This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 9, "The Green Council," which debuted Sunday, Oct. 16 on HBO.
In the Red Keep, everyone is playing the "game of thrones" in order to get as close as possible to the Iron Throne. However, the real seat of Westerosi power on HBO's House of the Dragon sits in the White Worm's brothel in Flea Bottom. Or at least it did. Maybe it still does.
At the end of "The Green Council," just before the coronation, viewers see a single scene of a hooded ne'er-do-well walking away from a building as it goes up in flames. Eagle-eyed House of the Dragons viewers will recognize that as Mysaria's brothel, where she operates as the spymaster known as the White Worm. She is a woman who extricated herself from slavery and sex work to instead traffic information to the powerful folks of Westeros. Meeting face-to-face with the Hand of the King after having a still-unknown connection to his death was a big moment for her. There is no way her story ends with an off-screen death in a burning brothel. Yet returning from the dead will be one of the ways the White Worm shows she's the true power in King's Landing, at least to Otto Hightower and the Dowager Queen.
Mysaria Became the White Worm to Cash In Her Most Powerful Currency
When viewers first met Mysaria, she inspired Daemon to make the insulting toast that drove a wedge between him and King Viserys. She stayed by his side throughout that early conflict, only breaking away after he lied about her expecting his child. Unlike the wife he murdered or the wife who chose a dragonrider's death over death in childbirth, Daemon may have actually loved Mysaria. Yet when she rescued him after he passed out in a Flea Bottom pleasure den, he insulted her and left her alone. This was the first time she sold information to to the unbalanced Otto. By meeting him in "The Green Council," she may have wanted to come out of the shadows.
But there's no way that the White Worm was caught sleeping by the Red Keep's assassin. In George R.R. Martin's books, she returns and supports Rhaenyra, the Black Queen. Her story is already markedly different House of the Dragon, so she may end up playing both sides. Yet as a sex worker and then Daemon's paramour, Mysaria became privy both to important secrets and an understanding of those secrets' value. She would be smart enough to recognize threats on her life, both potential and realized.
Just like Varys from Game of Thrones, she can find information about anyone. However, Varys was on the Small Council and well known to the people in power. The White Worm's power is that she is a mystery -- more of a legend than a woman. When she resurfaces after the war begins, Hightower, the Queen Dowager and the rest of Team Green will be more frightened of her than they'll admit. Mysaria only wants to survive and be free.
The White Worm has Power, and the Powerful Meet Quick Ends
At some point after leaving Westeros, Varys must have lost access to his network of Spiders, because when he ended up burned alive by Drogon, it was a death the Varys of old would have seen coming from a mile away. But the Master of Whispers doesn't usually end up living a long and peaceful life. As much as Mysaria wants to be free, she may move closer to one of the monarchs in contention for the Iron Throne -- and if she does, she becomes visible and vulnerable.
Her only hope is that she is able to sell her abilities to the new masters of King's Landing rather than being punished as a traitor. So far, even revealed to Otto, her identity isn't public knowledge. Lord Larys Strong (played by Matthew Needham) believed the White Worm was a man when he talked to the Queen Dowager about the "weaver" of the web of spies. In becoming the White Worm, Mysaria was able to wield more power over Westerosi royals than she ever imagined. The game she plays is dangerous, and now that her enemies have started trying to kill her, they won't stop until they've succeeded.
House of the Dragon's season finale airs Oct. 23 at 9:00 p.m. on HBO and streams on HBO Max.