House Of The Dragon Reveals Ormund's King's Landing Spy — Did You Guess Who It Is? Read Episode 7 Recap

If you've read George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," you knew that someone seemingly loyal to Rhaenyra has been working to undermine the Black Queen's reign. But if you haven't read the book, we wouldn't blame you if you had a "Seriously, him?!" reaction when the spy was revealed in Sunday's "House of the Dragon."

In addition to the unveiling of Ormund Hightower's man on the inside, Episode 7 also gives us dragon-on-dragon violence, Rhaeynra at a low ebb (and in someone else's bed), the return of a character everyone (except one) thought was dead, and an Alicent/Aemond scene that manages to outdo the premiere kiss in sheer ick factor. Read on for the hour's highlights, then make sure to hear what Gayle Rankin, who plays Alys, had to say about what's up at Harrenhal.

Rhaenyra wakes Helaena from a dream with a question: "Did Aemond ask you to ride into battle with him?" The younger queen's silence is an answer in itself. "Lord Corlys imagined he would," Rhaenyra says, nodding. Helaena admits that dragon riding is "too much" for her now, and Rhaenyra adds that Viserys also opted for a dragon-lite reign. When Helaena makes reference to dragons changing a person, Rhaenyra takes a little offense. "You believe the dragons alter us in some way?" she asks. "You now have many dragons. Are you, yourself, not altered?" Helaena wonders. Touché.

Anywhoooo, Rhaenyra of course is there to pump her half-sister for some dreamy intel; imagine her frustration when Helaena's report about her last "flash" is just about a gray mare in the courtyard of the Red Keep. Anything about Daemon? Rhaenyra wonders. The Winter Wolves? Tumbleton? Hell, even whether the castle cats will get the rats under control? "I don't know," Helaena says, averting her eyes. So Rhaenyra takes the soft tone out of her voice, grabs Helaena's arm, and demands to know what she sees. Still... nothing.

Aemond is Kylo Ren-ing around in his room at Harrenhal when Alicent appears, still in her riding cloak. She praises him for hiding out at the creepy castle, calls him her "best" son, and kisses his cheek as she tells him Helaena is being held captive and Aegon is likely dead.

"I have failed you, Aemond," she says, holding his face between her palms. He tells her she's being too hard on herself, then she kisses him, and before you can say "Dracarys my eyeballs!," his Blackfyre is sheathed in her Dragonmount, if you know what I mean. But when she rolls on top of him and starts talking about giving him a son, we see that it's all been a delusion: He's really in bed with Alys. He throws her off; as he dresses in haste, she wonders what he's seen. Just then, the real Alicent appears at the castle.

Alicent has just finished babbling a long and winding story about how Ser Adrian is the only reason she made it alive to Harrenhal when Aemond greets the man, then immediately kills him. As a horrified Alicent looks on, Aemond explains that "there are secrets here" that he can't trust with strangers. As Alicent tries to figure out how she might get out of this alive, Alys calls them in to eat.

During the meal, Alicent wonders who those two crazy kids met. Alys "saved my life," Aemond says fondly, and when Alicent wonders at whose behest, Alys replies, "I generally follow my own dictates." "AEMOND I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHO THIS WOMAN IS," Alicent replies, not even trying to soften it. Get in line, mama!

Aemond announces his plan to stay there and make Harrenhal his seat and waxes about how they're going to bring forth a "new line of unsullied kings." But when Alys pulls blondie aside, she lets him know she wants Alicent gone — "my designs for our future did not include your mother," she states — and that she's sure the queen dowager is there to harm him. "You'd be wise to keep your dark thoughts to yourself," he warns her. GOD I love the withering look she gives him as she says, "You Targaryen boys all want the same thing, don't you?"

Meanwhile, Alicent slips outside and takes a dagger off Ser Adrian's corpse, then makes her way to her son's room. He's shirtless and sword-swinging — just like in his dream earlier — but he stops to accept the spiced wine she brings. She says Alys doesn't like her, but he says Harrenhal's de facto lady doesn't trust her. Alicent wonders whom he trusts, but his non sequitur answer is: "I tried to kill Aegon."

