'House of the Dragon' Episode 4: What is Moon Tea? Potion sent to Princess Rhaenyra saves her from consequences
Tonight’s episode of ‘House of the Dragon’ was significant because of many reasons. However, it was Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) who made things even more interesting by escaping the palace and wandering the streets of Westeros at night. At first, it felt like Daemon just wanted to show the people who she is about to rule in a few years’ time. Soon, she got to know that some people don’t approve of her as the rightful heir, but she doesn’t give a damn about their opinions and leaves the place.
But things started to heat up after Daemon took her to a brothel and eventually, they started making out. After kissing each other for a few moments, Daemon left her at the brothel and forced Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) to return to the castle. Upon returning, she tried seducing Ser Criston Cole and managed to do with perfection. However, one of Ser Otto’s sources told him everything about their adventure. King Viserys (Paddy Considine) was really mad when he got to know about this and confronted his brother Prince Daemon about this. Daemon wanted to marry Rhaenyra and asked his brother if he can marry her.
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On the other hand, Rhaenyra lied to Alicent (Emily Carey) that nothing happened between her and Daemon. They just escaped and drank, that’s everything they did as wandered the streets. At the end of the episode, we saw a Maester entering Princess Rhaenyra’s chambers and requesting her to drink tea that Viserys has asked him to present to her.
What is this tea? And why does Maester say that this potion is very important for her? Let’s take a look.
What is the Moon Tea? Viserys sent the mysterious potion for Rhaenyra
So, at the end of the episode, Rhaenyra asks the Maester why this has been brought to her. He says that King Viserys wants to make that Rhaenyra doesn’t bear the consequence of whatever happened between her and Prince Daemon. This means, that he didn’t want Rhaenyra to give birth to Daemon’s child and that’s why the tea has been prepared for her.
‘Moon Tea’ or Tansy Tea is medicinal tea used in the Seven Kingdoms, as well as in other kingdoms as well, to prevent or abort pregnancies. According to the books, tea consists of things such as tansy, mint, wormwood, a spoonful of honey, and a drop of pennyroyal. ‘Moon Tea’ has a lot of history in the ‘Game of Thrones’ universe. In ‘A Feast for Crows’, Cersei Lannister believed that Margaery has a secret lover when she got to know that Margaery told Grand Maester Pycell to prepare Moon Tea for her.
On the other hand, in ‘A Storm of Swords’, Lady Lysa Arryn told her husband Lord Petyr Baelish that her father had her unknowingly consume moon tea to abort Petyr's child when they were younger.
This means that King Viserys has doubts that his daughter and his brother, Prince Daemon, might have done something really distasteful, so he wants to make sure that nothing unusual happens. But we know that she did have a steamy encounter with Ser Critson Cole and no one knows about it. So, the upcoming episodes will be really interesting because the show will take a time jump.