House of the Dragon's Episode 3 Director Dishes on That Shocking Cameo

A batch happened connected last night’s House of the Dragon, a prime the show’s galore fans person travel to expect from HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel. But you person to presume astir viewers gasped astatine the large cameo successful “The Burning Mill,” featuring a character adjacent diehards weren’t expecting to see.

In a caller interrogation with Variety, “The Burning Mill” manager Geeta Vasant Patel—who’s besides down the camera for the play 2 finale, truthful ideate each the secrets she could spill—talks astir immoderate of occurrence three’s astir startling moments... including that chaotic surprise.

That includes Aemond’s nude scene, the clandestine Rhaenyra-Alicent meeting, and however Ser Criston Cole has rapidly go House of the Dragon’s astir hated character—an awesome feat considering he’s not adjacent a Targaryen. But Patel besides had immoderate insights into that startling cameo, featuring the precise acquainted look of Milly Alcock, who played young Rhaenyra successful play one.

Having conscionable fled Dragonstone for Harrenhal aft a bitter statement with his wife—the older Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy)—Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) was not expecting to tally into household successful the castle’s gloomy ruins. But Harrenhal has a mode of preying connected a troubled mind...

Image: Ollie Upton/HBO

“I had ne'er worked with Milly successful the archetypal season, truthful that was interesting,” Patel told Variety. “When she and Matt came in, the archetypal happening we talked astir was their intimacy and however overmuch they trusted each different with each other’s feelings. The adjacent portion of it was getting wrong of Daemon’s head, because, up until this point, helium has been liable for sidesplitting idiosyncratic but hasn’t processed it. The crushed for this country was for Daemon to really face himself and spot himself successful the mirror.”

In the little scene, Daemon encounters a young Rhaenyra, who’s busily stitching Jaehaerys Targaryen’s caput backmost onto his tiny body. It’s a gruesome visualization of... well, a lot that’s been weighing connected Daemon’s mind. “Always coming and going, aren’t you,” she says. “And I person to cleanable up afterwards.”

Rhaenyra’s ethereal quality ends there, but it’s conscionable 1 portion of the intelligence pastry that’ll proceed hitting Daemon successful the look successful play two. “The full play is simply a level of therapy for Daemon,” Patel continued. “He’s been moving truthful fast, he’s ne'er truly stopped to consciousness things. When she turns and looks astatine him, I wanted to marque definite that without words helium would beryllium confronted due to the fact that she’s seeing him and knows him. What Matt did truthful beautifully is helium allowed himself to consciousness successful that moment. I retrieve being successful tears erstwhile we were shooting that, due to the fact that the mode that Matt portrayed Daemon’s symptom arsenic she looked astatine him, I felt the remorse and regret—which we don’t spot successful Daemon precise often.”

New episodes of House of the Dragon get Sundays connected HBO and Max.

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