Spoiler alert: this recap is for people watching House of the Dragon. Do not read on unless you have watched season two, episode five.
‘A strange victory … if it was one’
’Twas ever thus in Game of Thrones, at least in the early seasons: any episode of high drama – the Battle of Blackwater, say, or the Red Wedding – would always be followed by one of relative restraint, where the characters would come to terms with what had happened and plan their next move. So it was to be expected that, after last week’s aerial hostilities, House of the Dragon would take time to reflect, regroup and count the dead (roughly 900, at least on the Green side).
But there is a fine line between reflective and, well, boring. Viewers are already griping about the show’s pace, particularly the painstaking buildup to last week’s fiery eruption. Some – me included – found that escalation gripping. Others found it – and, indeed, the show as a whole – a bit dull. Well, I’m sad to say that, for the first time, I’ve switched sides. Not only were there no battles, on dragonback or otherwise, but there were also no eye-opening twists, no surprise character developments and – apart from the final few moments – no promising revelations. It was all a bit dour.
‘War has ever been for men to make’
The tone is set in the opening scenes, as first Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and then Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) weep over their wife and aunt respectively, the dear departed Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best). Later, Corlys’s sadness will turn to anger and then acceptance. It’s an overfamiliar emotional trajectory – and one that’s hard to engage with, given how little the character has had to do this season. His granddaughter Baela (Bethany Antonia) is in a similar fix. The writers clearly want us to empathise with her loss, but the character is too thinly sketched.
Still, at least Corlys is ultimately willing to accept Rhaenyra’s offer to act as her hand, giving him authority over all those moaning minnies on her small council. If I have to sit through another scene of beetle-browed lords haranguing Rhaenyra while the queen protests that she is much more than a feeble woman, I may have to march down to Dragonstone myself and toss them all out of the nearest window.
‘Is strength now to be our only God?’
Events moved slightly more swiftly in King’s Landing, where the opportunistic decision by Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) to hold back and allow his brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) to face Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys alone has paid off handsomely as he is named regent. This rankles their mother, the dowager queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), who is convinced that her experience overseeing the small council while Viserys was incapacitated gives her the best chance to rule.
Loth as I am to agree with that colourless drip Ser Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) and the psychopathic climber Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) – let alone the smirking conqueror Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) – if they want to win the war, Aemond is probably the wiser pick. I wouldn’t mess, anyway.
The new regent’s first order of business is to close the gates of King’s Landing, preventing the city’s peasantry from fleeing for greener pastures. Pity the poor blacksmith Hugh (Kieran Bew), trapped inside with only his dying child and hacked-off wife, Kat (Ellora Torchia), for company. Still, it seems the predictions made by Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) may come true quicker than expected; I for one am on board for a Fleabottom people’s uprising. Vive le smallfolk!
‘Show them your worst’
Meanwhile, at Harrenhal, Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) is growing ever more restless, styling himself king-without-the-consort and granting Ser Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) a free hand to wipe out his family’s historical enemies the Brackens and claim their castle, land and surviving army. As in episode two, the Blackwood-Bracken battle takes place off screen, but perhaps that’s for the best: judging by the post-match reports, it sounds like a gruesome affair.
Will Daemon really set himself up as an independent entity, leading an army of rivermen to attack King’s Landing? Or will he fall ever more deeply under the spell cast by Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), losing himself in those mysterious (and increasingly repetitive) hallucinations? Either way, it’s nice to see him getting stuck into a spot of DIY.
Whatever happens, it’s clearer than ever that Rhaenyra can’t rely on Daemon for anything. So gods bless young Jacaerys (Harry Collett) for taking matters into his own hands and enlisting the lords of the crossing to their cause. At least the episode ends on an auspicious note, as Rhaenyra and Jace come to a startling realisation. It’s scarcely been mentioned this season, but there are a number of riderless dragons nesting in the caves below Dragonstone, including two of a size to match the mighty Vhagar. All they need is a few people with the right combination of bravery and royal blood to tame the beasts and their flock doubles. Hang on, didn’t we just find out that Corlys has not one but two bastard sons? And didn’t that Fleabottom sot Ulf reckon he was descended from rogue Targaryens? It’s all coming together …
Additional notes
• Apology time. In last week’s recap, I made an error: given that Aegon had been roasted in his armour then plummeted several hundred feet into a forest, I rather assumed he was dead. Turns out that was wishful thinking – the king survives, remarkably intact. Note to self: never count anyone out until you have clapped eyes on the corpse. And maybe not even then.
• There were some good lines here – “Someone cut down the fucking rat-catchers” was a particular favourite – but that King’s Landing scamp watching Meleys’s head roll by and muttering: “I fort the dragons wuz Gods!” was a real clunker.
• For all its faults, there was a superb sense of place in this episode. The shots of Aegon’s crate being carried through the Red Keep were wonderful, as was that creepy tracking shot behind Daemon through the stone corridors of Harrenhal.
• That said, does The Twins look like it’s been moved lock, stock and bridge to a different part of Westeros? I don’t recall seeing those wooded hills before.
• Could there have been just the slightest hint of a frisson between Lady Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) and her new hostess, Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin)? Or have I been watching this show too long?
• Finally, is anyone else distracted by the fact that Lord Blackwood looks uncannily like early 70s Van Morrison? Just me?
Nudity count
Eww. Having packed the Blackwoods off to war, we find Daemon back at Harrenhal, pleasuring a mysterious, sultry blond woman whose pillow talk consists of praising his skill with dragons and his talent for warfare – the kind of thing guaranteed to float Daemon’s boat. It’s pretty obvious that she is another of his hallucinations, but who? An old lover? A random aspect of his psyche? Nope: it’s his mum.
Violence count
Not nearly enough – just a spot of argy-bargy between the King’s Landing mob and the Goldcloaks.
Random Briton of the week
Hello Mother, how is Father? It was actually a random Dane this week, although she does a passable British accent. The aforementioned Amanda Collin, appearing here as Lady Arryn, played the android Mother in the prematurely cancelled Raised By Wolves, opposite Alyn of Hull, Abubakar Salim, as Father. Get Ridley Scott to direct an episode, go on!