Later, he staggers into the dining room and whispers, "Alys" before he collapses, apparently poisoned by whatever was in the spiced wine Alicent brought him. "Idiot," is Alys' unsympathetic answer. (Ha!) Meanwhile, Alicent sneaks off in the night.

Ser Roderick Dustin leads his men, brandishing Criston Cole's head on a spear.. (Side note: That Cole-head prop is looking a little rough, no?) Gwayne, who was scouting, rushes to Ormund to report that there are about 20,000 men a day or so's ride away from Tumbleton. Ormund smugly says it doesn't matter: "I have a piece on the board now that will bring the b***h to her knees." But when Gwayne asks for specifics, he doesn't get any.

After grabbing Corlys at the end of the last episode, Ser Jon Roxton brought The Sea Snake to Ormund, who thinks that having the Velaryon lord as a prisoner will deter Corlys' men from aiding Rhaenyra in King's Landing. Yeah, the plan is as dumb as it sounds, and even Daeron can't stop himself from poking holes in it: "How will that help when the Winter Wolves are clawing at our gates?" the teen wonders. Later, Daeron grouses about the whole thing with Gwayne, but neither can come up with a solution.

Toward the end of the hour, we see that the mysterious "piece on the board" that Ormund was gloating about was... Ulf? Oy. The hapless dragonrider has been meeting with Ormund and informing on what's going down in King's Landing. Hightower flatters Ulf, telling him that Rhaeynra doesn't value him, then intimates that Ulf might soon have Driftmark as his own castle. "Lord of the Tides. What do you think of that?" Ormund asks. Ulf's joy is palpable. "They will laugh at you no more when they see you as you are," Ormund says, toasting the dragon rider. "No," Ulf agrees, "they will burn."

An angry Daemon arrives at The Vale, demanding to know why Lady Jeyne Arryn let Rhaena go. She's like, "How successful are YOU at keeping dragonriders in one spot?" She says there's been talk in the villages of a girl living with a dragon in the mountains "amongst nettles and sheep" — "Fire & Blood" shoutout! — and she's going to let Rhaenyra know what's going on. Daemon asks that she delay that raven a day, to give him a chance to clean up the mess. And he even says "please," so you know it's dire.

Baela and Addam are out on another Vhagar-search mission when he lets her know that he and Alyn are so concerned with getting their father's last name in case they gain the favor of a high-born lady. She assumes he knows about her and Addam... and is horrified when she realizes that he was hinting that he likes her. Before the moment can get any more awkward, their dragons make noise: There's another dragon incoming, and it's not Vhagar.

Meanwhile, at Rhaenyra's small council meeting, Torrhen Manderly rages about how the people hate him. "It is if I have been installed here as some kind of scapegoat," he grumbles. But Rhaenyra doesn't care; she moves on. Lady Frey kvetches so much about Harrenhal that the queen gives it to her, just to hush her up. And then Addam and Baela burst in with news: They've seen Sheepstealer, and he has a rider.

This, of course, does not jibe with the head that Daemon plunked down in front of his wife/niece a few episodes back. Mysaria lays out all the ways that Daemon is a lying liar who lies, but Rhaenyra still doesn't want to doubt her husband/uncle.

Daemon chases down Rhaena, and while Sheepstealer and Caraxes are screaming at each other from across a clearing, his daughter outlines her plan to find Vhagar and take her down. Daemon says if she's resolved to do it, he wants to help. "I should have done better," he says, which is the understatement of the century, but no matter, because two more dragons are about to break up this scaly soiree. Upon seeing the wings flapping in the distance, Rhaena immediately assumes her father betrayed her, but he swears he didn't. On his counsel, she runs, leaving Sheepstealer behind.

