‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Episode 3 Ending Explained: Milly Alcock Returns As Young Rhaenyra to Haunt the Sh*t out of Daemon at Harrenhal

HBO‘s House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3 “The Burning Mill” brought back one of Season 1’s most beloved characters in a surprising way that’s sure to excite fans as much as it horrifies Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith)…

**Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3 “The Burning Mill”, now streaming on Max**

Milly Alcock returns to play Young Rhaenyra in a nightmare that Daemon has while staying at the massive, cursed castle of Harrenhal. The cavernous stronghold is as renowned in George R.R. Martin‘s books for its strategic position as it is for its dark, mysterious history.

Harrenhal was built by Harren the Black, an evil warlord whom tried to conquer the Riverlands. He chopped down a sacred weirwood forest to build the largest castle ever built. The blood of its workers are in the walls. And the very day that Black Harren finished building Harrenhal, Aegon the Conqueror arrived to burn its towers with dragon fire.

Harrenhal is also the place where Rhaenyra’s lover Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr) and his father were burned to death by none other than Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). It’s also where Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) poured wine for Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance).

In House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3 “The Burning Mill”, Daemon has arrived at Harrenhal with Caraxes to take the important castle for Team Black. Harrenhal’s castellan, aka steward, Ser Simon Strong (Sir Simon Russell Beale) immediately surrenders, but a mysterious woman known to fans as Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is less welcoming to Daemon. When Daemon wakes from his nightmare, he’s in front of a Heart Tree and Alys tells Daemon he’s going to die there.

When Decider asked Matthew Needham about Harrenhal, which is now technically Larys’s, during a roundtable interview, he joked, “I mean, he’s sort of renting out as an AirBnB.”

“I think it’s a place of real sadness for him,” Needham said. “So, I don’t think he has particularly warm feelings about it, but I think he respects its sort of dark magic. And I think he knows that there is a power there that’s waiting for whoever is foolish enough to spend a few nights there.”

Well, Daemon just spent a night there…and came face to face with Young Rhaenyra. So what was all that about? Decider can confirm we’ll learn more about what’s afoot at Harrenhal in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4, but there’s a lot we can delve into now. Including the meaning behind Milly Alcock’s return to the HBO show…

House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3 “The Burning Mill”: Why Is Milly Alcock Back as Young Rhaenyra?

Milly Alcock returns as Young Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3 “The Burning Mill”to haunt a grieving Daemon at Harrenhal. While sleeping in the cursed castle, Daemon hears humming. He follows the mournful tune to a silver-haired woman sitting by a fire. When he gets closer, it’s Young Rhaenyra, holding the murdered Jaehaerys in her lap, sewing his head back on.

She tells Daemon, “Always coming and going, aren’t you?”

“And I have to clean up afterwards.”

Daemon’s eyes fill with tears — of guilt? of grief? of shame? — and he drops his Valyrian steel sword, Black Sister. As the weapon hits the ground, he discovers himself in the aforementioned grove with the Heart Tree. And Alys Rivers is there to taunt him.

Of course, the scene with Young Rhaenyra is not real. It’s a vision. Caused by what? Well…

“There’s a mysticism that takes hold in a way,” Matt Smith said during a roundtable that Decider earlier in the month.

While answering a question posed by ScreenRant’s Deven McClure, Smith said, “There’s a sort of dark storm brewing in his belly somewhere, and the lightning’s crackling and the thunder rumbles up into his lungs and his chest and, you know, it’s all gonna sort of purge out of his mouth, really.”

“That’s just going on inside of him, you know, and it slows him down. It makes him question himself. It makes him question his life and his brother and his wife. It’s just grief, basically, you know, and that’s what’s got hold of him.”

Daemon is probably particularly haunted by Young Rhaenyra because she was his idealized form of his niece/wife. She is the one he attempted to corrupt and marry. She is also the person whose ascension to the position of Viserys’s chosen heir cut Daemon out of the line of succession.

Besides, it’s pretty awesome to watch a teenaged Rhaenyra put Daemon in his place.

“You could just put that line of words into one word, which is grief, I think,” Smith said.

Grief for who he’s lost and what he’s lost. And that includes his wife’s respect.

And it seems there are forces at Harrenhal ready to pounce on this weakened Daemon.