House of the Dragon season 3 is back for an all-new episode on Sunday, July 12. After an epic third episode that saw Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) struggling to rule, we should start to see some of the consequences of Rhaenyra’s choices start to play out in episode 4.
House of the Dragon season 3 episode 4 airs at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, July 12. As we’ve done all season, we’re going to be recapping the episode live as it airs. This is one of the more confusing shows on TV, so we’re here to break it all down and answer the big questions in real time.
House of the Dragon season 3 episode 3 ended with the epic twist that a few of us saw coming. Ormund Hightower (James Norton) double-crossed Daemon (Matt Smith) and Rhaenyra by giving them a fake Daeron Targaryen (Charlie Gordon) to take back to King’s Landing and be held captive. Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) is Alicent’s youngest son, so it makes sense that Rhaenyra would want to make sure he was accounted for in the middle of this civil war.
Unfortunately for Rhaenyra, Ormund kept the real Daeron. Instead of marching back to Oldtown, Ormund led his army to Tumbleton at the end of the episode, which sets the stage for a massive battle to come soon. But, why?
In the preview for the new episode, Rhaenyra asks that question, and it seems, based on the teaser, that Ormund has plans to install the rightful heir on the Iron Throne.
Who is that, though? Is it Aegon? Everyone thinks he's dead! Is it Aemond? He might actually be dead. It's surely not Rhaenyra. Is it himself? Is this the beginning of his bid to become the king? We'll likely find out more of his aspirations in the new episode.
Heading into the new episode of House of the Dragon, we’re also going to find out what Rhaenyra plans to do about Ormund and his treachery, but that’s far from her only major problems.
The episode begins at Tumbleton, where Ormund Hightower has sacked the city, politely, and embedded the army within the city. The Tumbletonians are not happy at all.
As his soldiers quarter with the people of Tumbleton, Ormund takes a bath in the lord and lady's bedchamber. He tells those with him that his new plan is to restore the rightful person on the Iron Throne.
For the first time, we meet the real Daeron Targaryen, who is Ormund’s squire. Ormund tries to teach Daeron a lesson. He tells him to be a “fair but firm” ruler, which seems to be hinting at his larger plans for Alicent’s youngest son.
Ormund also waits for news from Harrenhal. He wants Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Vhagar to come to Tumbleton to support, but as we know, Aemond might be out of commission for a little while after getting injured while taking the castle.
Rhaenyra struggles to understand Ormund’s plans
Back in King’s Landing, Rhaenyra tries to make sense of the latest betrayal. Ormund and the Hightower force should have returned to Oldtown, but instead, they’ve taken Tumbleton, of all places? It doesn’t fully make sense.
With her Small Council, minus Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and plus the Grand Maester, Rhaenyra makes plans to take Tumbleton, if necessary, with the help of the Tullys and their bannermen. She also sends a dragon to watch Tumbleton to see if they can see what Ormund is up to.
Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) also recommends that Rhaenyra name a Master of Coin to try to figure out some of these money problems because the Crown is basically bankrupt. Michael Scott is, of course, not available, so Rhaenyra asks Mysaria to reach out to Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler), who just met in episode 3, to see if he’s interested in helping out the cause.
Rhaenyra questions Alicent about her cousin, Ormund Hightower
We know Rhaenyra is still trying to figure out why Ormund took Tumbleton and what makes Alicent’s cousin tick. She questions Alicent (Olivia Cooke) about Ormund, but first, she has some important questions for Alicent.
She asks Alicent why she sent Daeron away to be raised in Oldtown when he was just a young boy. Alicent explains that she wanted Daeron to be raised a Hightower, rather than as a Targaryen like Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Helaena (Phia Saban), and Aemond were raised.
In a moment of vulnerability, Rhaenyra tries to explain to Alicent that she would have spared Daeron and that she possibly still could if that comes to pass. Alicent isn’t super thankful, but she does offer a glimmer of understanding. She tells Rhaenyra that Ormund doesn’t like foul-smelling things.
It has to be the most obscure answer we’ve seen in House of the Dragon so far. We’ve seen Ormund smelling something a few times so far. Is this supposed to be his great weakness? Is Rhaenyra going to drop rotten food or corpses to nearby Tumbleton to drive him crazy? We shall see.
Aegon and Larys find Sunfyre near Rook’s Rest
For the first time since the second episode, we catch up with Aegon and Larys (Matthew Needham). They’re making their way slowly but surely to the safety of Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), but there is trouble all along the way.
Near Rook’s Rest, Aegon and Larys find Sunfyre, Aegon’s dragon who “died” in the Battle of Rook’s Rest. Sunfyre appears dead, and some commonfolk are charging people to touch the body of the dragon.
Aegon runs to his dragon and touches Sunfyre. He’s obviously super sad to find his dragon in such a state, but he doesn’t believe that Sunfyre is dead. I kept waiting for Sunfyre to wake up, but he never does. It’s unclear if Sunfyre is actually dead by the time Aegon and Larys have to leave, but there’s definitely reason to believe the dragon is not, in fact, dead. Maybe it's just resting. Aegon takes a scale for good measure.
Criston and Gwayne make it to Harrenhal
Speaking of Criston and Gwayne, they lead their army to Harrenhal, where they see that Aemond and Vhagar have left their scorchmarks. Inside the castle, they find Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), and she doesn’t mention Aemond and Vhagar at all, which is definitely interesting.
