Rhaenyra's grip on the Iron Throne frays as Daemon lies, Ormund Hightower emerges, and a secret prince is revealed
In 'Tumbleton,' the fourth episode of season three, Queen Rhaenyra's inexperienced rule is tested by a false confession from Daemon, a new Hightower threat, and the revelation of a hidden Targaryen prince.
The Queen's uneasy reign
Rhaenyra Targaryen has achieved her goal and sits on the Iron Throne, but the halfway point of season three reveals a ruler struggling with the weight of the crown. Her small council is a nest of bickering, with her two most trusted advisors, Daemon and Mysaria, unable to stop sniping at each other. One council member quit and left town on a horse, and Rhaenyra is already spending a lot of time sighing and gazing longingly at the model city her father, Viserys, died dreaming about. Her response to public dissent is heavy-handed: when graffiti about her appears in King's Landing, she sends armed guards into the streets to tear apart homes and bash teenagers in the head in front of their friends, rapidly undoing any goodwill she had built.
She's already spending kind of a lot of time sighing and gazing longingly at the model city her father died dreaming about, which can't be a great sign.
Daemon's terrible secret
Daemon Targaryen's dragon, Caraxes, leads him to a cave in the Vale where his daughter Rhaena and her dragon, Sheepstealer, are hiding. Sheepstealer's disastrous rampage during the Battle of the Gullet helped drive Queen Rhaenyra's son Jace to his death, and Rhaenyra wants the rider brought to justice. Daemon now knows that to avenge Rhaenyra's child, he would have to sacrifice his own. Rhaena demands he prove his love by leaving her in exile rather than reporting her to the queen. Daemon returns to King's Landing and drops a dragon-roasted, severed shepherd's head on the small council table, falsely claiming to have found and killed Sheepstealer's rider. Mysaria, Rhaenyra's mistress of whisperers, is skeptical it is even the right person's head.
'No,' he gasps, doubling over. The reaction staggered me nearly as much as the revelation staggers the Rogue Prince.
A new villain in Tumbleton
In the small merchant town of Tumbleton, Lord Ormund Hightower has requisitioned beds in smallfolk homes for his 15,000 men. One soldier assaults a local woman named Kat, and her brother and sister-in-law are beaten for interfering. When they entreat Ormund for justice, he sides with the family over his own soldier, delivering a retributive sentence of surgical castration casually and without hesitation. Earlier, Ormund dresses down Tumbleton's Lord and Lady Footly for their disloyalty to the Greens while emerging from a bathtub in their living room, intimidating them with full-frontal nudity. James Norton's Ormund is described as a pompous man with a sensitive nose and menacing eccentricity.
It's mildly surprising how quickly Ormund sides with Kat's family over his own soldier but entirely natural that he delivers his retributive sentence -- surgical castration -- casually. No hesitation.
The hidden prince revealed
Ormund receives bad news: the Baratheons have not sent troops, and Aemond still has not arrived at Harrenhal with the dragon Vhagar. The episode then reveals that Ormund's young, red-headed squire, who has been at his side since the season began, is actually Daeron Targaryen, the youngest son of Alicent Hightower and brother to Aegon, Aemond, and Helaena. Daeron is the rider of the dragon Tessarion. He has spent his entire childhood in the Hightower seat of Oldtown, being looked after by the dracophobic Lord Ormund, and is described as a TINO (Targaryen In Name Only) with chestnut brown hair and a small dragon.
Allies alienated
Rhaenyra works to fill seats on her small council. She appoints the gregarious nobleman Ser Torrhen Manderly as master of coin, primarily so there will be a scapegoat when the money runs dry. She allows Grand Maester Orwyle to retain his position, provided he remains loyal. Orwyle suggests sending the riverlord army, currently marching to King's Landing, to retake Tumbleton instead of using dragonfire, a suggestion that puts him back in the queen's good graces. Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, leaves the city to fight the Triarchy's pirate raiders, angered by Rhaenyra's refusal to legitimize his sons. He leaves his son Alyn of Hull to serve in his place. Ser Ulf White, one of the newly knighted dragon riders, petitions Rhaenyra for various lavish gifts and discovers he can no longer go to taverns, which is ruining his entire life.
