Gayle Rankin Discusses the Controversial Aemond, Alys, and Alicent Scene in ‘House of the Dragon’
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Episode 7 of House of the Dragon Season 3 featured a sudden collision of Targaryen desires and Harrenhal sorcery. Early in the episode, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) arrives at Harrenhal under a mission from Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) to convince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) to surrender. However, the mother-son dynamic quickly shifts into an intimate and complex encounter—until it is revealed that Aemond was merely hallucinating his mother while lying with his lover, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin).
Speaking about filming this unique scene between mother, son, and lover, Gayle Rankin said: “It was a very intimate, strange, yet entirely professional scene. We tried to keep things light with humor because shooting these sequences is far from easy and involves complex technical detail. It was truly just another day on set wrapped in an utterly surreal scenario.”
The narrative deepens as Alicent’s actual arrival at Harrenhal unfolds. Alys attempts to make Aemond realize that his mother has not come to help him. Following an excruciatingly tense family dinner, Alys’s prediction proves accurate: Alicent poisons Aemond in the dead of night before fleeing, leaving him to turn to Alys for help.
Meanwhile, although Alys and Aemond have invested in a clutch of dragon eggs, they remain without a massive dragon for defense; Vhagar remains missing, while Aegon’s dragon, Sunfyre, has been revealed to be alive and reunited with him.
Addressing whether Alys’s feelings for Aemond are genuine, Rankin remarked: “Yes, I believe they are real. Of course, nothing is simple—especially when you are in the middle of a war, aiming for a castle, and happen to be a healer-witch! But beyond all that, a real affection exists between them. Aemond is unapologetically himself, and Alys respects that directness and power; they are, in a way, a dark power couple.”
She also clarified the secret behind the dragon eggs and why Alys withheld them from Daemon while choosing to trust Aemond: “Daemon never lowered his guard around Alys and ultimately broke her heart. Alys possesses foresight and reads people like a book; she knew Daemon wasn’t the answer, but her intuition regarding Aemond was entirely different.”
When asked about Alys Rivers’s true age, Rankin replied: “I think she is around 400 years old. Many doubt whether she is telling the truth or trying to manipulate others, but I say: believe this woman!”
Reflecting on the grueling filming process for the uncomfortable family dinner, the actress shared: “It was awful! I mean, really uncomfortable, but I loved it. Alys was right in her element despite the tension. She wanted the environment to become so unbearable that Alicent would be forced to leave.”
Finally, addressing the disappearance of Aemond’s dragon, Rankin added: “I honestly don’t know where Vhagar is! Even I don’t know where she went. But the fact that Alys stays by Aemond’s side even without his dragon demonstrates her commitment. She has dragon eggs and doesn’t strictly need Aemond, but she wants him, making it a very intricate relationship.”
