Who’s killing the Gold Cloaks?

Every time queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) has a council meeting with her advisors, they spend most of the meeting bickering about what the realm’s biggest problems are these days. Is it the crown’s lack of funding? The lingering threat of Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar? Ormund Hightower (James Norton)’s hostile takeover of Tumbleton? Or civil unrest amongst the smallfolk? In House of the Dragon’s latest episode, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) brings yet another big problem to the council, and it’s one that hits very close to home: Somebody is killing Gold Cloaks, members of the city guard. But who?

[Ed. note: Spoilers follow for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5.]

“Two of our gold cloaks were found dead in the street this morning, put to the blade by an unknown hand,” Daemon says during a council meeting early in the episode, adding that it happened in Flea Bottom. The Master of Coin, Ser Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler), calls Flea Bottom “a realm unto itself” that’s “full of undesirables.” Rhaenyra tries to send Daemon to deal with Criston Cole and the guerrilla warfare he’s using to delay Team Black’s troops in their march toward Tumbleton. Daemon, however, refuses to go until he’s dealt with these crimes against the city watch.

“They’re my men,” he says, “and we depend upon those men to secure your rule — especially because their wages have been withheld.” Outside the council chamber, the two argue over priorities: Rhaenyra wants Aemond found ASAP. Daemon says they have time to wait so they can deal with problems in King’s Landing first.

Later in the episode, Daemon patrols the streets alongside city watch commander Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen). The Targaryen reproaches Ser Luthor for the city watch being too harsh against citizens when trying to root out who painted graffiti on the wall calling Rhaenyra the “queen of bastards.” Ser Luthor claims the two dead members of the city watch had their throats and their bowels cut. “Good men, dying in agony, in their own shit,” he says.

The two hear screams and quickly discover two more dead members of the city watch, also with their throats and bowels slit. Just before they reach the scene, however, a little girl peers around the corner. In the next scene, we see that same girl dashing up a set of stairs indoors. She approaches a table with three men and whispers something to one of them. The man sends a pigeon with a message.

“Gold blood spilled. Three marked in the tally. The account lies open.” And it’s none other than Ormund Hightower (James Norton) reading the message. Ormund is clearly pulling the strings from afar, but it’s unclear exactly who is doing the killing.

Image: HBO

In a conversation with his ward Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), Ormund tells the story of Meria Martell, who refused to bend the knee to the Targaryens. She used underhanded guerilla tactics (not unlike what Cole is doing these days). She poisoned her own wells and hid soldiers in the desert sands, among other things — including having her forces sneak in at night to kill Targaryen soldiers in their beds. “The cunning mind resists the most savage of beasts,” he says. It’s clear Ormund is looking to Meria’s example in how he’s fighting this war. He knows he cannot win a direct conflict against even a single dragon. So he has to be more subversive, using cunning tricks to undermine Rhaenyra within her own city.

We later see Daemon recount the death of the gold cloaks to Rhaenyra while she prays. She notes that there is a pattern and a purpose, and Daemon explains that there are no witnesses despite this happening in broad daylight. It’s possible this scene is meant to be far more ironic than it seems. Ormund Hightower sees the Targaryens as savages, and the Hightowers have long had a close relationship with the Faith of the Seven. Ormund kept Daeron so he could make a claim for the throne, essentially to restore the kingdom’s piety — which he pretty much said outright earlier this season.

It seems likely that it’s not necessarily Team Green supporters are killing gold cloaks at all — but religious smallfolk who support Ormund Hightower’s agenda.

Toward the end of the episode, Ser Luthor and Daemon torture a man involved with the killings that had been captured, and he eventually confesses that they were doing “the king’s work.” He reveals that he was paid with a gold coin bearing the face of Daeron. Daemon rightfully assumes this means Ormund has declared Daeron king.

In the final scene of the episode, which seems to happen later that same night, Daemon goes back to the city watch headquarters. He walks into a grisly scene: nine members of the city watch — including Ser Luthor — have been killed (and one of them beheaded) before being propped up at a long table. Written in blood on the wall behind them, it reads, “A feast for traitors.”

Ultimately, we still don’t know precisely who has been killing the gold cloaks, but it’s clearly a growing band of dissidents who support Daeron’s claim to the throne.