House of the Dragon Summary: Eye Do

house of the dragon Episode 7 contains a funeral, a wedding and a bloody organ loss. Man, these are those Targaryen rites of passage Not for the lily liver.

The hour also marks the first time Daemon and Rhaenyra talk about what happened between them the night they snuck out of the Red Keep. And the fallout from this discussion will have far-reaching consequences as the season continues to unfold. Also, there’s a lot of dragon riding if that’s what you’re into! Read on for the highlights of the hour.

SEE YOU LATER | We open with Lady Laena’s funeral, which takes place on a cliff overlooking the ocean near High Tide. As the cameras scan the crowd, we see Laena and Daemon’s daughters clinging to Rhaenys. Otto Hightower is here wearing the Hand of the King brooch – he’s back baby! In High Velaryon, when Corlys’ brother Vaemond tells of how thick and true the family blood is and must never be diluted, Daemon doesn’t even try to suppress a giggle… and Rhaenyra’s son Jace (aka the one who looks after Being asked a bastard in the previous episode) takes note. Then Laena’s stone coffin is pushed into the water, and that’s it.

The atmosphere at the reception after the ceremony is strange. Jace is furious that no one cares that he’s mourning the loss of Ser Harwin Strong, aka his birth father, but Rhaenyra tells him to cover it all up – and Alicent watches the interaction from afar with interest. In another corner, Aegon complains to Aemond that he doesn’t want to marry her sister, Helaena, to whom he is now engaged. (Take that, Rhaenyra!) And when Ser Criston notes that Larys hasn’t stopped looking at Alicent since she arrived, she looks uncomfortable as she says it’s just an expression of pride: After the recent, uh, misfortune of his family he is the New Lord of Harrenhal.

And meanwhile, from the other side of the gathering, Rhaeynra and Daemon look at each other but don’t exchange a word. She still watches intently as Viserys approaches his brother with compassion and offers Daemon and his family an invitation to return to King’s Landing. But Daemon steadfastly refuses and storms off.

Eventually, almost everyone retreats to their quarters. Rhaenys laments that her daughter didn’t have the High Tide maesters to hand when she went into labor. “She wanted to come home, but he refused her,” she says; Corlys gently replies that what happened wasn’t Daemon’s fault. But Rhaenys is too sad and tired to continue the usual ruse. She calls her husband like he always does says he’s pursuing the Iron Throne to get justice for being passed over, but that he Yes, really just want the power and status for themselves. He argues that whatever he does is for her family’s legacy, but she doesn’t want it: she announces that she wants Driftmark to go through Laena’s line, not Laenor’s, so that those of real Velaryon blood can go in rule the ancestral seat of the family through their veins. “Rhaenyra’s children are not of your blood,” she says simply. “But Laena’s are. You are her legacy.”

RECOVER WHERE YOU LEFT OFF | Out on the beach, Daemon and Rhaenyra are walking and talking. She tells him that Laenor has shown no interest in maintaining her disguise for some time. Oh, and they tried making little kites together once. “We did our duty as best we could, but to no avail,” she says. “There was no joy in it. I found that elsewhere.” She regrets not ordering Ser Harwin to stay at King’s Landing, and she references the supposed curse of the old house, but Daemon says, “Come on, you know that Alicent and Otto had anything to do with it.”

Then they finally get to the heart of the matter: How he dumped her in that brothel back then. “I spared you. You were a kid,” he says. “Yes, I WAS a kid and look what my life has become without you,” she replies. She asks if he loved Laena (“We were lucky enough,” he admits), expressing her sympathy, then pulls him closer. “I’m not a kid anymore,” she says, accepting a kiss that he returns without hesitation.

Not long after, they find some shelter from the wind and surf and are able to break free. Unlike their last encounter of this nature, Daemon has no problem valarizing their Morghulis, if you get my meaning.

A NEW DRAGONRIDER RISES | Aemond, who stayed outside, makes his way further up the beach to where the dragons are sleeping. As he gently pets Vhagar, it wakes up and sniffs him deeply and for a moment looks like it wants to make s’mores out of its small, marshmallow-shaped head. But at his command, the beast calms down and the boy decides that’s a good sign: he climbs onto his back and they take off. It looks hairy there for a minute – the boy is almost done with a very steep fall and a flock of seabirds – but soon he gets the hang of it.

After landing, he grandly marches back to the castle, where he meets Rhaena, Daemon and Laena’s angry daughter. She is angry because the dragon was her mother’s and she planned to become its next master. “Your mother is dead and Vhagar now has a new rider,” Aemond explains, sparking a skirmish that ends up with Aemond, Rhaena, Baela, Jace, and Luke attempting to kill each other. Things get even bloodier when Aemond calls Jace and Luke “bastards”. And in the end, Aemond is missing an eye thanks to a blade Luke smashes through his face.

