‘House of the Dragon:’ Mysaria’s Mysterious Episode 8 Return Explained

Episode 8 of House of the Dragon provided a mix of gruesome and touching moments, from an unexpected death to a moving appeal from King Viserys to his wife and firstborn daughter to cut the drama. With all of the politics, murder and family bonding, you may have missed the 30 seconds or so Mysaria returned to the screen.

Mysaria — a character seen in earlier season episodes as Daemon’s lover (and almost-wife?) — was last seen in episode 4, when Milly Alcock and Emily Carey still starred in the show as Rhaenyra and Alicent. Here’s a guide to who she is, the significant scenes she’s been in and what she may have been up to in episode 8.

Who is Mysaria?

Mysaria is a pleasure house worker, but that’s hardly all there is to her. In episode 2, Daemon causes a stir when he steals a dragon’s egg and announces in a letter that he’s marrying Mysaria. He also says she’s “with child” (she isn’t) and that he intends to place the egg in the cradle of the baby. Young Rhaenyra confronts him at Dragonstone to get it back. In that episode, Mysaria becomes frustrated with Daemon. His announcement put her at risk, when he had promised to keep her safe.

HBO describes Mysaria as “strong-willed and cunning.” The character has an interesting accent. She’s portrayed by Sonoya Mizuno.

Mysaria’s cryptic comment

A turning point for her character seems to come in episode 4. Mysaria wakes Daemon up after the night he almost seduced young Rhaenyra. During their short, passionless chat, Daemon calls Mysaria a whore, and she reveals, “I’ve left that life behind.”

“I learned that skin-trade could only take me so far in this life,” she says, adding no more details about what she’s dedicating herself to now.

But there does seem to be another clue. In the scene right before this one, a kid brings Otto Hightower “word from the White Worm.” The kid appears to be the source that informed Otto about Rhaenyra and Daemon’s pleasure house visit. During the scene with Daemon, Mysaria collects money from a kid that looks a lot like the one who dished to Hightower — money that seems to be payment from Otto for Mysaria’s secret-sharing.

That’s the last we see of her… until Sunday’s episode.

What happens in the latest episode?

Mysaria appears on screen briefly near the end of episode 8, after the relatively peaceful dinner party with Viserys, Rhaenyra and Alicent. She’s looking out of a building as a cloaked figure below hurries toward her. We soon see the hooded figure is Talya, Queen Alicent’s red-haired lady-in-waiting.

“It’s been quite a night at the castle, it seems,” she tells Talya, who replies, “Yes, my lady.”

Talya appeared earlier in the episode, bringing Alicent the special tea for Dyana, the traumatized serving girl who was sexually assaulted by her son, Aegon.

What is Mysaria’s deal?

So Mysaria is back, a few kid-actor swaps from when we saw her last. Years after seemingly having a hand in delivering information about Rhaenyra and Daemon to Otto, she appears to be secretly working with Talya. Is Mysaria now the White Worm, a similar figure to Varys in Game of Thrones, aka the master of whispers in King’s Landing? Given that she utters exactly one sentence in this episode, the show hasn’t given us much of an explanation of her role going forward.

Clearly Mysaria is more ambitious than many, including Daemon, first thought. Will she make trouble for the Rogue Prince and Princess Rhaenyra? Hopefully the two episodes left in the season bring some clarity.