‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3, Episode 6 Recap – There Is Simply Too Much Happening

Despite its extremely strong beginning, House of the Dragon Season 3 has settled into a rhythm that unfortunately exposes some of its most pernicious problems. The biggest is extremely prevalent in Episode 6 — there’s simply too much going on. There are too many characters doing too many things in too many places. It wasn’t until I tried to organise my notes into something resembling a recap that I realised how unwieldy it all is; how many potentially grandiose moments are being lost in the shuffle of check-in scenes designed simply to keep track of various minor characters in different corners of George R. R. Martin’s expansive universe.

I’ve complained about this before, as have most critics. But it’s worth moaning about again, since it’s really obvious here, and I’m still trying to format the damn recap. We might as well start with the most obvious example of a scene that suffers from this approach.

The Ignoble Demise of Ser Criston Cole

There’s a major character death in this episode, and it’s in the opening scene. And then it’s just moved on from and never mentioned again. It’s beautifully shot and staged, but it feels trivial arriving when it does, and then being moved on from just as quickly.

As he predicted himself, Ser Criston Cole was heading to his own demise. However, he doesn’t get the noble warrior’s death he was hoping for. After surviving a Tully ambush with some impressive morningstar and sword skills, he realises a massive cohort is waiting nearby, led by some lords whose names, I’ll be frank, I either never caught or didn’t bother to remember. But that’s the problem! There are too many lords at this point.

Anyway, Cole really pushes for his glorious death, challenging the lords to single combat, but instead an archer just unceremoniously looses a few arrows in his face. Awkward.

Best Frenemies

The most compelling stuff here is everything to do with Rhaenyra and Alicent, whose relationship is easily the show’s most compelling. Even though the whole hidden tunnels thing seemed like it was going to matter, Alicent and Helaena are found pretty much immediately, which means that Rhaenyra learns about their escape attempt. This also means that Alicent has to confess about Helaena being pregnant. With Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne being challenged on all sides, her small council at each other’s throats, and King’s Landing in complete political disarray, Rhaenyra has to be seen doing something about this, so she condemns Alicent and Helaena to even tighter confinement.

This rapidly hastens Helaena’s mental health downturn. The signs are all there. She stops eating. She starts self-harming with a needle. She barely speaks. She sews a tapestry that I initially thought implied she was pregnant with a White Walker but that I later realised was her foresight tipping Alicent off that Aemond is hiding out at Harrenhal.

Alicent takes this news to Rhaenyra to use as a bargaining chip, but it completely backfires. Rhaenyra, worried that Aemond might go to ground if she sends a full fighting force after him, instead decides to send one sword accompanied by someone he trusts — Alicent. This means Alicent having to leave Helaena behind, and Rhaenyra’s assurances that she’ll watch over her aren’t exactly reassuring.

Dereliction of Duty

Daemon spends House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 6 furious about the death of Ser Luthor and the senior leadership of the Gold Cloaks, and even more frustrated by Rhaenyra’s refusal to take revenge by barbecuing Ormund out of Tumbleton. Instead, she tasks Daemon with rooting out the traitors in King’s Landing, a task made more difficult by the fact that the remaining Gold Cloaks, sick of not being paid and of being murdered for sport, abandon their duties and leave Daemon to it.

This causes massive political repercussions for Rhaenyra, which manifest most obviously in a redo of her scene receiving the smallfolk while sitting the Iron Throne, which this time she simply walks out of out of sheer stress. Daemon, meanwhile, goes undercover dressed as a Gold Cloak to root out a spy. He succeeds, but the catspaw remains tight-lipped, so Daemon stabs him in the ear.

He also runs into Ulf, who is disobeying Rhaenyra’s specific orders to try and have a night out with the lads. There are two scenes devoted to Ulf’s displeasure with his current station, which is kind of remarkable when you think about it. The Dragonseeds are important, lore-wise, but this can’t help but feel a little bit out of place. There’s also a bit where Hugh sneaks into Tumbleton to try and spirit his wife to freedom, but she doesn’t want to hear about his accomplishments given how she suffered in his long stint on Dragonstone.

James Norton in House of the Dragon Season 3 | Image via WarnerMedia

Ormund’s Soft Stomach

Having abandoned Criston Cole to his suicide mission, Ser Gwayne is now in Tumbleton, being homophobically berated by a very smug Ormund, who still believes that Rhaenyra won’t burn her own subjects since she’s a squeamish woman. He’s not too smart, though, since he doesn’t even realise that Daeron has seen through him completely and is just playing a long game by going along with his nonsense.

Ormund is also woefully underequipped for what’s really necessary when it comes to taking and holding a kingdom. Earlier in the episode, a Baratheon host had visited Rhaenyra sans Lord Borros, who apparently had better things to do, so to put the fearful men he sent in his stead to use, she sent them to Tumbleton to pretend to pledge fealty to the new king and assassinate Daeron. Gwayne is the only person who sees through this, messily killing the would-be assassins. Ormund’s only contribution is to lose his lunch in the most accurate simulated vomiting I think I’ve ever seen on television.

And Another Thing…

Here are a bunch of other little scenes and concerns in House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 6 that didn’t fit into the recap proper, and be warned, there are quite a few of them:

• Rhaenyra tasks Alyn with asking his father to procure more Valaryon men from Driftmark. Corlys tells Alyn to pass on the message that Tyland Lannister survived the Gullet and is heading for Rook’s Rest. Alyn doesn’t deliver this information on-screen, but he does go and kiss Baela instead.
• Tyland is still with Aegon and Larys, but he can’t come up with a compelling enough reason for the former to go with him to Casterly Rock, so they’re heading to Essos instead.
• Rhaena spots Moondancer and exposes herself trying to find her sister, violating her arrangement with Lady Jeyne, who gives her a slap or two as penance.
• Aemond is still chilling in Harrenhal with Alys Rivers, who manipulates him into staying in various ways, but mainly by revealing that she’s in possession of a clutch of dragon eggs laid by Rhaena Targaryen’s dragon, Dreamfyre.
• At the very end of the episode, Corlys is captured.