House of the Dragon trailer breakdown: Episode 5, “We Light the Way”

Where in the world is Daemon Targaryen?

Next up is this shot of Daemon Targaryen, troublemaker-in-chief. Where exactly is Daemon? When last we saw him, he was ordered by his brother King Viserys to go back to his wife in the Vale. Daemon rarely does as he’s told, but wherever he is, it looks like a new location.

Here’s hoping that having Daemon away for a minute gives King Viserys time for some R&R. He’s not looking so hot here, as he lies in his chair being attended by maesters in his chamber. Is it just me, or does it look like the skin lesions have covered most of his left arm in this shot?

Here’s Rhaenyra and Criston Cole’s chin. She’s wearing the same outfit we saw in the earlier shot of her with King Viserys’ retinue on Driftmark, so presumably this is on the journey there or back.

A Targaryen ship, sailing against dark tides. Again, this is probably the journey to Driftmark.

Here we get another brief shot from the wedding. Like Laenor, it seems not even Rhaenyra, the bride herself, is immune to the chaos that will break out during the festivities. It looks like she’s being forced to the floor here.

Next, we get a pair of shots that might be the most intriguing of the whole trailer. I’m going to go down a rabbit hole on this one, so bear with me.

The shot above shows what looks to be a woman riding a horse, in that same forested cliffside locale where we saw Daemon a second ago. She’s got a bow in her hand. As someone reaches for the reins of her horse, it rears back and falls on her. You can’t quite make out the identity of the person reaching for the reins…but they’re wearing a blue hooded cloak that looks an awful lot like Daemon’s.

In Fire & Blood, Daemon’s wife Rhea Royce dies in a hunting accident when she falls from her horse while out hawking. She hits her head on a stone, survives for a few more days and eventually passes away from the injury. Daemon was off fighting in the Stepstones at the time, but flew immediately home to try and claim her lands upon hearing the news.

It’s impossible to tell if this is Rhea and Daemon for sure, but the fact that this rider is clearly out hunting (note the bow she drops as the horse falls), the new location, and the timing…I can’t help but wonder if we’re going to see the heretofore unknown details of Lady Rhea’s fall next week. We know Rhea is played by Rachel Redford, so she’s turning up sooner or later.

Moving on, we get another glimpse of Alicent Hightower, looking out over a gorgeous view of the Red Keep while a carriage comes wheeling in. As Otto Hightower ominously talks about how King Viserys will one day die, we see the king collapse coming out of the carriage, causing Alicent to jump in alarm.

“Prepare Aegon to rule,” Otto advises his daughter. Even after getting fired, this guy is still stirring the pot. One interesting thing to note here is that this scene between Otto and Alicent appears to be in King’s Landing. Otto was fired last week, but apparently is still hanging around the castle? Either that, or not enough time has passed that he’s left to return to Oldtown. Or he could be hanging around for the wedding. It’s hard to know for sure, but the point is he’s still there despite getting the boot.

We end with Alicent Hightower, making the same face as the rest of us when she finds out that she’ll have to wait a whole week to see the next episode of House of the Dragon:

House of the Dragon airs new episodes every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max.

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