House of the Dragon season 3 episode 4 opens with a gut-punch of scale: 15,000 of Ormund Hightower’s soldiers descend on Tumbleton, spreading out through the town’s houses like they own the place. And in a way, they do now.
Ormund Hightower Takes Tumbleton, and Rhaenyra Scrambles
Ormund has zero sympathy for anyone who bent the knee to Rhaenyra, and here’s the kicker: Daeron is standing right beside him. Gone are the golden-blond Targaryen locks we’re used to seeing on this family, and honestly, the two of them look surprisingly comfortable together, like this alliance has been simmering for a while.
Rhaenyra, understandably, is furious about Ormund’s power play. She pulls together what’s left of her small council (and I do mean small at this point) to figure out a response. Orwyle pushes for a peaceful resolution, and in the end, Rhaenyra sends Hugh and Ulf to keep watch over the town instead of escalating things further.
Mysaria, meanwhile, makes a savvy political suggestion: name a Master of Coin so the public has someone else to be angry at besides the queen herself. Rhaenyra takes the advice and appoints Torrhen Manderly to the role.
She also turns her attention to Ormund directly, asking Alicent for insight into the man. Alicent delivers one useful nugget: Ormund has an unusually heightened sense of smell.
Corlys Sails Off, and Alyn Steps Into the Hand of the Queen Role
Corlys walks away from King’s Landing after clashing with Rhaenyra over her refusal to legitimize Alyn and Addam as true Velaryons. He heads back to sea instead, intent on handling the Triarchy pirates who’ve been threatening Driftmark.
Alyn doesn’t go with him, though. He stays in King’s Landing and steps up as Hand of the Queen, and he wastes no time proving his worth, floating the idea of using cats to deal with the city’s rat problem. Small moment, but it says a lot about how practical and grounded he is compared to everyone else jockeying for power around him.
Aegon and Larys Track Down Sunfyre
Elsewhere, Aegon and Larys Strong go looking for Sunfyre. Aegon is convinced his dragon survived, though Larys clearly has his doubts. When a group of men shows up and starts asking questions, Larys realizes they’ve overstayed their welcome, and the two quickly pose as clergy members to avoid suspicion. Before they slip away, Aegon grabs one of Sunfyre’s scales, a small but telling detail that suggests he’s not ready to let go of that connection.
Criston Cole Arrives at Harrenhal With a Brutal Plan
Over at Harrenhal, Alys greets Criston Cole and his incoming soldiers, who are searching for Aemond. She tells them King’s Landing has fallen and that Aemond fled the city. We, the audience, know the real story, that Aemond is dead, but these soldiers have no idea.
Criston sees an opportunity here. He wants to use this window to help Ormund build up his forces against Rhaenyra, and his plan involves attacking the riverlords, despite their army being far stronger. The logic is cold but effective: the assault would serve as a distraction, pulling Rhaenyra’s focus away from the Hightowers, and since dragons wouldn’t be part of this particular fight, it wouldn’t turn into an instant bloodbath the way most confrontations do in this war.
A Disturbing Assault in Tumbleton Leads to Ormund’s Harsh Justice
Things take a dark turn in Tumbleton when a soldier named Garrick of Whitegrove attempts to rape Kat, who is Hugh’s wife. When her family tries to step in and stop him, Garrick assaults them too. It’s a genuinely disturbing sequence, and the show doesn’t shy away from how ugly it gets.
Garrick is brought before Ormund for this, and Ormund doesn’t hesitate. He publicly orders that Garrick be castrated and have his arm broken. It’s brutal, sure, but it also tells you something about how Ormund wants to be seen: as a man who metes out swift, uncompromising justice, at least when it serves him.
Daemon Confronts Rhaena and Learns the Truth About Jace’s Death
In the Vale, Daemon pays a visit to Jeyne Arryn. After a bit of teasing and belittling on her end, Jeyne agrees to lend him some gold, though the extra weight makes for a rough flight home for Caraxes.
