House of the Dragon’s Gayle Rankin on Why Alys’ ‘Literal Worst Nightmare’ Is Coming True

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 7 of House of the Dragon.]

Alys Rivers may be an exceptional, potentially eternal being in Westeros, but she isn’t immune to the emotions of mere mortals. In the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon‘s third season, she confronts one such angst that some people know all too well –– the desire to not live with your romantic partner’s mother.

Alys (Gayle Rankin) has been playing the long game with Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), who attempted to seize Harrenhal for Team Green earlier this season, only to be wounded and abandoned by his dragon, Vhagar. But Alys always had a plan for the arrogant spare (false) heir, and in this episode, she sets it in motion. Using his not-so-subtle mommy issues, she disguises herself as his mother, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), and seduces him, right to the point when she reveals herself and is flatly rejected. Not the end of the world for her plan, but certainly not what you want in the bedroom.

For that reason alone, when the real Alicent arrives on a mandated reconnaissance mission for Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Alys isn’t happy about sharing their crumbling castle with the real object of her meal ticket’s affection.

“There’s pettiness there,” Rankin told TV Guide. “I think she’s very disgruntled. She’s like, ‘I can handle you calling me mother, mommy, mom, mama, whatever you want to do. But I don’t need her here. We can deal in the abstract, we can deal in the fetish, whatever that is. I can handle it. But I can’t handle the competition.’ I think Alys is worried she might not win with the real Alicent there. That’s a very human dilemma in the animal kingdom.”

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Alicent doesn’t want to be there any more than Alys wants her around, but Aemond suddenly has everything he wants. He’s growing stronger, he has a witchy woman pawing at him, and his mother is back under his control. The arrogance of Aemond is suddenly the biggest thorn in Alys’ side, and it is new territory for someone who doesn’t spend much time considering others.

“She hasn’t had to deal with anyone, certainly not a petulant, childish man, which is maybe her literal worst nightmare,” Rankin said. “So I think it’s testing her on every level, and I don’t know when or if she will break, or what she can handle.”

Yet Alys can’t dispatch the dysfunctional Targaryens and start anew. As revealed in last week’s episode, she has a store of dragon eggs, and she needs a Targaryen if she is to make a play for something bigger than Harrenhal. She wants to carry Aemond’s child, giving her a true heir to power and a dragon rider. But he isn’t as malleable and submissive as he was when she first began to care for him in a weakened state. Rankin believes that this has turned Alys into something she never wanted to be.

“There’s a sense of desperation,” Rankin said. “I do think what we’re starting to see is a woman who’s been in a lot of control that is now losing that control. She’s never been this vulnerable. I don’t think she’s comfortable at all. She’s kind of losing her sh–.”

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Physically, Rankin has had to communicate Alys’ discomfort with a stiffness that is, for better or worse, built into her costumes.

“She is storing a lot,” she said. “There’s a tension and a structure, and I’m literally corseted in this season, and I think that’s saying something. There’s only one way to go from there, which is: something’s gonna crack.”

But there again, Alys finds herself on the eve of the Season 3 finale at the mercy of the more human and primal desires from which she, previously, might have felt exempt. After all, who hasn’t gone a little overboard after a promising romance and planned out a future in their head?

“This is someone who has gone on a few good dates and now she’s like, ‘OK, then we’ll get married and have 14 babies,'” Rankin said with a laugh. “She sees that last name Targaryen and she’s writing [a future]. But also kind of having to remind herself, ‘No, be serious. Get it together. You’re fine. You don’t love him.'”

House of the Dragon airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO and HBO Max.