House of the Dragon Episode 5

2. Before her death, Rhea Royce gets in some wicked insults towards her estranged husband Daemon. Her quip about the Vale sheep being "prettier" is a reference ...

Let's dive into the interesting details and moments from this week's episode... What a HUGE episode it was — officially the mid-point of the season, with all the bubbling tensions culminating in what fans have dubbed the Green Wedding.

With his first wife out of the picture, who will become Prince Daemon Targaryen's second spouse? The answer might surprise you.

In Episodes 1 and 2 of House of the Dragon, little Laena Velaryon (Nova Foueillis-Mosé) is the cause of significant tension among House Targaryen and House Velaryon, as the 12-year-old was presented as a potential match to the king upon the death of Queen Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke). Surrounded by the bloodshed and chaos that breaks out as a result of a grotesque fight between [Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel)](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-criston-cole-dornish-family-tree) and Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod), Daemon appears to only have eyes for one young woman, and this time it isn’t his niece. When Daemon and Laena meet, she’s 23 and betrothed to a spoiled son of the Sealord of Braavos. This will probably happen in Episode 6, when the show’s risky time jump of over a decade occurs. In The Rogue Prince and [The Princess and the Queen](https://www.inverse.com/culture/rhaenyra-alicent-queerbaiting-house-of-the-dragon), Rhea’s death is untimely, but natural. [grooming his niece](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-episode-4-play-game-of-thrones) and almost “ [stealing her maidenhood](https://www.inverse.com/culture/house-of-the-dragon-episode-4-sex-scenes-game-of-thrones),” he’s invited to return to attend Rhaenyra and Laenor Velaryon’s wedding banquet. The Inverse Analysis — Considering House of the Dragon has stayed close to its prequel roots for the majority of its run, and that Nanna Blondell has been confirmed to portray an adult Laena Velaryon, we’re pretty certain we’ll see Daemon and Laena tie the knot. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire prequels](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/winds-of-winter-game-of-thrones-book-update) — go against the source material. Later, Laena and Daemon’s twin daughters were betrothed to Rhaenyra’s two eldest sons. Rhea (Rachel Redford) catches him amid a tantrum he’s throwing over [King Viserys I Targaryen’s](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-king-viserys-targaryen-death-explained-book-canon) (Paddy Considine) treatment of him and, within minutes of viewers meeting her, Daemon murders her. Laena and Daemon were a power couple, and their marriage was celebrated by nearly all of Westeros and Essos — except for King Viserys and his court, who considered it another sign of Daemon’s disrespect. [Lady Rhea Royce](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/lady-rhea-who-is-daemon-targaryen-wife-house-of-the-dragon?utm_campaign=inverse&utm_content=1661415840&utm_medium=owned&utm_source=facebook), we hardly knew ye.

The nuptials of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate) take a sharp, bloody turn.

It’s a shame because Laenor and Rhaenyra’s arrangement was as promising and progressive as things get in Westeros, even centuries later; she accepts his sexuality and he accepts her colorful history, and they agree to live and let live while performing the requisite duties of the crown and their houses. Indeed, one could argue that “House of the Dragon” shows its more primitive society’s values in this scene; Joffrey is barely wiped off the floor before the marriage proceeds and everyone acts like a knight didn’t commit murder while people were barely done with dinner. The events in “House of the Dragon” took place long before any of this, evidencing Westeros’ long history of savage marriage festivities. Martin’s “Fire & Blood](https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/house-of-the-dragon-fire-and-blood-book-what-happens-1234749701/),” but almost all of them are between direct siblings. But the citizens of Westeros are no better; over the course of “Thrones” and now “Dragon,” it looks like weddings are the top chosen occasion for violent, vengeful murder. The young and decidedly not in love couple are barely even related, a victory in all seven kingdoms, but their nuptials were far from uneventful, and not in a good way.

The bride and doom of Valyria: (L-R) Matt Smith, Gavin Spokes, Emily Carey, Paddy Considine, Milly Alcock, Theo Nate, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, ...

