RECAP: ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 Episode 1 — “Salt And Sea, Fire And Blood”

House of the Dragon Season 2 ended with a plan and trust between two friends. Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) have worked to come together, but now it’s all changing. House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 opens immediately where the last season left off and pushes the story further. “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” is about chaos and families breaking in terrible ways. 

The opening of the episode is dedicated to Sheepstealer, with Princess Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) finding the dragon that has been flying across the Vale. Having given her dragon to Aegon previously, finding the dragon while it eats is a moment of fear and wonder for her.

She speaks to it, and when it turns to her, she can see how charred it is from years of pain. Then, it happens. Rhaena becomes a dragonrider as Sheepstealer lowers its shoulder to her after she speaks Valyrian.  Only to be whisked away and left atop a high mountain in the Vale.

While Rhaena has claimed her dragon, Westeros is reaching the full dark days of its Targaryen civil war. Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) discovers that King Aegon Targaryen II (Tom Glynn-Carney) has fled the Keep in order to stay safe with Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). Where Aemond takes it as abdication and sits on the throne himself, Aegon’s life is just fear. A path that we see in Glynn-Carney’s performance.

“I’m the King of nothing” is the most true thing that Aegon has ever said. Having had his mother and brother paint his every decision, it’s hard not to agree. Following his injuries from Aemond’s dragonfire, Larys is in charge of keeping Aegon alive, and pulling him from the throne is one of his self-motivated choices that seems like it will pay off, if only after some pain.

When they’re confronted by guards who are asking for fealty to the Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, Larys bends the knee immediately. But Aegon resists, putting them in a situation that would mean death. That is, until Larys outs him as Aegon Targaryen in the hope of sparing their lives. While it doesn’t seem to work at first, money and power speak louder than anything else, and the two find passage to Dragonstone, and with it, safety for a brief respite. And we move on from them in this episode.

Rhaenyra Targaryen may be the rightful queen, but her trust in Alicent Hightower confounds everyone.

The core of this episode, though, revolves around Rhaenyra’s choice to trust that Alicent is not lying. She hopes the risk means the truth, but her son, Jace Targaryen, is not confident. Friendship matters to her, trust matters to her, but you can tell that there is a part of her that deeply wants the war to end, and this small piece of peace from the Greens gives her what she needs to move to end the world. 

Alicent will open the gates of the Red Keep and surrender Aegon to her, which will allow Rhaenyra to take the throne that is hers. But as she tells her small council, she looks like nothing but someone desperate for an end with less bloodshed. But it’s not just the small council; it’s also Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), who is concerned. But in heading to King’s Landing, Rhaenyra will pull everyone back from their posts, and for Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), that means leaving Harrenhal and losing his position. 

With Aegon gone, Aemond now sits on the throne, asking for his mother, and is nowhere close to accepting an end to the civil war. While Alicent may have been genuine in her proposal, her sons remain monsters. Power above all else remains the Targaryen way. But with Aegon gone, Aemon can not be in Harrenhal like his mother promised her old friend. The fleet will rush the blockade, reinforcements are coming, and now, it seems like in House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1, Rhaenyra’s trust is leading her into a trap. 

Harenhal establishes what is next in House of the Dragon Season 3 as House Stark arrives.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 continues with a montage showing where the other characters are at this point. Corlys is on his ship, sailing in defense of his Queen, and Daemon is ripping through the battlefield in Harrenhal, advancing his position, now dedicated to fighting for his wife, even if he was pulled toward his own desire for power. 

It’s Harrenhal where “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” continues, picking up Daemon’s story, but only to introduce the newest player to the field. House Stark is emerging from the forest. Daemon and the audience don’t know if this is aggression or aid, but when their leader, Ser Roderick Dustin (Tommy Flanagan), moves forward with the Lannister head in hand, he knows that the North is here to die for the Dragon Queen.  

The introductions of House Stark’s bannermen are a powerful moment, and one that is reflected on Daemon’s face as he smiles. Tommy Flanagan has taken the role of Ser Dustin, and it looks good on him. Hardened and with banners scrolled on animal skin instead of fabric, House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 introduces a new vision of the North that we have not seen before. 

