The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon lies only a few short days away, and for the Greens and the Blacks, the next clash looms. We may not see the First Battle of Tumbleton this week, but there can be no doubt that it's just around the corner, as major players move into position and the drama rises. Though by this point, the casualties have mounted enough that not everyone will be around to see this next phase of the war — as Ser Criston Cole discovered to his detriment.
Like the last two installments of House of the Dragon season 3, episode 307 will undoubtedly have a lot of ground to cover. And thanks to a massive drop of new promotional photographs from HBO, we can start speculating about just what characters and locations will feature this week.
Let's go through all 22 images released by HBO for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7, and see what we can parse.
Alicent Hightower goes to Harrenhal
Of the 22 images released for episode 7 so far by HBO, more than a third of them focus on Harrenhal. Considering that episode 6 ended with Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) giving her childhood friend Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) a horrible mission to go assassinate her own son Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), who's been camping out at the haunted castle all season, that's no surprise. I'd expect to see a lot of Alicent, Aemond, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) and Harrenhal this episode.
Above, we have Alicent decked out in a beautiful traveling cloak. Whether you think Rhaenyra's plan is absurd or not, at least it gets Alicent out of King's Landing for a bit — though she doesn't look to happy about it, for obvious reasons. She will be reuniting with Aemond, and will have to decide what to do about Rhaenyra's ultimatum:
From the looks of things, we'll get quite a bit of Mitchell's one-eyed villain. Here he is all sweaty and disheveled in the dank fortress:
And below, we have him practicing with the Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre, which once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror:
Of course, Alys Rivers will also feature heavily in this storyline. I wonder how she's going to feel about Aemond's mommy crashing her romantic getaway in the spooky castle with Aemond?
Next we have another solo shot of Alys, this time with her owl. I know I'm certainly more happy to see the owl at Harrenhal than I am to see Alicent there, so bring on the avian screentime.
Our last photo from Harrenhal features Aemond and Alicent together, in a pretty gorgeous set deep within the castle:
I've been somewhat torn about the fact that Aemond is spending nearly the entire season at Harrenhal, just like his uncle Daemon Targaryen did in season 2, but there's no denying that the castle itself looks incredible. Here's hoping we see a few different rooms this week to spice things up.
Next we head down to Tumbleton to briefly check in with Ormund Hightower (James Norton):
Tumbleton
The above photo is the only one we get of Ormund this week. He's sitting a table, knife in hand, presumably eating a meal. We've had quite a few scenes of Ormund at the dinner table this season, which is starting to make me question whether this guy does anything other than eat stuff and make snide remarks. We'll find out!
We also get a new shot of his ward, Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). It's hard to discern too much from this image, aside from that it seems like Daeron wants to meld into the background. It's not easy hanging out with Ormund day in and day out, especially when he wants to install you as a puppet king to enact his own agenda. Here's hoping Daeron catches a break somewhere in these final two episodes.
We also have a scene of Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) riding through the city. Gwayne's arrival at Tumbleton added a refreshing dynamic to the Ormund-Daeron relationship; the valiant knight is both a foil and equal to Ormund, as well as an uncle and almost big brother figure to Daeron. It's good to see him out riding about again after his long trek from the Riverlands, though I'm very curious what drew him out of the keep.
Jeyne Arryn remains the most regal person on the show
Another location we'll visit this week is the Vale; in the trailer for episode 7, we saw the shadow of Daemon's dragon Caraxes flying over the bridge to the Eyrie. It's no surprise then that Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) will show up again this episode. And really, that's always welcome; Collin has been a total standout every single time she's been on screen, so I'll take all of her in the part that I can get.
The fact that Jeyne is in episode 307 means it's very likely Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) and Sheepstealer will also appear. Considering that we last saw Jeyne Arryn slap Rhaena in the face and command her to stay hidden, it probably doesn't bode well.
Trouble in the Crownlands
Down in the Crownlands, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), and Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) are on the road. The last we saw of these three, they were making plans to catch a ship to Essos out of Maidenpool, despite Tyland's objections. Presumably that's where we'll pick up with them in episode 307, though from the surprised looks on their faces, it seems likely that not all is going according to plan.
Here's another shot of Tyland on his horse in the forest:
HIs costuming is excellent; Tywin Lannister would be proud. I'm also a big fan of how much location shooting House of the Dragon has done for Aegon's plotline this season. Yes, he's mostly been wandering around the forest, but it kind of makes sense for how ruderless the former king is during this part of the story.
Our final shot of Aegon's posse shows him and Tyland sitting at a campfire. This means that whether they make it to Maidenpool or not, we'll see a full day and night elapse for these characters. Larys isn't in this one; perhaps he's off getting the marshmallows for their campout? (Do they even have marshmallows in Westeros? Probably not.)
Drama in King's Landing
The final location from the image drop is King's Landing, which makes sense because so many important characters are there. Obviously we'll spend time with Rhaenyra; above, we see her talking with Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) in the inner plaza of the castle.
Don't think Mysaria will monopolize all Rhaenyra's time, though. Here she is with her husband/uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith):
We haven't had too many of these tender moments between Daemon and Rhaenyra this season. That makes this scene feel pretty welcome at first glance, whatever it is. But the one other image we get of Rhaenyra in this bed clothes costume casts some doubt on the mood of this moment. Check it out:
Yeah, Rhaenyra does not look happy in this picture, where she's clearly been crying. Considering how many tragedies have piled on top of the Black Queen this season, it's felt like it wouldn't take much more to push her over the edge. Hopefully whatever the problem is, young Joffrey Velaryon is far away from it. Rhaenyra's lost enough children already.
Our final shot that includes Rhaenyra sees her visit her half-sister, Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). The gentle Queen Helaena has not taken well to captivity. Now that Alicent outed her daughter's secret that she's a dreamer, Rhaenyra will likely have a whole new set of designs for her. After all, so much of Rhaenyra's motivation this season has been the hope that she's fulfilling a prophecy. Who better to consult about it than someone with prophetic dreams?
Another character we'll see this week is Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia). Baela has gotten precious little screentime in House of the Dragon season 3, so we'll take anything we can get. It's hard to tell too much about what's goin on here aside from that it's most likely in the Red Keep.
Like Rhaenyra, Baela looks like she's been through the wringer. Whatever's happening in King's Landing this episode, it's going to be dramatic.
The last character who features in the image drop from House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7 is Mysaria. Above we've got a beautiful shot of her standing the Red Keep; I love the framing of this image with the pillars. As always, she's got a pensive look on her face that says she's pondering conspiracies.
But it's our final image that really raises the intrigue:
That's Mysaria with Sylvi, the brothel madam played by Michelle Bonnard. These two characters go way back, but it's still jarring to see them standing alone at the foot of the Iron Throne. Does Rhaenyra know about this meeting? I can't help but wonder how she'd feel about Mysaria arranging meet-ups with brothel madams in the throne room of the Red Keep. Even more, I wonder what they're talking about; my guess would be the rumblings among the smallfolk, since Mysaria has been extremely concerned about that all season.
These images are a great way to whet the appetite, but since HBO released them a bit later than usual, we won't have to wait long before we find out what it all means. House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7 premieres this Sunday, August 2 on HBO and HBO Max.
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