House of the Dragon trailer breakdown: Episode 7, “Driftmark”
By Daniel Roman
Trouble is brewing on Driftmark
Our next shot gives us a brief glimpse of Alicent Hightower aboard a Targaryen vessel, likely arriving at Driftmark for the funeral. This is the first time we’ve seen Alicent leave King’s Landing since House of the Dragon started.
Of course, Rhaenyra will be there too:
Next we have an ominous shot of what appears to be a dragon’s mouth, flames brewing down its gullet. It opens wide:
We can’t be sure about what dragon this is from the inside of its mouth alone. But my guess is that this is Vhagar, since we know the she-dragon will feature prominently in this episode. In particular, I’m betting this is part of an important scene where Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar come face to face.
We also get a shot of Aegon the Conqueror’s knife, which crops up every now and again:
Next, we have Daemon clutching young Lucerys to him, with Rhaenyra and Corlys Velaryon standing with several guards:
To discuss this shot properly, we have to get into one of the big events from Fire & Blood. When everyone gathers for the funeral, Aemond Targaryen mounts Laena’s dragon Vhagar (remember he didn’t have a dragon of his own in Episode 6). Despite the fact that Vhagar allows this to happen, it leads to a bloody brawl between Aemond and Rhaenyra’s sons which ends up permanently injuring Aemond.
The shot above almost certainly happens soon after that fight; take note of the blood on Lucerys’ face. This is likely when Alicent is demanding justice, in the form of an “eye for an eye.” We’re going to see a lot more of this sequence in the trailer.
Speaking of eyes, here’s a dragon’s:
Again, we can’t be 100% certain about which dragon this eye belongs to, but Vhagar is a safe guess.
Next, we see Laena’s twin daughters Baela and Rhaena watch from a window as their mother’s enormous dragon take flight:
They run to wake up their cousin Jacaerys, claiming “someone stole Vhagar.”
This is a slight difference from Fire & Blood, where Jacaerys’ younger brother Joffrey is the one who raises the alarm after Aemond shoves him into a pile of dragon poo. Since we just saw Joffrey being born last episode, the change makes sense. It also shows that Rhaenyra and Daemon’s children are close, since they thought to wake up Jace ahead of their father or anyone else.
Next, a very dark shot of Vhagar’s foot stomping onto the beach:
Vhagar and the fight between Aemond and Rhaenyra’s children will be one of the central events of “Driftmark,” but it won’t be the only thing going horribly wrong. There may be another death on the horizon.