House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6 Review

01 My First Reaction to House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6

I enjoyed episode 6 more than episode 5. It finally felt as though the season was moving, even if it tried to squeeze too much into one hour.

The opening surprised me more than anything else in the episode. I genuinely thought Criston was being set up for a huge last stand. Instead, he fights his way through the first ambush, tries to call for single combat and gets cut down by arrows before his grand ending can even begin. After that, I felt as though nearly every storyline was starting to crack at the same time: Rhaenyra and King’s Landing, Alicent and her children, Hugh and his wife, Ulf and the people now ordering him around, and Corlys and Alyn.

What kept me watching was seeing how little control everyone actually has. Rhaenyra has the Iron Throne, but the city still won’t listen to her. Daemon can scare one person at a time, yet even he can’t force the Gold Cloaks back to work. Ormund talks like a man who understands war and then looks sick the moment violence happens in front of him. Aemond thinks he is getting stronger, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Alys is pulling him deeper into Harrenhal.

My main problem was the pace. Criston’s death should have been one of the biggest moments of the whole season, but the episode barely gives me time to take it in. I felt the same way during Helaena’s scenes and the attack on Corlys. I cared about all of it, but the episode kept hurrying me towards the next storyline.

I liked episode 6 a lot more than episode 5, but I wanted it to breathe. The best scenes were strong enough without the episode rushing away from them.

02 I Was Expecting Criston Cole to Go Out in a Blaze of Glory

I was convinced Criston Cole was about to get the big warrior’s death he had been asking for. When he walked into that field and the bodies suddenly came alive around him, I thought the episode was setting up one final showcase for him. He cuts through the first ambush, and for a moment I honestly thought he might somehow fight his way out.

Then Oscar Tully, Roderick Dustin and the larger Black force appear, and I knew he was finished. Even then, Criston tries to control the way it ends. He ties Alicent’s token around his sword and calls for single combat, clearly hoping for the sort of death people would sing about afterwards.

He doesn’t get anything close to that. Black Aly shoots him before the duel can even start, and the last arrow goes straight through his face. I genuinely wasn’t expecting it. I thought Criston would die in a blaze of glory, not be shot down from a distance like that. It was sudden, brutal and almost embarrassing for him, which is probably why it worked so well.

I have disliked Criston for most of the series, but I can’t deny that Fabien Frankel made his final episodes some of Criston’s best. I didn’t suddenly feel sorry for everything he had done, but I did understand how empty he had become. He thought choosing death would finally give him control over his own life. In the end, he couldn’t even control the way he died, and all the men who followed him paid for it too.

03 Helaena’s Breakdown Is the Episode’s Quietest Horror

I knew Alicent and Helaena’s escape was unlikely to work, but seeing them dragged back still felt bleak. They end up with even less freedom than before, and now Rhaenyra knows about the pregnancy. From that point on, every scene with Helaena made me nervous.

The part that stayed with me wasn’t the political bargaining. It was Helaena sitting there, barely speaking, refusing food and pushing the needle into her own skin. Her visions have always been strange and unsettling, but this was different. I felt as though everyone had ignored her for years and had only started listening because they could finally use what she sees.

When the tapestry points Alicent towards Aemond at Harrenhal, she takes the information to Rhaenyra because it is the only thing she has left to bargain with. I could see exactly what she was trying to do: give Rhaenyra something useful and hope it buys Helaena and the baby some safety. Instead, Rhaenyra sends her to approach Aemond herself.

Olivia Cooke barely needs any dialogue in that scene. I could see Alicent realising that she might be sacrificing one child to save another. Leaving Helaena behind also feels dangerous because she is clearly already close to breaking. I found that choice more frightening than most of the open violence in the episode.

What upset me most was that people only started treating Helaena’s visions as important when they could use them to find Aemond.

04 Rhaenyra Has the Throne but King’s Landing Is Slipping Away

I understood why Rhaenyra refused Daemon’s plan to fly to Tumbleton and burn Ormund’s position. The people underneath the dragons would still be her own subjects. At the same time, I could feel her running out of good choices. Every time she hesitates, her enemies seem to gain more ground.

I really liked the scene where the Gold Cloaks resign around Daemon. He is used to making people obey by being the most dangerous person in the room, but that means nothing when the men are unpaid, frightened and tired of being killed. Watching his usual intimidation fail was strangely satisfying.

When Daemon goes into the city in Gold Cloak armour, I expected him to uncover one clear conspiracy. Instead, the scene made the situation feel much worse. This isn’t just a handful of agents who can be arrested. Ordinary people are angry, and more of them are starting to see Rhaenyra as the problem.

Rhaenyra’s public audience was painful to watch. The complaints keep coming, some of them almost ridiculous until I remember that they are signs of a city falling apart. She eventually walks away, and then the Iron Throne cuts her. It is an obvious image, but I still liked it. She finally has the throne and looks less comfortable on it with every episode.

05 Gwayne and Daeron Are Becoming the Greens’ Most Interesting Pair

I was relieved when Gwayne reached Tumbleton because leaving Criston’s doomed army was the smartest choice anyone made in the opening. Then he meets Ormund and immediately finds another man treating war like a game. Ormund talks down to everyone and seems completely sure that other people will handle the dangerous parts for him.

Daeron’s conversation with Gwayne changed my opinion of him. When he admits that he hates who he becomes around Ormund and doesn’t even want to be king, he finally stops feeling like a name everyone else is using. For the first time, I saw the frightened young man underneath all the talk about crowns and claims.

