This week we discuss Episode 7 of House of the Dragon, "The Dragon in Winter." The best episode of the last few, and yet the pot is still simmering. It's been simmering for four episodes. Somebody please let it boil.
We open with Helaena's visions, which keep getting darker: the birth, the dragonpit, the farm with the chickens (Kiki's take: "Helaena just wants to be a trad wife"), and then a blizzard that looked suspiciously like White Walker imagery. She also delivers the line of the episode to Rhaenyra: "You have many dragons. Do you not think you have altered?" Dragons as a metaphor for power. That's the whole show in one question.
And Rhaenyra has officially lost it. She's forcing visions out of Helaena, she sent Alicent off to kill her own son, and by the end of the episode Mysaria is running the Red Witch playbook on her (you will be queen, your children will rule, now let's have sex... we've seen this one before). She wants all the power and she wants everyone to be happy, and in trying for both she'll get neither.
Meanwhile at Harrenhal: the fake Alicent scene. We hated it, then we understood it, then we hated it more. Aemond has a full Oedipus situation going on, and interestingly, so did Daemon (rewatch season two if you don't believe us). Also the most awkward three person family dinner in television history, and Alicent taking one look at the place and getting the heck out.
Ormund though. Ormund might be the smartest man in Westeros. The knife he hands Corlys becomes the finger he sends to Alyn. Pure psychological warfare. His one weakness? He understands manipulation but he doesn't understand love, and that's exactly where he lost Corlys. And when he says he has "the piece on the board that will bring her to her knees," we're convinced it's not who you think it is. He's had word since they last spoke.
Plus: the Sheepstealer fight is genuinely sad (a wild animal getting punished for doing what wild animals do, and Rhaena's the one who brought it into this), Daemon gets vulnerable for maybe the first time ever (the man said please TWICE), the Baela and Alyn plotline continues to be garbage, and Sunfyre is ALIVE. We were completely wrong. Again. Kiki found the perfect meme about it.
One episode left. Battle of Tumbleton or bust. This finale decides how the whole season gets remembered, and we'll be there either way.
