House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 Trailer Teases King Aegon II’s Fate

This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2 episode 4.

Now that we’re at the halfway point, House of the Dragon’s second season is heating up fast. Vhagar has once again proven that she’s the baddest dragon in the realm, taking Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys down at Rook’s Rest. King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) is down for the count after taking Sunfyre into battle against literally everyone’s wishes. Daemon (Matt Smith) is still having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time in the haunted halls of Harrenhal. And if the trailer for episode 5 is any indication, things are only going to get more intense from here. Give it a watch above.

The Greens seem to be continuing their tradition of parading corpses around King’s Landing to gain support from the people. The head of Meleys can be seen being carted around town like some kind of twisted trophy. Not only is this in bad taste, it also may come back to bite them later. They’re showing the people that dragons aren’t indestructible forces of terror, and can, in fact, be killed.

There’s also Schrödinger’s Aegon, who is carted back to King’s Landing in a box in the trailer. He seemed pretty dead after falling on Sunfyre and being buried under the dragon’s corrosive corpse, but the impulsive King may still be clinging on to life. Is he dead? Is he alive? No one seems to know yet (except if you read this spoiler-y breakdown from the book here). Most signs point to the latter, but with how seductively Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is eyeing the throne, however, Aegon may not have much time left.

The Riverlands are an important point of contention for the war, and Daemon has taken it upon himself to secure them for the Blacks. In the trailer, he can be seen threatening House Bracken with Caraxes, an act that will likely escalate the war. House Bracken’s sworn enemies, the Blackwoods, have already declared their allegiances to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). This means that House Bracken is likely going to be even harder to sway to their side, and this act could not only escalate the war between the Greens and the Blacks, but will also likely escalate the centuries old blood feud between the Brackens and Blackwoods.

Speaking of Daemon subplots, Harrenhal is finally getting reinforced and rebuilt. Will that get rid of its spookiness? Who’s to say. But hopefully bringing the stronghold back to full strength will give Rhaenyra a leg up in this war.

Finally, Jacaerys (Harry Collett) is doing his best to be a good heir to his mother with a visit to The Twins, the seat of House Frey. It’s the only crossing point over the Green Fork for hundreds of miles in either direction. As we learned in Game of Thrones, gaining the allegiance of the Freys is crucial for anyone hoping to bring armies between the North and the Riverlands.

Episode 5 looks like it will be another banger of an episode for House of the Dragon, and we can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

New episodes of House of the Dragon season 2 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.