Men's Lifestyle July 13, 2026 0 Comments

House of the Dragon Episode 4: The Unexpected Twist That Has Fans Both Hooked and Furious—What You Didn’t See Coming!

House of the Dragon’s season 3 kicked off like a show on turbo mode — thrill after thrill, battle after battle, leaving Game of Thrones fans breathless but begging for more. I mean, who didn’t cheer when Rhaenyra finally took King’s Landing? But just when you thought the pace was set for nonstop fireworks, episode 4 throws us a curveball — a detour that feels a little like spinning wheels stuck in the mud. Ever wonder how you adapt a sprawling, dense historical epic written like a dusty tome filled with juiciest rumors and questionable witnesses? It ain’t easy. Now toss in a flamboyant new villain, Ormund Hightower, who shows up practically out of thin air and manages to ruffle feathers — and noses (he’s got a sensitivity to odors, for crying out loud!). As the story sidesteps our familiar leads to explore fresh, eccentric corners — some compelling, some a tad meandering — it sparks the question: are we gearing up for deeper intrigue or just shuffling the chess pieces for another grand clash? Let’s dive in and figure out what this peculiar episode really means for Westeros. LEARN MORE

5 min read

House of the Dragon season 3 moved with amazing pace in the first couple of episodes. The HBO fantasy series satisfied Game of Thrones fans right away with the long-awaited Battle of the Gullet. Then, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) finally took King’s Landing before episode 3 offered viewers an inspired new way to adapt material as steeped in historical lore as George R. R. Martin’s fantasy epic. Episode 4 is … a bit more of a detour.

As always, the largest challenge in adapting Martin’s Fire & Blood for TV lies in how it was written. Unlike Game of Thrones, this story is read like a historical account told by various third parties who only witnessed the events—including a lewd jester named Mushroom. (Easily my favorite character.) So, it’s not clear who you can trust—which is part of the fun—or how to best spread the Wikipedia-like entries across four seasons of TV. Unlike last week, sometimes you can really feel the characters spinning their wheels.

For what it’s worth, the team was issued a tall task for episode 4. The season’s newest character, Ormund Hightower (James Norton), requires a lot of attention if he’s to become our villain of the season. It doesn’t help, either, that his exact temperaments are left out of Fire & Blood’s original telling. So, much of the episode establishes Ormund’s personality, motivations, and everything you need to understand why the newcomer is season 3’s largest threat out of thin air—even if it still feels like he’s nowhere near the conflicts we’re still waiting to see.

Norton still does a fantastic job, as always, bringing to life possibly the most eccentric character this show has seen yet. (Knowing House of the Dragon, that’s saying something.) After marching into Tumbleton, Ormund parades around the defenseless merchant town’s meek leaders in the nude while postulating about the person he believes should be the ruler of Westeros. (Spoiler alert: it’s not Rhaenyra.) He “has a sensitivity to odors,” according to Alicent (Olivia Cooke). That much is clear so far. He’s also very anti-dragon. And if anyone ever hates the thing the show is named after, that’s a big clue to the audience that they’re the villain. But it’s all fine character work, even if Ormund feels a bit all over the place.

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Corlys is leaving?

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Spending all this time with Ormund does allow us to learn more about his supporting cast: the real Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and his right-hand muscle, Bold Jon Roxton (Joplin Sibtain). Daeron is, also expected, a timid ward who doesn’t yet realize the power of his bloodline. (He’s also set to play Link in the upcoming Legend of Zelda movie.) As for the latter? You would hope to give a man named Bold Jon Roxton a story as cool as his name. But outside of simply passing Ormund letters and then stepping off-screen in every scene he’s been in so far, you wouldn’t even know his name without me telling it to you.

One of the unseen, self-created hurdles in House of the Dragon is that the plot focuses so much on Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship that it can often ignore how consequential so many other characters are to the story. It was smart framing, initially, but it’s okay to step away. That couldn’t be more evident in episode 4 than in an early scene featuring Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and his son, Alyn (Abubakar Salim). Angered that Rhaenyra refuses to bestow his bastard sons with the Velaryon name, the Sea Snake decides to skip town entirely. That’s it? Season 3 handed Corlys an opportunity to assert himself for a cause he believes in, and yet he’s already retreating.

Elsewhere, Daemon (Matt Smith) embarks on his side quest to the Vale and runs into his daughter, Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), and Sheapstealer. They’re living in a cave, disheveled and ashamed after accidentally taking part in Jace’s (Harry Collett) death. Daemon doesn’t know what to do other than to lie to Rhaenyra and present her a falsely slain nobody instead.

Meanwhile, In King’s Landing, Rhaenyra bans Ulf (Tom Bennett) from drinking at the tavern in fear that she might lose one of her dragon riders. He mentions that some people are calling her the “Queen of Bastards” outside of the castle’s gates as a passive-aggressive comeback. She could surely be a bit nicer to the men who ride dragons for her. Hell, Hugh (Kieran Bew) doesn’t even have a house to sleep in yet.

At Harrenhal, Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) arrives to discover that Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is still missing. On their trail, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) reunites with his dragon, Sunfyre, who’s lying dead in the woods. Really, we’re just shuffling around the chess pieces. Larys’s (Matthew Needham) plan is to lay low until they meet up with Cole’s army. Cole’s plan is to fight until they reunite with Aemond’s army, and then they all hope to join forces with Ormund and retake King’s Landing. It’s a bit tiring, especially since it’s been two episodes now without Aemond. Did Mitchell have another project to film (Saltburn 2??), or is he just waiting in Harrenhal purgatory until the plot catches back up to him like Daemon did last season?

A person in a green coat is gripping a sword, with a warm fire glowing in the background of a dimly lit room.

Kevin Baker/HBO

It’s Ormund Time

For now, Ormund remains in Tumbleton. His soldiers cause enough controversy about town to take up the episode’s runtime while he waits for word from Aemond. One of his men is struck when he attempts to rape a woman who just so happens to be Hugh’s wife. So, Ormund orders Daeron to punish the man and assert more control over the kingdom. It’s a little too reminiscent of Rhaenyra killing Otto (Rhys Ifans). But this is also where Ormund gives his deranged eugenics speech about how his grandnephew is tainted by Targaryen blood.

“The Targaryens are a savage race,” he tells Daeron. “With dark spells, they created abominations to subdue what was rightly ours. We are the superior men. But against [dragons], we could not stand. The gods have put you to divine purpose, my boy. The brutes raise a woman to the Iron Throne. A desecration! Where is reason? Where is propriety? It was a blessing that you came to ward in Oldtown. Your brothers lost, but you remain a Hightower, raised in the shadow of the citadel and the light of the starry sept. Now, you must be king! Is it the will of the Gods!”

It’s a bit heavy-handed—connecting Ormund to the religious sect that also refuses to anoint Rhaenyra. But I get it. This episode needed to bolster up Ormund because the season requires it. I just don’t know if the story does.

Some viewers crave constant character deaths and call that good pacing. I say it’s time we thought up some more emotional payoffs in this show other than simply waiting around for everyone to kill each other. Remember how exciting it was to speculate about the mystery of the White Walkers? Or how Thrones so often found ways to turn villains like Jaime Lannister and The Hound into heroes to root for? But if killing each other is all that’s left, then we might as well just get on with it.