As Daemon continues to mentally spiral in House of the Dragon, we keep getting cameos from season one actors. We’ve recently seen Milly Alcock return in a couple of episodes as young Rhaenyra. Her appearance was all about making Daemon face his mounting guilt over how he’s treated her and his choices that oft lead to disaster. We get the same thing in House of the Dragon season two’s sixth episode with Paddy Considine returning as Daemon’s brother King Viserys. As we all know, Viserys died last season due to an awful illness and his death led to the current war between the Blacks and the Greens, thanks to Alicent’s misunderstanding of his deathbed wishes.
In this episode, Viserys returns in Daemon’s waking dreams (more like nightmares, really) at Harrenhal. He sees his brother sitting on the Iron Throne as he approaches it. Viserys asks Daemon if he really called his son, who died after only a day, the “heir for a day.” He calls him out for not being at his side after his family fell apart. Viserys says that everything he gave him was thrown back in his face. Just as it happened in real life, Viserys tells Daemon that he must leave because he will not be the next heir. Daemon tries to leave but he cannot get the door to budge until Simon Strong opens a door. He jolts returns him back to reality. He attacks poor Simon, accusing him of being in cahoots with someone else to bring Daemon down.
Later on, Viserys makes another cameo as he mourns over the body of his wife, who died in the first episode of House of the Dragon. He falls into Daemon’s arms in tears. Daemon apologizes and says he wasn’t there before, but he’s here now. Strong wakes him and reveals that Lord Grover is dead. We see Daemon break down in tears after Strong leaves the room.
Daemon needs to leave the haunted halls of Harrenhal and get himself together. But maybe these dreams will cause him to find some shreds of morality and make better choices.
