RECAP: “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 4
First things first: Is everyone reading this OK? Because that was a pretty intense ending.
I know that sounds ridiculous. This is a TV show. It’s a fantasy. About dragons and purely fictional people. And yet, those last 10 or so minutes were gripping, terrible, shocking, and, ultimately, traumatic — no matter which side of the Dance of Dragons you happened to find yourself.
That said, this was — to me — the first episode of the season that truly felt like it was fully locked in. Even the quieter, more character-focused scenes seemed packed with purpose or meaning. A lot happened this episode, and I don’t just mean that last pivotal battle scene. And much of it packed a real emotional gut punch. The war is very much on, and this show is committed to showing us the horrors that come with a conflict on this scale.
Below find my thoughts on the various plotlines, organized by LEAST engaging to MOST this time. SPOILERS AHOY.
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Alan the Shipwright/Corlys Valeryon
Still coming in first place in the Who Cares? Olympics, we have Alan the shipbuilder, who has a scene with Rhaenys that I assume is meant to suggest that he is Corlys’s bastard son, or related in some way to Corlys. How nice for him. Maybe this would be more interesting if Corlys on his own was more interesting. But he’s honestly not. Love him with Rhaenys, and I enjoy his occasional moments in Rhaenyra’s court. But we’re four weeks into this storyline and so far all we’re getting is episode after episode of people going out of their way to talk to this guy, and absolutely jack shit happening with him. Clumsy to the point of embarrassing.
Rhaenyra’s Small Council/Jaecerys Targaryen
The Small Council at Dragonstone is as dysfunctional as ever, with the various barely identified lords engaging in full-throated bitching while seemingly doing very little on their own. In Rhaenyra’s unexplained absence, Baela and Jaecerys attempted — and failed — to corral them, and even after a newly resolute Rhaenyra returns, this group seems ready to revolt at the first chance. If you’re living in America in 2024, you know the looks on the faces of the men around that table mean nothing good for anyone, so buckle up.
There is one quasi-upside to all of this: Rhaenyra, now confident that she is her father’s rightful heir, passes down Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy about The Song of Ice & Fire to Jace. It’s an important moment for mother and son, even if it’s dramatic irony for the viewers at home, who know this prophecy doesn’t make to the people it’s actually about.
Queen Rhaenyra
Speaking of Rhaenyra, she is emboldened by her conversation with Allicent and prepared to move forward with the knowledge that she either regains her throne, or she dies. (There was a significant turn in Emma D’Arcy’s performance this episode; gone was the nervous, conflicted energy of the last few episodes, replaced by a thoroughly regal and determined manner.) That sounds familiar! Is this, in fact, the first game of thrones? I think it might be. Upon her return to Dragonstone, she is chastised by Jace for endangering herself by going to King’s Landing, and then she offers to go into battle herself to protect the imperiled castle just across the bay from Dragonstone. She is only persuaded not to go by Princess Rhaenys, who points out that she and her dragon, Melys, are by far a better option for the battlefield. So Rhaenyra stays behind, feeling the full weight of her actions, deploying dragons against her own people.
One last note on Rhaenyra: last week I saw several articles, particularly by one nerd-focused media outlet, complaining loudly about how the Episode 3 scene between Rhaenyra and Allicent basically “broke the show” and was an “ill omen” for the series overall. On our podcast we say, Everyone is entitled to their wrong opinion. I’m not actually sure that’s true here, because that’s an awful take, and I have to wonder if there’s some scheme behind it. This is a show about dragons and you’re going to argue that it has lost credibility because the two main characters had a critically important conversation that will set the tone for at least the rest of this season? Can you be serious with that argument? The idea that Rhaenyra could never sneak into King’s Landing — how many of the smallfolk had ever seen Rhaenyra up close? I’m going to guess very few. And shew as wearing a nun habit, only her face was visible. You really think the average denizen of King’s Landing would recognize her, dressed like that? There is a LONG literary tradition of characters sneaking into dangerous territory by deploying that very disguise. It’s a bad-faith argument (no pun intended, given the Sept of Baelor setting), and it genuinely made me question the motivations not only of publishing it, but of repeatedly re-publishing it day after day after day last week. I have one thing to say:
Moving on.
