Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for House of David Episode 6.
We are only two episodes away from the end of House of David’s first season, but with news that the series has already been renewed for Season 2, we’re anxiously awaiting more story. The series has been doing incredible numbers on Prime Video, and as the plot picks up, the sixth episode, “Giants Awakened,” expands the biblical world further. Before David (Michael Iskander) can face Goliath (Martyn Ford) on the battlefield, both must be ready for war, and this episode pushes them each closer to that fateful confrontation.
‘House of David’ Episode 6 Sets Up Deeper Conflicts

Image via Prime Video

After House of David’s three-part premiere, questions still linger regarding the giants hiding out in the Valley of Giants as seen in “The Anointing.” Picking up with that story, Episode 6 opens with Orpah (Sian Webber) explaining the origins of the Nephilim, the giant race to which her sons belong. We see the angels fall, and how some angels lusted after the human women of Earth. Their offspring became the giants, known as “men of renown and great ability.” For their crimes, the fallen angels were punished, banished to eternal darkness, but their children remain. “If all that you say is true,” Goliath says to his mother, “then why do we still hide in this cave?” Soon, Goliath and Orpah arrive in Gath, where they are met by King Achish (Alexander Uloom), who tells the other four Philistine kings to assemble their armies in the Valley of Elah. Achish offers Goliath a giant-sized sword and shield, noting that it was “divinely crafted,” and he trains with the Philistine soldiers, who evade him in terror. But when Achish tries to convince Orpah to allow her sons to fight for him, saying that they will live like kings. But Orpah refuses after Achish denies her request to put Goliath on his throne in his stead. “Kings? They are already gods,” she says to him. “I would be careful, Achish. Once you awaken giants, they seldom go back to sleep.”
Meanwhile, at Gibeah, David sings and plays for King Saul (Ali Suliman) in his chambers. Mychal (Indy Lewis) wanders the halls and hears him. Mirab (Yali Topol Margalith) confronts Mychal, and tells her that, “Happiness and free will are no more than an illusion.” Mirab asks if Mychal is falling in love, and laughs at her when she struggles to answer. Mychal explains to her sister that she learned something about David from their mother, Queen Ahinoam (Ayelet Zurer), that she isn’t sure how to deal with. Elsewhere, Saul tells David that he has been given a gift. He confesses that he envies David’s life, that he misses the simpler times on the farm. “I was not born king, I became one,” Saul says, reflecting on his former life tending to donkeys, and how it prepared him to be king. “Do not allow the words of any one man to take your destiny from you,” he tells David, the irony fully lost on him. “It’s yours, hold it tight.” Unbeknownst to Jonathan (Ethan Kai) or anyone else, Reuben (Teym Joseph) is brought to Doeg (Ashraf Barhom), the Edomite assassin, who asks what he heard from Saul’s conversation with Samuel (Stephen Lang). The boy tells him that he heard that Saul was replaced as God’s anointed, which amuses the Edomite.

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Saul’s Condition Worsens in ‘House of David’ Episode 6

