‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 7 Recap: Is This the End of the Targaryens?

Watching House of the Dragon is playing a game of contradictions.

You want to see cool fantasy warfare, even though you don’t want to see your faves fight and potentially kill each other (though someone needs to do something about Aemond ). You want to root for the good guys, even though it’s tough at this point to defend one above the other (this season has been maybe too biased towards Rhaenyra, but that’s all about to change). And you want to see the dragons, even though you know that every one of them that accepts a rider is dooming itself.

( Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

In the penultimate episode of the season, we get plenty of dragons, as House Targaryen enters the beginning of the end of their dynasty.

After confronting a bewildered Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) and easily gaining his allegiance as well as a new rider for Seasmoke, Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) confidence in her dragonseed theory is renewed, with some caveats. Addam is lowborn, and claims he doesn’t know his heritage. The Black Council is decidedly against allowing just anyone (read: non-nobility) to ride a dragon, and so is Jacaerys (Harry Collett).

He rightfully observes that allowing common folk the use of dragons undermines the Targaryens’ divine right to rule Westeros—and, not for nothing, it undermines his own claim. His possession of a dragon confirmed him in the eyes of everyone else as Rhaenyra’s heir. If anyone can do it, the Harwin Strong rumors might keep him from the throne.

Nonetheless, the situation is desperate, and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) convinces Rhaenyra to ditch the highborn genealogies and go in search of any smallfolk with Targaryen blood. Given the royal family’s love of King’s Landing’s brothels, the city has tons lying in wait. Rhaenyra can’t rely on the nobility to be loyal to her—after all, Mysaria points out, the people fighting against her are her own family. “Let us raise an army of bastards,” Rhaenyra responds.

Corlys (Steve Toussaint) visits Addam’s new digs, and while his curt “well done” isn’t the best fatherly pep talk, it makes sense that Corlys isn’t immediately embracing his bastard kids given what has happened to the rest of his family. Addam’s brother Alyn (Abubakar Salim) all but scoffs at the idea of being a dragonrider. He knows Corlys still has no heir to Driftmark, and responds with the magic words “I am of salt and sea”—the words and the heirship that Baela (Bethany Antonia), being a dragonrider, renounced. Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), for her part, ditches the convoy out of the Eyrie and runs into the hills to find this wild dragon that keeps eating the Vale’s sheep.

The Greens are totally unprepared to be upstaged by a bunch of new dragons. Larys (Matthew Needham) straight up doesn’t believe Jasper Wylde’s (Paul Kennedy) gossip about a new dragonrider, possibly because he’s preoccupied with worry about Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) health. The king is talking and walking again, sort of, but can’t really move without assistance, likely can’t hear much out of his new ear hole, and is in serious pain. Larys’ whispered exchange with Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) about Aegon’s need to grow stronger quicker is maybe the only time we’ve seen the Master of Whispers desperate.

While all this is going on, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) is on a wilderness cleanse. She must have found a copy of Walden amongst all the dusty histories, because she enlists Ser Rickard (Vincent Regan) for a glamping trip to the Kingswood after noting how dirty everything in the city is. She takes a dramatic walk in the woods and goes for a dramatic swim in the water and that’s basically it—but you get the sense during these scenes that she’s about to do something big. Helaena (Phia Saban) forgave her for something in an earlier episode, and knowing Helaena, it’s likely something Alicent hasn’t done yet.

The second-best scene in the episode, though, goes to young Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), whose first act as Lord Paramount is to big dog Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith).

The riverlords gather in front of Harrenhal’s weirwood tree (a thematic reminder of their ancient heritage) to see whether or not Oscar is just another of Daemon’s tools, or if he’s savvy enough for his new position. It’s all a bit of a show: Oscar needs to put on a display of strength in front of any riverlords who would dismiss his claim because of his age, and he needs to align himself with them and against Daemon. He’s on Rhaenyra’s side, not her king consort’s. To cement his authority, Oscar forces Daemon to execute Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) for his crimes against the other houses—crimes that Daemon ordered him to commit. In Simon Strong’s words: “Oh, dear.”

Daemon’s only dream this episode is of a melty, dying Viserys (Paddy Considine), who reiterates once again how much he didn’t want the crown, and how much Daemon did. “Do you want it still?” Viserys asks. At this point, Daemon’s answer is likely no. The final shot of the scene focuses right on the House Stark sigil stamped into the crown, which could mean nothing!

And then, of course, we come to this episode’s big scene. Deep in the bowels of Dragonstone, Rhaenyra leads the common folk who have answered the call to meet Vermithor, the Bronze Fury, the second-biggest dragon in the world behind Vhagar. The dragon keepers quit en masse, reiterating Jacaerys’ fears that this will be the end of what remains of Valyrian magic in Westeros. “The dragons are sacred,” one says. “They are not playthings for the games of men.”

Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) and Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) are among those that have left King’s Landing riding on the promise of potentially claiming a dragon, and now we know why the show hasn’t been following any of the other candidates as closely.

Vermithor goes to town on the unfortunates, barbecuing all the hopeful smallfolk except for Hugh, who finally claims him after a lot of hullabaloo. Ulf gets lost in the caves and immediately runs into Silverwing, who allows him to claim her even after he steps on her eggs. Silverwing takes him on a ride all the way to King’s Landing, shocking the citizens and the unsuspecting Green Council, and prompting Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) to quickly board Vhagar and chase them back to Dragonstone.

Aemond doesn’t let Vhagar engage, but he sees what he needs to see: Rhaenyra suddenly has three new dragonriders on her side, more than enough to take him on, and maybe even win.

Read more at The Daily Beast.