Queen Allicent
Juicy week for Allicent. Last episode she learned that she done fucked up, as she misinterpreted the words of her dying husband, directly leading to this whole bloody conflict. Would she be wracked with guilt over that revelation, or double down on the misunderstanding? Looks like the latter, as Allicent spends this episode hunting for Viserys’ classical texts to give her some clue as to what the Song of Ice and Fire is, pressure checking the Grandmaester to see if HE thought she made the right call, and ultimately dragging her son Aegon for being a completely useless king, and a whiny little shit to boot. And she did all of this while recovering from a moon-tea-induced miscarriage, which both the Grandmaester AND Larys Strong caught wind of. Not the most discreet, our Allicent. But I like this newly brutal Allicent. She’s setting politics aside and doing what she feels needs to be done. Given the end of this episode, that’s probably going to lead to even more unspeakable acts.
King Aegon
Aegon has a rough episode. He is irritated that his Small Council ignores his advice/orders, he is outwitted by his younger brother both in terms of military strategy and ability to speak Old Valyrian, and then his own mother basically tells him that he’s the worst, and should try shutting up and respecting the people who actually worked to put him on that very uncomfortable chair. And I thought my Mom was brutal...
Mind you, no lies were detected. Allicent and Aemond both have Aegon’s number, and what’s worse is, he knows it. So he makes an ill-fated decision to show everyone who’s the boss by flying into battle on his dragon Sunfyre. If Aegon is king of anything, it is poor decisions.
Daemon Targaryen/Alys Rivers
I think Daemon’s arc this season is going to polarize viewers, and I suspect much of your enjoyment will rely on your familiarity with the source text. If you’re not overly familiar with Harrenhal and its legends (the show did try to give you at least the Cliff’s Notes this episode), I suspect that Daemon’s scenes the last two episodes feel very strange and possibly pointless. But they are, in fact, critically important. Harrenhal is a legendarily cursed place in Westeros, and what we’re seeing here is Daemon essentially being forced to confront his moral and ethical failings as a prince, as a husband, as a man, while also being tormented about his own ambitions to rule — and not making them a reality. We again got a scene with young Rhaenyra, in which she berates Daemon until he beheads her; we got a scene of what appeared to be Daemon following Aemond Targaryen through the halls to a very peculiar meeting; and a later scene in which a drugged Daemon sees the vision of his deceased wife, Laena Velaryon, as a serving maid. It’s the full Ebenezer Scrooge Experience that comes included in any stay at Harrenhal; make sure to get up early for the continental breakfast.
The meeting that Daemon has with Alys Rivers should provide a little more insight into this mysterious character. She is not what she seems, even teasing Daemon that she’s a barn owl trapped in the form of a woman. She’s pretty clearly working to keep Daemon off his game, serving him a concoction meant to help him sleep, but which seemingly makes him lose time completely. If you’re feeling this plotline is pointless, I assure you, it is very much building to something. If nothing else, it underscores what an awful regent Daemon would be, especially the way he speaks to his vassals with whom he is supposed to be raising an army. And failing miserably.
Ser Criston Cole
Cole starts the episode in the Crownlands, conquering Duskendale and beheading its Rhaenerya-aligned lord, then making the seemingly odd decision to veer away from his intended target of Harrenhal, and instead focus efforts on a seemingly useless castle on the edge of the continent, Rook’s Rest. Queen Allicent’s brother, who you’ll remember has been tasked with accompanying — more likely spying — on Ser Criston, is not at all happy about the change in plans, especially when Criston decides to attack the castle in broad daylight.
But it turns out that Ser Criston knows exactly what he’s doing. Because while Aegon has been farting around, making an ass out of himself, Ser Criston and Prince Aemond have cooked up quite a trap at Rook’s Rest —- one that Rhaenyra has no choice but to investigate.
Aemond Targaryen
I commented last week that the show was doing very little with Aemond thus far in Season 2. This episode it is clear why. They were holding Aemond in reserve, so that when he did reenter the board, it would be brutal and memorable. And it was. After humiliating his older brother at the Small Council, Aemond sprung his ultimate trap: he and the colossal dragon Vhagar would be waiting for whichever of Rhaenyra’s dragons would come to the aid of Rook’s Rest. They were hidden so that they could enter the battlefield seemingly from nowhere and wreak havoc. Terrific plan — especially if Rhaenyra had followed her first instinct and gone herself. That could have ended the war right there.
