RECAP: “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 5
After last week’s traumatizing battle at Rook’s Rest, “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 5 downshifted, allowing the characters (and viewers) to appreciate the gravity of the losses, and how both the playing field has shifted for both the Greens and the Blacks. Suffice it to say, no party is in a good place (sound familiar to anyone else?). While the Greens are seemingly doubling down on bad decisions, the Blacks are being pushed to desperation. And in the middle we have a third party in Daemon, who has gone completely rogue in Harrenhal.
It wasn’t the most gripping episode of the series, but it was a necessary one. I thought several of the scenes — particularly the ones with Rhaenyra and Jacaerys, Daemon and the River Lords, and Allicent and the Small Council — were quite effective, although others underscored where this show has failed to properly establish tertiary characters, and in some cases, cast less-than-compelling actors.
Below find my thoughts on the various plotlines, organized by LEAST engaging to MOST this time. SPOILERS AHOY.
RELATED CONTENT
Best “Game of Thrones” Character
The Smallfolk of King’s Landing
The episode begins with Ser Criston Cole parading the severed, still-smoldering head of Meleys the “traitor dragon” through the streets of King’s Landing. Cole is stunned by the crowd’s less-than-enthusiastic response to their recent victory at Rook’s Rest. But for the general population, which has been taught to revere dragons as invincible, eternal symbols of power, this is a real mindfuck. Additionally, it all feels in poor taste — not the first time we’ve seen that from the Greens. This isn’t even the first corpse parade we’ve gotten this season!
Beyond that, the townspeople of King’s Landing are in crisis. Food is scarce. Lawlessness is on the rise. And after episodes of establishing how desperate things were getting, this episode hoards attempt to flee the city in hopes of finding some kind of safety elsewhere in the realm. Except, oops! The gates have barred, and the Greens Small Council has decreed that nobody leaves the city unless given official dispensation. This is an awful idea — the population of King’s Landing is now essentially being held hostage by its ruling class — and it will sure not end well.
Our central POV for all of this is a character whose name I still don’t know. He isn’t even listed on the character guide on the official website! I believe he was the steelworker who petitioned King Aegon early in the season. Is it the same guy claiming to be a Targaryen bastard in the pub a few episodes ago? I genuinely do not know this guy is, I just know that he’s daddy AF, he has a sick kid who literally just coughs and sleeps, and an increasingly irritated wife. I understand the storytelling concept of personifying the plight of the smallfolk through one specific character, but maybe give us a more dynamic character/actor, or at least make sure we know his NAME?
Rhaena Targaryen/Lady Jeyne Arryn
We catch up with Rhaena, now in the Eyrie, where she was sent to protect Rhaenyra’s youngest children, and also to safeguard two baby dragons. Just as in “Game of Thrones,” we discover that the ward of the Eyrie is, surprise, an asshole. Lady Jeyne is annoyed that the dragon she requested from protection from Rhaenyra is barely the size of a cat, and is unimpressed when Rhaena points out that she at least has not one dragon, but two. Lady Jeyne is thoroughly dismissive of Rhaena, although to be fair, Rhaena is the most irritating/useless member of Rhaenyra’s crew. Bottom line, this supposed safe haven feels anything but.
Corlys Valeryon/Baela Targaryen
Corlys is, understandably, distraught over the death of his wife, absolute badass Rhaenys Targaryen, in last week’s climactic battle. He spends this entire episode moping, sitting in chairs, looking at the sea, and crying. Relatable? Sure. Compelling television. Not really. Thankfully his granddaughter, Baela, brings a pulse to the proceedings when she approaches him with an offer from Queen Rhaenerya: become her new Hand. Corlys is initially offended that Rhaenyra would ask yet more from him and his family — in fairness, the Valeryons have lost so much on this show, between the faked death of gay sons, the actual death of pregnant daughters, and Rhaenys. But as Baela points out to Corlys, he can either sail away to the far ends of the earth in self pity — which he has already done once, and it ended poorly — or he can do what he can to see through Rhaenyra’s claim. Because the Greens sure ain’t going to give him a better deal. While we aren’t given an explicit answer by the end of the episode, it’s implied that Corlys accepts the job offer. He also offers Baela the position as his heir, but she declines saying she is “fire and blood” and the heir of Driftmark must be “salt and sea.” I hope this show keeps giving Baela more to do, because she was great this episode and is quickly emerging as one of my favorite characters. Bethany Antonia is doing a great job.
