Obviously, spoilers ahead!
Last week’s premiere of House of the Dragon ended with the sickening murder of Prince Jaehaerys by the gold cloak Blood and the ratcatcher Cheese. This episode picks up in the immediate aftermath, as King Aegon Targaryen smashes his father’s model of Old Valyria in his anger, and the castle is put on lockdown. Alicent Hightower is suffering from intense guilt, believing this was the gods’ punishment for her sinful affair with Ser Criston Cole. But her father Otto, in proper Machiavellian fashion, is already thinking about how this tragedy can be played to the Greens’ advantage.
A Royal Funeral
A furious Aegon shouts at his council for allowing this to happen, and declares that any one of them might have been in on it. He doesn’t want word about an assassination within his own walls to get out, so as not to be seen as weak. But Otto tells him it’s far too late for that, and that the winning strategy is to milk this tragedy for all it’s worth. Despite Aegon’s initial disgust at the idea of parading his son’s corpse through the streets, they agree to publicize Rhaenyra’s cruelty with a funeral procession, displaying the dead little boy and his mother and grandmother’s grief for all to see.
When Alicent informs the victim’s mother Helaena that the two of them are to participate, she can’t help but bring up what Helaena saw that night – Alicent and Ser Criston in bed together. But as a mother who just lost her baby, Helaena refuses to even acknowledge the subject. We don’t so much as see Alicent offer a hug to her grieving daughter. The lack of affection in this family is again evident later in the episode, when Aegon walks by Helaena and doesn’t say a word to her. Perhaps if these people they knew how to love and support one another, a lot of misery could have been avoided.
The funeral progress mostly goes smoothly. A herald proclaims “Behold the works of Rhaenyra, the cruel!” and the common people cry and throw flowers. There seems to be mass support for the grieving mothers. When a wheel of the wagon gets stuck in a puddle, the unwashed masses take the opportunity to swarm the wagon and reach for the royal women. Helaena’s extreme discomfort with this is interpreted as merely extreme grief, and so the event accomplished exactly what it was meant to.
A Mistake?
Meanwhile on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and the Black Council are informed about the murder, and the accusation that Rhaenyra herself was behind it. Rhaenyra emphatically denies any involvement, insisting that having just lost her own son, she would never inflict that pain on her half-sister. But one of her councillors, Ser Alfred Broome, implies to her face that he doesn’t believe she’s innocent. And he’s likely not the only person in the room to feel that way. Rhaenyra’s uncle-husband Daemon, the true culprit, quietly hides his smirk throughout this meeting. (I called him her brother-wife (???) in last week’s review. Just goes to show how confusing it all is!) After reeling from Ser Alfred’s insinuation, Rhaenyra’s gaze innocently falls on Daemon for reassurance, but it darkens as she quickly realizes who must have been responsible.
She confronts him privately, demanding to know if he sent assassins to murder an innocent child. Daemon admits that he hired the assassins, but insists that the target was Aemond, Jaehaerys’s killer, and he cannot be responsible for a mistake. Rhaenyra doesn’t believe him, having correctly pieced together that he told them any son would do if they couldn’t find Aemond. She is furious that he has immeasurably weakened her position by depriving her of the moral high ground. She lambastes him as a selfish, untrustworthy and bloodthirsty man, who is merely using her to take the Iron Throne. (On the Truth-O-Meter, I’d say this gets a “True.”) He declares his refusal to “give up [his] brother’s throne to the traitorous lies of Otto Hightower,” to which Rhaenyra corrects him, “My throne, Daemon! Mine!”
Daemon calls both his brother and Rhaenyra fools for their unwillingness to spill blood when necessary. “You struck down a child,” Rhaenyra reminds him. “It was a mistake,” he insists. Rhaenyra then utters the consequential insult that causes Daemon to storm off: “You’re pathetic.” It’s more of a personal realization than anything. This is a man she had looked up to in her youth. She had desperately wanted to spend time with him and win his heart. But now she finally sees him for the contemptible man he is. I felt this was one of the show’s greatest scenes thus far, thanks to incredible performances by Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra and Matt Smith as Daemon.
The Soiled Cloak
Ser Criston Cole, who has become the fanbase’s most reviled character, observes servants taking away Jaehaerys’s crib, and is uninvited into Alicent’s chambers. He’s an angry, guilty man looking for someone to pick on, and when he notices mud on the bottom of Ser Arryk Carygll’s cloak as he enjoys dinner, he has found his victim. Arryk says he’ll replace it after he finishes eating, but Criston accuses him of “sullying [their] ancient honor,” and demands he replace it immediately. Ser Arryk obeys and is leaving to do so, but Criston is unsatisfied. He asks Arryk where he was when Jaehaerys was murdered. Arryk explains that he was with the king, but Criston criticizes him for not being where he might have prevented the crime. “Where were you?” Arryk rightfully asks. Criston’s ridiculously hypocritical criticism of Ser Arryk, who was actually doing his job while he was bedding the queen, is quite infuriating.
