House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 5 Is Really Dragging Its Feet

4 min readHouse of the Dragon season 3 is like a layered, multi-tier dessert. By now, you’ve only stuck around to finish off the HBO fantasy series if you really have the sweet tooth for it. But after the whipped cream and chocolate syrup highs of season 3’s first three episodes—maybe the most delicious that this series has ever tasted—we’ve now hit a middle, frozen layer that’s taking weeks to thaw out.It’s possible that HBO didn’t understand our appetites for a show about dragons and medieval warfare to feature less people talking in rooms. Maybe, the same issues around budgets and pacing that dogged season 2 are just inevitable byproducts of a project this ambitious. As I mentioned last week, it feels like our characters are even growing restless in their prisons. If we don’t deal with the endless Harrenhal purgatories or Red Keep secret passageway murders soon, we might never escape until we say goodbye to House of the Dragon for good.In episode 5, House of the Dragon continues to advance Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) struggles following her takeover of King’s Landing. A woman on the throne is a problem in this universe, never a solution. House of the Dragon could have changed that, but since it’s a prequel to Game of Thrones, it’s stuck rehashing the same issues that women still face 200 years later.That’s always been one of the strangest things about Westeros. Two centuries pass between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, and there isn’t a single advancement in social dynamics or technology. We invented the gas turbine and the computer within the same century. In King’s Landing? Abortion tea is about the most sophisticated medical advancement they have, and the maesters in House of the Dragon brew it up constantly.Ollie Upton/HBORhaenyra and Daemon have more than a handful of dragons. So, what’s the problem?After episode 4 briefly introduced that Helaena (Phia Saban) was pregnant, episode 5 confirms it by including a scene in which Alicent (Olivia Cooke) begs her daughter not to have another child. Helaena refuses, screaming “It’s mine!” Then, they attempt to escape the castle through a secret passageway that traps them until next week. Let’s just say… I really want to hear what George R. R. Martin thinks about all this. Helaena left her daughter Jaehaera behind, for god’s sake. It all just felt very out of character.Same goes for Daemon (Matt Smith), who changes from wanting to conquer the globe in episode 3 to berating Rhaenyra about withholding the City Watch’s pay this week. What do you care, Daemon? I’m with Rhaenyra here. There are countless threats remaining to her claim to the throne. A new one just popped up last week, and they’re murdering all the City Watch members anyway! Is the problem with the Watch, or their killer? (It’s Ormund, by the way.)Ollie Upton/HBOWhat’s next for these two?Daemon is seemingly still in a prison of his own making until the plot catches up, which is also true for the character he swapped Harrenhal with: Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). The former prince finally wakes up this week after he was out cold for two episodes. Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is keeping him in the fetal position with her witchy medicines while she wards off sellswords looking to make a bounty on his head.It’s not that this pairing didn’t occur in Fire & Blood, because Aemond does canonically shack up with Rivers. Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) is there in the book, as well, and they fight a lot. But the show differs in that Aemond isn’t just stuck in Harrenhal for a bit. Here, he’s been out of commission all season so far.Another important character just waiting for his time to shine again is the failed King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). He and his scarred face have been wandering around Westeros with Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) and now Ser Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), hoping to either meet back up with Cole or figure out a way to get revenge against Aemond. Aegon II is a spoiled brat and a coward, though, even when he was king. I understand House of the Dragon’s decision to send him on a humbling quest around the Crownlands, but Larys is right when he finally tells him off this episode. “You could have risen to greatness,” Larys says. “But instead, you trampled your birthright in the mud.”Theo Whiteman/HBOSer Criston returns!Ser Criston Cole, meanwhile, is the only character actively fighting in the war for the last two episodes. The reluctant Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) has been trudging through leech-filled swamps and midnight raids for him as they attempt to tire out Daemon’s army. The Riverlands host is led by Roderick Dustin’s (Tommy Flanagan) White Wolves of Winterfell and Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), but neither has had much screen time this season.Still, it seems that a battle between Cole’s army and the Rivermen is upon us next week. Near the end of the episode, Cole attempts to rally his troops into a suicide mission with a speech about suffering and rising to the occasion. I much preferred the line Cole gave to Gwayne when they talked on their own before the speech: “I am the realm’s greatest warrior, and I will die as such.”Folks, that sounds like a promise for next week if I’ve ever heard one.