House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6: Did Alys Rivers Kill Grover Tully?
House of the Dragon Season 2 introduced new characters from the start, including the mysterious healer of Harrenhal, Alys Rivers. A cryptic character who is difficult to fully understand, due to her mystical and elusive side which makes her a figure who is not easy to place. So far it is unclear whether Alys is on Daemon’s side or not, after he claimed Harrenhal and currently presides over the castle, ruling over its few internal residents. In the sixth episode of House of the Dragon Season 2, something happens that seems to demonstrate Alys’ loyalty to Daemon, but it could also indicate the exact opposite.
House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6: Did Alys Rivers Kill Grover Tully?
Especially because the special relationship established between the two characters is only the result of the TV show, while in George RR Martin’s novels, there are not all these interactions between Daemon and Alys. Not to mention that, without going into too much detail, in the story of the books at a certain point the healer will turn her loyalty to someone else. Let’s take stock of the situation in light of what happened in the sixth episode of House of the Dragon Season 2, if you are not yet up to speed with the TV series we invite you to follow our guide to find out how and where to watch House of the Dragon Season 2 in streaming.
The Speech Between Alys and Daemon?
Ever since he first set foot in Harrenhal Castle, Daemon has begun to suffer from hallucinations that torment him both when he is awake and when he is asleep. Tired of this situation, the Targaryen Prince decides to leave the building to regain his lucidity, without which he cannot raise an army as he intended to do after arriving in Harrenhal. Daemon is stopped by Alys who tries to make him see reason while reminding him that running away from every situation is not the best choice to undertake every time. Daemon then asks Alys for advice on what to do and the healer tells him that gaining the alliance of Lord Grover Tully would give him support from all the houses present in the Riverlands. However, after allowing the Blackwoods to carry out a raid on the Brackens, Daemon has actually made enemies of these houses and therefore has no way to deal with Lord Grover at the moment. Alys offers to help him and invites him to do nothing for the moment, but to wait three days because “the winds are about to change“.
What Alys meant with such a sentence remains a mystery, but fate would have it that shortly after her words, news of Grover Tully’s death reached Harrenhal. The Lord had already been ill for some time and bedridden, as the future heir of the house, Grover’s nephew Oscar Tully, had previously informed Daemon. The most curious fact related to the Lord’s death is that Alys had also come to his bedside in his last moments, to try to give help where the medical art of the Maesters of House Tully had stopped. But according to what the castellan of Harrenhal Simon Strong always tells Daemon, not even Alys was able to perform the miracle.
Did Alys Kill Grover Tully?
Despite the presence of advanced disease, the fact that Lord Grover Tully passed away right after Alys’ visit certainly seems too ambiguous an event to be a simple coincidence. Especially after Daemon had asked Alys for help. At the same time, however, some doubts remain about it, as the scenarios could also be other. Alys told Daemon to wait three days before making any move because something was about to happen. So, the healer could have foreseen Lord Grover’s death and gone to House Tully to personally verify if she had seen it right or simply understand if the end had really come for the Lord.
Another hypothesis is that Alys really killed Grover not so much to help Daemon, but to have something to keep him in her power since Daemon would then be indebted to Alys. And this epilogue could also have happened in another way without having to get her hands dirty. If Alys had really foreseen Grover’s imminent demise, she could have gone to the Lord only to make Daemon believe that she had something to do with his death and thus gain his complete trust, in addition to making him indebted to her. After all, it would not be the first time that Alys tricked Daemon, like when she gave him a decoction to drink to induce sleep while this concoction only caused him visions.
In all of this, there is also a fundamental question to ask about Alys Rivers. Would the healer of Harrenhal really be willing to kill someone for Daemon? And if so, what would be the reason, considering that, unlike the others she has never even shown herself to have submitted to him since he reclaimed the castle? Not to mention that Alys resented Daemon after he allowed Willem Blackwood to attack the Brackens, involving innocents and children. Alys could therefore only be trying to gain points with Daemon, to get revenge later or to get something in return at the right time. It certainly seems hard to believe that Alys would risk so much for someone she had only just met as Daemon. For even though Lord Grover was nearing the end of his days, his death coming so soon after Alys’s care might still have raised suspicions. And despite the mystery that surrounds her, Alys certainly does not seem so naive.
