“Why seize Tumbleton?” Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) ponders aloud in the brand new House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 teaser released by HBO. And her question is a good one!
Last night’s House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 “Rhaenyra Triumphant” ended with the reveal that Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) did not actually surrender to Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) in the cold open. In fact, the silver-haired preteen he handed over as “Prince Daeron” (Charlie Gordon) was a pretender! The real Prince Daeron is still hanging out somewhere in the Hightower camp, which has now taken over the nearby town of Tumbleton.
If Tumbleton sounds familiar, that’s because it’s where newly-minted dragon rider Hugh the Hammer’s (Kieran Bew) brother-in-law lives. Last season, Hugh’s wife Kat (Ellora Torchia) argued that they should abandon the hellscape of Flea Bottom to stay with her brother’s family. In House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 “Rhaenyra Triumphant,” Hugh the Hammer tells Rhaenyra that in his absence, Kat has done just this.
When DECIDER caught up with House of the Dragon star Kieran Bew last month, we asked him if Kat even knows that her husband survived the brutal Red Sowing and claimed Vermithor as his own.
“Yeah, Kat’s looking to the sky — isn’t she? — in the [House of the Dragon Season 3] trailer, and watching as Vermithor flies overhead,” Bew said. “I can’t speak to whether she knows at that point that it’s me or not, but the news doesn’t necessarily travel in a linear way in Westeros. So, some people know. Some people don’t know.”
So it’s possible that while Hugh knows what’s going on with Kat, she still has no clue that her husband is now a knight and dragon rider.
What’s more important is that Kat is in Tumbleton and Ormund’s Hightower army has taken the town. Rhaenyra worries in the new House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 trailer that Ormund wants to lure her into setting fire to a city of innocents loyal to her.
So what else is in the House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 teaser? And what happens in Tumbleton in George R.R. Martin‘s Fire & Blood? Here’s what you need to know about Tumbleton…
What’s in the House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 Teaser Trailer?
The big storyline teased in HBO’s new teaser for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 is the first (yes, first) Battle of Tumbleton from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. Rhaenyra explains to her Small Council that she thinks Ormund is trying to bait her into setting a loyal town of innocents on fire. One of those innocents? You guessed it: Hugh’s wife Kat and her family. Ormund, for his part, bloviates about how their mission is to restore the rightful line to the Iron Throne. (Meaning, the Hightower line.)
We also get a glimpse of Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) and Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) arriving at the ruins of Rook’s Rest, where Rhaenys’s (Eve Best) dragon, Meleys, still lays dead, strewn across the castle’s ruined battlements. Some roguish types rudely ask if Larys and Aegon are Riverfolk, noting they hate Riverfolk.
Elsewhere, Daemon is grousing about how they need to pay the troops, or suffer the consequences. Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) suggests hiring a new Master of Coin so he can take the blame for their insufficient funds.
Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) arrive at Harrenhal, seeking Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). They meet Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), who simply says, “Oh, my,” dramatically.
The final shot is of Ormund looking on in pride as orange flames erupt in front of him, offscreen.
What’s So Important About Tumbleton in House of the Dragon?
Tumbleton is the site of not one, but two atrocities during the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. In George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, Ormund Hightower does indeed take over the town after Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing. However, what makes the first battle so notorious is how it turns on a hideous dime.
In the book version of events, the Winter Wolves and Riverland forces converge on Tumbleton and manage to get through the walls to attack the Hightower soldiers. Prince Daeron attempts to attack Rhaenyra’s forces on his small dragon Tessarion, but it looks like a fool’s errand. Vermithor and Silverwing are laying in wait for Tessarion. However, in Martin’s version of events, Hugh the Hammer and Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) betray their oaths to Rhaenyra at the worst possible moment, lighting the whole town on fire.
Because House of the Dragon has moved Hugh’s wife to Tumbleton, it’s safe to say this event might turn out differently — and all the more horrifically — in the show.
When Does House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 Come Out?
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4 comes out this Sunday, July 12 at 9 PM ET on HBO and HBO Max.
