House of the Dragon director confirms what happened with Viserys

Episode 8 of House of the Dragon, “The Lord of the Tides,” has aired, and boy was it tragic. We were so close to seeing the conflict between the greens and the blacks nipped in the bud, only to have it snatched away in the very last minute.

Geeta Patel, the director for episode 8, sat down with Entertainment Weekly to break down what happened. A major takeaway is that the final scene does indeed portray the death of King Viserys Targaryen:

"I think the last scene of this episode was always a litmus test. Every time we’d watch or think it through, when we got to that last scene, did we feel what we wanted to feel there? Did we feel the loss? Did we feel that Viserys has told his story? Did we feel that he loved his wife who passed away? Did he love Alicent? Did he love Rhaenyra? Did he regret anything? All the complicated layers of Viserys, did we feel it for better or worse?"

Who was Viserys talking about when he said “my love”?

There is some debate as to who Viserys is thinking about in his last moment, when he says, “my love.” Patel knows, but isn’t saying. “Well, I’m not a fair person to ask because I actually had the luxury of having a conversation with Paddy and he whispered to me who he was thinking of,” Patel said about Viserys’s last words. “So I probably shouldn’t say it. I’ll let him say it if he wants to say it, but I had the same question, and that’s what I’m saying. It’s just the best part of my job. It’s so great just to be inside Paddy’s mind as he’s Viserys and to wonder, as well, which way is this gonna go?”

In a lot of ways, Episode 8 is the culmination of Viserys’s tragic journey. Other than his actual death, we get to see him commit one final act of love for his family in his final days. Viserys degraded horribly in the past several years, losing his eye, part of his face, his mobility, his Valyrian lego set, and his memory. But in the end, he gathered what strength he had left to support Rhaenyra, the only thing Viserys has left of his deceased wife Aemma.

Matt Smith improvised the moment where Daemon picks up Viserys’ crown

Just when the Velaryon succession crisis is looking to resolve in favor of the greens, Viserys makes an unexpected entrance into the Iron Throne room to make one last proclamation as king. He refuses the help of his guards and climbs the Iron Throne for the first time in years, with Daemon’s help.

Interestingly, Daemon’s role in this sequence happened somewhat by accident. “When we were shooting that — I think the rehearsal again, the first day — the crown fell off of Paddy’s head and Matt picked it up and we just kept going. We didn’t stop [filming]. There was a discovery there of this moment. So then the three of us got together and they were like, ‘We felt this. This felt like the turning point in our relationship.’ It’s just a silent moment.”

In the original cut of the episode, Daemon makes a toast during the dinner scene later, but after the moment with the crown, it wasn’t needed anymore; we’d already seen that the two brothers had made peace. “I was so thankful that accident happened, that the crown fell off because it proved to be, at least for me, quite a heavy moment and quite a turning point for a storyline that had started in the pilot: Hey, I want your crown and by the end here I’m gonna put the crown back on your head and I’m gonna help you to your throne,” Patel said.

The director further broke down Viserys’ fateful walk:

"When [showrunner Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik] and I discussed that scene, we’d always thought his eyes are towards the throne. It was gonna be shot that way. You see Viserys exerting himself and then you see he’s trying to get to the throne to help the realm. While we were rehearsing, Rhaenyra just happens to be standing there in the middle. I was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. He’s not walking to the throne, he’s walking to her.’ At least from my own understanding, that put tears in my eyes right there during rehearsal, ’cause I’m the daughter of a father who loves me so much and he would’ve walked on fire for me.’"

The tragedy of it all is that Viserys dies thinking Rhaenyra’s ascension to the throne and Luke’s claim to Driftmark are secure. I think it’s very telling that in his final moments, Viserys is thinking about Aegon’s prophecy. Although Rhaenyra specifically asked him about it earlier in the episode, Viserys felt the need to reiterate one last time that it is of utmost importance for the realm. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize that he is speaking with Alicent, who subsequently misinterprets his words.

I think this scene is the perfect culmination of Viserys as a character. He wants the best for everyone and does his best to ensure the right thing will be done. But up until the very end, he seems to fall short and somehow make things worse.

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