House of the Dragon‘s [Spoiler] Dies in Harrowing Episode 4 Attack — Read Recap

A much-needed voice of reason and wisdom dies in this week’s House of the Dragon. I truly fear what will become of #TeamBlack in her wake.

I’m of course talking about Rhaenys, who is killed in Episode 4 when Aemond and Vhagar come after her and Meleys during the Battle of Rook’s Rest. The Queen Who Never Was is the first major casualty of the war between the Greens and the Blacks (no offense, Jaehaerys) and her death also marks the start of an interesting/troubling/possibly very premeditated potential dynamic between Aemond and Aegon.

That is, if the latter lives to see Episode 5. Read on for the highlights of Episode 4, make sure to check out what Ewan Mitchell has to say about Aemond’s role in all of it here, then read our tribute to the Queen Who Never Was here.

‘YOU CREATED ME’ | Let’s start at Harrenhal, which is still messing with Daemon’s mind. (I knew I liked that place.) He dreams that he sees young Rhaenyra, wearing multiple crowns and speaking High Valyrian. “You created me, Daemon. Yet now you are set on destroying me. All because your brother loved me more than he did you,” she says, tears in her eyes. Daemon quickly pulls his sword and beheads her, but a little decapitation isn’t going to stop Dreamnyra from mocking him. “This is what you always wanted, is it not?” she muses. When Daemon is shaken awake by Ser Simon Strong, for a moment, he sees blood on his own hands.

There’s been a raven: Daemon gets an update on Ser Criston Cole’s military movements. Then he meets with Lord Tully’s nervous young grandson, who reports that his grandfather is barely alive. So Daemon shocks the boy by suggesting that he smother the old man (who, by the way, raised him).  Then later that night, as Daemon sleeps, he has a nightmare that has him trailing a silver-haired man through the crumbling castle’s halls. When the man eventually turns around, it’s Daemon, wearing Aemond’s eyepatch.  

Daemon (who is awake… I think?)  winds up wandering into Alys’ room, where she’s mixing up a concoction. She introduces herself — her last name, Rivers, indicates she’s a bastard — and we learn she’s the de facto master at Harrenhal. She guesses that he’s been sleeping badly, casually letting him know that the house has been cursed since it was built and that Daemon’s bed, in particular, was made from a cursed tree. Well, expect THAT to feature prominently in his AirBnB review! Within two minutes, she’s seen through to the prince’s true nature; she points out that he took the castle but sent no ravens, which indicates he’s at least thinking about claiming it for his own. Daemon gets shirty in response, but Alys doesn’t care and instead offers something to help him sleep.

The next thing Daemon knows, he’s in a meeting with Lord Blackwood and Strong — but he doesn’t remember how he got there or that he called the meeting. He hallucinates that his dead wife, Laena, is in the room, but when he blinks the woman turns out to be one of Harrenhal’s servants. Amid all of his disorientation, Daemon manages to strike a deal with Blackwood: If the dragonrider wipes out the Brackens, “our armies will be yours.”

MY BROTHER’S KEEPER | In King’s Landing, Alicent is pregnant. Oops! We learn about the unplanned development courtesy of Grand Maester Orwyle, who brings the dowager queen an abortifacient they both pretend is meant for someone else. When he leaves the room, she downs the brew.

Meanwhile, Aegon is very mad that Daemon has taken Harrenhal, but Larys tells him not to sweat it: “That castle is more crippled than I am, your grace.” Aemond chimes in that their side marching on Harrenhal is going to have to wait, because Criston is at that moment heading to claim Rook’s Rest; once they secure that castle, Dragonstone basically will be cut off. “The two of you have been plotting without my authority,” Aegon whines as he realizes he’s been left out of the decision-making process. Aemond coolly cuts his brother down in High Valyrian: “You had more pressing matters to attend to. Such as holding court, choosing your sobriquet, and naming imbecilic lickspittles to our Kingsguard. Do you have a wiser strategy, my king? If so, you should voice it to your council. We all await your answer.” After an uncomfortable silence, when Aegon essentially replies with the High Valyrian equivalent of “I can haz cheezburger?,” it’s clear who the true military leader is here.

