Criston Cole
The sixth episode of Season 3 of House of the Dragon, “Faceless Men,” has the following spoilers.. Close this tab, pour yourself some Arbor gold, and return later if you haven’t watched yet.
It’s finally happened, Westeros. Ser Criston Cole has departed the building after three seasons of arrogant statements, dubious haircuts, and enough betrayal to make a Lannister blush. However, he did not exit the building as he had promised.
The sixth episode, “Faceless Men,” continues where it left off last week: Cole thinks he will become legendary. Spoiler alert he doesn’t. Rather, the “Kingmaker” leads his weary soldiers directly into an ambush at the show (as well as George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood) refers to the Butcher’s Ball, where corpses that weren’t corpses suddenly appear and begin to swing. It’s one of the most rewarding scenes of the season, despite being violent and chaotic.
Recap of House of the Dragon Episode 6: The Butcher’s Ball
Cole really goes down swinging with a rising star in a sweet homage to his first humiliation of Daemon Targaryen in the series opene. But surrounded, outnumbered, and denied the single combat he begs for, he’s cut down by arrows instead. No heroic combat, no glorious final stand, and no ballad for Queen Alicent to hear in the future. In a muddy field, a knight who talked a big game is finally shot full of holes. This seems like the ideal theme for a show that is constantly telling us that war doesn’t have happy endings.
Elsewhere in King’s Landing, the small council is having its own meltdown. Daemon reports that City Watch members loyal to Daeron have been slaughtered, and everyone quietly agrees it’s Ormund’s doing. Daemon, never one for patience, wants to fly to Tumbleton on Caraxes and burn the problem away. Mysaria talks him down, reminding him that innocent people and Rhaenyra’s own subjects would die too. Daemon responds by hurling a cup at someone’s head, because apparently that’s still how diplomacy works on this show.
Over at Harrenhal, Aemond is back on his feet and ready to hunt down Vhagar, while Alys Rivers tries a different strategy: seduction, dragon eggs, and a pitch to rule at his side as “Lady of the Water.” It works. The two kiss, and suddenly Alys looks less like some mysterious healer and a lot more like a woman in it for the long game for a crown.
The much-discussed conclusion, in which Ormund’s troops attack and capture Corlys Velaryon, has viewers wondering if the Sea Snake has finally run out of life as the credits roll.
What Differentiations Exist Between House of the Dragon Episode 6 and Fire & Blood?
Episode 6 of George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood is both devoted and irritatingly abridged for readers. Everything in The Butcher’s Ball, including the unsettling detail of troops playing dead among the corpses before ambushing Cole’s outriders, is taken straight out of the book. That part, the show nailed.
Where things diverge is in the details of Cole’s death. In the book, he’s killed by a group of archers led by a bastard archer known as Red Robb Rivers, not by a lone rider. The show consolidates that role into Alysanne Blackwood, a choice that’s split fans some love giving her the moment, others feel it strips away a beat of dark humor from the source material, where one of the enemy commanders mocks Cole for wanting songs sung about a man responsible for so much death.
The show also drops several secondary book characters entirely, folding commanders like Garibald Grey and Pate of Longleaf into composite roles played by characters we already know, like Oscar Tully. It’s a common adaptation shortcut, but book purists have noted that it strips away some of the grim wit that made Cole’s death a fan-favorite chapter in the source material.
Elsewhere, the show has been taking bigger swings away from the text Rhaenyra sending Alicent to Harrenhal to confront (or kill) Aemond has no direct equivalent in Fire & Blood, where Alicent simply remains a prisoner during this stretch of the war. It’s a bold change, and one that could reshape how the final episodes play out compared to Martin’s original “history.”
After House of the Dragon Episode 6: Episode 7 Predictions
Episode 7 has a lot much material to cover with just two episodes remaining in the season, and the trailer isn’t exactly being discreet about it. What we anticipate is as follows:
1. Corlys survives, but barely. The Sea Snake has cheated death more times than a cat with nine lives and a security detail. Expect Ormund’s camp to try leveraging him rather than simply executing him, possibly even pressuring him to serve Daeron as Hand of the King, which would be one delicious political headache for Team Black.
2. Aemond re-enters the war. The Episode 7 trailer shows him training with Blackfyre again, scarred but very much back in fighting form. After Alys’s dragon-egg pitch, don’t be shocked if he rides out with new purpose and possibly new company.
3. Tumbleton becomes the pressure cooker of the season. Gwayne Hightower finally arrives there, walking straight into Ormund’s condescension, while the Winter Wolves and Rivermen circle. All signs point to the First Battle of Tumbleton either landing here or spilling into the finale.
4. Alicent’s Harrenhal mission gets messy. This will be one of the most stressful two-handers of the show, especially as Alys Rivers is now firmly in Aemond’s corner, regardless of whether she is there to kill him or just calm him down.
5. A dragon shows up nobody was expecting. Sheepstealer, Westeros’s most uncontrollable dragon, may be set to complicate matters for all parties involved, as the trailer hints at.
On August 2, House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 7 will debut on HBO and HBO Max, so, Carry popcorn. And maybe a helmet.
In case you missed episode 5: https://theblinkreview.com/house-of-the-dragon-season-3-episode-5-recap-a-massacre-at-the-red-keep-a-dead-man-walking-and-the-return-of-a-corpse-nobody-asked-for/
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