“House of the Dragon”: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke Break Down What Otto’s Death Means (Exclusive)

Julia MooreTue, June 30, 2026 at 3:14 AM UTC

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Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra; Olivia Cooke as Alicent and Phia Saba as Helaena in 'House of the Dragon' season 3Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO (2)

Warning: this post contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3, episode 2.

In episode 2 of House of the Dragon season 3, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) reunites with Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy)

The reunion ends in bloodshed, as Rhaenyra beheads Otto, just before Alicent (Olivia Cooke) walks in to see the aftermath

D'Arcy and Cooke tell PEOPLE how they view the climactic scene and what Otto's death means for Rhaenyra and Alicent moving forward

There's a long way to go before Rhaenyra and Alicent truly reconcile.

In the second episode of House of the Dragon season 3, which aired Sunday, June 28, on HBO, Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) returned to King's Landing and sat at the Iron Throne, thanks to the help of her lifelong friend (Olivia Cooke), who helped orchestrate Aemond's (Ewan Mitchell) departure to leave the throne empty.

The reunion of the pair after their scheming didn't fully go to plan, though, as the arrival of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who fans last saw in the season 2 finale, threw everything off.

Daemon (Matt Smith) urged Rhaenyra to kill Otto, her late father's closest confidant, with whom she grew up, and, through tears, she beheaded him — only for Alicent to walk into the throne room with her daughter, Helaena (Phia Saban), their escape plan thwarted, and see her father's head.

Rhys Ifans as Otto, Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra in 'House of the Dragon' season 3Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO

In that moment, "there's a lot that Alicent doesn't understand," Cooke tells PEOPLE. "[She] doesn't know what's happened."

Up until that point, Alicent wasn't "really thinking that politically," Cooke says. "I think she's just like, okay, I've made this bargain with Rhaenyra. I need to enact that, grab Helena and get the f--- out of there before it all goes to s---."

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"She just beheaded my dad. In front of everyone. She doesn't know where Otto has been, so for all she knows, he's been held prisoner by [Rhaenyra]," Cooke, 32, continues. "This feels like a very public display of this assertion of power. I think Alicent is just like, 'Okay, well, f--- you.'"

There's no question that Rhaenyra crosses a line in the episode's final scene. "I think there's an important point that the show makes about rulers of any kind being insulated from their acts of violence. And in this moment, Rhaenyra's not insulated. In fact, she's subject to the kind of viscerality and horror of violence," D'Arcy, 34, tells PEOPLE. "I think there's a threshold that gets crossed in that moment, for better or for worse."

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Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra in 'House of the Dragon' season 3Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO

The scene is also "a piece of political theater," D'Arcy notes. "There's an optics game going on. But this is a man who is your father's best friend, and so, in a way, can you be anything but a child in his gaze? I don't think so."

As for what the actor wanted to achieve with the climactic moment — both Rhaenyra's ascent to the Iron Throne and Otto's murder — "was to sort of strip her of her childhood, by the time she takes the throne," D'Arcy says.

New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”