House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 is going to be released on HBO and HBO Max on July 5, 2026, showing us what happens after Rhaenyra takes over King’s Landing. As the preview video for the upcoming episode has teased, Daemon is going to suggest Rhaenyra kill Daeron Targaryen, Alicent and Viserys’ youngest son, to make sure no one else contests her claim to the throne.
Daemon will personally go to demand Ormund Hightower’s surrender and order him to give up Daeron Targaryen. In the preview, we see Ormund hand over a white-haired boy who seems to be Daeron. A leaked clip from House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 has revealed that Ormund will be handing over a random boy as Daeron to save the actual prince, and Rhaenyra will uncover Ormund’s deception.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 leaks receaks that Ormund Hightower will send a decoy Daeron Targaryen
In Fire & Blood, the book that serves as the source material for House of the Dragon, Daeron Targaryen was sent to Oldtown when he was 12 to squire for his mother’s cousin, Lord Ormund Hightower. In the show, when Lord Ormund Hightower is introduced, he is accompanied by an unnamed, brown-haired squire in green clothes.
While the show hasn’t explicitly mentioned that the squire is Daeron Targaryen, it has been implied subtly. A leaked clip from House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 3 has gone viral online, which reveals that Ormund will deceive Rhaenyra. He will send her a random boy disguised as Daeron, but she will find out she has been deceived.
As the clip reveals, Rhaenyra will demand Ormund Hightower surrender and order him to send Daeron Targaryen to King’s Landing. Initially, Rhaenyra will be under the impression that Ormund has followed her orders. Since Daeron grew up in Oldtown and has nothing to do with his brothers’ treachery, Rhaenyra tells Alicent that she will not kill Daeron but send him to the wall instead (to be a member of the Night’s Watch).
Alicent knows that Rhaenyra is being merciful, and despite having spent so long without her son, she can’t bring herself to accept that Daeron will be sent far away from her. As the clip then shows, Alicent wishes to see Daeron before he is sent to the wall.
We then see Rhaenyra talk to the boy she thinks is Daeron and inform him of what will happen to him. When Alicent walks in, her face and lack of motherly instinct instantly give away that she doesn’t recognize the boy.
Rhaenyra then asks Alicent if she knows the boy, and Alicent shakes her head. Upon confrontation, the boy reveals that Lord Ormund Hightower changed his hair and forced him to pretend to be Daeron Targaryen, or else his mother would be hanged. Rhaenyra is furious upon finding out the truth and aghast that Ormund thought she wouldn’t discover the lie.
We can thus tell that Ormund Hightower definitely has something else up his sleeves. It is evident that the real Daeron is still with him, along with Daeron’s dragon, Tessarion. While the clip or the preview doesn’t tease anything else about Ormund’s schemes, the other teasers have revealed that he is not going to go down easily.
House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 3 spoilers
Besides what the clip has revealed, House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 3 will also show us what happens to Aemond in Harrenhal after he passes out from a stab wound. Right before losing consciousness, he falls in front of Alys Rivers and begs her for help. In the next episode, we will most likely see her take care of Aemond and slowly develop a relationship with him in the attempt to secure power and protection (as she did in the books).
Rhaenyra will also have to figure out how to rule over King’s Landing with limited resources (caused by the blockade). We will also see Daemon on the hunt to find the unknown dragon and dragonrider spotted at the Battle of Gullet. We know it was Rhaena on Sheepstealer, and she’s now hiding in the Vale, but it seems like she won’t be able to hide for much longer.
Moreover, as the preview has teased, we might see Rhaenyra snap and do things she never thought she would do to prove it to everyone that her father made the right choice by making her his heir. Moreover, the episode will also most likely reveal what Rhaenyra will do after she realizes that Ormund has decieved her.
House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 3 will be released on HBO and HBO Max on July 5, 2026, at 9 pm ET.
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Edited by Riddhee