House of the Dragon‘s Season 3 return has been much anticipated since the conclusion of Season 2 left fans on the edge, and really, who can blame us? The popular HBO series has built tension in the central Targaryen family and pushed it past the breaking point, and still, most of the fallout is yet to come. Season 2 saw Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) working to improve her position, finding more dragonriders, getting Daemon (Matt Smith) to fall into line, and making allies. Meanwhile, her opponents struggled. Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is badly injured, thanks to a conflict with Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), who seems to be making his own grab for the throne within the Greens. With Otto (Rhys Ifans) sent away and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) having doubts about her sons, their situation only grows worse. Season 3 will pick up as the Dance of the Dragons heats up, and with troops rallying to both sides, the war is about to get even more bloody.
Already, the next season is set up to be busy simply because of all the characters who will come into play. Those of us who are familiar with George R. R. Martin‘s novel Fire & Blood have an idea of the chaos that will come next, but if the previous seasons are any indication, there will be some surprises as well. As of now, the exact details of Season 3 are few and far between. However, one thing that has been confirmed is that Season 3 will have an experimental episode, and though we don’t know exactly what that means, I have concerns.
What Do We Know About ‘House of the Dragon’s Experimental Episode?
I’ll be the first to admit that when showrunner Ryan Condal first mentioned the idea, my curiosity was piqued. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize how risky an experimental episode is. Speaking to Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Condal said, “We got to have a little fun this season, and there’s a conceptual episode that I’m really excited about that [Sara Hess] wrote, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it. It isn’t in the traditional vernacular of what we have laid out. It’s very character-driven, I think it’s really great, and I’m really excited to see it rendered.” With no more information than it being something unique and character-driven, the possibilities are endless, so it sounds like a great thing, but the risk is in the specifics.
Of course, immediately, fans began theorizing. House of the Dragon has so many characters that there are plenty of concepts that could fit Condal’s description. Some suggested this could finally answer the long-standing question of where Daeron, the missing Targaryen, has been throughout the story. Others hoped it would follow Aegon, who ended Season 2 by escaping King’s Landing, meaning his circumstances will be vastly different. Other fans point to Condal’s use of the word “rendered” to suggest the character will be a dragon, namely Sunfyre, which seems farfetched to me, but it would be fascinating. I’ve also seen speculation that the experimental episode could highlight Alicent, Helaena (Phia Saban), Rhaenyra, or any number of other characters. While many of these ideas would be an interesting direction for House of the Dragon, every single one represents the same risk.
‘House of the Dragon’ Has a Limited Number of Episodes
My biggest concern with this experimental episode is that, no matter how good it may be, it will take away part of the limited amount of time in Season 3. House of the Dragon is one of many series that have cut back on the number of episodes per season. Season 1 was already packed full of ten episodes, and then Season 2 went down to eight. It’s already confirmed that Season 3 will have only eight episodes as well. Then, on top of that, one of those episodes will not be focused on the conflict as a whole but on a specific character. Especially with the show being half over already, I’m worried Season 3 doesn’t actually have time for it.
Based on Fire & Blood, there is still a lot to accomplish, and Season 2 already struggled. Many fans took issue with Season 2’s ending because it didn’t feel complete. With the armies still coming in and no major battles that House of the Dragon had been building towards for so long, it was anticlimactic. Given the show’s track record, taking the time to include an experimental episode seems like an unnecessary risk to me. I’m not saying it will distract from the overall story, but it certainly has the potential to do so, and it just may not be worth it when there is so much going on. One of the other things we know about Season 3 is that it will cover four major book events, and while which four is really just speculation, that, and the things that are necessary to connect them, should be plenty to cover eight episodes, and this experimental episode runs the risk of making it overcrowded.
‘House of the Dragon’s Character-Driven Episode Will Probably Be Divisive
Another fear I have for the experimental episode is that few of the characters are universally liked. With the clear division between Team Green and Team Black fans, there aren’t very many characters that everyone enjoys enough to stick with an entire episode about them. Maybe, if we’re lucky, this episode could change that, making someone so sympathetic that fans who are rooting against them can’t hate them so much, but I doubt it. The fact is, no matter what happens, half the audience will probably hate it, and that is not good for keeping viewers.
A character-driven episode runs a major risk for House of the Dragon, given that its biggest successes have been the massive, spectacle-focused episodes. Let’s remember that the two highest-rated Season 2 episodes were episode 4, which featured the Battle at Rook’s Rest, and episode 7, showing the Red Sowing, both of which are set apart by the epic dragon sequences. This was House of the Dragon Season 2’s biggest strength, and I don’t expect a character-driven episode to lean into that, though I hope I’m wrong. We don’t know what this experimental episode entails, and maybe it’s a high-risk, high-reward kind of situation, but there is already a direction that works. I think House of the Dragon would be better off playing it safe and focusing on the epic battles that fans are already excited to see.
House of the Dragon is streaming on Max in the U.S.