# ‘House of the Dragon’: Gayle Rankin on That ‘F — ed Up’ Aemond-Alys-Alicent Scene, ‘Unbearable’ Family Dinner and Dragon Egg Plans

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/house-of-the-dragon-gayle-rankin-on-that-f-ed-up-aemond-alys-alicent-scene-unbearable-family-dinner-and-dragon-egg-plans/
- Published: 2026-08-03T02:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-25T15:46:25+00:00
- Original publisher: Variety
- Original article: https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-aemond-alys-rivers-alicent-sex-eggs-1236824981/
- Topics: Americas, Art, Culture, Entertainment, TV, World

## Key points

- Gayle Rankin details filming Aemond's incestuous hallucination scene in Episode 7.
- Alicent poisons Aemond after a tense Harrenhal family dinner.
- Aegon regains dragon Sunfyre; Aemond and Alys remain dragon-less ahead of the finale.

## Summary

Actor Gayle Rankin has discussed filming a startling scene in "House of the Dragon" Season 3, Episode 7, in which her character Alys Rivers becomes entangled in the Targaryen family's incestuous dynamics. In the episode, Alicent Hightower visits her son Aemond at Harrenhal as part of a plot by Rhaenyra to lure and kill him, and their encounter turns sexual before it is revealed to be a hallucination Aemond experiences while actually sleeping with Alys, who has adopted his mother's likeness as part of a scheme to found a new Targaryen dynasty.

Rankin described the shoot as "very intimate and very odd but very professional", noting the cast used humour to get through the technically complex scene. The episode also features an "unbearable" family dinner before the real Alicent arrives, poisons Aemond and flees, leaving him to seek help from an unimpressed Alys. Elsewhere, Aemond's brother Aegon is reunited with his dragon Sunfyre, while Aemond's own dragon Vhagar remains missing, leaving Alys and Aemond vulnerable as they guard a stash of dragon eggs heading into next week's season finale.

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