Here, House Stark looks more like a group of wildmen than the house of note that we see in Game of Thrones. And it’s a ferocity that rejoices when Daemon says, “We have more Lions to hunt,” nodding to the Lannister bannermen that have scattered in the wake of the battle at Harrenhal. With a dragon at his back and the forest at the back of the Starks, this scene offers a moment of levity and hope, given the realization that Rhaenyra is heading full speed into a trap. 

Catch up with House of the Dragon Season 1 | Season 2

As we switch to the woods, the Lannisters, and Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), we see Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) as someone entirely different. Ser Gwayne has shown himself to be just, specifically when he witnesses that a village girl has been raped and wants repercussions, to keep the men from becoming beasts and abandoning their morals. But Ser Christen, a man who has spat in the face of all of his morals, can’t be bothered. 

With class separating the bastards, known as the Dragonseed, and the Knights, House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1, then cuts to Ulf, talking to his dragon, as the other dragons wait on the cliff. He tells the audience and his dragon his story of woe, his loneliness, how he grew up beaten more than cared for.

It’s a stark reminder of the pain the new dragonriders are carrying with them. As he explains the way a priest took advantage of him, you realize that he isn’t only confiding in his dragon, but in the other men with whom he has found kinship, the other Dragonseed, Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), and Hugh (Kieran Bew). It’s a small glimpse inside Ulf’s life, which up until now has just been anger and salt. The men are waiting for Daemon to arrive so they do not take on Vhagar by themselves. 

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 takes its time building up the chaos and raising the stakes.

On the boat with Corlys and his son, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), we see them share a drink of Dragon Water. They talk, discussing Rhaenyra’s plan to have five ships from the blockade split off to take King’s Landing.  But strategy is not just what they are there to talk about. 

Corlys is still carrying the guilt of not being able to repair the breach between himself and Alyn. While he says he tried to provide for them, Alyn responds that he never gave them a name. House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 continues to confront the small splinters in people that cause as much of an issue as the giant chasms caused by betrayal. As the blockade comes under siege from the Triarchy, it becomes clear that despite setting up the Throne’s weaknesses, Rhaenyra is stuck between the blockade and Dragonstone. 

On the Triarchy ships that approach in silence, Admiral Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn) stands in opposition to Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall). Where Tyland wants to confront the blockade directly, Lohar wants to take High Tide, distracting the Velaryon fleet and pulling the Sea Snake, Corlys, to his home, which she intends to burn.

Continuing with the setup, House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 takes us to the Greens and Lord Ormund Hightower’s (James Norton) camp.  However, when the rider delivers Alicent’s message that goes against Aemond’s orders, the Hightowers are left waiting, and hopefully, the path is open for Rhaenyra to survive. 

Back at King’s Landing, Alicent is honest with Aemond. Knowing both of her sons’ cruelty, she appeals to it. Stating that she never raised Aegon to be king, she never prepared him, and that Aemond should have been king in his stead. It’s a last-ditch plea to keep her son alive, or at least that’s what she tells him. When in reality, she needs him to leave for Harrenhal to let Rhaenyra take King’s Landing. 

After he claimed Vhagar, he now knows what fear is again; he knows that he will die if he has to face the dragons. That becomes clear when Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) points it out to Alicent. This begins her push to change her son, or maybe save him. Only he has other plans for his mother and his place on the throne.

Aemond’s thirst for power is what his mother uses to push him at first, but at the end, it’s Alicent’s care for him that sinks in. And because it can not be a Targaryen way without one of them looking for incest, that’s what happens when Aemond perverts her motherly love for romance.

It’s an unsure kiss that is hard to watch, with both actors performing the unspoken fear and acknowledgment of transgression that we see. It leaves Alicent so deeply aware of how many mistakes she has made with her sons. Alicent has spoken about it before, but in reality, this is one of the few times she has had to confront it immediately and, more importantly, be changed by it. Alicent is no longer a mother, and the Targaryen ways have destroyed her; even if it makes her cry, she’s wounded and stranded by Aemond’s choice.

“Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” decimates families, be it through actual death or by perverting the bond between mother and child.

When the witch Alys Rivers comes to the dragonriders waiting for Vhagar to come, they turn tail. With House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 coming to a crescendo, every plan has fallen apart. Baela has seen the ships in the Gullet. Lord Jace Velaryon (Harry Collett) has ordered Ser Laurent to lock the doors to Rhaenrya’s room to keep her safe, traumatized by losing his brother. Nothing is as it seems, and no movement is going according to plan.

