House of the Dragon Episode 205, "Regent": Easter eggs and secrets

After the dramatic Battle of Rook's Rest, HBO's House of the Dragon slowed things down to let us catch our breath with "Regent." But just because the dragons are resting doesn't mean all our favorite characters are, too. Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) has finally seized power in King's Landing as the titular regent and Protector of the Realm. On Dragonstone, Team Black deals with the terrible loss of Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) while cementing new alliances and eyeing new potential dragonriders.

As we do every week, we're breaking out the magnifying glass and scouring House of the Dragon's latest episode for easter eggs, secrets, and juicy details. SPOILERS ahead.

House of the Dragon Episode 205, "Regent" easter eggs

As always, we have to start by parsing the opening credits. There are no changes this week, which is a little surprising considering that Rook's Rest is undoubtedly one of the biggest events of the season. Maybe House of the Dragon is holding back until Episode 206 so that it can show Rook's Rest and Aegon's return to King's Landing on the tapestry all at once?

The first scenes of "Regent" are a pair of quiet ones focused on Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), grieving on the Driftwood Throne at his castle of High Tide, and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) staring out at the sea on Dragonstone. The only real easter egg of note here is the statue of a horseman beside Corlys' throne. That's undoubtedly a treasure from one of his Nine Voyages; my guess is it's from Yi Ti, the great empire which is loosely inspired by Imperial China which exists in the far reaches of Essos. Baela mentions Corlys' journey there later in the episode and how it was partially done to impress Rhaenys, so this is a nice little nod to it.

From there the episode wastes no time plunging us into the drama in King's Landing. Let us go the way of bullet points, because there's a lot here:

• The effects of the blockade on the Gullet are hitting King's Landing hard. In the very first shot of the capital, we see a woman sifting through a basket of oranges, most of which are moldy. And because she's starving, she takes the least moldy of the bunch.
• The starving smallfolk are horrified by Meleys' head being dragged through the streets. In the Inside the Episode featurette, showrunner Ryan Condal points out that "Meleys is a beloved dragon that probably flew over [King's Landing] hundreds of times, and is seen as one of these symbols of the unshakeableness, the invincibility of House Targaryen." Criston really miscalculated the smallfolk's reaction.
• Meleys' head appears to still be smoking, because she's a dragon and even in death, her body retains some of its volcanic heat.
• Criston's announcer gives the credit for Meleys' death to Aegon, rather than Aemond. So the king gets the "glory"...but also all the blame for what the people clearly see as a bad omen.
• One person also shouts that "Rhaenyra will answer this." It makes you wonder how Rhaenyra will be received by the people of King's Landing, should she ever take the city.
• And of course, the box holding Aegon is at the back of the procession, covered by blankets. What a way to return from a "victory."
• Around the time that Hugh (Kieran Bew) comments that Meleys' head is "just meat," you can see the crowd's interest start to turn from horrified to hungry. Things really are bad in King's Landing.

• As the scene shifts to Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Aemond, you can see the ratcatchers are still hanging in the streets. They're skeletons now, because they've been up there for over a month.
• Alicent clocks the fact that Aemond is wearing Aegon the Conqueror's dagger. If only she knew that the only copy of the prophecy she was searching so feverishly for last episode is inscribed on its blade.
• Alicent's Kingsguard protector in this scene is Ser Rickard Thorne, played by Vincent Regan, best known today as Vice Admiral Garp in Netflix's live-action adaptation of One Piece.
• Helaena (Phia Saban) is wearing a black dress rather than her typical green when she watches the soldiers carry Aegon's box down the hall of the Red Keep. Maybe she's still in mourning for Jaehaerys...or maybe she knew something bad was going to happen to Aegon? You can never be sure with Helaena.
• The sword that's taken out of Aegon's box-palanquin is Blackfyre, the sword of Aegon the Conqueror.
• Aegon's armor melted right to his skin. That, along with his shattered leg, are wounds directly from George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood. It looks like that Valyrian steel armor of Aegon the Conqueror is being taken off of him in pieces, so it's hard to say whether it survived the crash as well as Blackfyre did.
• There are a pair of Silent Sisters waiting in the room while Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) tends to Aegon. They're essentially nuns who handle dead bodies in Westeros, so if they're in the room, it's because they expect Aegon might die.