Image via Prime Video

Soon after, Abner (Oded Fehr) and Jonathan talk with Saul about the potential Philistine threat. Saul doesn’t want to wait, he wants to strike first. “We prevail with God at our backs,” he says, though nobody quite believes it. When Jonathan tries again to speak of giants, Saul won’t hear it. “I’m surrounded by weakness,” he tells his son, emphasizing that no one will take his throne. Elsewhere in the palace, Mychal and David speak again. She asks why David didn’t tell her that he is a bastard son, and he admits his fear. “When people find out who I really am, they run away, and I lose them,” he explains. He tells her that she could run away with him, somewhere where the army couldn’t find them. “There’s a difference between desire and duty,” she tells him. “My future is not for me to decide.” Mychal admits her love for him, but notes that they can never be together. In Gath, Achish watches as Goliath leaves, only for Doeg to arrive with a new offer, revealing himself a double agent.
Back in Gibeah, Besai (Eden Saban) and Ahinoam attempt a magic ritual on Saul, who is getting worse. Besai takes Saul’s blood and uses it in a potion of some sort. He drinks it willingly. As this is happening, David wanders the palace, looking for Mychal. Unfortunately, he is quickly confronted by his brother, Eliab (Davood Ghadami), instead. But before Eliab can force him out of the palace, Jonathan arrives and tells him that Saul will decide when his brother leaves. “My brother has been a curse on our house all of his life,” Eliab tells Jonathan. “I pray he is not one on yours.” As David and Jonathan are left alone, the scene is interrupted by the screams of Saul. Jonathan barges into his chambers to find Besai performing the ritual, which he forces to end. “God rules this house,” Jonathan says, pushing Besai away from his father. The priestess says that David is who caused all of this, but Jonathan removes her. “I saw enough to know this,” she tells the prince. “You will never be king, ever.”
After this, David plays for Saul for hours, to the point where his fingers start bleeding. Saul orders him to stop and tends to his wounds. “As much as I am calmed by your music, I cannot have it harm you,” he says. Saul says he is the one to blame for all that is happening, and that his soul is vexed by the knowledge of another anointed out there. “Not knowing who it is, it torments me, robbing me of every joy,” Saul says about the next king, and then the scene shifts. “When you take my place, this will be as true for you as it is for me,” he says strangely to David, believing he’s really Jonathan.
The Giants Rise in ‘House of David’ Episode 6

Image via Prime Video

In the Valley of Giants, Goliath speaks with his brothers. They believe that they should have fought for Achish, but Orpah says their home is no longer safe. Later on, the brothers all sing together, and Orpah toasts to her children, saying that the world will bow to them as they deserve. After drinking a whole wine skin herself, she wanders off to retrieve more for her sons. As she does, she is attacked by Doeg, and killed, “in the name of the House of Saul.” Goliath soon hears her screams, and when she goes out to find his mother, she tells him to simply avenge her. At Gibeah, David is sent away, but not before Mirab can confront him. She asks David about Mychal, what his heart wants her to know. “I realized that our futures are not aligned, we are on different paths. It doesn’t stop me from loving her, truly and completely,” he admits, leaving for home.
Not knowing what else to do, Jonathan decides to go after Samuel to ask for help, finding him on Mount Sinai, the same mountain where God spoke to Moses. There, he has a vision of him and his father being killed in battle, the same one that Saul is tormented by. Upon seeing Samuel, the two briefly fight, but Jonathan reveals himself and asks Samuel about his vision. The seer says that he will understand it in time. When Jonathan asks why Saul’s curse remains, Samuel tells him that it’s all because Saul refuses to give up his throne. “Your father has become a god unto himself,” the prophet explains, noting that he has begged God to change things. “There are some mistakes that cannot be undone.” Samuel tells Jonathan that there is truth in these visions, but that he doesn’t know if they will come to pass. Samuel also reveals to Jonathan that he has anointed another, but only after Jonathan swears allegiance to God first.
In Gibeah, Saul continues to be tormented, but the vision passes and Ahinoam returns. Saul asks for “the musician” (for he never called David by his given name), but Ahinoam says he has gone. “We will find another, I promise,” she tells him, discreetly offering more of Besai’s potion. In Bethlehem, Jesse (Louis Ferreira) and Avva (Rada Rae) welcome David home as Jonathan rides back to the palace, passing an innumerable number of warriors in the Philistine armies, which are quickly amassing. Arriving at Gibeah, he tells Abner and Joab (Aury Alby) that they have been found, and Saul summons the twelve tribes together to fight. After killing a band of Hebrew travelers the night before, Goliath arrives in Gath to see King Achish and kneels before him. “Let me fight their king,” he says. “Let me kill them all, and in your name, I will show them who the real gods are.”
New episodes of House of David drop every Thursday on Prime Video.

House of David

The drama ramps up as the battlefield is set.

Release Date

February 27, 2025

Network

Prime Video

Cast

Pros & Cons

More backstory about the Nephilim is exciting.
It’s about time that David leaves the palace.
There’s lots of great setup that pushes toward the David and Goliath battle.

If Jonathan is fated to die, then we want more of his while he’s still alive.
It feels like the David/Mychal love story is biding its time, repeating similar beats.