‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap – That’s Your Mother, Dude

To be clear, House of the Dragon Season 3 is still all over the place. I’m reminded that Episode 7 is a penultimate outing, though it doesn’t really feel like one, since it’s inching so many different subplots forward in such microscopic increments that it plays more like a middle chapter. But it does remember that this is supposed to be a show about dragons, and their inclusion in a couple of scenes really improves them, so there’s more effective tension and drama here than there was last week, despite lacking a big character death like Criston Cole’s deliberately anticlimactic demise.

I still can’t quite see what shape the finale is going to take, or, for that matter, what’s going to make it feel like a finale, but with Season 4 already greenlit, most of the exciting stuff will likely happen there anyway, so maybe it’s a moot point. Either way, given the show’s scattershot structure, there’s a ton to go over, so let’s do that now.

In King’s Landing…

Before we get to things further afield, it’s worth briefly taking account of King’s Landing. With Alicent having absconded to Harrenhal, Helaena has been left in the “care” of Rhaenyra, who mostly just forcefully pushes her to share the things she has dreamed about recently. Helaena isn’t much of a soothsayer, though. She definitely has some degree of foresight, but when we see her dreams a bit later, they just seem like pretty standard anxiety dreams if I’m being honest. I was half expecting her teeth to fall out.

As ever, Rhaenyra’s council is in complete disarray. Torrhen Manderly is being harassed by the smallfolk since Rhaenyra blamed all their problems on him, which seems fair enough, and Mysaria is rather nakedly trying to turn Rhaenyra against Daemon because of his recent secrecy, especially when it comes to Sheepstealer’s rider, whom he supposedly killed. This is made even more problematic when Addam and Baela turn up to announce they have spotted Sheepstealer with a rider, so Rhaenyra can’t resist the opportunity to fly out and confront her son’s killer for herself.

That’s Your Mother, Dude

Meanwhile, at Harrenhal, Aemond is still training with a sword that looks too big for him when Alicent arrives and blows a bit of smoke up his backside, telling him that Aegon is likely dead and reminding him that he’s all she has left, and, besides, he was always the best of the kids anyway. And then she kisses him! And takes him to bed! Naturally, this is Alys in disguise, trying to nab herself a Targaryen son, but it reveals where Aemond’s head is at, which is nowhere good as far as his mother is concerned.

After this, the real Alicent arrives, which must be a little confusing, and introduces Aemond to her protector and guide, Ser Adrian, whom Aemond kills immediately. Oops! It’s worth mentioning that Olivia Cooke is great in this episode. Her reactions to everything Alys says during a subsequent dinner scene are very funny, and it’s understandable, since Alicent has no idea who this woman is, and yet here’s her son saying that he plans to remain at Harrenhal with her and make the castle his seat.

To be fair, Alys is right when she corners Aemond and tells him that his mother means him ill. Alicent steals Ser Adrian’s knife from his corpse and then drugs Aemond at her first opportunity before fleeing. Aemond staggers over to Alys and collapses, but it’s likely she’ll be able to save him. We don’t find out in this episode, though, meaning that House of the Dragon Season 3 has deployed the same “Is Aemond dead?” tease on two separate occasions.

The Dragon Standoff

While all this is going on, Daemon is storming around the Vale looking for Rhaena before Rhaenyra gets wind of her. He’s too late, though. By the time he finds Rhaena near Fairmarket, investigating a sighting of Vhagar, Rhaenyra and Addam arrive pretty much immediately. This scene works like gangbusters, though, because Sheepstealer, Caraxes, Syrax, and Seasmoke are all at each other’s throats in a kind of Mexican standoff while the human characters argue, and it eventually erupts into chaos when Rhaenyra tries to round on Rhaena, and Sheepstealer intervenes.

Syrax and Caraxes gang up on Sheepstealer, and then the latter tries to finish him off while the others fly back to King’s Landing. Daemon’s able to badly injure Sheepstealer, but he slopes off alive, presumably to be seen again later. Rhaenyra isn’t thrilled by any of these developments, though. She doesn’t want to see Rhaena, who is left to be comforted by Baela, and even though Daemon grovels to Rhaenyra for forgiveness — even though his position is pretty understandable! — it’s obvious that some bridges have been badly burned here.

Increasingly, it seems like Rhaenyra’s only ally is Mysaria, who continues to sway her against Daemon. This being a George R. R. Martin show, the two of them go from arguing to kissing to sleeping together in a matter of minutes.

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

Ormund’s Bright Idea

Despite having been exposed as a soft-stomached coward in the previous episode, Ormund is still smugly scheming in Tumbleton, and he now has a new guest to leverage. After being picked up at the tail end of last week’s hour, Corlys is now Ormund’s guest, but since Rhaenyra wouldn’t go out of her way to save her Hand, it’s initially a little unclear why Ormund would bother. To him, it’s a fairly deft political play. If Ormund keeps a hold of Corlys, the men of Driftmark won’t reinforce King’s Landing. To make his position clear, Ormund has one of Corlys’s fingers cut off and sent to Alyn in the mail.

Ormund also sets his sights on Ulf. Since Daemon slapped him publicly in Flea Bottom, word of it has gotten back to Ormund, who uses it to sway Ulf to his side, along with promises of giving him Driftmark now that Corlys is in custody. By my count, that’s now two dragons on his side.

Hail to the King, Baby

House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 7 saves its biggest moment for close to the end. Aegon, Larys, and Tyland are still on their way to Braavos, but they’re headed off by the Mooton host — loyal to Rhaenyra — coming the other way. They’re specifically looking for Tyland, but they won’t miss an opportunity to take out anyone else who doesn’t swear fealty either.

Aegon, having had enough of running and cowering, decides to make a final stand against Mooton’s forces and die as a king, and Tyland offers to remain with him. Larys, of course, leaves immediately, ostensibly to ensure that Aegon is remembered in songs and such, but really just to save his own skin.

But when the Mooton host arrives, things go rather unexpectedly. Aegon stands up for himself and gives a rather kingly speech, and the forces begin backing away in fear. It’s not because they’re frightened of Aegon, though, but rather of Sunfyre, who, as we very much predicted, has staggered out of the woods behind him. With a proud instruction of “Dracarys”, Aegon has Sunfyre barbecue the entire Mooton host while he laughs hysterically like a maniac.

Targaryens, eh?