‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3, episode 1: Is Lord Corlys dead?

After a slightly frustrating end to Season 2, Season 3 of House of the Dragon has come out swinging.

Episode 1 finally saw the long-awaited Battle of the Gullet, with Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and Team Black facing off against Triarchy captain Admiral Lohar (Abigail Thorn) and a nervous Ser Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall).

It was an episode with a pretty high body count, even by Game of Thrones standards — but was Corlys himself among them? Is the Velaryon lord dead, or will we be seeing him again?

What happens with Lord Corlys in episode 1?

Lord Corlys and his bastard son, Alyn (Abubakar Salim), are up against it in this episode. Outnumbered by the Triarchy, Corlys decides to lead Admiral Lohar through a narrow gully in an attempt to let the rocks do his dirty work for him. It almost works. Though two of Lohar’s ships capsize, she manages to make it through and give chase, ramming his boat and jumping aboard for a good old-fashioned sword fight.

The ensuing matchup is violent and bloody, with injuries on both sides. But just as Lord Corlys is about to strike the killing blow, the ship lurches in the waves, and he’s thrown overboard. Alyn looks over the side, but there’s no sign of him. We don’t see him again.

Is Lord Corlys dead?

Well, it’s not exactly looking good, is it? Corlys is thrown overboard in a full suit of armour, which — as we know from Lohar’s decision to yeet Ser Tyland over the side earlier on — is pretty heavy. Someone decked out in metal tends to sink rather than float.

On the other hand, it’s important to remember that characters in the GoT universe are never dead until we’ve seen a body (and in some cases they’re not dead, even then). When Corlys goes overboard, he’s close to the rocks, which could be a bad thing, but it also means dry land may be in reach for him. Going overboard in armour isn’t necessarily a death sentence, either. Minutes before Corlys goes in, we see his son Alyn do the same, and he still manages to fight someone off and clamber to safety.

In a nutshell, the jury is still out. Corlys’ fate, like his life, will be determined by the fortune of the tides.

House of the Dragon Season 3 premieres June 21 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, with a new episode every Sunday.