THE MOST DANGEROUS MEN NEVER BELIEVE THEY’RE EVIL. House of the Dragon may have just introduced its most disturbing power player yet—and the director behind the episode insists there is far more driving Ormund Hightower than simple cruelty.

Still on the fence about whether Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is a good guy or a bad guy in House of the Dragon?

Season 3, episode 4 director Claire Kilner is here to convince you it’s very much the latter. In HBO’s “Inside the Episode” clip above, Kilner describes Hightower’s relationship with Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) as “abusive”.

“Daeron and Ormund’s relationship is really dysfunctional and horrible to watch, but brilliant and fun to direct,” Kilner says. “Because it’s a really abusive relationship. Daeron has only known the love that he’s known from Ormund that isn’t love at all. Daeron is in Ormund’s thrall, but doesn’t really understand it or know it, and Ormund is a great manipulator and knows when to give love and when to give punishment. He’s an evil man.”

That doesn’t bode well for what the Hightower Lord has planned for the rest of Season 3.