Problem is, Rhaenyra — who is accompanied by Addam — sees someone hurrying away from the clearing, and she sends Addam racing after the retreating figure. "What is your agreement with Sheepstealer's rider?!" Rhaenyra screams at her husband/uncle. "Answer carefully: You will not have another chance to deceive me." But before he can say anything, Addam hauls Rhaena back into the fray.

Rhaenyra realizes that Daemon knew Rhaena was involved in Jace's death this whole time. And then all of the dragons start making so much noise that you know something bad is going to go down. When the screaming reaches a fever pitch, the beasts start going at each other. There is so much thrashing and running and wings nearly knocking people over, and then Rhaenyra gets Rhaena and herself on Syrax's back and takes off. Addam follows. And then Caraxes, at Daemon's command, goes for Sheepstealer's throat. Though Caraxes doesn't outright kill him, Sheepstealer is gravely wounded and limps away like he's about to cross the rainbow bridge or whatever dragons do when they die.

Back in the Red Keep, Rhaenyra is about to go to bed when Daemon shows up in her quarters to explain about Rhaena. "She implored me not to tell you," he starts, trying to make a case for clemency: "Was she not seeking, in all this, my favor or yours?" The queen cries as she points out that he lied to her about the man he said killed Jace, the person whose skull now sits on her coffee table like a planter. He draws near, but the queen dismisses him, saying it's late. (Side note: The unsung MVP of this scene is Elinda, the handmaid whom Rhaenyra orders to stay during the whole, uncomfortable interaction. The woman averts her eyes with Olympic level skill!)

But Rhaenyra can't sleep, so she throws the random dude's skull into the fireplace and heads to Mysaria's quarters. Daemon didn't so much deceive his wife as protect his child, the queen argues, but Mysaria is all, "Girl." Rhaenyra yells at Mysaria a bit, more because she's frustrated than because she holds her responsible in any way, and the Mistress of Whisperers decides that a pep talk is her best bet. So she draws near, stroking Rhaenyra's hair as she reassures her that the tough times will be over soon, and her rule will be long. "Do you think me worthy?" the queen wonders. "In this moment, my queen, Rhaenyra, I have never been more certain of it," Mysaria says. Then they start to make out — and more — right there in front of the fire.

Elsewhere in the castle: Baela seems to forgive Rhaena, who can't quite believe her sister's grace... Alyn receives a box that contains what looks like Corlys' finger, wearing a Velaryon ring... and Helaena dreams that she has her baby, and it is immediately handed off to a knight. Then, in another flash, she sits a dragon and orders it to "Dracarys!" a group of people who run at her. In still another, she and her children happily feed chickens in a yard, but the sun is eclipsed and snow begins to fall as the sky grows dark.

Larys, Aegon, and Tyland are riding for the ship when they encounter people fleeing from an approaching army that's going village to village, looking for Tyland and the gold everyone thinks he has secreted away. Larys suggests Lannister give himself up, but Tyland does not like that idea. And Aegon? He has had enough. He may die, he argues, but not as a fugitive: "I'll make my stand here and be buried as a king, with my dragon. I will not have the histories say I was slain in ignominy by my own brother." Tyland then decides he'll stay, too. Larys plans to leave, unless Aegon commands him to stay, but Aegon will not. "It will be my duty to see that King Aegon is remembered," Larys says by way of farewell.

It's after dark when a group of torch-bearing soldiers arrives to where Tyland and Aegon are sitting. The armored men announce that they're there to take the land for Rhaenyra, so everyone's gotta swear fealty. Aegon suddenly seems torn, but then he rallies and starts yelling about who he is and how he's really in charge. They all start backing away, and a cocky Aegon assumes that it's because of the power he gives off. But actually, we see that the broken king's theory about his dragon was correct — Sunfyre wasn't as dead as believed — and everyone is reacting to the creature, crawling out of the woods behind. Once Ageon gets over his surprise, he calmly orders his dragon to burn everyone he sees, then laughs maniacally as Sunfyre complies.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Got any predictions for the Season 3 finale next week? Hit the comments, and let us know!