Next, Alicent and Criston discuss the outcome of the Battle at Rook's Rest. A few key details:

• Criston is using a lemon to polish his sword. Historically, lemon juice has been used as a cleaning agent for swords, but in this context it's even more interesting because Criston is Dornish. He's probably more familiar with uses for the warm-weather fruit than many of his northern counterparts would be.
• Criston says they took the castle of Rook's Rest "at the cost of some 900 men." The entire army Criston had when he attacked Rook's Rest was only around 1,400-1,500 soldiers. He lost roughly 2/3 of the men under his command attacking that castle, as well as Aegon and Sunfyre. That's a pretty steep cost of victory.
• Speaking of Sunfyre, Criston says the dragon was "long in the dying," so he left a garrison behind to protect him. This is the same as the book, where the wounded Sunfyre is too weak to travel so he's left behind in the forest near Rook's Rest. It sounds like Criston is assuming he'll die, but if the show sticks to the source material, I wouldn't count Sunfyre out quite yet.

Black Council

After that doozy of an opening, we finally get back to Dragonstone, where Rhaenyra's counselors are giving her a headache. The scene opens with Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna) placing a Hightower symbol on Rook's Rest.

The most important easter egg in this scene is that Rhaenyra gives orders to send word to Maidenpool and Crackclaw Point to build up their garrisons for war. Maidenpool is a large town north of Rook's Rest which is ruled by House Mooton; it has an important part to play in the not-too-distant future. Crackclaw Point is a peninsula north of Duskendale which is home to several minor houses, including House Boogs, House Brune, and House Crabb.

House Bracken and House Blackwood could care less about dragons

While Rhaenyra deals with headaches from her small council and Jace makes plans to head to the Twins, Daemon (Matt Smith) is busy wrangling with the lords of the Riverlands. He meets with Lord Amos Bracken near the Bracken seat of Stone Hedge, and it doesn't go well:

• Amos calls Willem Blackwood a "heathen." That's not just him being a jerk; House Blackwood is one of the only houses in the Riverlands which still follows the old gods and hasn't converted to the Faith of the Seven.
• Although, Samwell does say that the Brackens were hatched from "the deepest of the Seven Hells," which is Faith of the Seven lingo. Is he trying to prove to Daemon that he's actually a devout practitioner? If he is, that's laughable considering how little Daemon probably cares, and two faced as well.
• Amos asks if the head of Willem's brother rotted on its way back to him. A reminder that Willem's brother, Lord Samwell Blackwood, was killed at the Battle of the Burning Mill. The Brackens sent his head to his relatives afterward.
• Daemon asks Willem Blackwood to do underhanded stuff on his behalf, saying "there are things the crown must not be seen to do." This echoes something Mysaria says to Rhaenyra later in the episode. We'll talk about it then, so file it away in the back of your mind.

The Eyrie

At the Vale, we get our first scene with Lady Jeyne Arryn. She's played by Amanda Collin, the star of the canceled HBO sci-fi series Raised By Wolves. Lady Jeyne has a cool little eagle design on the front of her dress, representing her house.

Jeyne says that the Eyrie is "impregnable." Everyone says this about it during Game of Thrones too; it's a common saying because the Eyrie has literally never been captured. The only person to ever "take" the Eyrie was Visenya Targaryen, the ruthless sister of Aegon the Conqueror who lured the armies of the Eyrie out into the field and then flew her dragon to the castle rather than face them. When the ruling Lady Arryn returned, she found her young child sitting on Visenya's lap. Cowed by this not-so-subtle threat to her own family, she submitted and bent the knee to Aegon. It's interesting that Visenya resorted to threatening a child to get House Arryn's allegiance, and in this episode we see Daemon (who carries Visenya's sword Dark Sister) try to do the same thing with the Brackens...except it totally backfires.

Mysaria does what Rhaenyra cannot

On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra has a pow wow with Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), who's become her closest confidante over the course of the season. As she has been in every scene, Mysaria is sporting white clothing. That White Worm alias was well-warranted!