The commotion draws everyone to the Hall of Nine, where Viserys tries to figure out what happened. It should be noted that Daemon is leaning against the back of a door and appears to be watching in amusement Muppet Babies episode at all. When Alicent points the finger at Rhaenyra’s sons, the princess says they stand up to defamation and hardly hesitates as she comes up with the TOTAL FAKE OMG idea that Jace and Luke aren’t rightful heirs to the throne. “This is the ultimate betrayal,” she says, doubling down. So Viserys asks his younger son to name the person who told him that Rhaenyra’s children were not Laenor’s children. Aemond looks at his mother, but then says to Aegon, who says it clearly, “We know, father. Everyone knows. Just look at them.” Viserys ignores this and yells at his recalcitrant to stop fighting, apologize and move on. “Your father, your grandfather, your king demands it!” he exclaims.

That’s not enough for Alicent, who tells Viserys to take revenge on one of Rhaenyra’s son’s eyes. And when he doesn’t, she orders Ser Criston to cut out one of Lucerys’ peepers. But it doesn’t get that far – Viserys declares the matter settled, then makes sure the room knows he’ll rip off anyone else who brings up his grandchildren’s lineage. Well, the king has spoken and that’s all, right? Alicent says NO. She quickly grabs a blade from Viserys’ belt and retrieves Rhaenyra’s boy. Rhaenyra blocks them and they fight. When Ser Harrold starts screaming and everyone freaks out, Daemon joins the fray – and is quickly body checked by Criston.

So it’s just the two women arguing in the middle of a circle of onlookers, and Alicent has a breakdown that took years to prepare. “What have I done, but what was expected of me? Forever uphold the kingdom, the family, the law,” while “do what you will!” she says, holding the knife very, very close to the princess’s face. “Exhausting, isn’t it?” Rhaenyra sneers, “Hide under the cloak of your own righteousness. But now they see you for who you are.” Alicent stabs her former bestie as she pushes her away; the movement slices Rhaenyra’s forearm and her blood drips onto the floor. Aemond breaks the stunned silence and tells his mother that he lost an eye but gained a dragon, and they all stare at each other as they try to reconcile what just happened.

A LONG-AWAITED KEY TO THE HEAD | Otto later stops by Alicent’s quarters, and she expects a dress-down of the highest order. “I’ve never seen that side of you, my daughter,” he says admiringly. “I even doubted his existence.” She calls her behavior “ugly,” but he’s okay with it. “We’re playing an ugly game,” he reminds her. “And now, for the first time, I see that you have the determination to win it.” He advises her to go to Viserys, be repentant, “and I promise that in time you and I will triumph together. At least they have a dragon on their side now!

In Rhaenyra’s quarters, Laenor comes home alone from mourning the loss of his sister and is amazed to see his family bloodied. “I should have been there,” he says. “Those should be our house words,” she says dryly. She then informs him of Aemond’s insult. They talk about how she had hoped to bear his children. “I hate the gods for making me this way,” he says, but she calls him an honorable man with a good heart: “It’s a rare thing.” He lets her know that sidepiece Ser Qarl will soon join the Stepstones will return and Laenor will recommit to her marriage. “You deserve better than I do,” he says seriously. “You deserve a husband.”

And it seems that Rhaenyra agrees… sort of. When she and Daemon meet again, she uses High Valyrian when she asks him to help her fight Alicent. “I can’t face the Greens alone. Let’s bind our blood as Aegon the Conqueror did with his sisters,” she says, proposing that he become her husband and prince consort. But he points out that they cannot marry unless Laenor is dead. “I know,” she says matter-of-factly. And just like that, we see Daemon offer Qarl lots of gold to give Laenor “a quick death with witnesses”.

We think the princess quickly hatched a bloodthirsty plan to get what she wants. And that’s true – someone does die – but it is not Laenor. This is how it unfolds. Qarl aims his blade at Laenor while a servant looks on; The boy runs out of the room for help. Meanwhile, a random guy that Daemon knocked unconscious is dragged into the room and thrown into the fireplace, where he’s burned beyond recognition, leading anyone who comes running – including Rhaenys and Corlys – to believe that Laenor is dead.

As a result, Rhaenyra and Daemon are married in a ceremony that uses ceremonial blood and High Valyrians, and… shall I cheer for these two crazy children? You get the romantic treatment here and it just feels weird. Anyway, later we find out that Laenor is fine! He has shaved his head and is in a rowboat with Qarl, supposedly on his way to board a ship in the distance and head off somewhere where they can do their own thing.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think of the episode? Mute the comments!