When we did the underwater scene with Olivia’s beautiful red hair moving into the camera, I wanted people to say she’s gone. And then she moves and opens her eyes. And then there’s this magic that happens when you see what she’s seeing and she sees the bird in the sky and you think, she’s as free as a bird.
This episode introduces a brand new character, Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes). He really makes an impression and puts Daemon (Matt Smith) on the defensive. Can you tell us a little about that scene?
Archie, what a special young talent. It’s hard to find young actors who can really take over a space. We needed an actor who was like, how can you stand up to Matt Smith? I remember when Archie and I started talking about this scene, he was like, “I’m so nervous. How am I supposed to control all these houses? I’m so young. How can Daemon respect me?” We started talking about the layers of that. “Oh, why are you the head of the house? How do you think you were raised?”
If you grew up in House Tully, and you were the son of a lord, you would work in the room where your lord ran the Riverlands. You would have been in that room since you were a boy.
You knew each of those riverlords better than anyone else in Godawood. You had spent time with each of them. You had heard them trade sheep, trade money, negotiate wars from across that table. So you did not come to meet Daemon coldly. You came to meet Damon as a young, wise, experienced leader.
I have to give Archie credit, because it was his homework. When he showed up that day, it was great to see Matt chuckling a little bit during rehearsal. You could see it in his performance. He was like, ‘You’re so much better than I thought.’ [Oscar] earned the respect of Damon Targaryen and that was truly special.
What should we take away from this episode until the end?
After the last shot at Rhaenyra and her nuclear army, the Queen has more dragons than any place has ever held. I think what we worry about is, is Daemon aligned? He has a large army that has just joined his forces. Is that army for Queen Rhaenyra? Is it for King Daemon Targaryen? Or is it for someone else? What will happen there?
I think Aemond is set up in a way where he has lost faith in his small council, and he feels like he needs to take matters into his own hands, and we don’t know how far Aemond is willing to go. And what will Alicent do now that she’s been baptized? She’ll go right back to the Dowager’s chambers. What’s her plan? What will she do to stop the war on her side? And what’s her approach to diplomacy?
When we come out of episode seven, we basically have a loaded gun. That’s the concept that Ryan [Kondall] And Sara [Hess] has been talked about over and over again. The opening to the season finale has to be all guns pointed at each other in a standoff. We have to feel like the stakes are as high as they can be, and at any moment, those guns are going to go off and things are going to get chaotic. I hope we’re really on edge by the end of this episode.
