‘House of the Dragon’ Star Phia Saban Explains Helaena’s “Extremely Serious and Direct” Prophecy in the Season 2 Finale: “I Know What the Truth Is”

The biggest moment in the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale didn’t feature fire or blood, but chilling prophecy from Helaena Targaryen ( Phia Saban ). Ever since the HBO show introduced its version of the Targaryen queen, fans have noted that she has a Cassandra-like penchant for predicting the future that’s often ignored by those around her. Her words of warning have always fallen on deaf ears…until now.

**Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 8 “The Queen Who Never Was,” now streaming on Max**

In House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 8 “The Queen Who Never Was,” Helaena finally seems to master her gift of foresight , magically appearing to Daemon ( Matt Smith ) during his preview of Westeros’s future, before telling brother Aemond ( Ewan Mitchell ) straight up how he’s doomed to die. In both cases, we see a Helaena who is clear-eyed, confident, and able to articulate what she knows without riddles or nerves. It’s a huge change from the sweet, shy Helaena we’re used to.

During a recent press conference, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal explained that Helaena’s abilities as a seer were “evolving.”

“Whatever this ability that she has, she’s learning to wield it, or to pay more heed to it, or she’s learning how to interpret it better,” Condal said, before elaborating that the trauma of watching her son be murdered and the stress of living during a war was affecting her abilities. Nevertheless, he cautioned that it’s not a switch Helaena can just turn on and off.

“She’s not just gonna, from the beginning of her life to the end, have the same sort of level of grasp of this ability. We’re seeing it certainly change.”

When Decider caught up with House of the Dragon star Phia Saban over Zoom yesterday, we dug into what exactly Helaena’s appearance in Daemon’s prophetic weirwood dream means for the character. Saban also expressed how Helaena’s “disassociation” from real life was expanding her abilities in the psychic realm — and why Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) dream to run away somewhere quiet with Helaena is so seismic. Decider also got the actress to chat about her real life obsession with insects, being potential besties with Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), and whether she and co-star Ewan Mitchell actually did manage to pull off a Helaemond Easter egg for fans who ‘ship their characters together….

DECIDER: I’m going to start with a very nerdy question that’s been on my mind since the finale. We’re told Helaena has bonded with Dreamfyre, but she hates riding. So how do you see that bond, that connection between Helaena and Dreamfyre?

PHIA SABAN: Yeah. Sometimes it’s too sad for me to imagine. [pauses and giggles nervously] I mean, think that we see about Helaena, that she has an affinity sometimes more to creatures than she does to human beings. So I think that we can safely imagine that it’s a very loving, sort of, soul-connecting relationship. I don’t know. I always feel like, isn’t it about horses? They say that they’re so relaxing to be around because they’re like pure empathy? I can only imagine that a lovely dragon would be the same way. Yeah, I’d like to see Helaena and her dragon, but apparently she’s not into that.

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The big reveal with Helaena this week is that she has sort of really assumed control over her prophetic abilities. During a press conference on Monday, Ryan talked about it being an evolution, that she’s come to understand her abilities more. Appearing in Daemon’s vision is something new. How did you interpret what she was doing in that part of the episode?

Yeah, it’s a really interesting one. I think sometimes I can get away with abstract thinking because, in my mind, it’s not entirely clear to Helaena what her powers are. In my imagination, I think that since her massive trauma this season, she’s spent more time disassociated from the real world. Maybe that’s led to a greater association with this other realm of feeling, but maybe she would be constantly trying to kind of push it away because it makes her feel uncomfortable or it’s inconvenient or it widens the gap between her and other people in her life. I think something to do with her disassociation, from her trauma in the real world, has meant that she’s staking more of a claim in that other world. I don’t think that means that world would suddenly make sense to her and she’s like, “Oh, this is how it works,” and the mechanics of it. But in my imagination, I think that she had a sense and a feeling that there was someone else that she’s connected to in some way. That had sort of, like, opened the door to this sort of dream world. So she kind of went there, too.

I do think there’s a question about how much of Daemon’s vision that includes Helaena is his own projection and how much is actually her there being like, [ominous voice] “ You know what you must do .” [giggles] So I don’t know about that. Because I think that in the real world psychology of dreams, it’s often that when you see someone else in a dream, that’s actually an aspect of yourself that you’ve given the face of someone else. You know, in order to have a distance. So I don’t know. I guess all I’m saying is it’s all very up to interpretation.

Yeah, in the following scene between Helaena and Aemond, I don’t think we’ve ever seen her speak so confidently and clearly about what she’s seen, or even just so directly to another character. Where did that confidence suddenly come from? Like the power dynamic just completely goes topsy-turvy between them in that scene.

Yeah, I know. I think it’s the most eye contact she’s ever made in both seasons of House of the Dragon . She saved it all up for the balcony.

I think that she’s used to, in many ways, being a pawn, and she’s used to, in many ways, doing what is convenient to people that she loves, despite the fact that it’s not in her comfort zone. But I think that — with what I was saying before about the disassociation and maybe more of the embracing of this otherness that she has — it is a step too far for Aemond to ask her to kill people. I think that he also catches her at that moment where she’s just been quite empowered in her sort of “mind palace” or whatever you’d like to call it. So it becomes extremely serious and direct. Almost like, I need to meet you on this energy that you’ve got just to tell you there’s absolutely no use pursuing what you’re doing. Because I know what the truth is and the truth is that any desperate attempt isn’t going to change the course of destiny.

