House of the Dragon fans find haunting Blood and Cheese foreshadowing in Episode 1
HBOThe first episode of House of the Dragon’s new season contains one of the most-anticipated moments for fans, and they’ve even spotted an earlier detail that reveals all.
House of the Dragon Season 2‘s opening episode only meant one thing for fans: Blood and Cheese. The murderous duo, hired by Daemon, are sent into the Red Keep to murder Aemond. Only when they get there, they take the “son for a son” demand quite literally.
As such, Helaena is forced to watch as the pair of assassins decapitate her son (and future heir to the Iron Throne), Jaehaerys. It’s a brutal watch, regardless of whether you approve of the changes made to the book‘s telling of the event.
But eagle-eyed viewers have found a harrowing hint that this was coming. In one of the first scenes, Aegon comes into the nursery looking for Jaehaerys. Helaena warns him about the rats — her dreamer intuition later coming true — but she’s also actually sewing what would later become Jaehaerys’ funeral shroud.
As one X user noted: “Can we talk about her dreamers’ intuition causing her to sew Jaehaerys’ funeral shroud without even realizing it? It makes sense, considering she talks about her irrational fear of ‘rats’ in the exact same scene. She’s trapped and doesn’t even realize it.”
Indeed, Helaena’s warning is haunting, but not as haunting as the knowledge that she’s already prepping for her child’s death. “She doesn’t know why she needs to make it but she has to,” another comment pointed out.
“Holy moly, I did not realize it was a shroud… Maybe they are not completely f**king this show up,” realized another.
Others were also quick to notice another awful detail. When Helaena first mentions the rats, she glances over to her son’s bed. This is exactly where he would be later that night when Blood and Cheese enter the room and take his head. Helaena’s “dreams” have come true before, but this is by far the most tragic instance.
“Notice that after she said, ‘the rats,’ she looked at her son’s bed,” one user said.
“Not only is she sewing the shroud but right after the word ‘rats’, Helaena looks at Jahaerys’s crib. Line of reality & dream is blurred for her, & one of the reasons when reality sets in, that her premonitions are no longer dreams/nightmares, she disassociates,” another added. “Absolutely brilliant.”
Helaena’s strange words could have been a warning, but nobody pays her any mind. While the Blood and Cheese attack is awful to watch, some fans weren’t so satisfied. The event in the book is far more traumatizing, with Helaena actually being forced to choose between her two sons. Even her reaction — screaming in horror — is more subtly played in the show.
Still, it’s a nasty affair, and on par for George R.R. Martin’s gory world.
For more, find out when the new episode of House of the Dragon is out. You can also find out what we thought of the season with our House of the Dragon Season 2 review, and learn more about Alyrie Florent and Cregan Stark.