Wait, Whose House Was Burning in 'House of the Dragon' Episode 9?
Oct. 18 2022, Published 2:32 p.m. ET
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 9 on HBO — as well as spoilers for George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood.
War is brewing following the death of King Viserys I (Paddy Considine). The Green faction, led by Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), act quickly, determined to install Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the throne before Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) finds out what's going on.
As Ser Erryk (Luke Tittensor) helps Rhaenys (Eve Best) escape Kings Landing, she spots a house burning.
Whose house was burning in House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 9, and why was it the only one being set aflame in King's Landing that night?
Here's what we know.
Rhaenys was this close to burning down another house.
So whose house was burning in 'House of the Dragon' Episode 9?
All we can say is, we hope Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) has good homeowner's insurance. But why was her house burning? Let's just say it wasn't an accident. Remember who played with fire earlier in the season and got every other male in his family burned ... alive?
That's right — Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) was the culprit behind Mysaria's unplanned house barbecue.
During the now infamous feet scene, Larys reveals to Alicent that there's a web of spies keeping tabs on everything in the Red Keep. He informs Alicent that one of the spies in question is her maid, Talia (Alexis Raben).
Larys slyly suggests that the spy network could be destroyed ... if the queen leading the charge is destroyed. Without further questioning, Alicent essentially orders Larys to take care of it.
Mysaria
Does Larys kill Mysaria? (SPOILERS below from 'Fire & Blood,' the book on which the show is based.)
The White Worm can't be killed off so easily. Although Mysaria's fate is left up in the air after we see her house burning in House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 9, we know for a fact that she's still alive thanks to George R.R. Martin himself!
After all, Mysaria still plays a huge role in the story to come — so the White Worm was saved by book canon this time around.
After all, even though Mysaria is Daemon Targaryen's (Matt Smith) former lover (he's a married man now, after all), the White Worm is still solidly on Rhaenyra's side.
In the book, Daemon enlists Mysaria to hire two assassins to attack the Greens in retaliation for the death of Prince Lucerys and his dragon Arrax. Mysaria hires two contract killers named Blood and Cheese.
The Blood and Cheese incident is a pivotal, horrifying moment during the Dance of the Dragons, so it wouldn't make any sense to kill Mysaria in yet another house fire (with apologies to Harwin and Lyonel Strong!).
Mysaria nearly survives the end of the Targaryen civil war, but she ends up killed in a rather horrifying fashion herself. Will House of the Dragon change the White Worm's fate?
We'll just have to wait and see when the House of the Dragon Season 1 finale airs this Sunday, Oct. 23, only on HBO and HBO Max.