Daemon’s Visions at Harrenhal in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 4, Explained

As Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) battle for control of Westeros, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) experiences his own personal horror movie.

His troubles began in episode 3 of The Dragon HouseDaemon’s second season, when he received a haunting vision of young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) after conquering Harrenhal. Episode 4, “A Dance of Dragons,” takes those visions to the next level, as Daemon receives not one, not two, but three haunted visitors. Plus, a nightcap with resident witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) offers an explanation as to why Daemon might be receiving these visitors in the first place.

Let’s break it down.

What does Daemon’s vision in Young Rhaenyra episode 4 mean?

“A Dance of Dragons” opens with Daemon’s vision of the Great Hall of the Red Keep. Once again, he comes face to face with young Rhaenyra, who now sits on the Iron Throne. But something has changed. In Daemon’s vision of young Rhaenyra in Episode 3, she wore the same golden dress she wore in the first half of Season 1. However, this manifestation of young Rhaenyra is dressed exactly like adult Rhaenyra; she wears a long black and red dress and the crown of Jaehaerys the Peacemaker.

As Episode 3 director Geeta Vasant Patel said, Daemon sees young Rhaenyra as someone who truly knew, loved, and revered him, while his own brother Viserys (Paddy Considine) despised him. Meanwhile, modern Rhaenyra has cast him aside after revealing that he was complicit in the murder of young Jaehaerys. Seeing teenage Rhaenyra adopt adult Rhaenyra’s clothing and attitude unsettles Daemon from the start.

What makes matters worse is what this vision of Rhaenyra actually says to Daemon. As in their argument in Episode 2, it preys on one of his greatest insecurities, namely that Viserys never loved him as much as he loved Rhaenyra. And even though Daemon “created” Rhaenyra as Queen—literally crowning her in the Season 1 finale—does he really support her? Or is he determined to destroy her and seize power for himself? Rhaenyra speaks these words in High Valyrian, a language she and Daemon often spoke alone together at the beginning of Season 1 and one that is quite intimate between the two of them.

The combination of this intimate language used to hurt him and the fusion of young and adult Rhaenyra proves too much for Daemon. In this vision, he decapitates young Rhaenyra without hesitation, an act reminiscent of Jaehaerys’s beheading at her request, and that of Vaemond Velaryon (Wil Johnson) in Season 1. But even then, the horrors are not over: Rhaenyra’s disembodied head asks Daemon if this is what he always wanted. Is he really that monstrous?

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What do Daemon’s visions of Aemond Targaryen and Laena Velaryon mean?

Daemon continues to face his worst fears as “A Dance of Dragons” continues. His next vision is of Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). Well, sort of. Daemon sees someone who looks a lot like Aemond Targaryen walking into Harrenhal. From behind, he can see that this figure has long, blond Targaryen hair, as well as an eyepatch. However, when the figure turns around, we see that it is actually Daemon, made to look like Aemond.

There are multiple layers here. First, Daemon and Aemond act as mirrors to each other. Both are younger brothers of kings, and both are considered more dangerous than their siblings. But as the Dance of Dragons unfolds, the two gain a horrifying new commonality. In the Season 1 finale, Aemond’s actions led to the death of Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), a child. Daemon’s retaliation, while initially aimed at Aemond, also leads to the death of a child: Jaehaerys. So when Daemon sees Aemond at Harrenhal, he doesn’t just see someone with a similar life path to his own. He sees himself as a child murderer and a parent killer. Additionally, fans of George R.R. Martin Fire and Blood will also know that the fates of Daemon and Aemond are both tied to Harrenhal Castle, so the Daemon-Aemond connection here is particularly prescient.

After all this, Harrenhal always isn’t done with Daemon. During a meeting with House Blackwood, a vision transforms a handmaiden into Daemon’s late wife, Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell). Once again, this ghostly apparition serves as a reminder of what Daemon has lost, as well as his potential monstrosity. While Laena committed suicide, ordering Vhagar to burn her during a painful, possibly fatal, childbirth, there was a chance that Daemon forced her to have a C-section to save her child, much as Viserys did to Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) in The Dragon Housethe first of.

Why is Daemon having these visions in the first place, and what does Alys Rivers have to do with it?

Daemon’s nightmares lead him to meet Alys Rivers, a bastard woman who has taken over as Maester of Harrenhal. You may remember her as the woman who told Daemon, “You will die here,” on his first night in Harrenhal. What a warm welcome!

In Fire and BloodVarious accounts describe Alys as “a servant girl who dabbled in potions and spells,” “a witch of the woods,” and “a malignant enchantress who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth.” Needless to say, she is a powerful woman in her own right – though The Dragon House keeps secret until now the mysterious abilities that she could have.

Alys gives Daemon a history lesson that gives him some insight into why he keeps having strange visions. Harrenhal is cursed, she says. When Harren the Black built it, he cut down the sacred weirwood trees that grew where Harrenhal now stands. “Heart trees imbued with the spirits of those who lived long before he came,” Alys explains. “They say their whispers can still sometimes be heard.”

Daemon is quick to dismiss Alys’ tale as a midwife’s tale. But given that his bed was made of weirwood, and that his first vision of young Rhaenyra led him to the only weirwood that still stands in Harrenhal’s courtyard, it is clear that there is more truth to her words than he realizes.

But is the Harrenhal curse the only thing affecting Daemon? Or is some of Alys’s witchcraft at work as well? She gives him a potion that she says will help him sleep, but he seems disoriented—and still sees Laena!—as he drinks it. Alys also preys on Daemon’s insecurities about Viserys failing him as heir, something his vision of Rhaenyra brought up earlier in the episode. Can she see Daemon’s visions too? Or is she directly responsible for them? Either way, something supernatural is definitely going on.

New episodes of The Dragon House airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.