House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7, "The Dragon in Winter," ended with a bombshell twist: Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) has made the fateful decision to betray Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and defect to the side of her sworn enemies, led by Ormund Hightower (James Norton). With the First Battle of Tumbleton about to take place in the season finale, Ulf's heel turn stands to be a moment that is truly devastating for Team Black.
However, it shouldn't be too surprising to viewers at home. All season long, people have been treating Ulf like garbage, despite the fact that he's one of Rhaenyra's vaunted new dragonriders. Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has made it a point to intimidate the other man at every opportunity, going so far as to assault him in the street during episode 306. Rhaenyra forbade him from going to the tavern with his friends, and has yet to bequeath him any sort of holding or title fit to his station, outside of knighting him "Ser Ulf the White" after she mockingly rejected his first choice of moniker, Ser Ulf Targaryen. Is it any wonder there's been simmering resentment?
Ormund Hightower can sniff out that sort of discontent like a hound, and in the closing minutes of episode 307 we find out that he's done just that. While Rhaenyra banned Ulf from having even one ale with the lads, Ormund brings the ale to him out on his lonely hillside where he's been keeping watch over Tumbleton. Over drinks, Ormund expresses quiet disbelief at Daemon's treatment of Ulf. When he offers the dragonseed the castle of Driftmark, it all but seals Ulf betrayal.
However, Ulf didn't just decide to betray the Blacks during this one encounter. A throwaway line in the scene reveals that his treason runs much deeper. So while it's easy to blame it all on Daemon's hotheaded outburst in Flea Bottom, the truth is that Ulf's greed had already pushed him toward the other side even before that humiliating encounter.
This isn't the first meeting between Ulf and Ormund Hightower
After Ormund sympathetically tells Ulf that Rhaenyra views him as no more than a tool in her arsenal, the dragonseed brings up the possibility of a lordship and castle if he joins the Greens. But it's the way he does it that's so telling: "Last time, you said you could give me a castle and a lordship. Honeyholt."
That "last time" does a lot of heavy lifting here, and House of the Dragon is subtle about it. This tells us that this isn't Ulf's first meeting with Ormund, which means that Ormund started trying to flip Ulf before Daemon assaulted him in Flea Bottom. That bit of brutality from the rogue prince unwittingly pushed Ulf away from the Blacks even more and into the waiting arms of Team Green, because by that point Ulf was already entertaining this deal with Ormund for the small castle of Honeyholt, the seat of House Beesbury in the Reach.
So just how far back does Ulf's treachery go?
When did Ulf and Ormund start meeting in House of the Dragon?
While the show doesn't spell out exactly when Ormund made contact with Ulf, we can narrow down the window of time a little by examining the episodes that led up to the reveal. Rhaenyra doesn't command Ulf and Hugh to keep watch on Tumbleton until episode 304, and Hugh takes the first shift; we see him arrive later in that same episode. Episode 305 is where Ulf is banned from going to the tavern, so we know he's in King's Landing for those events.
When we next see Ulf it's in Episode 306, where he's already on duty at Tumbleton until Hugh comes to relieve him. This is the scene where Ulf reflects on how their lives haven't improved as dragonriders under Rhaenyra, before he takes off back to King's Landing where he has his run-in with Daemon. This is a key moment that has way more weight on the rewatch, because Ormund and Ulf must have met before this conversation with Hugh. That's the only way Ulf and Ormund's dialogue at the end of episode 307 make sense, because they met at least once before Daemon's attack, which occurs right after Hugh and Ulf's hillside chat.
That means that the whole reason Ulf discusses their current situation with Hugh is because he's mulling Ormund's initial offer to make him Lord of Honeyholt.
You can view this in two ways. Either Ulf was already disloyal, because he was considering this offer from Ormund rather than torching Rhaenyra's strongest current enemy outright; or he was loyal, because he didn't accept Ormund's offer out of the gate. Either way, it all went out the window when Daemon beat Ulf in public, while one of Ormund Hightower's spies watched from the crowd. Now, all of Team Black will pay the price for the way the rogue prince and the queen treated Ser Ulf the White.
The season 3 finale of House of the Dragon premieres this Sunday, August 9 at 9:00 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max. We'll be covering it extensively, so join us for one last battle in Westeros before our long wait begins for the show's fourth and final season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google