The third episode of House of the Dragon's second season, The Burning Mill, gave us a pleasant surprise in the return of the young Rhaenyra, played by Milly Alcock.

When Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) arrives at Harrenhal, his claim to the castle isn't challenged. In fact, it's welcomed by its castellan Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale). Later that night, as he struggles to sleep due to the castle's disrepair, someone tries to forcefully open his door — secured through a makeshift lock using his Valyrian sword Dark Sister — rattles. He opens his door and walks down the hall. Daemon then enters a room where he sees — from the back at first — Rhaenyra, but not as she is now.

The young Rhaenyra returns to the House of the Dragon

She taunts him about coming and going as he pleases, while she is left to clean up his mistakes. All the while, she's sewing Jaehaerys' head onto his body. Daemon looks shocked, but not about what she was doing. This is the Rhaenyra he had asked his brother King Viserys (Paddy Considine), her father, to take to wife.

Not who he made Rhaenyra the Cruel. In the second episode, when he and the Black queen (Emma D'Arcy) fought, she told him that when she was younger, his heart belonging only to him was a challenge to her. However, now that she is older and has challenges enough outside of him, it's not so much a challenge than a huge problem. Here in Harrenhal, the Rhaenyra in front of him is the one who found his sole ownership of his heart a challenge and not a burden.

But back to the real world for just a moment, how did all this come about, logistically speaking? Apparently, very easy, according to series co-creator Ryan Condal.

He told Entertainment weekly, “It was very easy in terms of will. We were excited about the prospect. Milly was eager to come back and everybody was excited to have her back.”

Alcock, who is set to play Supergirl in DC's upcoming superhero movies, starting with next year's Superman, for which she's currently filming.

A well-kept secret

“She's very busy, so it was a tricky thing to navigate around the schedule, but we essentially had her in for a couple of days right at the start of production,” Condal explained.

“I think one of our greatest feats was keeping that a secret all the way through, given the fact that it happened right at the beginning,” he added.

The cameo came from the House of the Dragon co-creator's idea of wanting to tell a haunted house — or castle, in this case — story, for Daemon and to face what he fears the most.

“Instead of warfare or dragons or images of horror, it was really more of him being haunted by these people who he had done wrong by in his past, particularly young Rhaenyra,” Condal stated.

“That's the girl who took his claim, not elder Rhaenyra, played by Emma D'Arcy. It's that version of Rhaenyra that removed him as the heir to the throne, and then was named heir and took his claim. As you'll see his story at Harrenhal unfold, there is an element of Daemon having to reckon with his past and choices that he's made and things that he's done,” he continued.

Well…

Far be it for me to disagree with the House of the Dragon's co-creator, and I don't, at least not about Daemon's impending reckoning of his past and choices. But I stand by my opinion. The younger Rhaenyra may have been the one named heir, which removed him from the running, but so is the older — the woman who is now his wife.

I think, at least for me, part of Daemon's reckoning with his decisions is not standing his ground with Viserys when it came to taking Rhaenyra as his wife. In the first season's fourth episode, when Viserys confronts a hung-over Daemon about taking Rhaenyra to a brothel, the king threatened, “I should disinherit her as I already did you and be done with it.”

The Rogue Prince responded, “Wed her to me. When I offered up my crown, you said I could have anything. I want Rhaenyra. I'll take her as she is, and wed her in the tradition of our house.”

I wonder if Daemon will think about this as he spends time in haunted Harrenhal. If he had acted then, taken the young princess as his wife, even without Viserys' approval, would the Dance of the Dragons even happen?

Sure, he was already wed to Rhea Royce, which his brother pointed out. But Daemon's rebuttal was also correct that their ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror, took a second wife. However, Daemon's first wife died. He went on to marry Laena Velaryon and Rhaenyra married Laenor. Their spouses died as well. (In the series, Laenor's fate is unknown.)

In the end, Daemon and Rhaenyra married anyway — without Visery's approval nor knowledge, but they took quite a circuitous route. Part of the reason the Dance exists is due to said circuitous route.

The Rogue Prince's reckoning

If Daemon and Rhaenyra had married in the first place, her claim to the throne would be much stronger, even with Viserys having male heirs. With Daemon and Rhaenyra, you have two Targaryens who will beget even more Targaryens, no match for Alicent's half Hightower children.

Another come-to-the-old-gods moment for Daemon is answering Rhaenyra's question: does he accept her as his queen and ruler in truth? Or does he still cling even now to what he believes was his rightful place, as her king and ruler?

While I'm pretty sure that Daemon won't claim to be a Westerosi era feminist, his objection to Rhaenyra as queen was never because she's a woman or that he really thinks that she's incapable of ruling. His main objection to her being queen is that it should have been him, by right and by law.

Will his stay at Harrenhal give him the answers? Will he be able to reconcile fighting for her as his queen and not solely for himself?

New episodes of House of the Dragon season two are released on HBO and Max every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.