• Rhaenyra vents her frustration about the fact that she wasn't taught to fight, saying she wasn't taught "the difference between hilt and foible." In case you don't know the difference between a hilt and foible either, we broke it down here.
• Rhaenyra also says that instead of combat knowledge, she was taught the name of every lord and castle between Storm's End and the Twins. That's kind of hilarious, because it leaves out both Dorne and the North. Dorne is understandable because at this point, it's not actually part of the Seven Kingdoms yet. But the North is! I guess King Viserys figured Rhaenyra probably wouldn't be going there very much, since he didn't either.
• That dragon skull at the back of the library is probably from Meraxes, the dragon of Aegon the Conqueror's sister Rhaenys. Meraxes was slain by a scorpion bolt through the eye while Rhaenys was trying to conquer Dorne and the skull was eventually returned to Aegon. This skull has a misshapen eye from the deathblow.
• It's also very cool that Rhaenyra and Mysaria have this conversation about the smallfolk seeing the head of a dead dragon as an ill omen while standing in front of the first dragon killed after Aegon launched his conquest of Westeros.
• Mysaria pitches the idea of using rumors to stoke unrest in King's Landing, telling Rhaenyra "What you cannot do, let others do for you." This mirrors the sort of attitude Daemon had with Willem Blackwood, but with one big difference: Mysaria came up with the plan and is offering, whereas Daemon pressured Willem Blackwood to do his dirty work.
• This scene ends with Elinda Massey (Jordon Stevens) heading out of Dragonstone. We see what business she's up to on Mysaria's behalf later.

Following Rhaenyra and Mysaria's conversation, the queen spends some time catching up with her step-daughter Baela (Bethany Antonia). Rhaenyra relates the story of how Rhaenys claimed the dragon Meleys at the age of 13 by sneaking into the Dragonpit and mounting the great beast. Meleys was the dragon of Daemon Targaryen's mother, Alyssa Targaryen. So far as I recall, we didn't get to actually hear about Daemon's reaction to Rhaenys mounting Meleys in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, so this is a cool bit of extra information about how the Rogue Prince handled that pivotal moment.

Rhaenyra also says that Rhaenys "did not always care" for her. That's because for a good portion of her life, Rhaenys was convinced that Rhaenyra conspired to murder her son, Laenor Velaryon, since no one ever told her that Laenor faked his death.

Daemon's dreams get real weird

Speaking of Daemon and Alyssa Targaryen, we get an uncomfortable look at them in the very next scene. Yes, Daemon is having sex with his own mother here. There's not a lot to note, aside from the cringe. There is one cool detail though, which is that in the book, Alyssa Targaryen is described as looking different than how she appears on screen, with different colored eyes and a broken nose from an injury in her youth. It's unclear if the show just went another route with the casting or is trying to intentionally show that Daemon's dream vision of his mom is not quite in line with the way she actually was. She died when he was still a toddler, so he never really knew her.

Daemon is also wearing his Targaryen sigil ring in this scene. When he pulls back his hand, he trails what looks like blood onto Alyssa's neck. Except it's not real blood, just the drippings from a piece of cooked duck! That's right, he's at dinner. Talk about awkward.

• Ser Simon asks Daemon if the duck isn't to his liking, saying there's also goose if he prefers it. That's a nod to Episode 105, where young Rhaenyra and Laenor Velaryon discuss their imminent engagement. Rhaenyra uses duck and goose as coded metaphors to discuss the fact that Laenor is gay, with some of the exact same wording used in this scene.
• Ser Simon says the roof of Harrenhal has needed tending "since the reign of Aenys." That's the second Targaryen king who took over after Aegon the Conqueror. He only ruled for five years, from 37 - 42 AC. So the roof has been in disrepair for at least 80 years or so.
• The top floors of the Wailing Tower are swarmed with huge bats in the books just like in the show, which is part of why it's never gotten maintenance. When the wind howls, the tower creates eerie sounds, thus the name.
• Ser Simon says he hopes to get smiths and armorers from Nutten and Riverbend. These are two small towns near the Inn at the Crossroads, which is a location where many important events happen in Game of Thrones, such as Ned Stark killing Sansa's direwolf Lady and Arya and the Hound killing the Tickler's group of Lannister soldiers.
• Daemon orders Ser Simon to levy the farmers "from Antlers to High Heart" to bring meat and wood to Harrenhal. Antlers is a castle in the Crownlands and the seat of House Buckwell; High Heart isn't a castle at all, but rather a tall hill surrounded by weirwoods which was sacred to the Children of the Forest. Arya Stark spends a night there during A Storm of Swords, where she meets a small woman with a gift for foresight called the Ghost of High Heart.