That directness is because she feels like, “Oh, I just got this rush of clarity and I’m going to spend it now.” And then I don’t imagine that she’s then going to go off, around, and use that energy the rest of the day. It was a moment that she could go, “Boom!” Then it’s kind of over.

I want to drill down into the idea that she does not want to kill people. Like she seems to be the only Targaryen who’s not willing to cross that line, no matter what. Where do you think that moral clarity comes from?

I think, partially, because she’s not engaged with politics. In politics, people are statistics and numbers and ways of getting what you want. She’s developed more of a kind of humanist approach and I think she values life. She sees beauty as separate to how useful someone can be to her. Yeah, I think it’s just a line for her.

I also think that her being asked to step that far out of her comfort zone, after the worst thing that’s possibly happened has happened to her son, she’s like, “I’m trying every single day to not think about what happened to my baby. You can’t ask me to go and sort of get my hands bloody as well.” That’s a step too far. But yeah, I do think she just has a sort of innate value for [life]. What she loves is serenity.

‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Prophecies Explained: All About Daemon’s Vision of Bloodraven and How Aemond Dies

You know, when we talked earlier before the season started, I asked you about the “Helaemond “rumors, and you were saying how sometimes you and Ewan would do a take for Helamond. Did any of those make it into the season? Was there any little glimmer or moment where you could look back and you were like, “Oh, are we having a little fun there?” Or is it all cutting room floor?

It’s interesting. I think that when we said that, we probably got people too excited that we were going to hold hands or, like, make out or something. I think that what we felt more when we were like, “Oh, we’re doing time for Helaemond,” is like we so rarely get to be even in a room together, you know, let alone a scene together. From the beginning, before there were any rumors online or anything, we decided very early on in Season 1, we had a strong feeling that they have a sort of connection, or like a knowingness to each other. I think that when we say, “Oh, we’re doing it for Helaemond,” or whatever, I think what we really mean is that we just get really excited to play that dynamic together. We’ve just come to call that Helaemond, but maybe not in the sense that people on the Internet call it.

I want to ask another very hyper nerdy question. I remember watching a video that you had done with the other cast where you were asked trivia questions about the lore of the show. The question of Daenerys’s dragon eggs came up and you knew about the rumor that Dreamfyre might have been the mother of those eggs . There’s been some debate whether or not Rhaenyra’s kids have the dragon eggs this season, whether it’s still the Elissa Farman story… What’s your personal theory on where the eggs came from?

I was just sure that I’d read on my “ Dragon Wiki ”…  When I got the part, I was like, “Oh, what’s Dreamfyre like?” And I was sure that it said on the Dragon Wiki that they think that her eggs were the descendants of Daenerys’s dragons. So when I answered that question, I was like, “I’m gonna get points for this and no one else knows!” And they said, “No, it’s from Rhaenyra.” So I don’t know. Maybe it’s…who knows? I’d like to think that Dreamfyre’s in there somewhere.

Maybe it’s a big Maester cover up. That’s what they like to say as well, isn’t it?

In the finale we learn that Alicent’s hopes are to leave King’s Landing with Helaena and Jaehaera. Your character is very much like, “Where would I go?” Assuming Alicent’s schemes work and that you guys could potentially escape, where would you ideally see Helaena wind up?

I think she’d quite like it on that lake that Alicent went to last episode. That’s lovely. I want to go there.

It’s a funny one. I think that partially when Helaena says, “Where would I go?”, it’s a completely genuine question of, like, “What have you got in mind?” But I don’t think Helaena has seen evidence of a life that she would like for herself, really. So I think that a big part of her growing up has been like trying not to yearn for something else. Because she’s like, “It’s just not out there. And I can create the world, the life I want for myself in my hands with these bugs.” So the idea that there could actually be somewhere else that she could physically go when she’s kind of spent her whole life coming to terms with the fact that this is the hand she’s been dealt, I don’t think she can possibly imagine it.

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I mean if it were up to me, I’d like to go to Harranhal because I love the vibes over there. And Alys Rivers and everything. Actually, maybe it might be quite cool for Helaena to have just a moment with Alys Rivers. Yeah, because maybe she could feel an affinity with her or something.

In the book, Aemond seems to think Alys is the one who told him that he dies at the God’s Eye.

Oh really?

Yeah, maybe they have sort of a friendship going on.

That’d be nice. Yeah, they kind of, like hang out. They go and have their dreams and, like, hang out in between. That would be so nice!

Before I go, I love how much Helaena loves her insects. How do you feel about them personally? And do you have a favorite one on set or a favorite little insect Easter egg?

Actually, it’s kind of a fun coincidence. I actually love insects as well. My boyfriend, he did zoology at university, and he especially did his dissertation on crickets and, like, cricket song, which is so cool. I never had a sort of academic view of them, but I just grew up really loving insects. For me, particularly spiders. Yeah, my mum loves spiders, as well. When I was quite young, she just sort of drilled into me, “You know, They’re definitely way more scared of you than you are of them.” Since then, I’ve always been really attached.

On set, Helaena’s bedroom is beautiful, and there’s loads of — I can’t remember what it’s called, the insects with the pins in them, which I like to think they all died of natural causes. On set, the live insects I got to work with were tiny little crickets in a cage. They kept making little escapes and jumping out, which was so fun. It was just really fun to work with real animals.

So, yeah, on set, crickets and in real life, spiders. Actually, it’s not an insect, but in this room, yesterday, was a bat. So that was really fun as well.

They eat insects, actually, don’t they?

This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.

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