Fetch Her Grace’s sick burgundy riding leathers. And this time Rhaenyra means it. Episode 7 is the second-to-last installment of HBO‘s House of the Dragon Season 3, and the queen can no longer stand pat in the Red Keep, glowering at all the mounting bad news for Team Black. She’ll make time to somewhat hilariously ignore the complaints (she predicted) Master of Coin Torrhen Manderly has about becoming her regime’s financial scapegoat. But then, like so many other Dance of Dragons pieces falling into place, she is on the move with Syrax. To search for why Daemon has been an absentee prince and husband. To close down the continuing mystery of Sheepstealer and his rider. And to discover to her devastation that these are one and the same. In the Riverlands, along the Blue Fork of the Trident, the queen finds a Rhaena Targaryen willing to be immolated for her role in Jace’s death. But in this flame monster-heavy episode, Rhaenyra and her mount instead join a multi-dragon ladder match already in progress.

It’s some of the GOT universe’s best-ever dragon VFX. A tearing-flesh, talons-deep tussle that sees Sheepstealer attack Syrax, who is aided by Ser Addam’s mount Seasmoke, and who are all unsettled by the larger presence of Caraxes, who sinks his jaws into Sheepstealer’s neck. Rhaenyra tears her stepdaughter-cousin away from the fracas — “With me!” — and they fly back to King’s Landing, with Rhaena mortified to leave Sheepstealer, who eventually slinks off to lick his wounds. Daemon pets Caraxes’s snout, watching the old wild dragon go.

We could stay with this battle forever, but there is too much other shit happening. Before Alicent really arrives at Harrenhal, with her assassin-as-guide Ser Adrian (Barry Sloane), Aemond is racked by mommy complex sex dreams similar to Daemon’s last season. He awakens to actual sex with Alys, but pushes her away, only to discover his actual mom in the mystic castle’s leaky corridor. He touches her face to ensure she’s real. And then Aemond murders Adrian. “Sorry, Mother, but there are secrets here, and I can trust no stranger.” He does not reveal any dragon’s eggs. Instead, Alicent shares a strange dinner with her son and a woman she does not know, whose witch’s sense susses her ulterior motive. Worried for her mission as it applies to Helaena’s safety back in King’s Landing, Alicent passes on grabbing the Catspaw Dagger and instead serves Aemond nightshade tea, which causes him to fall — again — at Alys’s feet. She looks down at his poisoned ass. All these Targ boys are the same. “Idiot.”

Tumbleton scene report: fucked up. The Winter Wolves, 20,000 strong, with Criston Cole’s head on a pike, are only a day’s march away. But Daeron and Gwayne, fretting amongst themselves, can’t figure out why Ormund Hightower isn’t worried. Corlys has indeed been taken prisoner by the Greens, and Ormund hacks off his finger, complete with the lord’s Velaryon sigil ring, to mail to Ser Alyn. But that’s not it. “It seems there’s no escaping it,” Gwayne says to his nephew, mourning Cole while comparing the knight’s hubris to Ormund’s. “The dreams some have of covering themselves in everlasting glory.” If only these other Hightowers knew the self-satisfied lord’s ugliest secret weapon. A turncoat dragonrider. Outside T-Town, on the hill where he was ordered to surveil the Greens, Ser Ulf instead pledges himself and his mount to Ormund Hightower. “They will laugh at you no more,” Ormund oozes into Ulf the Ingrate’s ear. And the dragonseed, with hoarding visions of castles full of ale casks dancing in his drunk eyes, agrees. Rhaenyra, Daemon, Team Black? “They will burn.”

There are rage beasts everywhere in this episode, even ones who were supposed to be dead. Facing certain capture or death by advancing Rhaenyra loyalists, The Aegon-Larys-Lannister road trip severs their Clubfoot Whisperer from the group. Aegon’s own hubris has made the usurper declare a last stand as king. (“I will not have the histories say I was slain in ignominy by my own brother.”) But that is not at all how it goes down. In the dark forest, as Aegon and Lord Tyland are beset by warriors, and the former’s reputational courage fails him, they are saved by an awoken Sunfyre. Aegon scream-laughs as his damaged-but-still-deadly mount ignites hundreds of Blacks infantrymen. It is as if he rules again, reveling in all of the burning cruelty.

Back at the Red Keep, Rhaenyra banishes Rhaena to a chamber, where the sorrowful young woman is startled to learn Baela isn’t upset. She apologizes for Jace, but her sister draws her into an embrace. (“You will begin anew.”) Maybe Baela is already thinking about her own new thing, a relationship with Ser Alyn. But it’s harder for Rhaenyra to process what she has learned. In her rooms, she gazes at the imposter skull Daemon delivered; its death’s head grin seems to laugh at this twist in her thirst for vengeance. And it only makes the queen spiral again, back into her paranoiac ruminations over legitimacy. Her husband appears; he’s sorry, too, only wished to protect the daughter he neglected. “From what? What do you think I am?” She sends Daemon away. 

And runs into the arms of Mysaria. 

At first, Rhaenyra laments how she’s made a mess of what Viserys wished for her rule. For a time, she lashes out at Mysaria, always so soothing, yet so calculating. But that fades. Rhaenyra needs to be believed, to be treasured. They grow closer. And the Queen Whisperer queen whispers with a softness, just like that one time. “In this moment,” Mysaria says, “my queen – Rhaenyra – I have never been more certain of your rule.” Their kisses become hungrier, and they lay down together. 

If Rhaenyra knew what dreams were occurring in another nearby chamber, she might have stayed spiraling. Helaena’s foresight has revealed her giving birth. Then the dream scene shifts, there is an eclipse, and suddenly winter is coming. Prophetic visions, the kind Rhaenyra demanded Helaena tell her of early in this episode. And finally, more dragonflame. Much more. We finally glimpse Helaena in her own riding leathers, aboard Dreamfyre in the King’s Landing dragonpit, where her foresight reveals an angry mob massing at the entrance. There is only one episode left of House of the Dragon Season 3. We wonder what more will be revealed.

Hot D’s for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 7:

• Baela also had a moment with Addam, interrupted by dragon fights. When he asks for her help with securing Velaryon title, in the event he or Alyn “were to gain the favor of some highborn lady,” it almost feels like a proposal. Which must be why Addam looks crestfallen when Baela smiles and says “He has spoken to you then, your brother…”

• Alicent fled Harrenhal’s walls after delivering Aemond his poison drink. But she paused out there. What did she just do? Did it even work? And where will she go now? The dowager queen is alone for the first time this season.

• What will Daeron’s role be in the battles to come? With Gwayne, he continues to nominally reject Ormund’s grooming him as king. “I have no fear of insignificance,” he tells his uncle in confidence. “Rhaenyra may keep her crown for all I care.”

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.