HBO’s House of the Dragon is making its way to an explosive end for season three, and the stage is set for a rather brutal penultimate hour. Our review of House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 6 to see the tactical carnage and character toll that has been exacted; from there, the seventh episode next week will be a marked change of pace. Expect the show to leave open battlefield warfare behind in favour of some high-stakes psychological chess and the kind of regional power struggles that are sure to be volatile.
Then there is the matter of the Dance of the Dragons coming to a head. Judging by the early signs and what the trailers have put on display, Harrenhal and Tumbleton are on a collision course for a confrontation that will leave the Seven Kingdoms in a very different shape once the dust has settled.
Alicent, Aemond and the Harrenhal Shadows
Episode 7 is set to deliver on its most anticipated story beat with a long overdue meeting between Alicent Hightower and her son, Aemond. The once sidelined queen has been sent from King’s Landing to Harrenhal as an emissary after making a deal of sorts with Rhaenyra; her orders are to put an end to the one-eyed prince, one way or another.
But the preview for the episode hints at how readily one can be drawn into the haunted confines of Harrenhal and not so easily out of its influence. Aemond has let his association with Alys Rivers insulate him in a world of mysticism, his tactical sense clouded by it even as hostiles close in. With Alys there to put words in Aemond’s ear and sow discord, any hopes Alicent has of a smooth diplomatic exercise could well prove to be a snare. It is a matter of life and death for Olivia Cooke’s character, a last resort to save what is left of her family from a boy who has lost all reason.
The Throne Room and the Women of House Targaryen
There is a good deal of internal friction to Rhaenyra’s hold on power back in the capital. The preview for the episode puts a fine point on it with an exchange between the Queen and Helaena Targaryen that is as emotionally charged as it is one sided; Helaena comes across as detached, if not grieving.
Now that Rhaenyra has taken her place on the Iron Throne and is making her way through the court’s divided politics, the relationship between the two is perhaps the most potent undercurrent of the season. One has to wonder at Helaena’s quiet acceptance of the new order. Her prophecies have never been wrong, and with the sound of war growing in King’s Landing, her stance implies she sees a kind of fiery end coming that will elude the machinations of both the Black and Green armies.
The Military Board: Marching Toward Tumbleton
There is a sense of the strategic chessboard contracting well beyond the confines of any palace or haunted castle. The Green party has been left without seasoned military leadership to speak of since Ser Criston Cole’s vanguard was put out of commission in the Riverlands, and as Ormund Hightower’s host makes its slow progress on Tumbleton, they are all the more vulnerable for it.
Episode 7 is set to delve into the stark contrast between high-minded political designs and the grim, mud-caked business of waging war in the Middle Ages. Promotional pieces for the installment have made much of the physical and mental toll being exacted on the common soldier. Then there is the matter of young Lord Oscar Tully and his Northerners; their advance has a calculated ruthlessness to it, a pincer movement designed to sever the crown’s supply lines in the region. All of this should make for a catastrophic finale.
The Calm Before the Tumbleton Storm
There is a fine line in a prestige fantasy series’ penultimate episode: it must be able to ratchet up the tension ahead of the final hour’s detonation or fail entirely. Episode 7 seems built for the purpose. The show has put aside the large scale troop manoeuvres to home in on the kind of claustrophobic friction that exists between wayward family members, be it Alicent and Aemond at Harrenhal or Rhaenyra with Helaena in the Red Keep. In doing so, the writers have established the emotional groundwork for what is to come at Tumbleton.
Some may want their dragon-on-dragon action served up right away, but the season’s merit is found in these psychological chess matches. Provided the character-driven dread holds, next week will only serve to make the finale’s inevitable conflagration all the more vivid.