Spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2, episode 4 ahead. On Sunday, July 8, House of the Dragon gave everyone what they were waiting for. From the fictional lords populating the Green and Black Councils to certain carnage-hungry fans, countless voices have been calling for the Game of Thrones spinoff to bring on the action promised for season 2, as the Targaryens and their dragons face off on the battlefield. In episode 4, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," the war truly began with the highly-anticipated Battle of Rook's Rest, which ended with both the first major death and the first major cliffhanger of season 2.
The battle begins when Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and the Green Army attack one of the castles in the crownlands close to King's Landing, as a detour on his campaign to retake Harrenhal. Ser Criston (who, despite being the worst, is a great tactician) uses the castle as bait to lure out one of the Blacks' dragons, at which point a hidden Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his beast Vhagar will emerge and fight. When Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys arrive to help defend the castle, Criston sounds a signal for Vhagar to storm in, but they're interrupted by King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) on his (much smaller) dragon Sunfyre. The leader of the Greens flies to battle without alerting his family, his council, or his army, and subsequently gets smoked.
