In House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5, “Unbound and Unbent,” the season’s chaos continues as we approach one of the more shocking elements of the George R. R. Martin story they’re adapting. Right now, the start of the Realm is beyond a mess, and Rhaenyra’s attempt to take the throne is anything but smooth.
Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is in charge of Tumbleton. Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is having her Goldcloaks sweep the streets of King’s Landing to kill dissent; Corlys has left his son Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) to be counsel to the Queen; and somewhere in the realm, Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is probably alive as the Hightowers ready their strike back at the Targaryen throne. —
Written by Philippa Goslett and directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado, House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 opens up with the Rivermen’s camp. Only Ser Criston Cole and his men are pushing toward them to keep Rhaenyra’s army from reaching her.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 shows the Realm in chaos that Rhaenyra can’t rein in.
The young Ser Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes) leads the Rivermen, and Lord Rickon Stark (David Hounslow) leads his; together, the two bicker about what to do with Cole. Right now, they push, and Cole’s army answers, disrupting and stalling their advance. But Rickon Stark wants to take him directly. Only as the scene develops does Cole become closer than it may seem as he and his men begin to light the camp ablaze.
As the army deals with this situation, in the Halls of Harrenhal, the witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) responds to another group of men looking for Prince Aemond. This is her Hall now, just as she wanted, with the Strong family dead and Larys with Aegon. With Queen Rhaenyra’s bounty, it seems many men keep coming to Harrenhal to take Aemond’s life, and still, Alys protects him.
In the same way the ghosts of Harrenhal got into Daemon’s head, they also torment Aemond as he has dreams of when he tried to kill his brother with dragonfire and the resulting screams and burning flesh from the armor’s metal sticking with him.
It’s one of the few times that we actually get to see a small piece of Aemond’s vulnerability. But having kept him alive makes Alys’ neutral stance all the more in doubt.
In its typical fashion, House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 is moving between the cast at a rapid pace, setting up one scene just to move to the next with little to no connection between them. As we leave an injured Aemond, we arrive at Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan). While some in the audience may have guessed it last episode, her daughter Helaena (Phia Saban) is pregnant. Having procured a medicine to abort the child, the soft-hearted Helaena refuses.
It’s a moment that juxtaposes love and logic. Where Helaena refuses to take the draught out of love for her unborn child, Alicent takes a more pragmatic approach. She explains to her daughter that Rhaenyra would have no choice but to kill the child once it’s born, as a threat to her son Joffrey’s throne. It’s a moment that makes you understand what Alicent has gone through. And even with Helaena telling her that Aemond is alive as a threat to the throne over her child, Alicent is insistent.
Women in Westeros, in the realm, are without power. That has been a common fact throughout the entire series. It was why Rhaenys was the “Queen Who Never Was,” a woman meant to sit upon the throne, but kept away by men. It’s why Rhaenyra is denied her proper coronation both when her father died and now. And ultimately, Alicent presents the medicine itself as a remedy. A cup of tea that delivers women from shame and harm, something she has used and something Rhaenyra has too.
A woman’s place is at the center of “Unbent and Unbroken,” even if it just stops on the surface.
Speaking as a mother who has had her children turn into monsters and having seen what the Crown does to those in its way, Alicent pushes her reluctant daughter. To her, if Helaena were to give birth to a child who would be nothing more than a pawn or a hostage, that is more painful than ending the pregnancy right now before it’s born.
In some ways this is a tactical decision; in others, the pain that Alicent has had to endure as a woman in the realm is driving this decision, as is her understanding of what Rhaenyra will have to do if yet another Targaryen is born. But Helaena won’t listen. And who can blame her? She has nothing of her own, no child to protect from the power around her or their incestual and violent parentage. As Helaena pushes back, “it’s mine” is all that she can muster.
Rhaenyra, on the other hand, is trying to quell dissent from House Frey, who were promised Harrenhall and instead just given a place on the small council as recompense. That said, the nobles aren’t her only worry, as the Gold Cloaks crack down on the smallfolk and two of them have been killed in Fleabottom.
While the situation is dire, the scene is repeatedly interrupted by Lord Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler) as he explains to Lady Frey the “intricacies” of those at the table. The bastards, and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), the White Worm whom Frey refuses to address as anything but “whore.”
Still, if rising anger in the walls of King’s Landing isn’t something to be worried about, the Vhagar sighting is. Only, no matter how much Baela (Bethany Antonia) and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) look for her, they just can’t find her.
But Baela needs to find Vhagar to make up for siding with Jace, and hopefully find some respect from Rhaenyra, who refuses to look at her now. Throw in the fact that Ser Criston Cole’s army is pushing back the Winter Wolves and Rivermen from advancing to meet their Queen, and there is no shortage of fires to be put out at the Small Council table.
