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[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the House of the Dragon season three finale.]
“Do not trust the queen. Aegon has returned. His dragon lives. Your unborn child is a hostage, a prize by which she can hold power over her enemies. She will never release you.”
These end up being among the final words Queen Helaena Targaryen ever hears. In the House of the Dragon season three finale, a newly ousted Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) issues her stark warning to the recently imprisoned Helaena (Phia Saban), who internalizes that information and weaponizes it: first, by way of speaking ugly truths about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) right to her face, and then, finally, by way of an open Red Keep window. Just as King Tommen once plummeted from that very same location in Game of Thrones, so too now has Helaena fallen. The season ends with Rhaenyra coming upon Helaena’s vacant quarters, while Team Green’s queen herself lies on the ground below, impaled on spikes.
It’s a haunting image, perhaps appropriately so, given Helaena as a character who knows a thing or two about nightmares and dreams. It’s also a hinge upon which much of the rest of House of the Dragon will turn, according to the folks behind the scenes. In a press event held ahead of the season finale, D’Arcy spoke about Helaena’s death and what it means for the show’s future: “Helaena is sort of the moral heart of the show, I think. She’s maybe the only character who has a proximity to power, but remains kind of uncontaminated. And so, I think her death sort of condemns Rhaenyra to the path she’s chosen. I think there’s sort of no way back after that.”