Larys makes a beeline to Alicent’s quarters after the meeting, which she’s skipped, and all it takes is one glance at the teapot for him to know one of Ser Criston’s repeatedly launched arrows hit its target. “If I may be bold, my queen, you have not seemed yourself of late,” he ventures. She’s like, WELL IT’S BEEN QUITE A COUPLE OF WEEKS. They discuss what Viserys meant when he mentioned Aegon to her on his deathbed — Rhaenyra’s visit last week really shook her — and Alicent fatalistically muses that it really doesn’t matter what Viserys thought, because he’s dead, and the war is on.  

She extends that “eff it” sense to a conversation with Aegon later, when he complains that the small council doesn’t care what he thinks. “Do you think simply wearing the crown imbues you with wisdom?” she spits, adding that she’d wanted him to shut up and learn from the other men on the council “in the hope that you’d be half the king your father was.” He warns her that she’s on thin ice, but she’s like, “Bitch, I ran this joint while your father slowly withered, and my own father is a cunning statesman, so SIT DOWN.” (I mean, not those words exactly.) She winds up by advising he do “simply what is needed of you: nothing.” Ouch. And true.

Aegon, of course, does the exact opposite. He drinks too much and suits up to ride a dragon and join Cole’s army as it prepares to attack Rook’s Rest during the day.

RHAENYS STEPS UP | Let’s back up a minute here and see what #TeamBlack is up to. At the shipyard, Rhaenys meets Allan and remarks on how handsome he is and how beautiful his mother must have been. When Corlys sees them, Alyn jumps away from her and walks off. “I know who he is, Corlys,” Rhaenys tells her husband when they’re alone, cautioning him not to hide way the man — who it sure seems like is Corlys’ illegitimate son — given that he saved Corlys’ life.

She and Corlys travel to Dragonstone, where Rhaenyra’s small council is getting impatient. There’s some sniping and such before Rhaenyra returns, but when she does, she tells them exactly where she was and what she was up to. “I inherited 80 years of peace from my father,” she says. “Before I was to end it, I needed to know there was no other path. And now, I do.”

Everyone is in agreement that they must send a dragon to Rook’s Rest. Everyone — but Rhaenyra — also thinks it’s a terrible idea for the queen to go herself. “You must send me, your grace,” Rhaenys says gently, and Rhaenyra eventually acquiesces.   

DEATHS AT ROOK’S REST | And that brings us to the battle that ends the episode, along with Rhaenys’ life. Ser Criston Cole’s troops begin to run when they see Rhaenys approach on Meleys; she flies over the battlefield and sets it ablaze. But Cole has a contingency plan: He sends up a signal and waits for Aemond, who’s with Vhagar in a nearby copse, to fly to their rescue. But Aemond seems to be going rogue, ignoring Cole’s message and telling his beast to wait a while longer.

In the meantime, Aegon arrives; his dragon, Sunfyre, and Meleys go at it in the sky. Cole tries to rally the soldiers to fight alongside their king, who has suddenly inserted himself into the fray. And THAT’S when Aemond and Vhagar enter the mix; Aemond commands his dragon to spit fire even though Aegon is directly between them and Rhaenys, and the king and Sunfyre quickly go crashing to the ground in the aftermath. Rhaenys knows things look grim — the resigned way she straps herself tighter to the saddle as she quietly gives the command to attack once more! — but she circles back nevertheless.

Meleys and Vhagar get tangled together, projectile vomiting flames at each other as they try to destroy their opponent. On the ground, it’s chaos; soldiers are getting toasted like s’mores, everyone’s running for their lives. At some point, Ser Criston gets knocked off his horse, then knocked out completely.

Rhaenys eventually gets clear of Aemond and… wait, where’d he go? Neither the one-eyed wonder nor Vhagar are anywhere to be found UNTIL RHAENYS FLIES OVER THE CASTLE AND SEES THEM LYING IN WAIT. Vhagar gets Meleys by the neck, chewing at her like a tough piece of beef jerky, and the dragon looks at her rider as the life ebbs out of her eyes. Rhaenys knows she’s a goner, too. As they fall to their deaths, the Queen That Never Was lets go of her saddle and succumbs to the inevitable. They land in a conflagration.

WHATCHA DOING, AEMOND? | When Cole comes to, face down on the field, he gets to his feet and stumbles dazedly into the forest. The knight sees Aemond standing in front of an unconscious (or maybe dead?) Aegon and Sunfyre with his sword drawn; only Cole’s interruption stops the prince from doing whatever he’s thinking about doing. As Aemond walks away, Ser Criston sees that King Aegon is in very bad shape, lying lifelessly on the ground.

Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? And will you miss Rhaenys? Sound off in the comments!