Alicent Hightower has been feeling out of sorts since her son Aemond essentially fired her from the Small Council on last week's episode of House of the Dragon. In the newest episode, she orders one of the knights of the Kingsguard to take her into the kingswood, a forest near the city of King's Landing. When he asks when they are to return to the city, she says she hasn't made up her mind to go back yet. Later, she goes swimming in a lake. Last we see her, she's swimming away.
Before the episode aired, there had been leaks that said that Alicent would attempt to drown herself. These leaks got some things right and some things wrong, although there's still time for some of the predictions to come true in the season 2 finale next week.
At least in this episode, we are not given to believe that Alicent drowns herself. When last we see her, she's swimming. It's possible that could change in the finale, though.
Also, I'm definitely not the only person to notice that the image of Alicent floating on the lake in a white slip recalls many artistic depictions of Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet who drowns in a river. It's implied that Ophelia throws herself in, or else that she's so mad by that point in the story that she's incapable of stopping herself.
Ophelia in paintings pic.twitter.com/knHxiw1L5E
— Art or Other Things (@ArtorOtherThing) January 28, 2024
So the show is absolutely depicting Alicent in a way that makes us think of her drowning, but it doesn't actually give us anything solid. She's still alive by the end of the episode. And given that she has a role to play in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, the character isn't going to die here. Although it's possible that she comes close to dying and is rescued by the kingsguard knight. We'll find out for sure when the House of the Dragon season 2 finale airs next Sunday night, July 4 on HBO and Max.
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