To fans of the source material, House of the Dragon Season 2 seemed to be laid out perfectly: it began with the fallout of Lucerys Velaryon’s murder and the Blood and Cheese revenge plot, marked the halfway point with the Battle of Rook’s Rest and the tragic loss of Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys, and would all build to an epic finale: presumedly, the Battle of the Gullet, where the Blacks (freshly bolstered by three new dragon riders) and the Greens would face off over the blockade established by Corlys Verlaryon.
But instead, the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale was something else entirely. It completely redefines how we define a Game of Thrones franchise finale — and not necessarily for the better.
Warning: Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2’s finale follow!
House of the Dragon Season 2 started veering from the norm in Episode 7. In the era of Game of Thrones, penultimate episodes usually eschewed the multiple-storyline structure to focus on the events of one particular area of Westeros, and they usually contained a big story-shaking development, like Ned Stark’s execution, the Battle of Blackwater Bay, or the Red Wedding. House of the Dragon Season 1 repeated this by showing the coronation of Aegon, and its interruption by Rhaenys atop her dragon Meleys, in its penultimate episode.
But Season 2 Episode 7 of House of the Dragon was something else entirely. Instead of showing a big shakeup, the episode was mostly dedicated to Rhaenyra assembling Targaryen bastards from across the realm to find dragonriders for her unclaimed dragons. Fans were eagerly awaiting the all-important Battle of the Gullet, but since assembling the dragon rosters did have to come before, this break from the usual pattern wasn’t enough to cause alarm.
That’s why the Season 2 finale of House of the Dragon is so shocking — a big battle was already overdue for a show that spent its entire back half building up to what would be a devastating turning point for the civil conflict. Instead, we saw everything but: In the final minutes of the episode, Daemon finally gets ready to leave Harrenhal, Rhaenyra assembles her new forces, Rhaena tracks the wild dragon in the Vale, and Alicent looks for a way to break the blockade. The episode only sets us up even more emphatically for a big battle: Sharako Lohar says the Triarchy forces would descend on the Gullet “on the morrow”... but that’s for next season.
Bizarrely, this finale doesn’t narratively serve as a finale. It’s an act break, a final moment of anticipation to keep fans on the edge of their seats until the series returns. It’s more than just a cliffhanger: every single storyline is left dangling. Even Rhaena doesn’t get to ride her dragon, she just finally finds it. The episode is more akin to Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” — all of the buildup before a big battle without the battle itself.
It didn’t have to be this way. House of the Dragon Season 2 already had a shorter episode count of eight as opposed to Season 1’s 10. So while there was a precedent set for more episodes, the season was designed to end here. But as it stands, this whole season feels a bit like holding in a sneeze — and it’ll be a long time before we see what happens next.
Thankfully, House of the Dragon Season 3 has already been greenlit, so fans won’t be left wondering. But this episode is a big break from the usual franchise structure, and it proves that anything is possible in this new era of the Game of Thrones universe.