But that’s not what happened….
Princess Rhaenys
Rhaenys engages Cole’s forces at Rook’s Rest, initially raining down dragonfire. Just as Ser Criston and Aemond were about to spring their trap, when in flies Ageon and Sunfyre, directly attacking Melys. There’s a skirmish, and Sunfyre gets in some licks, but Melys tears whole chunks from Aegon’s dragon, sending gushes of acidic blood raining down upon the troopers below. Melys gets the upper hand (wing?) and does heavy damage to Sunfyre, imperiling King Aegon in the process.
Ser Criston Cole is, of course, stunned and chagrined at Aegon’s unexpected arrival, and when he signals for Aemond and Vhagar to join the battle…they don’t. They deliberately wait while Melys and Rhaenys take hits on Sunfyre and Aegon. Eventually Aemond and Vhagar heed the call, and land a nasty blow on Melys while also torching Sunfyre and Aegon — but Melys also digs deep into Vhagar’s chest. The three dragons and their riders engage in fierce battle. Ultimately, Sunfyre is knocked out of the sky, and the dragon and King Aegon plummet to the ground and explode in fire.
For a moment it seemed as though Rhaenys might live to fight another day, but just as she and a wounded Melys passed over Rook’s Rest, once again Vhagar sniped the smaller dragon right out of the sky — as it had previously done in the Season 1 finale with Rhaenyra’s son Lucaerys and his dragon — and Melys died, falling from the sky with Rhaenys almost certainly dying too.
This was brutal to watch. Of course I know that, logically, this is all CGI. Dragons are not real. No person or animal was hurt. But there’s something about these dragons — and this is a testament to the showrunners and the animators — that make them feel incredibly personal. They are majestic, they’re special, they have their own personalities. We love to watch them. Which is why it’s so awful to see them die episode after episode. I find it far more upsetting when these dragons perish than I do the characters riding them. Maybe that makes me a sociopath, but it’s also like, These dragons didn’t ask for this. These are human problems, and they’re being killed off in the crossfire.
If you were deeply upset by the end of this episode, I have bad news: it’s only going to get worse. There’s only going to be more death, including of the dragons. We’re only 4 episodes into the second season, and we have already lost THREE. That’s quite a lot, given how few dragons there were to start with. But that’s the source material. The Dance of Dragons decimates the Targaryens and their mythical beasts. Nobody is safe, and this show is — clearly — not shying away from the brutality of war.
In the end, Vhagar is the only dragon in the battle left alive (but wounded!). Ser Criston Cole survives the melee and, dazed, tries to track down King Aegon from where he fell. There he finds Prince Aemond, standing over the still-steaming corpse of Sunfyre, curled around a charred human figure. At first Aemond has his sword drawn, but Ser Criston tells him to stop. Did Aegon survive? If so, how severe are his wounds? Can he possibly continue as King of the Seven Kingdoms in this state? We’ll find out next episode.
I cannot overstate how much Rhaenys’ death upset me. While she may have been a secondary character in the narrative, she’s actually so important to this story, especially as a living reminder of what could have been. While everyone is going to war over Rhaenerys’ claim to the throne, remember that — in a just, non-misogynistic world — it would have been Rhaenys on the throne this whole time. While many people considered Rhaenys cold or stoic, I always saw her as the thoughtful, reserved alternative to the family drama. She possessed the kind of measured assurance and inherent diplomacy that would make an excellent ruler. She was also, lest we forget, a badass, not only in this scene’s climactic battle scene, but also in Season 1, when she openly rebelled against the Greens (and probably regrets not barbequeing the whole lot of them then and there). In some ways, she was an essential calming force for the Blacks, quietly holding that whole faction together. Now that she’s gone, will Corlys continue to stand by Rhaenerys? Will her granddaughters openly rebel? Will the Dragonstone Small Council fully revolt?
I’ll conclude by saying that I think Eve Best did excellent work in a role that is not flashy, bringing humanity and an inherent humility to a woman who SHOULD have been queen, watching a bunch of idiots scrabble over HER throne. All because she made the terrible mistake of being born a woman. People suck.