Alicent Hightower is confronted with the patriarchy

Next up, Alicent Hightower tries to make a claim as the new regent of the Seven Kingdoms, and is shot down as a lot of her previous bad decisions come back to bite her all at once:

• Orwyle says that in addition to his visibly terrible wounds, King Aegon probably has internal injuries as well. They didn't have any way to deal with that in Westeros.
• Aemond doesn't say a word throughout the entire meeting before he's actually named as regent. Just listening and biding his time until he can start issuing commands.
• Aemond being "next in line" to the throne is a change the show has made from the book, where Aegon still has a younger son named Maelor. It doesn't change much, but it makes Aemond assuming command a little simpler.
• When Alicent starts having her panic attack, there are a lot of cool little details in the dialogue. Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) suggests sending a raven to young Lord Oscar Tully, since he'll inherit Riverrun after old Grover dies, but Aemond says he can't trust Larys' counsel since he left Harrenhal unattended to be "plucked by our enemy." Instead, Aemond orders Tyland Lannister (Jeffrey Hall) to have his brother Jason lead his army of Lannister soldiers out into the Riverlands to put a stop to the brewing rebellion there.
• Orwyle suggests that the smallfolk are growing restless from the hunger caused by the Sea Snake's blockade and fleeing the city, spreading tales of how bad a state it's in. In response, Aemond orders the gate closed to keep everyone locked in. This is the first time Alicent outwardly reacts, gasping in disbelief at this terrible order that's all but certain to incite panic. That's an interesting change from the book where it's Alicent herself who issues it, albeit later in the story. Alicent isn't robbed of power quite so thoroughly in the book.

Hugh Hammer and the smallfolk want meat

The proof of Orwyle's words about the smallfolk are evidenced immediately, as the scene shifts to Hugh and his wife, Kat (Ellora Torchia). She wants them to flee the city and make for Tumbleton, a town in the Reach where her brother lives. This is a key location later in the war that's relevant for Hugh specifically, so remember the name.

The other big thing of note here is that Hugh has continued building scorpions for the Greens, but hasn't been paid for his work. So not only did Aegon fail to give him an advance payment like he promised, but the crown has also failed to pay him even after the work is finished.

In the streets outside, Criston Cole is cutting down the ratcatchers. The big easter egg here is of course Cheese's dog! That pooch stuck around, it even follows the cart of corpses away. The loyalty!

Next, we see that Hugh actually listened to his wife's plea that they should leave King's Landing. They try to book it for the gate, but the gold cloaks bar it and lock the people of the city inside. This is how the smallfolk find out that Aemond is now the Prince Regent and the one giving the orders. But they aren't so concerned about who sits the throne; they just want meat. It calls back to Hugh's observation about the dragon's head at the top of the episode.

Jaces goes to the Twins

From unrest in King's Landing, we skip next to the Twins, where Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) has come to treat with the lord and lady of House Frey.

• That's Jace's dragon, Vermax, watching the castle from the outside.
• It's a cool touch that the Freys had a meeting table brought out to the center of the bridge between the two castles of the Twins. It's the sort of setting for a meeting that only House Frey could pull off, and they're nothing if not proud.
• Like Aemond, Jace has thoughts about the Lannister army marching on Riverrun. He wants House Frey to give passage to Cregan Stark's northerners so they can stop the Lannisters from seizing Riverrun.
• Lady Sabitha Frey (Sarah Woodward) says they're scared of Vhagar, and Jace replies that his own dragon is just outside. Considering the size difference between Vermax and Vhagar, that's cute. Diplomatic of the Freys not to mention it.
• The Freys want Harrenhal when the Blacks win the war. In case you're wondering why anyone would want that decrepit castle, keep in mind that it is the single largest keep in the entire Seven Kingdoms.

Harrenhal

But hey, maybe Harrenhal's decrepit days are behind it! In the next shot, we see Daemon haunted by the sounds of eerie screaming as he chops wood in the castle courtyard, and it looks like the work to rebuild Harrenhal is actually not going badly. There are scaffolds against its walls and builders hard at work.

Alys Rivers says she hears "strange things" from the Bracken lands of Stone Hedge, Lambswold, and Mory. It seems she does know of Daemon's plans that resulted in children and wives being kidnapped to keep the Brackens in line, but how? One of the many mysteries of Alys Rivers and her witchy woods magic.

Daemon tells Alys that "the realm will suffer if Aemond One-Eye rules," which sounds very close to the sort of reasoning Otto Hightower always gave to King Viserys for why Daemon himself shouldn't rule. There's a great bit of foreshadowing where Daemon tells Alys to pray she never meets Aemond, since he'd likely kill her. If the show sticks to Fire & Blood, Alys and Aemond will indeed one day cross paths.

