How House of the Dragon orchestrated the demonic invasion of Harrenhal

House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 3, “The Burning Wheel,” sees the return of one of Westeros’ most infamous castles, Harrenhal. And what a return!

In this episode, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) storms into Harrenhal with his dragon Caraxes, but it’s far from the victorious conquest he had imagined. The castle’s owner, Simon Strong (Sir Simon Russell Beale), is ready to hand it over to the Black Team without a fight. Not only that, Harrenhal is extremely creepy, with its molten ruins exposing anyone inside to the elements.

This eeriness is on full display in “The Burning Wheel”, when Damon first sets foot into Harrenhal. He wanders its long, empty corridors and staircases. Rain and thunder rumble from above, and bats fly out of the rafters. In director Geeta Vasant Patel’s hands, the castle becomes a labyrinth that Damon must wander alone, a loneliness made even more isolating after his argument with Rhaenyra (Emma Darcy) in episode two. It was crucial to both Patel and Smith to fundamentally depict Damon’s entry into Harrenhal in the aftermath of that argument.

“When you look at that scene for what it is, it’s very easy to treat it as if it’s out of chronology. What I wanted to do was make it emotional and parallel what happened in episode 2,” Patel told Mashable. “This isn’t just about a guy coming to Harrenhal and walking around scared. You can apply it anywhere in the season. The reason we see it now is because in episode 2 he gets dumped by Rhaenyra. He’s never been this depressed.”

Rhaenyra’s presence looms large in this scene, too: long before Daemon experiences a vision of a young Rhaenyra (Millie Alcock), we hear her faint, disembodied voice calling to him as he searches for Simon Strong.

Creating Damon’s emotional vulnerability during the invasion of Harrenhal began with him fleeing to the castle. “In my real-life situation, he’s a guy drinking in his car,” Patel said. She House of the DragonThe VFX team made Caraxes’ movements more reckless, making him more like a “drunken dragon” to reflect the instability of his rider.

Matt Smith in “House of the Dragon.”
Credit: Ollie Upton / HBO

The demon’s journey through the castle is labyrinthine, highlighting both the scale of Harrenhal and the uncertainty of the demon itself. One point Patel cited as inspiration for both her and Smith was that Silence of the Lambs In one scene, Clarice (Jodie Foster) walks through the house of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In both scenes, the camera follows our anxious protagonist as she wanders through a strange place, going from doorway to doorway wondering what’s next. There’s no music, just the eerie sounds of the surroundings.

The creeping, terrifying loneliness of Harrenhal is a perfect reflection of who Damon is at this point in his life. “This place represents what’s going on inside his soul right now,” Patel said.

She continued, “When Damon is walking from hallway to hallway, it’s a metaphor for him thinking, ‘I don’t know where I am in my life. I’ve never been here before. In fact, for the first time in my life, I’m scared and I’m angry.'”

Damon lashes out at a passing Strong soldier. This is the only violence Damon sees during his takeover of Harrenhal, and it wasn’t in the original script. “In the script, the guy just runs away, but when Matt and I were writing it, we both thought, ‘That’s not Damon, that’s where he is in the story.’ Damon needs to punch the guy and take it all out,” Patel said.

While punching someone down is a typical Damon thing to do, Patel hinted that staying at Harrenhal could be a major catalyst for Damon’s change. “The question[Matt and I]spent the most time on was, ‘How do we change him while still being Damon?'” Patel explained. “We knew where Damon was going because we worked on[the finale]together, and we wanted to see how that kicked off in episode three. We were fortunate to both be able to work on both ends of his experience at Harrenhal.”

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