The Best, Nerdiest Part of ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Episode 4 Was Alys Rivers at Harrenhal

Before the bloody Battle of Rook’s Rest gets underway in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4, the HBO show delves deep into some of the juiciest lore we’ve seen yet in the television adaptation of George R. R. Martin‘s books.

Last week, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) arrived at the cursed castle of Harrenhal, where he was beset with a haunting vision of young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) admonishing him before meeting a mysterious woman near the fortress’s ancient heart tree. “You will die in this place,” the witchy Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) tells him.

Daemon finally gets a formal introduction to Alys in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4. He learns that she is a bastard and an oddball responsible for the maester’s duties in the dilapidated castle. Alys gives Daemon — and the audience — a bit of a history lesson about Harrenhal and confirms that Daemon is currently under the influence of Weirwood magic. (He is sleeping in a bed made of weirwood, folks!)

Then Alys does something wild. She offers the sleep-deprived Daemon a mysterious concoction that’s supposed to help him rest. For some reason, Daemon drinks this potion. Then he immediately finds himself sitting in on a meeting with Ser Simon Strong (Sir Simon Russell Beale) and the grown up version of Ser Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) and hallucinating the visage of his dead wife Laena (Nanna Blondell) in the guise of a cupbearer.

So what exactly did Daemon drink on House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4? Could Alys Rivers be serving the Targaryen the same weirwood paste that the Three-Eyed Raven (Max von Sydow) gave Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) in Game of Thrones?

Uh, Did Alys Rivers Give Daemon Targaryen Weirwood Paste in House of the Dragon?

Whatever Alys Rivers gave Daemon to drink in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4, it surely wasn’t to help him sleep. After all, it appears to have significantly forced Daemon to black out hours and hours of his life. He had to have been awake, under its influence, to get to the meeting with Ser Simon and Ser Willem to begin with.

As Alys explains, she has inherited most of the usual duties of a Maester at Harrenhal. That is, she’s responsible for concocting potions and applying medicine. In the books, she is rumored to be a witch. And in the lead up to offering Daemon her sleeping aid, she definitely embraces the magic of Harrenhal.

“Harrenhal’s been cursed since its first stone was laid,” Alys says. “Black Harren felled the grove of weirwood trees that grew on these lands. Heart trees, imbued with the spirits of those who lived long before he came. It’s said their whispers can still be heard sometimes.”

When Daemon shrugs these tales off, Alys points out the bed the Targaryen has been sleeping in was literally made from a heart tree. “Have you experienced anything of note?” she teases.

Well, Daemon has definitely been tripping balls, which tracks with the power of weirwood. The Starks prayed to a heart tree to honor the old gods of the First Men, but many houses in Westeros chopped their heart trees in service to the Seven. Weirwood doesn’t just represent a different faith, but as we learn through Bran Stark, is connected to a sort of network of ancient knowledge.

In his transition from normal boy with occasional prophetic visions to full on “Three-Eyed Raven,” Bran has to consume the blood-like paste of a weirwood tree, which opens up his psycadelic abilities, granting him near god-like omniscience. Could it be possible that Alys is feeding Daemon weirwood paste? And that’s confusing him further? (I mean, it looks like weirwood paste to me…and she repeatedly mentions weirwoods before giving the cup to Daemon.)

Look, Daemon is not a Targaryen dreamer, nor does he have any of the psychic abilities that marks a potential Three-Eyed Raven (or Crow). But he is a dragon rider with the blood of Old Valyria. There is magic surging through his veins. Unwittingly consuming weirwood paste might not make him a Three-Eyed Raven, but it would surely expand his consciousness in some way…as we see the weirwood powers of Harrenhal doing.

Whatever Alys gave Daemon, she also gifted him with some deep references to the lore of George R.R. Martin’s books. Lore that Game of Thrones often shied away from. Lore that’s making House of the Dragon all the more magical to watch.