House of the Dragon trailer breakdown: Episode 7, “Driftmark”

The grief of House Velaryon

The shot above is perhaps one of the most intriguing and hardest to parse. We see two people wrestling in front of an altar of sorts inside High Tide. It’s hard to make out any details beyond the fact that one of these people has Targaryen platinum hair and the other dark hair. The Targaryen looks kind of like Daemon to me.

We see these two struggling again later in the trailer, though the details are still just as hard to make out:

I don’t recognize that dark-haired person. However, from the swift way the Targaryen catches them and then puts them in the chokehold we saw earlier in the previous image, I’m leaning toward it being Daemon. The movement just looks too skilled for one of the kids, plus the hair style is a match for Daemon.

Who is this person, and what is going on exactly? Let’s get into a deep cut theory here. The next shot in the trailer shows someone taking a swing at Laenor Velaryon with a sword:

We can’t see who the attacker is, but we can tell that this scene is taking place indoors, in a setting that looks like it could be High Tide. In Fire & Blood, Laenor is killed by his lover Qarl Correy not long after Laena’s own death. Considering that another time jump is coming soon where Aegon, Aemond and the rest will be aged up to adult actors, Laenor’s final hour is likely coming in “Driftmark.”

Things start to get really intriguing when you look at the details, though. Fire & Blood leaves the cause of Laenor’s death ambiguous; was Qarl a jealous lover having a quarrel with him, or was he hired by someone to put an end to Laenor’s life? The murkiest possibility put forth in the novel is that Daemon Targaryen hired Qarl to kill Laenor so that Rhaenyra would then be free to marry him instead, with Daemon killing Qarl a short while later and pitching his body into the sea. In the book, Leanor’s death happens in a marketplace, not indoors, but I’d still expect Laenor to meet his end next weekend.

As for the mysterious struggle, I think Daemon is subduing one of Laenor’s attackers, thereby absolving himself of any suspicion.

Then there’s this shot. In the novel, Laenor is killed at a marketplace in Spicetown on Driftmark. While this doesn’t look like a town, exactly, it does have the look of a bustling dockside market.

The only really notable detail we can make out here is that the hooded person in the foreground has platinum-blonde Targaryen locks; you can just make them out at the bottom left corner of the hood as the person turns their head. And we did see Daemon wearing a pretty similar hooded cloak when he killed his wife Rhea Royce in Episode 5, and in Episode 4 when he took Rhaenyra out into King’s Landing.

Back to the drama with the kids, Alicent demands that “there is a debt to be paid,” no doubt over the injury done to Aemond:

That’s her older son Aegon behind her, looking abashed. In the novel Aegon has nothing to do with the misfortune that befalls Aemond, but hey, he stirs the pot enough that we can’t count him out of any trouble.

Next, Corlys Velaryon and a woman who could either be Rhaenyra Targaryen or Rhaenys Velaryon enter the Hall of Nine, where Laena’s children Baela and Rhaena await. A crowd has gathered. Presumably, this is when the news is first hitting that there’s been a tussle between the children:

Speaking of the tussle, the next shot shows Jacaerys Velaryon taking a punch to the face, which sends him sprawling onto the floor next to his younger brother Lucerys:

In the book, Aemond is older than Jace and Luke, and beats them both pretty soundly before Lucerys draws a dagger and slashes out Aemond’s eye. It’s going to get bloody.

Rhaena and Baela watch on in horror as the fight ensues. Note that they’re looking at different things; perhaps Rhaena is looking at Aemond and Baela is looking at Jace on the floor? It almost seems like Rhaena has a bruised lip here as well:

Daemon Targaryen, giving one of those Daemon Targaryen looks:

“This is the highest of treasons,” proclaims Rhaenyra Targaryen. This is from that same scene we saw earlier, where Daemon is holding Lucerys and Corlys Velaryon is at Rhaenyra’s side:

Episode 6 danced around the idea that various people knew that Rhaenyra’s children were bastards fathered by Harwin Strong; in Episode 7 that accusation will likely be made outright. There’s a good chance that’s what Rhaenyra is referring to here.

“Driftmark” will also bring back a familiar face: