"The Lord of the Tides," the eighth episode of "House of the Dragon," poses a question that few of us cared about before Sunday night: Who will inherit the Driftwood throne? Had my disinterest been measured in a T-shirt slogan it would have read, "I waited all week for 'House of the Dragon' and all I got was a stupid piece of beach debris."
And I don't think my exasperation was unreasonable. "Game of Thrones" was a great series, but it took plenty of side journeys that seem pointless in retrospect: the Warlocks of Qarth, the Wight babies, the hippie commune that's only memorable now because its leader was played by the magnetic Ian McShane. Television is a much more crowded space than it was back then, though. There's no time for meandering journeys, even on dragon back.
Despite its shaky start, though, Sunday night's installment of "House of the Dragon" evolved into the prequel's most consequential and game-changing episode to date. Fortunes flipped, heads rolled, enemies bonded and a dying dynasty's wishes were woefully misinterpreted, ensuring 200 years of bloody unrest and plenty of fodder for future seasons.