"I am blood and fire"

Next, we get what might be the strongest scene of the episode when Baela Targaryen and Corlys Velaryon discussing the death of Rhaenys on the pier at Driftmark. There's a lot in here:

• Baela recalls Corlys' Nine Voyages, where he brought back wealth from distant lands like Asshai and Yi Ti. Corlys Velaryon was actually the very first person from Westeros to sail to Asshai and return. And, as Baela says, much of that was to impress Rhaenys.
• Corlys is resentful of Rhaenyra's offer to be Hand of the Queen, saying he'd rather "sail into the West and be lost." As in Game of Thrones, there's still no knowledge of what lies to the west of Westeros, so that's implied to be a one-way voyage. Baela reminds him that the last time he sailed away to drown his grief, it came at great cost to his loved ones. That's a reference to Corlys returning to the Stepstones after Laenor faked his death. He remained there for years until he was injured and forced to return home. Because of that, his brother Vaemond contested Luke's claim to Driftmark and a lot of drama ensued, not to mention the emotional cost to Rhaenys.
• Baela insists that Rhaenys died the way she would have wished, as a dragonrider. Baela's own mother, Laena, went out that way too, opting to have her dragon Vhagar burn her to death rather than die in childbirth. Baela says that's also how she wants to go.
• Baela saying she'll see Rhaenyra ascend the Iron Throne as Rhaenys should have is a beautiful line; this whole conflict is rooted in the fact that Rhaenys was passed over for the throne for Viserys because she was a woman, and Baela wants to right that generational wrong.
• Baela tells her grandfather that she cannot be the heir to Driftmark, because she is "blood and fire" and the castle must pass to "salt and sea." No big notes there, it's just a great line and play on the words of House Targaryen, "fire and blood."

Dissent at Dragonstone and Harrenhal

Back on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra summons Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna), and tasks him with going to Harrenhal in order to reason with Daemon. Rhaenyra also shows that she's canny enough to recognize Daemon may be trying to raise a host for himself rather than her. Even though Ser Alfred has pushed Rhaenyra at every turn in her council meetings, he's shocked by the idea that Daemon could actually split from supporting her in that way.

As for Daemon, he's sleeping at Harrenhal. For once, he's not dreaming when Ser Simon strolls in, though he does think he is. He accosts the old castellan about whether "the pudding is now served," referencing the fact that last time he was tripping out he woke up in the middle of dinner.

• Simon tells Daemon that it's the hour of the wolf. That means it's after 3 a.m. It's also a cool reference to a chapter in Fire & Blood which deals with justice being meted out in the aftermath of the Dance of the Dragons. Justice is similarly being applied here, as the Riverlords refuse Daemon's awful mandate to serve him at swordpoint and he's forced to face his past misdeeds like the murder of Prince Jaehaerys.
• The Riverlords are upset that the Blackwoods looted and burned septs, destroyed farms, and killed innocent peasants on Bracken lands. And while Daemon did encourage it, the sept destruction in particular calls to mind the fact that the Blackwoods keep the old gods and would be eager to destroy those establishments.
• These lords aren't actually vassals of House Bracken; they're other Riverlords who are upset at what they see as an injustice being done at Daemon's behest. Using the shot where all four of them stand confronting Daemon, we have from left to right: Lord Petyr Piper of Pinkmaiden (Antonio Magro), Lady Mallister of Seagard (Anna Francolini), Lord Darry of Castle Darry (John-Paul Hurley), and Lord Walys Mooton of Maidenpool (Turlough Convery).
• Even though Daemon commanded Willem Blackwood to visit atrocities on the Brackens, he's likely to be very unhappy that Blackwood did it while carrying Rhaenyra's Targaryen banner. The whole point was to not implicate the crown, and Willem Blackwood totally failed at that.
• The woman who appears in this sequence is of course Laena Velaryon, Daemon's first wife, played by Nanna Blondell. She asks if he's looked in on their children, Baela and Rhaena. Glad Daemon's getting at least a little dose of parental guilt in the mix with all his visions, because we've hardly seen him on screen with Baela or Rhaena all season.
• The Riverlords bringing up Blood and Cheese shows just how far word of that particularly awful act has spread. Half the realm believes it was Daemon's fault, which it was.

