that is what is probably happening in this sequence. Daemon’s twins seem to be watching Vhagar on the beach and they run to one of Rhaenyra’s kids (in the book it is Joffrey, here it seems it is either Jacaerys or Lucerys), whispering “someone stole Vhagar”.
It is probably Lucerys, given that he is seen with Rhaenyra, Corlys and Daemon, who is clutching him protectively, and many guards. In the book, Aemond climbs on Vhagar while others are occupied with the funeral and while Vhagar allows him, it leads to a fight with Rhaenyra’s children and Lucerys slashes Aemond’s eye. That one dragon eye (again, we are guessing that it is Vhagar’s) is probably hinting at that.
The kids take centre stage
Aemond riding Vhagar and the tussle between the children that follows will be central to the next episode and the trailer spends more time giving us glimpses of what will happen next. At the Hall of Nine, Daemon’s twins, Baela and Rhaena, wait for what looks like Corlys and Rhaenys. We see a shot of Jacaerys being punched and the twins looking on in horror. These shots are preceded by Alicent, with Aegon in the background, claiming that “there is a debt to be paid”.
“This is the highest of treasons,” says Rhaenyra and we are guessing it has something to do with the rumours about the paternity of her children. Maybe one of Alicent’s kids brings it out in the open or even Alicent.
Blood is drawn
We see a scene where someone who looks like Daemon is grappling with someone with dark hair. Then there is a shot of Laenor in a swordfight. Our guess is that Daemon is out to get Rhaenyra for himself again and tries to get Laenor out of the way. In the book, Laenor’s lover Qarl kills him and we guess it might be Daemon who puts him up to it and then kills Qarl (he has brown hair) to get rid of any ties to the incident. However this plays out, we have a feeling it is going to be RIP Laenor in the next episode.
Otto Hightower is back as the Hand of the King as expected and while he is seen shaking (some sense into) Aegon, his daughter seems to be losing it because we see her going for Aegon the Conqueror’s dagger that is worn by Viserys and pulling it out of its sheath. Then we see her lunging at someone with the blade. We see blood dripping from Rhaenyra’s hand and then the shot of her holding Alicent off saying “now they see you as you are” that we saw in the main trailer.
With four more episodes to go, things are really starting to come together and it finally feels like a show worthy of Game of Thrones.
