After last week’s relatively disappointing premiere episode (in which nothing really happened until the close – and I’ve since been informed that the Blood and Cheese incident from the book is much more disturbing than the one presented in the series, which further adds to the disappointment), this week’s installment of House of the Dragon was supersized and loaded with character beats to help move not only the story along, but to finally provide some coloring to several of our key players.
The fallout from the murder of Prince Jaehaerys was complex, leading to massive swings in who controlled the narrative – albeit swings we were told about rather than shown, so we don’t actually know if what Otto Hightower told us was wholly true or not. Rhaenyra finally recognized that she cannot control Daemon – although, again, this key plot point wasn’t all that well paced either, seeing as we didn’t exactly have many other moments wherein she felt this way of late. Rhaenys continued to show up and prove that she’s the smartest and most level-headed of the whole lot of Targaryens – which has me incredibly worried about her future on the show, as the series (and Game of Thrones before it) has a penchant for highlighting characters shortly before their untimely deaths. And, in perhaps the best example of wasted potential, the series ended the great Arryk or Erryk question, having the duo fight to the death. So, we got some plot movement, and some key character beats, but it still was uneven in ways its predecessor rarely was.
The big ticket item this week was the Prince Jaehaerys fallout, which saw Otto Hightower in his element, scheming the best way to manipulate the murder of a child to provide Aegon with the positive spin he needs to turn various noble houses to him and away from Rhaenyra. Manipulating your daughter and granddaughter to participate in a public parade with the dead body of your great-grandson openly visible is pretty despicable. It says something that this isn’t the most despicable thing Otto has manipulated his family into doing (that would be pimping out his teenage daughter to marry the widowed king), but oof, this was another reminder that in this story, very few folks have the wherewithal (or the complete lack of moral compass) to do what is necessary to secure and keep power in this world. Otto, who loses his position as Hand at the episode’s close – anyone else think he was going to flat out tell Aegon that Viserys really wanted Rhaenyra on the throne? – may be despicable, but he’s also a shark who does what it takes to get what he wants, damn the consequences. I don’t think Ser Criston has the same cut-throat nature, even if he is sleeping with Alicent and has the power to lord that over her should he need to in the future.
The other major development linked to the death was the schism between Rhaenyra and Daemon, who fessed up to his role in the murder – although he was adamant that his command was not to murder a child (even though he was very vague about just what the killers were to do if they couldn’t find their actual target). Now, the series has made clear that Daemon still feels stifled by his role as a second son. His pursuit of Rhaenyra stemmed from a desire to get one over on his brother and to bring himself closer to the center of power. Does that mean he thinks he can take her position from her? We’ve seen nothing to indicate that. But we do know that he wants power, he wants the throne, and he thinks no one else has the abilities he has to command the Seven Kingdoms. Could he content himself with merely being King Consort (which, really, should be Prince Consort, right)? We must assume so, seeing as killing Rhaenyra to claim the throne would essentially just start the exact same war that is being fought now.
The one person who seems to have his number is his cousin, Rhaenys. She absolutely clocked that he had something to do with the murder at the Council meeting. She understands his frustration and anger over missing out on the Iron Throne. And she knows how his mind works. At this stage of the game, she’s the only character who has known him since childhood. She gets him in a way that others don’t. And I definitely don’t think it’s a coincidence that we hear her pledge her complete support to Rhaenyra at this stage of the story – I suspect something will be asked of her before too long that places her in great peril. Which will absolutely suck, as she’s the absolute best character on the series at this stage of the game.
As for the battle of the twins, well, as little as I cared about either character (outside of the novelty of having twins on opposite sides of the war), I will say the fight created some suspense despite knowing that the series would never kill off a character of the magnitude of Rhaenyra in such a manner. The fight sequence didn’t read as overly glossy or choreographed, as can often be the case, and you could almost feel the exertions of the actors as they moved through the scene. That’s an incredibly hard set piece to pull off and to pull off with such aplomb. Excellent work, even if the show never provided enough character development for either twin to make their deaths have any real impact on the audience.
Speaking of character development, look at Aegon, actually showing real emotion that isn’t some variation of “I’m definitely a psychopath in the making.” Excellent work from Tom Glynn-Carney, allowing us to see that under the pompous and entitled man-child of a king, there’s still a scared, hurt boy. And, after watching Otto’s callous treatment of Alicent throughout her life and his callous treatment of both grandchildren this episode, we know that absent and emotionally unavailable parents are a real issue for these characters on the show. Aegon may be a monster a lot of the time, but he didn’t get there fully on his own. Alicent walking out of the room rather than consoling her son at the end of the episode? Perfectly on brand, and a perfect indication of how broken these characters really are.
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