Criston angrily changes the subject, reminding Ser Arryk that his identical twin brother, Ser Erryk, has defected to Rhaenyra’s side, and is therefore a traitor. (While Jason and Tyland Lannister are both played by Jefferson Hall, Arryk and Erryk are actually played by identical twin actors, Luke and Elliott Tittensor, respectively. It is equally as hard to tell them apart.) Criston suggests that Arryk might secretly share his brother’s sentiments, and even had a role in the prince’s murder. He tells him that the only way to restore the Crown’s confidence in him is to go on a suicide mission: infiltrate Dragonstone by pretending to be his brother, and assassinate Rhaenyra. Arryk reluctantly agrees.
And One Guilty One
Meanwhile, the citizens of King’s Landing are greeted with the sight of a dozen or so hanged men, all ratcatchers in the Red Keep. (Earlier in the episode, Larys Strong interrogated Blood, who did not know the real name of his partner, only his profession. Aegon then beat him to death. He couldn’t be bothered to have him pick out his partner from a lineup, I guess.) Their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters weep under their swaying corpses. Cheese is indeed among them, and his dog, who he had so rudely kicked, sadly gazes at him. Aegon was starting to win me over last week with his sympathy for the smallfolk, but hanging a bunch of innocent men for the crime of one shows that he really is a terrible king.
Otto confronts Aegon about this atrocity, who is flippant and unapologetic. He berates his grandson in front of Ser Criston, calling him “worse than a fool” for murdering innocent men. “And one guilty one,” Aegon adds. They had just won the moral high ground in the people’s eyes, Otto exasperatedly explains, and now Aegon has thrown that away. “We must act,” Aegon argues. “Ser Criston Cole has acted.” The look of abject horror on Otto’s face, courtesy of Rhys Ifans’s brilliant performance, is truly priceless. “And what has Ser Criston Cole done?” he asks. When Aegon explains the “brilliant” plan, Otto all but loses it, and invokes Aegon’s father Viserys in a negative comparison. He essentially tells him that he is not worthy of the throne, and even implies that Viserys did not, in fact, choose him as his heir. He went too far with that: Aegon immediately fires him from his office as Hand, and replaces him with no other than Ser Criston Cole. Gods help them all.
I Still Love You, Brother
Finally we come to the episode’s exciting conclusion, House of the Dragon‘s equivalent of Cleganebowl. As Ser Arryk walks toward the castle posing as his brother, he passes by Mysaria, who had just been with Ser Erryk, and so realizes that something is wrong. If not for this stroke of good/bad luck, perhaps Criston’s plan would have succeeded. Arryk is let into the castle, and makes his way to Rhaenyra’s bedchamber, where she is lying down to sleep. Just as he’s walking toward her with a drawn sword, promising her that he has no choice, Ser Erryk bursts into the room.
What follows is the show’s best fight scene yet, and it is an intentionally confusing one. It very quickly becomes impossible for the viewer (as well as Rhaenyra and her maid) to tell which brother is which, as we watch them swing at each other mere feet from Rhaenyra. We see one of them swing for Rhaenyra but be stopped by the other, temporarily informing us who is who, but then once again this knowledge gets lost in the cutaways. Finally help arrives in the form of Ser Lorent Marbrand, but he can’t tell who’s who and therefore can’t intervene.
Finally, Ser Erryk ends the fight by driving his sword through his brother’s chest. We assume it’s Ser Erryk because he then refers to Rhaenyra as “Your Grace” and falls on his own sword. (Though there were questions following the episode, with an alternative interpretation being that Arryk saw the pointlessness of it all after killing his brother, and opted not to try to complete the mission.)
This senseless familial violence is a perfect symbol for the themes of the show. The duel was fun to watch, but you’re then left with the maddening realization that these brothers who loved each other, killed each other solely because of other people’s disputes. The emotions and machinations of Rhaenyra, Daemon, Alicent, Criston, etc., had nothing to do with them, but they each felt so honor-bound to serve their masters that they fought each other to the death. One of the brothers is left with this tragic realization as well, and opts to end his own life rather than live with that.
The episode ends with Alicent once again bedding Criston, the direct cause of Cargyllbowl and the new Hand of the King (after slapping him a couple times). How this insufferable man keeps failing upwards is astounding. I remain steadfast in my refusal to pick a side, but the Greens certainly look a lot worse after this episode. I’m loving this season so far, and can’t wait to see what happens (who dies) next.
Catch House of the Dragon Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. ET, or stream it the same day on Max.