The assassination attempt was one of my favourite parts of the episode. Gwayne notices something is wrong before Ormund does and reacts straight away. The fight is quick and nasty, and then Ormund vomits as soon as it is over. I laughed, but it also told me everything I needed to know about him. He likes the idea of war as long as he doesn’t have to look at it too closely.

Freddie Fox has somehow made Gwayne one of my favourite characters this season. I didn’t expect that at all. He is still a Hightower, but he seems to recognise when the men around him are lying to themselves, whether that is Criston chasing a glorious death or Ormund trying to turn Daeron into a king.

06 Alys Gives Aemond Five New Reasons Not to Leave Harrenhal

As soon as Aemond started talking about leaving to find Vhagar, I knew Alys would give him another reason to stay. I wasn’t expecting that reason to be five dragon eggs hidden at Harrenhal, apparently laid by Dreamfyre generations earlier.

I could immediately see why the eggs worked on him. Alys isn’t just offering safety. She is giving Aemond a picture of a future where he is important again, where Harrenhal becomes the centre of a new Targaryen line and she is standing beside him. That is exactly the sort of thing he wants to believe.

I didn’t see their kiss as romantic. To me, it felt like Alys tightening her hold on him. She has healed him, protected him and told him exactly what he wants to hear. Now she has shown him a future he might be willing to do almost anything for.

The interesting part for me is that Aemond clearly knows she is dangerous. He just wants what she is offering badly enough to stay anyway.

07 Ulf and Hugh Are Already Tired of Being Useful

I could already see Ulf getting tired of the way he is being treated. He has Silverwing and a title, but he is still being ordered around and told he cannot even return to the taverns where people know him. Of course he ignores the order, and of course he ends up running into Daemon.

I found Daemon humiliating Ulf funny because Ulf can be unbearable, but it is also a terrible way to treat someone whose dragon you desperately need. Rhaenyra’s side keeps acting as though Hugh and Ulf should feel grateful forever. I think they are giving both men reasons to stop being loyal.

Hugh’s reunion with his wife was even harder to watch. He arrives with a dragon and a new title, almost as though those things should explain why he vanished. She only sees the husband who wasn’t there while everything fell apart. I could understand both of them, which made the scene worse.

These scenes looked small beside Criston’s death and Helaena’s visions, but I think they will matter later. The Blacks have powerful dragons, yet they are making the riders feel unwanted and disrespected. That seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

08 Aegon Chooses Exile While Corlys Finally Chooses a Side

I still enjoy the strange group of Aegon, Larys and the badly injured Tyland on the road. Tyland wants to rebuild at Casterly Rock, while Larys wants to cross the Narrow Sea. When Aegon asks Tyland whether he is a terrible man, Tyland gives the safest answer possible, and I could almost see Aegon realising he was never going to get honesty from him.

Aegon’s decision to go to Essos didn’t feel like a clever plan to me. It felt like he was tired of the whole fight. He is still dangerous, but I don’t think he believes the crown is worth crawling back towards anymore. Tom Glynn-Carney somehow keeps making Aegon pathetic, funny and threatening in the same scene.

Corlys had the more serious storyline for me. Rhaenyra needs Velaryon men to replace the Gold Cloaks, so Alyn goes to ask for them. When Corlys complains about Rhaenyra refusing to legitimise her dragonriders, Alyn reminds him how long it took him to acknowledge his own sons. I was glad someone finally said it directly to him.

Alyn’s words clearly get through to him, and Corlys agrees to help. Then the Hightower men attack before he can do anything. Seeing the Sea Snake dragged down made the ending feel genuinely uncertain, even though I don’t think the show has confirmed that he is dead.

09 House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6 Ending Explained

I don’t think the ending confirms that Corlys is dead. We see him attacked, choked and brought to the ground, but the episode cuts away before showing anything final. My guess is that the Hightowers have captured him. Corlys and his fleet are far more useful to them alive than dead.

What worried me more was how far Ormund’s reach now seems to extend. This is no longer just about coins, speeches and murdered Gold Cloaks in King’s Landing. His men can strike the Velaryons at the exact moment Rhaenyra needs their help.

By the end, I could see several problems lining up for the next episode. Alicent is heading to Harrenhal to reach Aemond, while Alys has just given him a reason to stay. Gwayne is now protecting Daeron. Ulf and Hugh are becoming more frustrated with Rhaenyra’s side, and Aegon is preparing to disappear into Essos.

The attack on Corlys is brief, but it still worked as a cliffhanger for me. Rhaenyra finishes the episode with fewer people she can rely on, while the different Green factions are spreading out and becoming harder to deal with.

My reading of the ending: Corlys is probably a prisoner rather than a confirmed casualty, and losing him now leaves Rhaenyra in an even worse position.

10 My Verdict and Score

I had a much better time with episode 6 than I did with episode 5. It is messy, but I was never bored. Criston dies, Daeron survives an assassination attempt, the Gold Cloaks walk away from Daemon, Helaena gives Alicent a clue, Alys reveals five dragon eggs and Corlys is attacked before the credits.

At the same time, it felt like enough story for two episodes. I wanted more time after Criston’s death. I wanted Helaena’s scenes to be quieter and longer. The attack on Corlys happens so close to the credits that it mostly feels like the start of next week’s story.

Even with those complaints, I liked it. Gwayne and Daeron worked far better together than I expected, Alicent going to Harrenhal has me worried already, and every scene between Aemond and Alys makes me trust her less. Most importantly, the episode left me actually impatient to see what happens next.

My score: 8/10. I really enjoyed it, especially after the slower fifth episode. I just wish it had given its biggest moments more room to land.

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