But “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” isn’t just set up, though the first two acts of it are. However, as all of the plans begin to fall through Rhaenyra’s control like a sieve, audiences finally get naval combat, and, more importantly, we see Corlys’s strategic combat on display.

It’s a sequence that begins with the episode’s best score. Lohar’s defiance is to claim the Sea Snake, to take what Corlys has mustered, not to win Aegon’s war. The only issue is that fighting for pride and revenge often sinks more ships than fighting for a crown. 

As  House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 hits its peak, Jace and Lady Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) arrive, setting fire to the fleet, with Corlys taking advantage of Lohar’s need for revenge, hoping that she will follow him to Dragonstone. But the dragon-killing turrets on her ship are more than enough to do damage, anchoring Vermex and Jace and pulling them to the sea before Baela saves them, but also puts herself in danger. 

The combat in this section of the episode is some of the biggest we’ve seen so far in terms of scale, and much of it is done through chaos. Jace and Vermax are only able to take flight because he has held his mother in her chambers, belittling her in a way that only men do. Ser Laurent is following through on her son’s orders. 

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 is a rousing first episode for the new season, especially after the series has taken much heat for concluding Season 2 with virtually nothing happening. That said, the showrunners have taken note.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 is a stunning look at naval and dragon combat.

Not only do we see all three of Rhaenya’s remaining children on dragons in “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood,” but we also get to see Corlys do more than talk to his son and do what the queen requests. When Lohar’s winning seems to be imminent, he splits her off by risking low tide in the channel entering Dragonstone, hoping that Lohar will follow and that she will run aground. He splits her off, showcasing the strategy and success that we have only heard about up until now.

Still, Lohar does not go down without a fight, and ultimately, the Sea Snake is split in two, with her and her men boarding and a fight ensuing, with the Lannister long in the drink. There is so much to unpack within the fight alone. Part of it is that we should have continued the fight in Season 2, book-ending the season with tragedy and spectacle, especially with how little Season 2 had. 

When she returns to Dragonstone on Sheepstealer, she sees the fight in the Gullet, and she joins it instead of turning around. But while her aid is important in saving some of the ships, Sheepstealer’s inexperience in their partnership has led her to burn the Velaryon fleet and force Baela, her sister, to intervene. As the two begin to fight, the score is pounding, and with Baela and Jace unaware that their family is to blame, it’s nothing but heartache.

The chaos of House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 is showcased in its epic finale. It is an episode that sets up the Civil War with speed, but it also raises the stakes and the tragedy, as family becomes both a focal point and a terrifying limitation. It makes the ending of “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” so difficult to handle. But that does not make it a bad episode. 

If anything, “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” has showcased just how much the series has learned from its past episodes. Chaos and fire. Honor and family. Corruption and tragedy. It’s all carried in House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1, and this is only just the beginning. 

With Jace and Vermax sinking, we know that life is not going to be the same. The child who could be king has lost his dragon, and then, his life. There is nothing in the Targaryen line but death, and now Rhaenyra’s birth children are gone. There is nothing to be done, and the wreckage is vast. Rhaenyra’s supporters have won, but flying over the wreckage of their battle, it doesn’t feel like it. And she, the queen, is left stuck in her chambers.

Rhaenyra has lost another child, and we, the audience, know it won’t be the last, as does she.

The last time we saw Rhaenrya, she was ripping up her royal cloak, saying that while she is trapped in a weak, feeble body, she has the heart of a King. We saw how Rhaenrya acted when her first son died, and now, we’ll only have to brace for impact. Not only that, but Daemon’s as well. 

Not only have the Hightowers and Lannisters killed another of her sons before his death, but Jace also killed the last part of Rhaenyra, who wanted to rule like a queen and seek peace. Instead, she has killed that part of herself and will now rule as a King. And it does not bode well for Westeros.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 is the premiere the series needed. It snaps the audience back to the series’ ferocity of anger and also how quickly a well-curated plan can devolve into chaos. In “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood,” dragon fire burns all, and it’s clear that there is no real person celebrating a success. As the episode title suggests, many have salt, sea, fire, and blood; that’s all that’s left for the season, and that means it will be a big one.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 is streaming exclusively on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday.

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