House of the Dragon may have started with a bang in its season 3 premiere thanks to the Battle of the Gullet, but that doesn't mean it will be resting on its laurels in episode 2. HBO has just released a slew of new high quality photographs from the season's second episode, and depending on which you look at, they're bloody, beautiful, and very intriguing for what they tell us about the upcoming episode.
From the last surviving members of House Velaryon gathering, to Alicent making moves in King's Landing, to more time in the Riverlands, there's a lot to go over. Let's hit each image and see what we can unearth.
Mourning on Dragonstone
Starting on Dragonstone, our first image shows Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) looking a bit out of sorts. That's going to be a theme for a lot of characters this week, but for Rhaenyra it's especially understandable, considering her son Jace (Harry Collett) just died. Is this Rhaenyra learning of his fate?
If there's one person who will undoubtedly be in Rhaenyra's corner, it's her advisor Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). We get a few gorgeous shots of her looking concerned in Dragonstone as well:
Our next characters on Dragonstone are much more intriguing than Rhaenyra and Mysaria, who've been there for quite a while. The shot below shows the dragonseeds Ulf (Tom Bennett) and Hugh (Kieran Bew) meeting with Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith):
All three of these characters were elsewhere in episode 1, so it's significant that they're all back together on Dragonstone. This also marks the first time Daemon has shared a scene with the dragonseeds; it'll be interesting to see how he receives them, compared to Rhaenyra or Jace.
We've also got some close-ups of Hugh and Ulf as well, from what appears to be the same scene:
Based on Ulf's expression, I'm going to guess it's just a little tense with Daemon. And speaking of Daemon, we do have a few other images of him, too. Both show him clad in armor, in dark rooms:
These photos of Daemon are interesting; they could be on Dragonstone, but unless he's freshly come off his dragon, there's not much reason for him to be kicking around there in full armor. He's not wearing any in the earlier photo with Ulf and Hugh, either.
The other, stronger possibility is that these photos are relevant to the Fall of King's Landing, a setpiece I've long expected to come in episode 2 of this season. Though where Daemon is, and why it's so dark, are mysteries.
Schemes afoot in King's Landing
Since we're talking about King's Landing, let's check in with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). Here she is looking forlorn on a parapet of the Red Keep:
And here's some more parapet time for Alicent. This time she's got her daughter Helaena (Phia Saban) with her, and is standing among guards loyal to the Greens:
Continuing our tour of Alicen'ts day-to-day, here she is with Helaena in the Godswood:
And one more of Helaena in the Red Keep, for good measure:
The fact that there are so many photos of Alicent and Helaena supports that idea that we'll spend some significant time in King's Landing in this episode. Even if the Fall doesn't happen in episode 2, there will undoubtedly be a lot of set up for it, and Alicent will be instrumental in that.
She won't be the only important character, though. Here's a very intriguing new photo of a brand new character we're meeting this week:
That's actor Tom Cullen, who's playing Ser Luthor Largent in season 3. Luthor is the commander of the gold cloaks, which puts him squarely in the middle of the upcoming storylines in King's Landing. To say much more would get into book spoilers, but suffice to say this guy has a very important role to play in the coming episodes.
Now let's leave King's Landing, and head out into the wilds of the Crownlands and Riverlands.
The misadventures of Aegon and Larys continue
We get one photograph of Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) this week, and it tells a story. When last we saw Aegon and Larys, they were taken captive by soldiers loyal to Rhaenyra, who planned to transport them to Duskendale, where they could then get a ship to Dragonstone to collect their reward for these valuable prisoners. But based on what we know of Aegon's story from the book, there's no way he's actually going to end up in Rhaenyra's clutches at this stage of the Dance.
This photo seems to support that, because Aegon and Larys certainly don't look much like captives as they peek out of this wagon in borderline comedic fashion. If they're not making their escape somehow here, I'd be shocked.
The Riverlands
Up in the Riverlands, it seems like things are going pretty well for Team Black! We got new images of both Oscar Tully (played by Archie Barnes) and Roddy the Ruin (played by Tommy Flanagan), and both look like they're in a much more relaxed state than last episode, when they were fresh off the Battle of the Red Fork. Those victories against Lannisters are treating them well!
The Winter Wolves and Tullys aren't the only characters we'll see this week in the Riverlands. We also get a look at the company of Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), and they seem to be watching something interesting in the sky:
Obviously, the only logical guess here for what they're looking at is a dragon, because what else is flying around that demands this sort of attention? Ah, but which dragon?
There are really only two dragons Criston and his army could be looking at here in my opinion: Caraxes, since we know Daemon will be leaving the Riverlands for Dragonstone this week, or Vhagar, since Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) departed King's Landing for Harrenhal in episode 1 after grossly kissing his mom. Vhagar would be of particular interest to Cole and Gwayne, since they're also heading to Harrenhal and have been waiting for Prince Aemond to join them.
And lo, we do see a few shots that seem to be at Harrenhal as well:
That's Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale), the castellan of Harrenhal. He's sitting in the high seat of the castle; its ornate yet broken backrest is a dead giveaway. We've seen glimpses of Aemond at Harrenhal in trailers; could that be who Ser Simon is seeing here?
We also get a new image of Alys Rivers, the woods witch of the castle played by Gayle Rankin:
Alys always has an agenda, and just like Ser Simon, we know from the book she's got a date with Aemond on the horizon. We can't say for sure that we'll see that in this episode, but there's no denying the show is building toward it.
Rhaena's not looking so good
Now that we've been all over the map, let's return to the central surviving players from the Battle of the Gullet. Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) had a rough go of it; she exultantly claimed the wild dragon Sheepstealer, but almost immediately learned just how hard he could be to control when he inadvertently caused the death of her step brother Jace in the battle. Rhaena got a bit singed in the process, and here we see her looking quite a bit worse for wear. Something tells me physical pain isn't the only thing weighing on her.
As for where she is, that's a little harder to tell. We last saw Sheepstealer taking off back toward his home in the Vale though, so that seems as fair a guess as any.
The fate of Corlys Velaryon
Our final stop in these new images is a beach near the Gullet, where Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) walks amongst the wreckage of destroyed ships. It's a gorgeous shot, in a devastating sort of way; clock those ruined masts out in the middle of the sea, adding to the stunningly bleak atmosphere.
Alyn isn't the only one in this location; we also see his niece, Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia):
And surprisingly enough, we actually see these two meeting on screen for the very first time. I'm kind of shocked HBO revealed this meeting in a pre-episode image drop, but hey, I'm not going to complain about the hype I'm now feeling:
Beyond the fact that Alyn and Baela have a long game storyline in the book, the fact that these two are sharing the screen points to the one thing they have in common: Corlys Velaryon. We last saw Corlys going overboard during the Battle of the Gullet; in the weeks ahead trailer, we saw him floating among some rocks in his armor from the battle. Perhaps they're looking for him here?
If that's the case, that dragon in the background is most likely Seasmoke, the mount of Alyn's brother — and Corlys' other bastard son — Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty). Based on the source material and the fact we didn't see him actually die, I'd put my money on Corlys pulling through just fine.
We'll see all this and more when House of the Dragon season 3 premieres its second episode this Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
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