House of the Dragon season 3 continued on Sunday night with another major episode, showing us the next step in Ormund Hightower’s (James Norton) scheme to put Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) on the Iron Throne, murders in King’s Landing, and the surprise return of a character we suspected dead. There’s never a dull moment in Westeros, and this episode is a big one for Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) city specifically.
Not only do we get to watch the mystery of the Gold Cloak killings unfold, but Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) are on the move, attempting to flee the Red Keep in the middle of the night. Season 3 episode 5 ends with Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) discovering additional Gold Cloaks, including Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen), slaughtered, along with Alicent and Helaena trapped in tunnels underground.
Though the episode ends on a note of high stakes for the mother-daughter duo, we assume they’ll be able to get out quickly, because we know both characters have a role to play in the rest of the season. This is especially true for Helaena, who is carrying an heir to the Iron Throne. Though Alicent tries to force her to drink moon tea earlier on in the episode, Helaena is adamant on giving birth to her baby and keeping it.
The “window” mention for Helaena
Warning: Spoilers for Fire & Blood are below.
There’s one point elsewhere in the episode that perked our ear up, during a scene between Alicent, Helaena, and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). During a confrontation after Mysaria catches the two women trying to escape the castle, Helaena appears restless, telling her mother that she “want[s] to go out” to “see the moon.”
“The window will have to do,” Alicent responds. Of course, if you’ve read George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, you likely know what the mention of a “window” has a connection to. In the source material, Helaena takes her own life by jumping out of the window in Maegor’s Holdfast after her youngest son Maelor is killed. In the show, Maelor does not exist yet, but we can assume Helaena is currently pregnant with him.
While there have been many changes from Fire & Blood throughout House of the Dragon, we’re still more or less expecting Helaena’s death to play out the same manner, considering Martin himself revealed that was the plan. In a memorable since-deleted blog post from 2024, the bestselling author went scorched earth on the show’s creatives, including showrunner Ryan Condal, venting frustrations about their plan to have Helaena kill herself when Maelor was to be cut from the show.
Martin didn’t understand why Helaena would kill herself if her youngest son hadn’t been killed, though, to be fair, she’s already gone through a lot of trauma even without Maelor in the picture. In any case, that blog post confirmed the writers were planning for Helaena to meet her fate this way, and in season 3 specifically, so we’re anticipating that heartbreaking death at some point in the next few episodes.
So far, Helaena and Daeron have proven themselves to be the only good-natured children of Alicent and Viserys (Paddy Considine), but Alicent doesn’t know Daeron at all, shipping him off to Oldtown as a child. That means she’s putting all of her effort into saving Helaena, even telling her in season 3 episode 2 that she “may yet redeem” her. This makes Helaena’s eventful death all the more tragic, knowing how pure-hearted she is.
Alicent and Helaena may want another life outside of King’s Landing, but unfortunately, they probably won’t get that together. We know it’s most likely coming, but we’re seriously not ready to see Helaena go in such a devastating way.
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