Mysaria
Mysaria continues to be a fascinating character, even if she specifically isn’t doing much. She’s become a trusted advisor for Rhaenyra — which she desperately needs, given how little the Dragonstone Small Council listens to her — and she provides good council. “There is more than one way to fight a war” — wise words. Even on Dragonstone, Mysaria seems remarkably well connected to the goings-on in King’s Landing, and on Rhaenyra’s behest she dispatches a proxy to infiltrate the city. We don’t know exactly what the plan is here, but you can bet it has something to do with catalyzing the general displeasure of the citizenry.
Jacaerys Targaryen
I actually very much enjoyed these scenes. In stark contrast to the style of his idiot cousins (and uncle/stepfather), Jacaerys is waging this war via diplomacy. Smart boy. Frustrated at being sidelined from the action because he’s Rhaenyra’s heir, Jace flees Dragonstone in secret and meets with the Freys, rulers of the Twins, the main crossing in the Riverlands. The young prince and the very old Freys play “Let’s Make a Deal,” with the ultimate offer being that the Stark army Jace has already secured from the North can save a great deal of time crossing the Twins with the Freys’ blessing, and in return the Freys are named the new lords of Harrenhal. Oh, and they must pledge fealty to Rhaenyra and the Blacks. It’s interesting that Jace specifically mentions later that he “assumes” the Freys expected Harrenhal after the end of the war. But House Stark, and the viewers of “Game of Thrones,” are keenly aware that you can never trust the Freys to act in good faith. So that’s worrying.
Queen Allicent/Ser Criston Cole/King Aegon/Prince Aemond
We learned the fate of King Aegon after last week’s disastrous dragonfight above Rook’s Rest: he is alive, but badly burned, with numerous broken bones, and stuck in a coma. The maesters are unsure if he’ll ever wake up (spoiler, he does at the end of the episode, but nobody seems to notice). Allicent’s reaction to this is interesting. I wouldn’t call her distraught, but she is clearly deeply concerned about her son. But is it regarding his health, or the reality that she pushed the entire realm into war at his behest. And if he dies, what will become of their claim then? Allicent also demonstrates her intelligence, realizing that Aemond must have had something to do with the battle. When questioning Ser Criston, he gives her nooch. If you think you have poor communication with your partner, just be grateful you’re not Allicent and Criston. The literal opposite of Relationship Goals.
At Small Council, the obvious is stated: a king cannot rule in a coma. Allicent calls for a regent to be named, to act in Aegon’s stead. She seems to think it’ll be her, given that she held the position during Viserys’ later, ailing years. But…
…misogyny wins again, as the majority of the men on the Council refuse to give control to a woman, especially during wartime. After all, how can they possibly contest Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne, and put forward a woman of their own? (In fairness, that’s a good argument.) And instead, Prince Aemond is named regent, and given control of the kingdom.
This is, of course, a terrible fucking idea. There’s a great shot where the camera slowly moves in on Allicent as she silently reacts to the men making terrible decisions with her sitting right there, the audio getting quieter and quieter as the look on her face makes it clear how minimized Allicent feels.
Later Allicent presses Ser Criston about why he voted against her at the Council, and more importantly, what he thinks he’s doing putting a psychopath like Aemond on the Throne. Criston is cold as ice, even going so far as to refer to her as Allicent; she reminds him that she never gave him permission to refer to her by name. Seriously, these two are one of the most toxic relationships I’ve seen on TV in a LONG time. I’m Chrissy Tiegen gif-ing every scene they share together.
