‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Episode 3 Has a Huge Daenerys Tie-In

Fans of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) will enjoy House of the Dragon Season 2, episode 3.

The episode sees Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) sending her youngest children to the Vale for safety, in the hopes that her sons Aegon and Viserys can travel even further to Pentos later. She asks Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) to accompany them, with their young dragons, Tyraxes and Stormcloud, and four very fragile dragon eggs.

Three of the eggs – one gold, one green, and one red-black – look very familiar, matching the colors of the eggs Daenerys receives from Illyrio Mopatis (Roger Allam) in the pilot of Game Of ThronesCould Rhaena keep these same eggs, more than a century before they reached Daenerys?

The answer, according to Episode 3 director Geeta Vasant Patel, is yes. “These are Daenerys’ eggs,” Patel confirmed to Mashable. “All of us who work on this series are great Game Of Thrones fans, so it was very exciting to shoot that scene.”

These are Daenerys’ eggs which mark a small change from The House of the Dragonthe source material, Fire and blood by George RR Martin. In the book, Martin strongly implies that Daenerys’ eggs arrived in Essos long before the Dance of Dragons, during the reign of Jaehaerys I. The person responsible was the noblewoman Elissa Farman, a talented navigator and lover of Princess Rhaena Targaryen (not to mention being confused with The House of the DragonAfter Rhaena and Elissa’s relationship deteriorated, Elissa stole three dragon eggs from Dragonstone and sailed to Braavos. There, she sold the eggs to the Seal Lord of Braavos and used the gold to fund further sailing adventures.

Elissa’s time in Braavos is where the mention of these three eggs ends, but given the number of eggs and the fact that they end up in Essos, it’s not hard to believe that these eggs could have been passed down from generation to generation before finding their way to Daenerys. Fire and bloodHowever, there is enough historical ambiguity here to leave things uncertain and make room for House of the Dragon to play.

Rhaena chaperoning Daenerys’ eggs creates some interesting opportunities. For starters, it’s not entirely at odds with the books. She takes three eggs with her to the Valley, where one of them gives birth to her dragon, Morning. (Perhaps Morning will hatch from the fourth silver-blue egg we see in House of the Dragon?) Adding a fourth egg to this nest isn’t the craziest change in the world. The question becomes: How do these eggs get from the Vale to Essos? Will Rhaena, Aegon, and Viserys make it to Pentos? Will someone steal them, following in Elissa Farman’s footsteps?

Thematically, Rhaena’s proximity to Daenerys’ eggs also makes sense. As Rhaenyra tells her, these eggs are the Targaryens’ “hope for the future.” Even if the war with Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) goes badly (which it certainly will), these eggs represent a chance for the Targaryen dragon tradition to live on. So it’s comforting to know that these eggs eventually make their way to Daenerys.

Rhaena’s involvement here also shows how she and her twin sister Baela (Bethany Antonia) are taking on a bigger role this season. “The other part of[the egg scene]is Rhaena saying goodbye and leaving her family behind to become a leader,” Patel explained.

And what better way to be a leader than to usher in the next generation of House Targaryen and its dragons?

New episodes of The House of the Dragon airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.