On the way back, the dragon sets Daemon down on a hilltop, where he stumbles across Rhaena hiding in a cave with Sheepstealer. This is the moment Daemon puts it together: Rhaena is the one responsible for Jace’s death.
Daemon argues that it’s too dangerous for her to stay out here with Sheepstealer, insisting the dragon can’t be tamed, even though Rhaena has clearly done exactly that. But Rhaena isn’t budging. She knows she can’t face Rhaenyra after what happened, so she chooses to stay in self-imposed exile as a kind of penance.
When Daemon returns to King’s Landing, he decides to protect her secret. He shows up carrying the charred head of a random shepherd, claiming it belongs to the man who supposedly tamed Sheepstealer. It’s a small act of mercy from a character who doesn’t get many of those, and it hit me harder than I expected.
Daeron Is Forced Into a Horrifying Test of Loyalty
Back at court, Torrhen Manderly, now the official Master of Coin, makes his first appearance in that capacity. Ormund also gets word of Aemond’s death, and he’s clearly not pleased about it. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra orders her men to scrub away the “Queen of Bastards” graffiti that keeps popping up around the city.
As the Gold Cloaks patrol the streets, tension boils over into intimidation and outright violence, a small but pointed reminder of just how fragile Rhaenyra’s grip on the capital really is.
Then comes the episode’s most gut-wrenching moment. Ormund decides to test Daeron’s loyalty by making him carry out his own brand of justice. Wanting to shape Daeron into a king he can control, Ormund orders him to kill Leo, who happens to be Kat’s brother, the very man who tried to protect her from Garrick earlier in the episode.
Daeron does it. He stabs Leo with Ormund’s own sword, and Tessarion burns the body afterward. It’s a chilling scene, made worse by the fact that Leo did nothing wrong. He was the hero of that earlier moment, and now he’s dead because Ormund needed to prove a point.
Ormund is clearly grooming Daeron into becoming his puppet king, and he’s not being subtle about it. As the episode ends, he simply says: “Now we begin.”
The Episode Review: Ormund’s Long Game Is Terrifyingly Effective
We’re at the halfway mark of the season now, and this episode makes it painfully clear how far behind Rhaenyra is in this chess match. While she’s hastily throwing together a small council and reacting to crisis after crisis, Ormund is several steps ahead, methodically setting his pieces in place.
Daeron’s arc is what really got under my skin this episode. You can see exactly where this is headed: Ormund is shaping him into a weapon, and the final scene proves he’s already thought this through with disturbing precision. The little touch of Daeron asking the room to clear after the raven arrives from Harrenhal says so much without a single line of dialogue. It shows there’s a wall between his composed public face and whatever’s actually churning underneath. His outburst afterward confirms it. That calm exterior is a mask, and it’s starting to crack.
What makes this even more interesting is how it contrasts with Rhaenyra. She’s scattered, distracted, and visibly overwhelmed by just how hard it is to actually rule King’s Landing, as opposed to simply wanting the throne. The show seems to be building toward her becoming something like the “mad queen” archetype, the way Daenerys eventually did in Game of Thrones. It’s a compelling direction, though I do wonder if the show is rushing her there a bit.
And can we talk about Daemon for a second? He’s easily the most magnetic character on this show right now, yet he keeps getting sidelined in terms of actual screen time. His scene with Rhaena this episode, choosing to protect her instead of exposing her, was one of the most human, quietly devastating moments of the whole season. It’s a crime that a character this compelling isn’t getting more room to breathe.
With Criston Cole plotting his riverlands distraction, Ormund tightening his grip on Daeron, and Rhaenyra still finding her footing, the battle lines for the back half of this season are basically drawn. Where it goes from here is genuinely anyone’s guess, and that’s exactly the kind of uncertainty that keeps me coming back every week.
House of the Dragon season 3 episode 3 | House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5
