Note: This story contains spoilers from the “House of the Dragon” Season 2 finale.
The “House of the Dragon” Season 2 finale left off with one character’s potential execution in an effort to halt the growing civil war in Westeros — a deal which star Phia Saban said will be a “tough pill to swallow” for Helaena.
In Episode 8, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) traveled to Dragonstone to make a plea for peace to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), offering up a way to take the throne without further bloodshed while Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is absent. As part of the deal, Alicent consented to Rhaenyra’s term that she must kill Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) — unknowingly to Helaena.
“It would be a tough pill to swallow to know that about any member of your family,” Saban told TheWrap of Alicent’s deal. “I wonder if [Helaena will] ever hear that that was the plan. I wonder what will happen.”
With writing currently underway for Season 3, Saban said she has “no idea what’s happening next season,” including where Helaena might be should she hear of her mother’s plan, or if her seeing powers would have clued her in.
Of course, Alicent’s plan will be complicated when she returns to King’s Landing and finds out Aegon fled alongside Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), which Saban doubts Aegon shared with Helaena.
“I don’t think he told her where he was going,” the actress said, noting that she didn’t have anything to do with that storyline. “Those two [are my] favorite characters, so I’m really, really excited for that storyline next season. I don’t think she has any idea about it, otherwise, maybe she would’ve like to go with — no, she wouldn’t … That’d be really fun. Maybe Alicent and Helaena can run away and hook up with them, Larys and Aegon.”
Below, Saban breaks down Helaena’s role in Daemon’s Season 2 finale vision and that dramatic confrontation with Aemond, and reveals her Season 3 hopes for Helaena.
TheWrap: In the finale, Alicent proposes to Helaena to leave King’s Landing and she asks, “where would I go?” before they’re interrupted by Aemond. What does Helaena make of Alicent’s proposal?
Phia Saban: I don’t think Helaena has really seen any evidence of a life that she’s like “That’s the type of life I want to live,” and as a result of that, she’s created a world for herself where she can feel safe and that’s about this tiny world of insects and this small beauty and this kind of non-political interest in something outside of herself. I think that she’s genuinely bemused at the idea that there is somewhere else to go, and maybe part of that is that she has a maturity in knowing that we couldn’t go anywhere to escape what’s going to happen. But I think more literally, it’s like “I’ve never been anywhere else, so where would we go?”
Helaena resists fighting but seems willing to do a lot to escape the war. Where do Helaena’s loyalties lie? Could she similarly be persuaded to help Team Black?
I think she’s loyal to her mum. A big aspect of Helaena is that she hasn’t historically engaged with the politics and, in a way, she has more of a macro view of it, where she she can’t really connect with this thing, which seems a bit ridiculous to her about like sides and ego and killing. I don’t know if she would see it like that. She would definitely go where her mom goes, but I don’t think she’s got a political view on it particularly.
The confrontation between Heleana and Aemond is really intense as she reveals his fate to him. Why do you think she chose to let him have it and reveal her cards?
That moment is the first time she knows it in that language that she can express. The way I see it, her dreams and her visions up to that point are very much really strong intuitions, or really strong feelings or an experience of the world where she’s like, “why does my mind keep hooking on this?” but it’s never been in that extremely ice-clear way. Aemond, essentially, after everything she’s gone through, has pushed too hard on this, and she thinks, “you need me to come with you to kill people on my dragon, after everything I’ve gone through, after the grief that I’m in and for what.” And in that moment, it’s very clear to her that not only do I not want to do that, but I know wholeheartedly that it won’t change anything, because the path is set. It becomes about … what does she hope for? What is she living for? And that’s a big question for me next season.
Does Helaena have any loyalty left for Aegon?
I think it’s tricky. What’s very complicated about those relationships with those siblings is that there is love and I think she does feel love — wherever in the scale you’d like to place it — towards her family.
Helaena appears in Daemon’s vision, but it’s unclear if she’s experiencing the prophecy for the first time or if it was her doing to show up. What was your read on it?
It’s really up to the audience’s interpretation, because I think there’s infinite possibilities of what’s going on there. There’s a reality where she’s like, “Oh, someone else is in the dream world I’m going to wander on through.” And then I think there’s also an option where she’s a projection of Daemon’s guilt or something, and it’s not really about her. I think there’s an option where they’re all like seeing it for the first time. There’s so many options, but I like that that’s left up to the audience.
Helaena has a more expanded role this season, and the character is deepened from the books as a seer. When did you find out she would have a bigger part this season and how did you work with Ryan and the team to craft how Helaena’s powers inform who she is?
It was something we spoke about when I got cast in Season 1, because it was definitely part of the characterization very early on — that she has this ability, or these really strong intuitions and feelings. But they really left it up to me as to how that manifested … and I’ve just had lots of fun with the idea that it’s quite uncomfortable for her, and it’s these intuitions and these instincts that she actually tries really hard to kind of repress, because it’s uncomfortable; it exacerbates the difference between her and her family, because she doesn’t feel brave in how clearly she can communicate them.
What’s been fun this season for me to work out is what does it take for her to step in and actually inhabit that, and have a clearer line and relationship with that dreaming side of her. I think that her trauma and her stepping away from the real world and disassociating has actually made her relationship to dreaming more powerful.
We started seeing more of Helaena’s character after the terrible Blood and Cheese sequence in the premiere episode. How does this tragedy shape her trajectory for the rest of the season?
She’s really sad, so that shapes it in a way. There’s all of this evidence in the show of this heroism, and there’s people getting on their dragons and battling and the politics of it all. But what I think about Helaena is that it’s a small heroism, which is essentially getting through the worst-case scenario and carrying on living every day in the same situation where she feels trapped. And also a self-exploration, because I think Helaena has seen what this system has done to Alicent, her mum, and there starts to be a thing between them, which is like, how much of this can we actually repeat again, and how much of this can we go through? For what? In a very small, heroic way, she kind of actually manages, against the odds, to empower herself through her grief. But it doesn’t mean she’s happy. It just means that she is trying to find hope and get through it when actually it’s pretty hopeless.
Where do you hope Helaena’s storyline goes from here?
I hope for more bugs. In my fantasy, Helaena is going to connect with Alys Rivers in some way. I’d love that. I really want to go to Harrenhal, but I don’t really see that happening. I would love to be in the scenes with more of the cast, and that’s what I’d really like to get — some of those dynamics, and hopefully a lot more of Olivia as well, which is what I was very lucky to have this season.
Have you discussed Helaena and Alys meeting up?
Gayle [Rankin] and I would both be really keen on that. I think we feel connected in some way anyway, so we definitely have that, but we’d like it to be literal. Who knows? We would definitely enjoy it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“House of the Dragon” Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Max.
