Why Did Criston Tell Alicent About Him & Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon? Answered

House of the Dragon is currently streaming its first five episodes on HBO Max, which means the season is halfway done. As a midseason finale though, the episode entitled “We Light the Way” is the culmination of many of the storylines that have been present in the season’s first half. One such storyline is the relationship between Rhaenyra and two of her closest confidantes, Criston and Alicent. So why did Criston tell Alicent about what happened between him and Rhaenyra? Well, Twinfinite has the answer right here.

Why Did Criston Tell Alicent About Him & Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon?

After returning from transporting King Viserys and Rhaenyra to Driftmark, Criston is almost immediately summoned by the Queen Consort, Alicent Hightower. In the previous episode, Rhaenyra was caught at a pleasure house with her uncle, Prince Daemon. During episode four, Rhaenyra had sworn to Alicent that she had remained “pure.” Still, after learning from Larys Strong that the Grand Maester had delivered a special tea to Rhaenyra, Alicent becomes suspicious. Not to mention that her father, Otto Hightower, was effectively fired for telling the truth.

All of this causes the Queen Consort to become suspicious that Rhaenyra had indeed misled her, which in part makes her feel responsible for the firing of her father. So to try to find out the truth, Alicent has Criston, who is basically Rhaenyra’s bodyguard, summoned to her chambers in an effort to see what he knows. However, in a panicked state, Criston thinks that Alicent knows about his tryst with the princess, which also happened last episode, something that causes the Kingsguard member to admit the truth.

At the end of the day, it seems that Criston just assumed that Alicent had already known the truth and wanted to make sure that she gave him a merciful death, instead of the tortuous one he should have as punishment for breaking his oath. It’s likely that he was still heartbroken from his previous conversation with Rhaenyra, and felt prepared to die if he couldn’t elope with her. Although given the rest of the episode, it seems as though Alicent has other plans for Criston Cole, which is something that aligns with the history from the books.

That is everything you need to know when it comes to why Criston told Alicent the truth about what had transpired between himself and Rhaenyra. For more House of the Dragon coverage, keep an eye on Twinfinite, with some of such coverage included below.