There, they learn from Alys Rivers that King’s Landing has been taken, and the war has essentially been lost, for now, to Rhaenyra and the Blacks aside from Ormund’s force at Tumbleton.
Gwayne wants to march to Tumbleton to join the battle with Ormund, but Criston has other plans. He wants his squad to become wraiths of the riverlands, a band of mercenaries, hunting down and attacking the Blacks to keep Rhaenyra from getting too comfortable in power.
It’s a bold strategy. We’ll see how it plays out, Cotton.
Rhaenyra is already having a hard enough time governing
Honestly, Criston’s idea has a lot of potential with how quickly things are falling apart for Rhaenyra and the Blacks in King’s Landing.
Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), notably not Velaryon, informs Rhaenyra that Corlys has left King’s Landing to assist in the takedown of the Triarchy raiders, soldiers who washed up on shore or fled during the Battle of the Gullet.
Rhaenyra is frustrated, but Alyn makes himself quite useful. As they admire the replica of Old Valyria that Viserys, Rhaenyra’s father, built in his spare time, it’s obvious that the rats have overrun that just as they’ve done in the rest of the Red Keep. Alyn tells Rhaenyra that when they have a rat problem on the ships, they just get some cats.
Aegon and Larys arrive at Rook’s Rest
After leaving Sunfyre behind, Aegon and Larys continue their march to join up with Criston’s army, and they eventually arrive at Rook’s Rest. Unfortunately, it’s through the horrors of the Battle of Rook’s Rest. The castle has basically been destroyed, and it’s being used as a sort of makeshift camp.
In order to stay a while, Aegon and Larys are put to work on some terrible jobs.
In Tumbleton, we catch up with Hugh Hammer’s wife, Kat (Ellora Torchia), who is staying with her brother and now several Hightower soldiers. In the home, the Hightower soldiers assault Kat and her sister-in-law, but Kat’s brother intervenes. Kat’s sister-in-law ends up with a broken arm from one of the soldiers.
Shortly after, they complain to Ormund about his soldiers’ behavior. Trying to set an example for Daeron and to be accountable, Ormund has his soldier, Garrick, gelded and also have his arm broken.
He also has the maester tend to the woman’s wounds.
Ormund seems like a real standup dude, other than the whole betraying Rhaenyra immediately and weird smell aversion.
Hugh Hammer offers to go keep watch at Tumbleton
Back in King’s Landing, Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) is ready for his next assignment. His wife, Kat, is at Tumbleton, and he offers to go keep watch over the city and offer reports back to Rhaenyra. Happy to have someone doing such a service, Rhaenyra agrees.
Hugh will take Vermithor, his dragon, to Tumbleton to keep watch and see if he can learn any information about what’s happening.
Daemon learns Rhaena was Sheepstealer’s rider
Speaking of dragons, Daemon finally pops up in the episode when he arrives at the Eyrie with Caraxes on a secret mission to get Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin), the Lady of the Vale, to offer more to Rhaenyra’s fund for the realm. Jeyne is happy-ish to contribute, and she sends Daemon and Caraxes back to King’s Landing with bags of coin.
Caraxes is not happy at all with this, and they land next to a cave in the Vale. Out walk Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) and Sheepstealer, and Daemon learns that his daughter, Rhaena, is not where she’s supposed to be and is responsible for the death of Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett) at the Battle of the Gullet.
He can’t believe what Rhaena has done, and he informs her that Rhaenyra blames Sheepstealer and his rider for Jace’s death. If she finds out, Rhaena will be killed. He begs her to go to Pentos, put all this behind her, and lie.
Unfortunately, Rhaena isn’t interested in making that happen. She tells her father that, if he really cares for her, he should forget all about her, leave her alone, and keep this one secret from Rhaenyra.
Ormund changes his plans
It’s not going well for a lot of key characters in this episode. Ormund takes another hit in the next scene.
Earlier in the episode, Ormund mentioned that his plan for Tumbleton hinges on Aemond and Vhagar. Well, he learns that they aren’t coming from Harrenhal. Ormund tells Daeron that they need to change their plans. I can only imagine what that means.
Rhaenyra learns that the people don’t want her to be queen
After Hugh got his request to go to Tumbleton granted by the queen, Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) shoots his shot. He asks Rhaenyra to pardon a few of his tavern buddies for some minor crimes.
Rhaenyra reminds Ulf that he needs to stop hanging out at the taverns, which leads him to reveal that the people do not love that she’s here. He tells her that they’re putting up anti-Rhaenyra graffiti, basically, all over the city.
Rhaenyra, then, instructs the City Watch to start cracking some skulls and figure out who is responsible for this.
Daemon lies to Rhaenyra
Later, Rhaenyra meets with her Small Council when Daemon arrives. He has a bunch of gold from the Eyrie, but he’s also brought the head of the rider of Sheepstealer. Instead of turning Rhaena over or telling Rhaenyra the truth that his daughter was partly responsible for Jace’s death and is now hanging out in the mountains with Sheepstealer, Daemon killed a shepherd to cover for Rhaena.
Rhaenyra clears the room and questions Daemon about this rider. She’s confused why he didn’t just bring the rider in alive, but Daemon lies about that, too. He’s digging himself deeper and deeper. I think we all know how this is going to end.
We’ll be recapping House of the Dragon season 3 episode 4 starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT after the episode goes live on HBO and HBO Max. Stay tuned!
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