House of the Dragon is back, and its third season just kicked off with an absolute bang. Picking things up from the season 2 finale, the season 3 premiere sees our main players in action, leading up to the devastating Battle of the Gullet. Us book readers knew that heartbreaking death was coming, but it didn’t make it any less upsetting. I’m going to need a week—or more—to recover from that.
With so much action, it’s no surprise that fans are fully invested in House Targaryen again. While we process what happened in tonight’s episode and wait for next week’s, you can now watch the preview for the weeks ahead below:
Woah. This “weeks ahead” preview shows us a glimpse of what’s to come in episode 2, namely the aftermath of the Battle of the Gullet, as well as additional peeks at later episodes. This looks so epic! The Battle of the Gullet has changed everything, and now even more bloodshed will spill. The new trailer leaves Corlys’ (Steve Toussaint) fate up in the air, as we see his body washed up on shore. But does he actually die? Us book readers know the answer!
Elsewhere in the trailer, we see Rhaenyra ready for revenge after Jacaerys’ (Harry Collett) devastating death. We know the Fall of King’s Landing is coming, and it looks like Daemon (Matt Smith) is ready to bloody his sword in the name of his queen. In other locations, the trailer shows us Aemond at Harrenhal, as well as Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) traveling with Larys Strong (Matthew Needham).
The season 3 premiere, which is believed to have been initially planned as the penultimate episode of season 2, goes from 0 to 100 real quick. Just as Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) starts to make plans to fly to King’s Landing to take back the Iron Throne, she hears of trouble at the Gullet and is ready to change her course. But her son Jace doesn’t let her leave, instead locking her in her room and flying on his dragon Vermax into battle. He recruits his betrothed, Baela (Bethany Antonia), who also joins the action on her dragon Moondancer. But what they don’t anticipate is another dragonrider.
After claiming a wild dragon named Sheepstealer, Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) gets involved, flying over the battle and unintentionally setting everyone on fire. Sheepstealer clearly doesn’t have a side between Team Black and Team Green, and Rhaena doesn’t know how to control him. It’s total chaos as the Battle of the Gullet continues.
And though Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) is successful in slaying the leader of the Triarchy, Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn), she’s not the only fatality. Sadly, Jace and Vermax end up dying, and we’re expecting next week’s episode to deal with the horrible aftermath. I’m not ready to see Rhaenyra find out another one of her sons has died!
There’s no way Rhaena will get away with what happened with Sheepstealer, right? We’re anticipating Rhaenyra to be on the lookout for the wild dragon. But she’s also going to be busy with her biggest act yet: taking back the Iron Throne. We’re expecting the Fall of King’s Landing to take place in episode 2, though we’re not exactly sure how things will go for all involved. Remember, Alicent makes a bargain in the season 2 finale to open the gates for Rhaenyra to enter the city, but will it really be that easy?
Plus, we know Aegon has left the city, which will definitely complicate to the bargain.
We’re super excited for Rhaenyra and Daemon to reunite in episode 2, but will they finally have control of King’s Landing again? We’ve got a week to find out.
House of the Dragon season 3 episode 2 releases next Sunday, June 28, on HBO and HBO Max. We’ll be covering the new episodes all summer long, so be sure to keep up with us at Winter Is Coming.
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