Note: This story contains spoilers from “House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 1.
“House of the Dragon” Season 3 finally tackled the long-awaited Battle of the Gullet. And although Rhaenyra’s side was victorious, it was a botched win with heavy losses.
The plan for Team Black was to have Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) meet The Triyarchy — a large naval presence swayed to join Aegon and Team Green — in the Gullet. Things took a turn for the better — and then far worse — when Jace (Harry Collett) and Baela (Bethany Antonia) joined the battle with their dragons Vermax and Moondancer.
Compounding the bad choices, Jace decided it was best if Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) was held in her chambers so that she wouldn’t either stop her son and heir from fighting in the battle or join herself and be killed. Only to end up dead himself by the end of the pivotal hour.
Collett told TheWrap that Jace’s decision and urgency behind it was born out of a kid who wanted to be a part of the war making a silly decision.
“I think just everything is pushing into one moment,” Collett said. “I think that it’s been a lot of pressure and a lot of buildup to this, and I feel like this is just something he feels like he has to do. I don’t really know how else to explain it, except that it’s just a kid making a silly decision, but he believes that this is what he was born to do. He feels like he has to prove himself as being the rightful heir to the Seven Kingdoms.”
While Jace was sure that joining the fight without his mom is the right move, Baela was much more hesitant. Antonia told TheWrap her concerns were in the very logical realm of knowing they don’t have the war experience to handle the battle themselves.
“She can just see so clearly that, as capable as she thinks they both are, she’s very aware that they are much younger and their dragons are much smaller than some of the dragons on the other side,” Antonia said. “As much as she wants to do this with him, I think she could just feel that it’s all very impulsive, and she doesn’t want to go. She knows Rhaenyra’s plan is to all go together, so she’s thinking we should just wait for the grownups and all go together and be really smart and really considered.”
She added: “I think Baela knows that she is pretty disposable to Rhaenyra, so she will be going anyway. She would rather have Jace stay at home and then get to go with the grownups, and then come back and tell him what’s happened, then go the two of them. That’s where her hesitance comes from.”
The two go at it themselves, though, and from their arrival it’s clear they’re in over their head despite riding dragons. Jace is nearly taken out in the first few minutes — foreshadowing his fate — before being bailed out by Baela. Collett pointed out that this was Jace’s first major battle in the war and the “naivety of not knowing” what the real thing is like.
Then Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) showed up riding an untrained Sheepstealer. The dragon is clearly wild and does not consider sides. It flies on the scene and starts burning Trearchy and Velaryon ships alike. This new chaotic wildcard further complicates things for Jace and Baela, who turn their focus to the new dragon — not knowing Rhaena is the rider. Jace gets close enough to identify Rhaena but in doing so loses what is going on in the larger battle. Collett put the full blame for what happened next squarely on Rhaena and Sheepstealer.
“It’s all her fault,” he said.
While Jace and Vermax had a close call with Sheepstealer, The Triarchy reloaded and reaimed on the dragon. For the second time, the dragon was hit with a harpoon meant to drag the beast into the water. Baela wasn’t around to save them this time and Vermax went into the water and sunk to the bottom. Jace managed to unhook from the dragon saddle and rise to the top, clutching to a piece of debris. That sigh of relief goes away quick though. Jace floated up in front of a Triarchy ship and was pincushioned with arrows, dying almost instantly.
“The thing that surprised me when I watched the episode was the way that the music just stops, and then all you can hear is the arrows going into my body,” Collett said about Jace’s death. “Then it just ends with a sort of drone shot of the whole battle, and then fades to black. I think that was so powerful, because it just felt so real. The music left the room.”
He added that the Battle of the Gullet — and Jace’s death — being moved to Season 3 rather than ending Season 2, like originally planned, was nice for him because he got to talk about his character’s ending more openly.
“If it were the Season 2 finale, I wouldn’t have been allowed to speak about it on the Season 2 press tour,” he said. “Now I get to speak about it with all you guys, and I get to tell you all these amazing stories and say thank you for letting me be a part of this show.”
For Baela, the fallout of leaving for the battle, Jace’s death, and the (yet unknown) fact that her sister and Sheepstealer played a major part in his death, a lot of questions remain in the air. Antonia said that Baela is not aware that Rhaena was a part of the fight but learning so would “be catastrophic for them as a pair.” Her standing with Rhaenyra is also likely worse off for siding with Jace and heading to the battle without her, but with the heir dead there are new opportunities available for her the rest of the season — and they might not be as a member of the Targaryen family.
“I wouldn’t say she’s looking for power, I think purpose, definitely,” Antonia said. “I think community and family, I think from, she’s somebody who’s experienced loss from such a young age, and all she’s ever wanted is to have a family around her, and losing Jace is such a big blow, but it’s sort of the final blow. I think it’s the final thing that ties her to this side of her family.”
She finished: “And “Daemon has been pretty absent in most of her life, so she knows now that Rhaenyra is not going to look at her in the same way. And so her life with the Targaryens is just not going to be what it was. I think we’re going to see her this season, really remember that she is a woman of two houses and maybe look to the others for a bit of support.”
“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 6 p.m ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
The post ‘House of the Dragon’ Stars Unpack Season 3 Premiere’s Big Death During The Battle of the Gullet appeared first on TheWrap.
