For the past several episodes of House of the Dragon, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has been haunted by a parade of ghostly visions that double as cameos of past actors on the show.
First, Milly Alcock returned as young Rhaenyra Targaryen, then Nanna Blondell reprised her role as Laena Velaryon. But in Season 2, episode 6, we reach what feels like the final boss of these visions, as Paddy Considine dons the crown of King Viserys Targaryen once again.
Viserys’s return feels monumental because almost every vision Daemon has had so far has reminded him of his relationship with his late brother. Young Rhaenyra needled Daemon over Viserys passing him over as his heir, while his mother Alyssa (Emeline Lambert) told him that he would have been a much better, stronger ruler than Viserys.
So what happens when Viserys and Daemon come face to face? Does Viserys taunt Daemon about his wrecked marriage to Rhaenyra, or his failed attempts to muster strength in the Riverlands and become king in his own right?
Not exactly.
Instead, what we get is a near word-for-word replay of a scene from the very first episode of House of the Dragon. Viserys confronts Daemon for joking about the death of his wife Aemma (Sian Brooke), and for calling his late newborn son Baelon the “heir for a day.” He then reveals he’ll be naming a new heir, cutting Daemon out of the line of succession.
For present-day Daemon, this revisited memory must cut deeper than any fantasy he’s witnessed in Harrenhal so far. It rehashes one of the worst moments of his life, one that still haunts him and drives him to this day, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. All he can muster is a soft “don’t” as vision-Viserys begins to say, “I have decided to name a new heir.”
Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO
While Viserys’s dialogue remains almost exactly the same from this version of the scene in Season 1, Considine’s performances are worlds apart. In Season 1, his grief drove him to loud bursts of anger. He sits high in the Iron Throne as he casts his brother out. Vision-Viserys, on the other hand, slumps over. His physicality recalls Viserys during the later stages of his illness, as if Daemon is viewing an amalgam of his brother across different stages of his life. There is no yelling here, just a soft, almost defeated sense of grief that matches Daemon’s own sadness as he re-experiences Viserys’s wrath.
Unlike in Season 1, Daemon does not fight back against Viserys’s accusations. All the fire of this original encounter is gone, replaced first by disbelief — “You can’t possibly still be angry about this” — then an overwhelming urge to escape. By this point, Harrenhal has broken Daemon down with its non-stop display of his worst insecurities. All he can do is hope for the vision to end.
Daemon does get a bit of closure on his relationship with Viserys — or at least, his ghostly counterpart — towards the end of episode 6. In this new vision, we experience an alternate version of the past: One where Daemon stood by Viserys’s side as he grieved Aemma, instead of getting drunk in a King’s Landing tavern.
“You should’ve been at my side,” Vision-Viserys told Daemon earlier in the episode. Now, Daemon holds him as he cries. “You needed me,” he says. “I’m here now.”
This new vision is the first time Daemon’s Harrenhal visions have offered him any respite. It’s also the first time he’s truly owned up to his mistakes in a vision and tried to make them right. Obviously, it’s too late for Daemon and Viserys’s real-life relationship. But maybe that healing embrace will mark a turning point for Daemon. After all, he does receive the good news of Grover Tully’s passing right after he wakes up from that dream. Whatever cutting-edge ghost therapy treatment Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is foisting on Daemon must be working, big time.
New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
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