House of the Dragon Season 3 took a step back from bombastic action in Episode 5, “Unbowed and Unbent”, instead leaning heavily into character-driven monologues with the supporting cast at the forefront. It also, in the case of Alicent and Helaena’s efforts to escape the Red Keep, turned into a kind of Backrooms spin-off, as they discovered a secret passage leading out of their room that may have consigned them to a pretty grim fate, and thus another potential political calamity.
Plot-wise, this is unlikely to be especially important. I don’t for a moment think that either of these characters will remain buried alive in the Red Keep’s hidden infrastructure, but it matters thematically. The Dance of the Dragons has stripped the once-powerful – especially, of course, women – of their agency, leaving them stuck in the labyrinthine walls of the power structure they’ve spent a lifetime trying to navigate. They’re lost, alone, and completely in the dark. It’s a nice idea, while also tying nicely into the setting, given its looping connection back to the brutal paranoia that has kept the Red Keep standing for so long in the first place.
Maegor’s Legacy
When King Maegor I Targaryen (known to history as Maegor the Cruel) completed construction of the Red Keep in 45 AC (After Conquest), he wanted to make sure that he had some options in the event of an assassination attempt or a siege, or any of the other predicaments that lunatic despots tend to find themselves in. So, he oversaw the construction of a massive labyrinth of secret passages, false walls, and escape tunnels running throughout the entire castle, with many leading out to the cliffs of the Blackwater Rush or into King’s Landing.
However, because Maegor was bonkers, after the construction was completed, he also threw a giant feast for all the stonemasons, architects, and builders, and then had them all killed, so that he’d be the only person who knew the true layout. The irony, of course, was that the tunnels, intended to ensure survival, could just as easily turn into tombs for anyone who happened to stumble across them.
By the time of House of the Dragon Season 3, several characters know about these tunnels, most notably Lady Mysaria, the White Worm, Larys Clubfoot, and Daemon and Rhaenyra Targaryen.
It’s A Trap!
When Alicent and Helaena enter the tunnels, they stupidly close the secret door behind them and then stumble directly into a path that has been deliberately blocked off. Helaena, frightened by a rat, drops their only light source, and suddenly they’re trapped in the dark.
As dopey as these two are, the tunnels being sealed is a clue that this potential escape route was deliberately sabotaged, and given how, as above, only a small handful of people even know about the existence of the tunnels, the suspect pool is fairly small.
- Mysaria is obviously the prime suspect. Her leading conversations with Alicent throughout this episode made it very clear she knew exactly what was happening in the Red Keep at all times, including Helaena’s pregnancy, so it stands to reason she could have blocked off any potential means of escape.
- Larys the Clubfoot is a good second pick. He’s nowhere near the Red Keep at the moment, but he’s always a few steps ahead, and having predicted that Alicent might one day decide to sneak out of the castle, he could quite easily have implemented measures to ensure that didn’t happen.
The Political Fallout
While I’m fairly confident that House of the Dragon has other, more lore-accurate fates in mind for both of these characters, the sudden disappearance of the Dowager Queen and the Queen Consort obviously creates a chaotic political environment.
I suspect that Rhaenyra will assume that the two have fled, and that Mysaria will stoke these suspicions for her own ends, ironically inspired by her conversation with Alicent in “Unbowed and Unbent”.
However, given Daemon’s discovery that Ormund Hightower, using Daeron as a pretext, was responsible for the murder of the City Watch’s leadership, including Ser Luthor Largent, he’ll probably assume that Ormund got to Alicent and Helaena, increasing his desire for Rhaenyra to raze Tumbleton.
The irony, of course, is that Alicent built the foundations of the Green faction on her back. Now, she’s trapped in the very structure her ambition led her to, and her sudden disappearance, however temporary, is leading Westeros even closer to the brink of chaos and further war.
