‘House of the Dragon’ director talks about that surprise kiss and whether Alys is a ghost

An unexpected romance. A new dragon rider. A roasted Darklyn. A riot in the streets. These were some of the key moments from the final episode of HBO’s fantasy drama House of the Dragon as it heads into its final two episodes of the year.

Below, franchise newcomer and Emmy-winning Succession veteran Andrij Parekh looks back on directing the episode and answers some burning questions — including whether Harrenhal’s seemingly omniscient healer Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is a ghost — and reveals a Succession -style touch he added to one particular scene.

You directed some great episodes of Succession — which was once described as “like Game of Thrones but with helicopters instead of dragons” — and now you’re on the dragon show. I’m sure it’s very different in many ways, but what’s it been like going from that acclaimed HBO drama to this one?

The circumstances are different, but it’s still a family affair. That’s what drew me to doing House of the Dragon . It’s really about family and family conflict, and in many ways it was an extension of Succession .

How was the experience similar to what you expected and how was it different from what you expected?

It’s a huge scale. I was a little taken aback walking onto those sets. Then you remember that those sets were built by [production designer] Jim Clay, who did a masterful job. It was an honor and a pleasure in that sense, because it felt like the set was endless.

I’ve been on that continuous multi-story set of Red Keep and it’s impressive. It looks like a space you could move into and live in.

Absolutely. They feel real and completely lived in. What I love about shooting in New York is walking up to the location and feeling like you’re shooting in a real place, and this [felt similar]—a lot of times it felt like I had moved. You’d go to lunch and see hundreds of people eating. It was like there was an army behind the army.

So when you first got the script, what excited you about this episode?

I think what I loved was that this episode is about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) who are almost at the lowest point in their lives. Alicent is missing a child; she’s being kicked off the Council. Rhaenyra’s husband has left her, she feels completely isolated and alone; she has all these men calculating [moves] without her necessarily having any input. They both feel incredibly isolated as characters and part of the challenge of this episode, for me, was keeping alive the tension of what was happening in King’s Landing and what was happening in the world of Westeros, which is two worlds on the verge of going to war. There’s a sense of desperation and impending doom that’s different on both sides. We’ve seen the outcome of a battle. You know what that war’s going to be like.

There’s another scene with Daemon (Matt Smith) and Alys (Gayle Rankin) this week. Are we supposed to assume she’s a real person and not a ghost? I’m not asking for a spoiler, but I’m curious what I’m supposed to assume as a viewer, because I’ve been watching this thinking she’s not really there.

I think a healthy dose of doubt makes everything a lot more interesting. She’s able to enter Daemon’s mind and read his mind. It’s definitely otherworldly. I’ll leave it at that.

Which scene are you most proud of?

The scenes that I found challenging, for various reasons, were Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan) burning when he tried to ride Seasmoke, and Seasmoke finding his rider, and the kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), which was very difficult to make feel earned and real.

That potential romance was hiding in plain sight, and it was a moment that seemed unexpected but also made sense.

I think it’s a surprise, but I also don’t want it to feel outlandish and to fit in with the emotional truth, which is linear, which is that Rhaenyra has been abandoned by her husband. And I hope that kiss feels earned and real and emotional.

When Darklyn tries to mount Seasmoke, you know it’s not going to go well. How was that moment staged?

A lot of that scene is centered on Rhaenyra. I feel like it’s about her projection of possibilities, as ridiculous as that sounds. She’s going to try and will something to happen and hopefully the audience feels like it’s about to happen, but then all of a sudden it doesn’t happen, in a very quick and unexpected way. We had a real set that Jim built and that walkway is like 15 feet off the ground. You can definitely fall off it and it looks pretty dangerous, so when you’re up there it feels real, even though it’s in front of a blue screen.

Were there any subtle details in the episode that a casual fan might miss?

I liked Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) throwing the ball back at Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), pushing him towards his wound and torturing him with it. He basically gives him back the power, but in a way that lets you know who really has the power.

House of the Dragon like Succession tends to have a lot of meeting scenes. I particularly liked the dramatic opening shot of Aemond leaning over the table at the Small Council meeting. What’s the secret to keeping these kinds of scenes active and engaging when you have a bunch of characters around a table?

I think it’s about moving the drama forward. And I feel like Aemond is very powerful in that scene. You feel like he has a very different presence than Aegon in that Small Council, in a radically different way. He gets right to work and doesn’t ask anyone what they really think, he just tells them what to do. So I found that level of command inspiring.

We also covered it in a sort of Succession way, a moving camera around the table. That was something I loved doing as a cinematographer on Succession but also as a director. I think that keeps the plot alive for the actors. It’s always wonderful when the actors don’t know where the camera is. They’re all forced to act as an ensemble and you’re essentially creating filmed theatre, and that’s when it really feels alive to me, when they don’t know exactly where the camera is looking. It adds a level of uncertainty and electricity that I think helps in terms of performance.