Rumors take root in King's Landing

Obviously, I have to shout out the cool switch from Daemon leaning against the hearth at Harrenhal to Rhaenyra leaning against her own hearth back on Dragonstone. Then we're off to King's Landing:

• Mysaria's plan to send Elinda Massey to King's Landing bears immediate fruit. She approaches a gold cloak who recognizes Mysaria's name. That's the same guard who barred the gates earlier.
• Elinda's journey into King's Landing is crosscut with a group of riders traveling through the forest. It's hard to tell because it's so dark, but I believe that's Lord Alfred Broome and his guards heading to Harrenhal.
• The young woman Elinda meets in King's Landing is Dyana (Maddie Evans). We saw her a couple of episodes ago working in the tavern where Ulf was drinking. She's the chambermaid who was raped by Aegon II during season 1, and then given moon tea and paid off by Alicent Hightower to keep her silence.
• After Dyana, we see Corlys Velaryon. He ends the episode in the same place he began it, on the Driftwood Throne surrounded by all his treasures at High Tide. Except now he's closing his fist around the Hand of the Queen pin; he's made his choice.
• From there, we see Aemond gazing at the Iron Throne, no doubt mulling his own rise. His sister Helaena is there as well, and asks him if it was "worth the price." With Helaena, she could be referring to a number of things: Aemond betraying and nearly murdering Aegon, Aemond having to lose his own eye to become a dragonrider, or even the guilt over killing Luke. There are no shortage of terrible things to weigh on the soul of Aemond Targaryen.
• Our final shot of King Aegon for this episode sees him bandaged up in bed, while Alicent Hightower watches over him. Aegon's horrible visage calls to mind his father Viserys, who was similarly bedridden and bandaged in his later years. Aegon has one line this episode, which he only utters once Alicent leaves him: "Mummy." Heartbreaking.

At last, we arrive at the final scene of the episode: Rhaenyra spends time with her son Jace, a stark contrast to Alicent's own relationship with Aegon:

• Rhaenyra is studying pages of a book detailing the history of Visenya Targaryen, Vhagar's original rider and one of the sister-wives of Aegon the Conqueror. She was an austere warrior queen who was both renowned for her prowess and eventually feared for supporting her son Maegor the Cruel's illegitimate claim to become ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. As Rhaenyra says, she was also the first wielder of Daemon's Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister.
• Rhaenyra asks if Jace will "fly before Vhagar as Luke did" if Aemond comes hunting for him. It's not totally clear, but I think Rhaenyra is alluding to the fact that Luke tried to escape and failed. I don't know how Rhaenyra would know for certain that Luke tried to run, but it's a pretty logical assumption to make.
• Speaking of assumptions, Rhaenyra also says that "Meleys fought two dragons and one of them is slain." The slain dragon she's referencing is Sunfyre...but if the show sticks to the book, he's not dead, just injured.
• A quick count of adult dragons: Team Black only has Rhaenyra's dragon Syrax, Jace's dragon Vermax, and Baela's dragon Moondancer. Both Moondancer and Vermax are relatively young and small, which means Rhaenyra is the only one who can face Vhagar.
• This leads into Jace pointing out that there are other large dragons living in the caverns on Dragonstone, and two of them, Vermithor and Silverwing, are large enough to challenge Vhagar. Vermithor was the dragon of King Jaehaerys the Conciliator, and Silverwing the dragon of his wife Good Queen Alysanne. Both are almost 100 years old, and neither has had a rider since Jaehaerys and Alysanne died. We haven't seen Silverwing yet, but Vermithor is the big bronze dragon that Daemon sang to at the end of season 1.
• When Jace points out that Baela's sister Rhaena could try to become a dragonrider, Rhaenyra says she "nearly lost her life in the last attempt." We don't know for sure which dragon Rhaena tried to claim, but she did perk up when Daemon mentioned Silverwing near the end of season 1, so that would be my bet.
• Jace suggests that there may be other noble-born children with Targaryen blood, since some Targaryens married out of the family. This sets the stage for Rhaenyra to scour the records on Dragonstone to find these disparate noble children who may yet mount dragons.
• Jace also pushes back on the idea that only those with the blood of Old Valyria can ride dragons. It sounds like he views those Valyrian stories more as propaganda meant to preserve the glory of the dragonriding families. That's an interesting bit of worldbuilding; I wonder how it will play out?

"Regent" ends with Rhaenyra and Jace entertaining the "mad thought" that there may be other members of the nobility with distant relations to House Targaryen who can take up the mantle of dragonrider. It's a slow, intentional episode that lays a lot of groundwork for what's to come.

We'll find out what comes next when House of the Dragon premieres its sixth episode of the season Sunday night on HBO and Max.

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