A dragon dragged through the streets in new pics from House of the Dragon season 2 Episode 5

The latest episode of House of the Dragon, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," ended with the deaths of Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys, defeated by Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar at the Battle of Rook's Rest. The next, as-yet-untitled episode will pick up where that left off, starting with Green leaders Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) dragging Meleys' severed head through the streets of King's Landing, just as it happens in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood:

And that's just one of several new pics HBO just released from the upcoming episode. Take a look at all of them below!

In King's Landing

Also present at the Battle of Rook's Rest was King Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) upon his dragon Sunfyre. Both of them went down, but it's unclear if they survived. HBO didn't release pictures of either of them, but there is a picture of Aegon's mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) looking very worried:

Criston Cole was at the battle and knows what went down. Perhaps he can fill Alicent when he's not...cleaning his sword with a lemon? Is that what's happening here?

Criston and Alicent are sleeping together, but I'd stop short of saying they're in a relationship. On Alicent's side especially, there seems to be a lot of self-loathing involved in the affair. So in the image below, it's hard to know if they're about to get it on or part in a stuffy huff:

Aegon is either dead or incapacitated. In his absence, someone will need to serve as king. Aegon's brother Aemond has long coveted the position, and now he's closer than ever. Maybe that's why he's hanging out around the Iron Throne at night:

He's talking to someone here. Based on the hair, my best guess is that it's his sister Helaena (Phia Saban), who recently lost her child to a plot hatched by the Blacks.

At Dragonstone and Driftmark

Speaking of the Blacks, let's check in on Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), Rhaenys' husband. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Corlys feels sad after his wife died fighting her second cousins on dragonback:

As for Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), her campaign to take the Iron Throne has suffered a grievous blow with Rhaenys' death. As always, there's a lot on her mind:

Rhaenyra does have people she can turn to for counsel, including her spymaster Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno)...

...and her son Jacaerys, aka Jace (Harry Collett):

What schemes are they hatching together? Another pic gives us an idea:

In the Riverlands

Below, Jace looks like he's at the Twins, the ancestral castle of House Frey. This is where the Red Wedding happened on Game of Thrones. We hope Jace is given a warmer welcome:

Jace is probably here in an attempt to win the Freys' over to his mother's side. As her direct heir, he has a lot of skin in the game now. During the Dance of the Dragons, House Frey was headed up by Lord Forrest and Lady Sabitha Frey, played here by Kenneth Collard and Sarah Woodward.

Finally, let's check in on Rhaenyra's husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) at the huge, haunted, ruined castle of Harrenhal, not so far from the Twins. He's trying to raise a host to support his wife's claim to the throne...or maybe make his own, it's unclear. The ambiguity is clearly weighing on him:

Maybe he can get some good advice from the spooky witch woman Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), with whom he's been spending a lot of time of late. Is she holding his hand or bandaging it? And if she's holding it, is it a romantic way or an I'm-a-witch-let-me-read-your-life-line kind of way?

The next episode of House of the Dragon airs this Sunday night, July 14, on HBO and Max.

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