House of the Dragon: A full DECADE has passed since the last episode

The second half of the first season of HBO’s House of the Dragon offers the biggest time jump yet, taking a full decade into episode 6 since last week’s episode 5.

The new episode, which airs Sunday night, introduces two new actresses who play the adult versions of Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke, replacing Emily Carey) and Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy, replacing Milly Alcock).

The trailer also teases that Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) is now married to Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), after killing his ex-wife.

The episode opens with an adult Rhaenyra going into labour, as the midwife has told her to keep breathing and pushing.

She continues to push as a baby boy is successfully delivered, while the proud mother holds her crying baby for the first time.

She asks if the child is healthy and one of the midwives says he is “kicking like a goat”, when an aide arrives and says that the Queen has requested that the child be brought to her immediately.

Rhaenyra says she will take the child herself while the women help her get dressed to go to the queen… although she pushes out the afterbirth first.

She meets her husband who is happy that he is a boy as she helps him walk to the queen while he jokes that he is glad he is not a woman.

She stops, seemingly in pain, and he asks what it is, but she tells him to keep walking because he thinks they’ve “went through all this” with the Queen.

She stops on the stairs, clearly in pain because her husband thinks they should go back, but she perseveres as Laenor says this is “absurd.”

When they get to the door, we see Criston waiting as they are ushered in to meet the Queen…although Alicent tells her to rest.

Viseryss enters and asks to see his grandson, holding the newborn, while Alicent asks if they have chosen a name.

While Rhaenyra says they haven’t chosen a name yet, Laenor says they will name him Joffrey — apparently after his former gay lover who killed Ser Criston ten years earlier.

Alicent says they should keep trying, adding, “Sooner or later, you might get someone who looks like you.

After leaving, Rhaenyra is clearly upset that he chose the name without consulting her.

They go back to their rooms when they are greeted by their sons, who say they have chosen a dragon egg for their new brother Joffrey.

Their eldest child Jacerys tries to bond with his dragon, having heard that the beast will only obey him in time.

The other kids prank Viserys’ son Aemond and bring him a pig because he doesn’t have a dragon yet.

He enters the dungeon and sees one of the dragons blowing out his fire before running away.

Despite his health problems, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) appears to have survived the 10-year time jump.

While little is known about his actual condition, he has made him quite weak even before the time jump.

Now he looks like he’s aged much more than a decade and seems weaker than ever in the sixth episode.

Another character who survived the time jump is Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel), who was about to commit suicide at the end of episode 5.

Criston – who slept with Princess Rhaenyra after her affair with Uncle Daemon – had murdered Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod), the secret gay lover of Rhaenyra’s new husband Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate).

After killing Joffrey, he was about to take his own life when he was stopped by Queen Alicent.

The show also made headlines last week and viewership continued to increase as the season progresses.

The fifth episode of the wildly popular Game of Thrones prequel series – set 172 years before the original series – attracted 3% more viewers than the fourth episode (via Variety).

It was also revealed that the first five episodes of the 10-episode first season average a whopping 29 million viewers per episode, across all linear and all HBO streaming platforms to date.