He says he'll be flying to the Eyrie, the seat of House Arryn in the Vale, and petitioning Lady Jeyne to give it to him. If the point of that is to show how people get ground up in the gears of the Targaryen Dynasty, box checked. On a show called House of the Dragon! In the Driftmark dunes, Laenor and his horseplay pal Ser Joffrey demonstrate how Joffrey got the nickname "Knight of Kisses." The hall of the Iron Throne has been turned into the welcome reception for the royal wedding. Corlys suggests that Laenor's "true nature" is just a phase, and that the realm will welcome Rhaenyra's succession, which is a real one-two punch of pure wrongness there, my guy. "It is the only thing I have to my f***ing name!" Back in the godswood at the Red Keep, Queen Alicent runs into the prodigiously creepy Larys Strong (son of Lord Lyonel, brother to Harwyn Strong, who's turned up a couple times on the show, and who's gonna be hopping a few rungs up the call sheet next week). says Laenor, which only serves to make us imagine the endless string of disappointed and frustrated geese that have had to put up with Laenor's yeomanlike ministrations. The show takes this as the first of several opportunities to direct our attention to the king's less-than-robust health (drink!). A coughing, wheezing king (drink!) is greeted by Corlys, who steps off the Driftwood Throne to bend the knee. This recap of House of the Dragon's fifth episode contains spoilers for ...

Viserys discovered about Rhaenyra slipping out of the palace with Daemon to some sketchy areas in the previous episode. Indignant by his daughter's small ...

The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). Thanks to the time difference, the episode will be released on September 19 (Monday) in some regions. [House of Targaryen](/topic/house-of-targaryen)with this decision. But her request to her father was for the removal of [Otto](/topic/otto)Hightower from the council. [Rhaenyra](/topic/rhaenyra)sneaking out of the palace with Daemon to some not-so-respectable places. [House of the Dragon](/topic/house-of-the-dragon)show is eventually teasing the much-anticipated dispute between Fire and Blood after introducing several influential houses in Westeros.

In We Light the Way, it's time for Rhaenyra Targaryen to finally say "I do."

"Ser Laenor is quite dear to me, as I know the princess is to you. Next up to congratulate the royals is a lord from House Royce. "I've always feared the day you'd have to marry a woman, and now it comes," the chap says. Daemon calls it a tragic accident, but Ser Royce accuses Daemon of being the culprit. Queen Alicent is watching the commotion from the balcony of her chambers. "Ser Laenor is a good and decent man, but you did not choose him. Viserys and the new Hand of the King exchange concerned glances. "The time is coming, Alicent. "The king will die. We've heard a few references to Daemon Targaryen's wife -- Rhea Royce, or "the bronze bitch" as Daemon calls her -- but we've never actually met her. With a backdrop of pouring rain, as with all good farewells, she tells her father she regrets the king's decision to expel him. After being dismissed as Hand of the King in the final moments of episode 4, Otto Hightower is on the way out of King's Landing.

'House of the Dragon': Rhea Royce, Daemon's wife, is introduced before her death in Episode 3. Read our appreciation of her.

In a post-show featurette HBO released after the episode aired, executive producer Ryan Condal pointed out that the vagueness of that line seemed the perfect place to introduce a little Daemon deviance; later in the Dragon episode, Rhaenys reports that Rhea’s neck and head were “crushed,” leaving little question regarding what Daemon did with the rock he picked up just after his wife’s… * Hmm, after that dancefloor beat-down-turned-murder, perhaps Ser Criston is not the tenderhearted young lad I’ve been led to believe? (For what it’s worth, in Fire & Blood, Rhea “lingered for nine days before finally feeling well enough to leave her bed, only to collapse and die within an hour of rising.”) “…There came a tragic mishap, of the sort that shapes the destiny of kingdoms: the “bronze bitch” of Runestone, Lady Rhea Royce, fell from her horse whilst hawking and cracked her skull upon a stone,” George R.R. (Read [a full recap](https://tvline.com/2022/09/18/house-of-the-dragon-recap-season-1-episode-5/).) Admittedly, though, that was more about goading the Hand of the King over his own wife’s recent death and less about Daemon divesting himself of a life partner he sorely loathed.

As the dance continues, the camera cuts back again to Rhaenyra's bodyguard and lover, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — a bit of foreshadowing of his final ...

