It is no secret that the second season of House of the Dragon had an underwhelming culmination without an explosive battle to spice things up. Fortunately, the first two episodes of season 3 definitely made up for that.
After years of waiting, audiences worldwide finally witnessed the Battle of the Gullet—a huge confrontation in which thousands of members of the House Velaryon naval army and pirates from the Triarchy died. The bloodshed didn't end there, as the taking of King's Landing saw Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) make quick work of the guards trying to protect the Iron Throne. Better yet, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) is now finally gone.
House of the Dragon season 3 started firing on all cylinders and hasn't slowed down. Even when it seemed this tale as a whole would culminate with Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) sitting on the Iron Throne, that is far from the case. The third episode of the season didn't feature any big, shocking deaths, and yet it may be the most nail-biting so far.
Now that the Blacks are leading the Seven Kingdoms, they find themselves with a huge new wave of problems to face. A lot is expected from the new queen, and she needs to find a way to single-handedly please everyone looking up to her. However, this new pressure could lead to catastrophic results.
House of the Dragon season 3 episode 3 teases the death of Ormund Hightower
The Blacks won. They have six dragons on their side, and Rhaenyra is finally sitting on the Iron Throne. Surely no one would dare go against them, right? Except this is exactly what Ormund Hightower (James Norton) does. In the opening moments of House of the Dragon season 3 episode 3, audiences see Daemon swiftly convince Ormund (and thereby his entire army) to pledge allegiance to the queen and surrender Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) to them.
With Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) both seemingly out of the picture, Daeron is the only one who poses a real threat to the crown. After all, he is the youngest son of former King Viserys Targaryen (Patrick Considine), meaning he would be able to claim legitimacy to the throne. That's why Daemon wanted to hold him hostage, and yet this never comes to be.
Since Daeron was sent to Oldtown at a very young age, not many know what he looks like now. Ormund Hightower took advantage of this by giving Rhaenyra someone else with bleached hair posing as Daeron. The queen was unaware of this deceit through most of the episode. Instead, we saw her try to find solutions to the countless problems that plague King's Landing. So when the truth was finally revealed, something inside Rhaenyra snapped. Now, she will seek retribution by trying to take the head of the man behind the whole operation.
Unfortunately, Ormund has taken over Tumbleton with the help of the real Daeron and his dragon, Tessarion. So, if Rhaenyra truly wanted to kill Ormund, an easy way to do so would be to burn the whole of Tumbleton with him. But will she actually do so? Speaking with Flaunt Magazine, Emma D'Arcy revealed that House of the Dragon season 3 will test the audience's loyalty to Rhaenyra, meaning we'll see the character do things we could've never imagined:
"This season, I am excited to see how far we can test the audience's loyalty to Rhaenyra. At the end of series 2, we saw a kind of growing fanaticism in her, I think, with regard to her inheritance and her desire to claim the throne. I think that may prove challenging in series 3."
Audiences are already starting to see a bit of "Rhaenyra the Cruel" step into the light, and it will be interesting to see how the series handles the character moving forward. The only thing that seems like an absolute certainty now is that Ormund's days are numbered, and we can't wait to see how it all pans out.
New episodes of House of the Dragon air every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
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