The largest issue, though, isn’t any one of these things, but rather the fact that Daemon refuses Rhaenyra’s instructions in order to prioritize taking care of the City Watch since they have not been paid and Rhaenyra’s rule of King’s Landing is on the verge of being sent over the edge. But Rhaenyra is not afraid of confronting him anymore as she follows him out, questions if she is yet back on Dragonstone, and fights to be seen as a Queen.
While Daemon swears that he still holds Rhaenyra as Queen, his focus is on quelling the anger in the city that Rhaenyra instigated by asking the City Watch to handle the dissenters calling her the Queen of Bastards. Where she sees the graffiti on the walls as a direct threat to her rule, Daemon sees them as things to ignore. In his words, she is the Queen of Dragons and her strength is her legitimacy.
There are Targaryens with a claim to the throne everywhere in House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5.
Next we head to the fallen King Aegon Targaryen (Ty Tennant) and Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) as they wander the forest. Aegon is deadset on finding his brother and his dragon. But not to be saved; instead, he wants to kill him as retribution.
For him, all of this is of his making. Aegon’s injuries, his broken body, and his hiding are all tied back to Aemond’s attempt to murder him. While his anger toward his brother is clear, the rest of his line remain prisoners in King’s Landing.
While Mysaria may be thought to be out of place at the table, much like those who listened to whispers before her and after, she knows everything happening in the Red Keep. Like Alicent requesting the tonic. With few accusations, Alicent drinks the remedy herself, with Haelena asleep nearby. Mysaria’s questions have pushed her to swallow the only hope they had of escaping the mess a newborn child would throw them into.
Even here, Alicent requests that Mysaria keep it a secret, since she knows the problems and indecencies that women face in this world. But unlike many of those around Rhaenyra, Mysaria is loyal. That much we see is clear; however, her love for her Queen may be matched by Alicent’s own love.
In Tumbleton, Ormund is getting ready for a siege to fortify the walls. While Ormund preps the city, Daeron Tagaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) is making way by learning the Hightower histories and battles. As Daeron recounts the “dry” histories, Ormund talks with him, and we hear the story of Meria Martell.
Meria Martell was the lone blind woman with a military mind who stood up to Aegon the Conqueror, vowing that Dorne would be unbowed and unbent (the House words of Martell). Ormund recounts that Meria poisoned her own wells and hid her armies in the forest. She outwitted her enemy with a cunning mind, which led to Dorne being an independent and unbroken state, even today.
It’s a moment that shows the audience how much Ormund Hightower craves and respects knowledge. With coins struck in Daeron’s likeness and respect riding for his nephew, Ormund is ready to move forward and take on Rhaenyra. As he gets ready to push forward, Alicent is also trying to move forward. While Alicent wants to escape the Red Keep, Haelena doesn’t want to lose her daughter by leaving her in the Keep. Stuck as a prisoner with a stubborn daughter, Alicent has nothing to do but wait.
Helaena is one of House of the Dragon’s most tragic characters.
The theme of House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 is that it will just keep getting worse. While the episode opened with a triumphant Cole and Ser Gwayne burning the Rivermen’s camp, now they’re left with no horses after they were injured in a trapped field. Left with nothing, forced to march through the elements and woods with nothing, as they drop dead from exhaustion.
Cole’s army is dwindling down, and at every turn, either a dragon or Riverman has destroyed their hopes. And in the midst of this, Ser Gwayne questions the choice. To which Ser Criston Cole asserts that he knows that they will die but that he will do so of his own volition without being owned by any of the houses he served. While Gwayne abandons him, Cole moves forward.
This part of the episode is told throughout, but Cole’s pathetic speech is driven by his own jealousy and anger, guised as vulnerability. It’s all an attempt to show the character growing from the vows he’s never quite believed; it ultimately feels more like a pathetic plea to the audience to forgive him. Awkwardly spaced throughout the episode’s erratic structure, it also highlights the series’ biggest mistakes.
As the episode ties off one of its largest threads, Alicent and Haelena try to escape, dressed as maids. Startled without her daughter, Haelena is, but when Mysaria finds them, she doesn’t have time to push back against her mother. House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 may not dedicate itself entirely to ideas of women in power struggles, but in this moment, Alicent invokes it again.
Trying to use the White Worm’s past as leverage, Alicent implores Rhaenyra’s most-trusted confidant to keep everything a secret. She tries to make Mysaria play both sides, pushing her to pursue power over loyalty. But the audience doesn’t get a response from White Worm, just a question about whether she will bend or break for Alicent’s request.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5’s weirdest element centers on Aemond and Alys Rivers. Men keep coming to Harrenhal in order to collect Rhaenyra’s bounty, and Alys responds to them the same way as she had been, hiding Aemond. While Alys has been able to use the haunted halls of Harrenhal to keep herself safe before, here, the men overwhelm her. Only Aemond is there, having been comforted by Alys and ultimately saved by her; he returns the favor.
Everything in “Unbent and Unbroken” shows that it all will just keep getting worse.
