House of the Dragon Episode 11: A Son for a Son

Rhaenyra returns to Dragonstone grieving the death of her son Lucerys, whose remains she found in the Stormlands, while her eldest son Jacaerys arrives from the North with news that Houses Stark and Arryn have pledged support, including 2,000 men from Cregan Stark and a request for a dragon at the Eyrie; mother and son weep together over their loss.

Rhaenys arrives from patrolling the Gullet to enforce the shipping blockade on King's Landing, where Daemon demands she join him there to kill Aemond Targaryen and his dragon Vhagar in revenge for Lucerys, but she refuses, deferring to Rhaenyra's authority and urging time for grief.

Mysaria, arrested as a stowaway on a smuggler's ship breaching the blockade, faces Daemon's accusation of treason for aiding the Greens' coup; at the Black Council, Rhaenyra demands vengeance on Aemond, and Daemon later offers Mysaria freedom in exchange for recruiting assassins in King's Landing.

In King's Landing, Alicent Hightower engages in a secret affair with Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

King Aegon II brings his young son and heir Jaehaerys to a Small Council meeting, where the boy misbehaves; when Ser Tyland Lannister restrains him, Aegon insists on a humiliating "pony ride," stopped by Alicent's intervention, as the council debates war tactics anticipating Rhaenyra's response to Lucerys's death.

Lord Larys Strong informs Alicent he has dismissed "traitors" from her household and replaced them with his hand-picked servants, dismaying her.

At Driftmark, Lord Corlys Velaryon receives condolences from Alyn of Hull for Lucerys's murder, described as "the blackest of treacheries," and reflects on a dagger commissioned for his heir.

Two ratcatchers, Blood and Cheese, recruited by Daemon via Mysaria, infiltrate the Red Keep through the sewers.

While Blood loots the upper floors, Cheese enters Queen Helaena's chambers at night, where she is with her sleeping young twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera; he holds a knife to her throat.

Blood joins Cheese, and invoking Daemon's order of "a son for a son," they force Helaena to point out which child is the boy; she complies, and they behead Jaehaerys as she flees with Jaehaera.

The next morning, Alicent discovers Criston Cole in her chambers as guards report the boy's murder; Helaena enters, traumatized, and confirms to Alicent, "They killed the boy."