But as personal grudges continue to escalate, the “Dance of the Dragons” will transform from a literal dance into a symbolic one: The dance of swords and knights on the battlefield. Martin’s world, and the [Game of Thrones](https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones) prequel series [House of the Dragon](https://www.polygon.com/house-of-the-dragon) is no exception. The view of the action is obscured from the high table — a potent visual metaphor for the Targaryens’ myopia — and Rhaenyra gets shoved aside amid the jockeying of the crowd. As soon as the body is dragged away, someone (presumably Viserys) decides that it would be best to get this wedding out of the way as soon as possible, before anyone else dies. This is Viserys’ fatal flaw: He only has eyes for Rhaenyra and his dream of keeping Targaryens on the throne for the next hundred years, failing to see the rats scurrying around the edges of his grand plan. The secret ceremony that follows is held amid the scraps of an abandoned feast, decaying and nibbled on by rats. The happy (or at least content, with an understanding that their marriage is a political arrangement) couple stays at the center of the frame as the assembled lords and ladies get up to join the dance. (Look up “Blood and Cheese, Dance of the Dragons” if you’re curious.) These hints point toward where the story is going. The first season of [House of the Dragon](https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516586&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2Fseries%2Fhouse-of-the-dragon%3Foffer_id%3D5%26transaction_id%3D102c87c7%255B%25E2%2580%25A6%255D4ed39326beedc6012ca%26utm_source%3DVox%2BMedia%26utm_medium%3Daffiliate&referrer=polygon.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F23361934%2Fhouse-dragon-episode-5-review-recap) moves much more quickly than Game of Thrones: Five episodes in, and we’ve already covered a half a decade in the lives of [King Viserys Targaryen](https://www.polygon.com/23328660/house-dragon-viserys-iron-throne-cut) (Paddy Considine) and [his backstabbing royal family](https://www.polygon.com/23344676/house-dragon-episode-4-review-targaryen). [Queen Alicent’s (Emily Carey) green dress](https://www.polygon.com/23356938/house-dragon-green-dress-alicent-wedding) in this week’s episode is a great example of this visual storytelling, as are the rats slurping up the blood on the dance floor at the end of the episode. But then he looks back out over the dance, concentrating on his daughter at the center of the swirling fabrics and outstretched limbs. [Alliances are shifting, factions are forming](https://www.polygon.com/23322393/house-dragon-houses-characters-explained), and animosities are deepening.

This blows up in their faces when Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — who wants something more than being Rhaenyra's secret "whore" — causes a brawl at the couple's ...

At a celebration before the wedding, Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod), Laenor's lover, exposed the Rhaenyra's plan to keep Criston as her secret whore. At this point, audiences are quick to pick up on the behaviors that several members of the Targaryen family routinely engage in. This blows up in their faces when Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — who wants something more than being Rhaenyra's secret "whore" — causes a brawl at the couple's wedding.

Relationships are getting sticking in King's Landing, but Queen Alicent seems to be the only one able to maneuver them in her favor.

By the end of the episode, Alicent makes her decision and comes into her own. She moved where her father told her to move, she produced the male heir expected of her, she played the role she thought she had to play as the subservient, caring wife and queen. Alicent has to choose between her children and her former friend who has already proven she has no allegiance to Alicent. Suddenly, Alicent is stuck in a crossroads of her own, pulled between her conscience and her royal duty to care for her King and his desires, and her loyalty to her family name and home of Oldtown. Otto makes it clear to Alicent that, while she may trust her husband and her best friend/stepdaughter, which is all well and good and so sweet, in the end, Rhaenyra will have no choice but to betray Alicent. Hey, the only way to truly spice up an uncle and niece relationship is to throw a good ol’ cousin in there. The only way for Rhaenyra to stake her claim to the throne is to get rid of her father’s sons. Unfortunately, the Knight of Kisses finds himself on the other end of Cole’s rage, and before the end of the evening, this love square becomes a triangle. Take me to Dragonstone and make me your wife,” Rhaenyra says in a way that sounds vaguely like a threat, but also somehow a plea. We got this season’s wedding-gone-awry— a Thrones staple—some nice symbolism in the form of color, and enough love triangles and squares to require a refresher course in geometry. In fact, she basically begs him to marry her during her wedding festivities. Just because Rhaenyra is set to be wed doesn’t mean she’s over her little crush on her uncle.