Sprinkled throughout the episode, Alys and Aemond always feel out of place in House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5. There really isn’t a moment that it makes sense to keep turning back to them. There is chemistry and fear, and Aemond stays awkwardly guilty throughout it all.
Then he saves Alys, and it’s clear that he’s back to, or at least close to, full strength as he easily handles the fight. It’s also here when you realize that maybe Rhaenyra has reason to be scared of him, and now, he knows that the world believes he killed Aegon. And well, it’s not the farthest from the truth.
The strain between Aemond and Aegon remains central to both characters. While Aemond feels guilt for his attempted murder, Aegon is hoping to find his brother and kill him. As Aegon attempts to run away from his shame after being forced to kiss a peasant’s feet, he’s at his most pathetic. Which is saying something, given how he has spent all of his screen time up until now.
But Larys Strong isn’t moved by any of it. Instead, he finally breaks and lays Aegon’s self-flagellation bare. Angry at the self-pity, Larys finally tells the young and dumb prince how much he has squandered. He had money, title, and a dragon, and still, he has been mediocre, and it’s no one’s fault but his own.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 removes a lot of the things that characters hide behind. With the Targaryen boys, and also with Rhaenyra as she confronts Daemon’s focus on the City Watch instead of doing exactly what she asks. Ultimately, as Rhaenyra attempts to be Queen, holding the weight that will eventually crush her (as Alicent says), she can’t fathom that anyone could question her.
As Rhaenyra kneels in the temple, Daemon and she speak in Old Velaryon, keeping their disagreement from prying ears. The main takeaway, much like Alicent’s focus, is that Rhaenyra’s gender will always make her a target. In some ways, it feels like Rhaenyra is still trying to escape the sexism she is having to swim through, and Daemon just sees it as a part of her life.
Daemon’s place in King’s Landing is with the Gold Cloaks, but now, he can’t protect them.
Daemon knows that no matter what happens, no matter how much peace she brings the Realm, how much money she puts in her people’s pockets, Rhaenyra is still a woman and someone somewhere will oppose her. He’s frank about this, and it’s clear that he has remained more grounded than Rhaenyra as she begins to spiral into paranoia. Only, her worries do carry some weight.
Having put all of his focus on the mounting murders of the City Watch, Daemon has used his status as the former Prince of Fleabottom to quell the Gold Cloaks’ fears. He tells them to move as groups of three or four, hoping it will keep them safe, and then he realizes that it may be just too late.
After he captures a suspect, Daemon finds the coins with Daeron’s face on them. Ormund has announced Daeron as King Daeron Targaryen to the world, and here, he has put a bounty on every Gold Cloak’s head.
As Ormund pushes on the fractures in Fleabottom, in King’s Landing, and even in the Red Keep, Rhaenyra’s paranoia isn’t that far off. While she was worried about a rot in the Keep seeking to destroy her, the reality somehow feels so much worse as “Unbound and Unbent” comes to an end.
In one of the series’ most grotesque moments, House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 removes any hope that the audience had for Rhaenyra’s rule. As Daemon walks into the City Watch’s quarters, it’s empty. There has been a fight, obviously, but as the Prince of Fleabottom rounds the corner, he sees a “feast of traitors.”
Every Gold Cloak has been murdered, propped up on the table with “feast of traitors” scrolled across the wall behind them. It’s a shocking scene, even for a man who has killed as many people as Daemon has. The rot in King’s Landing is spreading, and Rhaenyra should be concerned, especially with Daemon speechless.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 ends with more questions than answers. Having fallen back into erratic pacing and balancing the weight of the entire ensemble’s stories, “Unbent and Unbroken” slides back from the season’s height in Episode 3. Now, all we keep getting is exposition burst after exposition burst, with so many characters that the stronger parts of the series are smothered by them.
Ormund Hightower is in more control than anyone would have guessed.
Ultimately, the series is at its worst when it won’t let anything breathe. A scattered episode, it’s about Rhaenyra’s eroding power, the place of women in the Realm (or it at least tries to be about this), and it’s about Ormund Hightower’s calculated scheming. It’s about Aegon and Aemond, but it’s also about their mother, and it’s also about Cole’s choice to meet death on his own accord as he marches his men on a suicidal mission to meet an army sure to crush them.
“Unbent and Unbroken” offers a number of standout moments, but it ultimately buckles under the strain of trying to be everything at once. The best episodes of the series occur when the creatives behind it wind the story around a single primary message.
We’ve seen it throughout all three seasons, but how much longer will the series keep ending up in this rut? It keeps reaching new highs, then slowly descends into a scattered story that winds up leaving each part of its narrative trying to scream over the others. House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 is a cacophony instead of a symphony of characters, as the series returns to its bloated roots.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 streams exclusively on HBO Max, with new episodes every Sunday.
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House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5
5/10
TL;DR
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 is a cacophony instead of a symphony of characters, as the series returns to its bloated roots.