(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

Now we know why we’ve barely seen those CGI monsters for the past few episodes.

In the first half of this season of House of the Dragon, we’ve sat through three episodes all with eerily similar endings, with characters sneaking in where they’re not wanted, whether to assassinate someone or attempt to broker peace in the desperate final hours before all is lost. In Episode 4, titled “A Dance of Dragons,” the net of tension that Westeros has existed under since King Viserys’ death has broken, and both sides now know there’s no way out, except through open war. This is the episode whose shockingly violent final act sets the tone for the rest of the season, as well as the rest of the show. If we’re already here by Episode 4, I shudder to think what Episode 9—traditionally the Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon episode where Shit Gets Real—will have in store.

In the opening of this episode, Daemon (Matt Smith) is still stuck in a Dungeons & Dragons-like side quest, complete with magical visions and a spooky witch in the form of Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), an enigmatic local who seems to know a lot more about Daemon than she’s letting on. He’s kept occupied by the conundrum of Harrenhal—it’s too big to defend, its liege lord is absent and elderly, and there’s just no one in there. Plus, it’s haunted, probably by ghosts and probably also by the remainders of the weirwoods felled during the castle’s construction, whose roots still snake through the halls and out of whose heartwood Daemon’s bed was carved. Maybe that’s the reason his dreams and his reality are beginning........

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