Finally, as Aemond stares menacingly at the Iron Throne, he is approached by his sister — and Aegon’s wife — Helaena, who asks him if it was worth it. Aemond doesn’t respond, but I have to guess his answer is, “Yes.” Aemond is a sociopath on his best days, and he has ample reason to hate his idiot brother’s guts. I can’t imagine he regrets his role in Aegon’s precarious situation, even a little. This scene does further stress that Helaena has some kind of psychic ability (how else would she know Aemond was involved, as they’re trying to keep his role at Rook’s Rest a secret). And what’s worse for Helaena is, Aemond knows this. And she has at least one more Aegon heir left. Just as Whoopi Goldberg would say in Ghost, from one psychic character to another: Helaena, you in danger, girl.
Queen Rhaenyra
Most of Rhaenyra’s episode felt familiar. More drama with her disrespectful Small Council. More guilt over people dying in her name. More frustration at being kept off the battlefield. But she did have two important sequences. First, she sent her chief annoyance on the Small Council, Lord Alfred Broome, to Harrenhal. Broome wisely asks if this Rhaenyra sending him to exile, which isn’t not NOT true. But bottom line, she needs some to treat with Daemon on her behalf, and being an old white man, he’s the best she’s got. She also shares her concerns that Daemon is no longer acting on her behalf, but is raising an army to put forward his own claim to the Throne. This is both a shocking concept to Broome, but also 100 percent true.
Late in the episode, Rhaenyra has a good exchange with Jacaerys, where she compliments him on his “secret” diplomatic mission to The Twins — which she obviously knew about — and openly worries that, with the death of Rhaenys and Meleys, she is out-dragon’d and out-rider’d, especially with the thoroughly aggressive Aemond now calling the shots in King’s Landing. It’s a fair point. As of right now, the Greens have Aemond and Vhagar — who is so monstrous he arguably counts as two dragons — and Helaena and her dragon, Dreamfyre (although I don’t believe we’ve yet seen that dragon). The Blacks have Rhaenyra and Syrax, although neither can be risked in the field; Jacaerys and Vermax, who are also too high value to be out in the field; Baela and Moondancer, who are swift but would be easy prey for Vhagar. Daemon and Caraxes are essentially on their own at this point, and can’t be counted on to protect Rhaenyra or Dragonstone.
But Jace points out that they DO have more dragons, standing right underneath them at Dragonstone. Rhaenyra acknowledges that Vermithor — a massive dragon formerly ridden by King Jaehaerys (Rhaenyra’s great-grandfather), and who Daemon tried and failed to mount in Season 1, and Silverwing, a dragon formerly ridden by Queen Alysanne (Rhaenyra’s great-grandmother) — both reside on Dragonstone. Additionally, Seasmoke remains riderless after the “death” of Laenor Velaryon in Season 1; Tyraxes is mentioned by Daemon in Season (but I don’t think he was ever seen on the show); and there are three additional feral, never-tamed dragons that are referenced in the source material, but who have not been seen or mentioned on the show. So while we have had three horrible dragon deaths in the past six episodes of this show (Arrax in the S1 finale, Sunfyre and Meleys last episode), there are still a handful of “unclaimed” dragons known to Westeros.
So Jace puts forward a proposition: over the generations, many Targaryens have been married off to other major houses. While they lost the Targaryen name, Valyrian blood still runs through their veins. And Rhaenyra realizes that at Dragonstone, they would surely have access to comprehensive Targaryen family trees. But will dragons accept riders so removed from the Targaryen dynasty? It’s a dangerous proposition. But given that two of Rhaenyra’s own sons are not full Targaryen (despite their last names, Jace and the late Lucaerys were very obviously the children of Ser Harwin Strong), and they both successfully bonded with dragons, is it worth a chance? Tune in next week as we play Who Wants to Be a Dragon Rider!
Daemon Targaryen/Alys Rivers
As exciting as I find the Rhaenyra cliffhanger, this episode was overwhelmingly a Daemon Targaryen joint. Daemon continues starring in The Haunting of Harrenhal, as he is visited not only by the ghost of his late wife, Laena Velaryon, but also — I believe — his dead sister-in-law, Aemma Arryn, who fucks Daemon while telling him how much he deserved the throne over his brother. So, yeah, Daemon is a mess.
Things are no better for Daemon in the real world. This Bracken/Blackwood spat is not going at all well, as his condition for getting the Blackwoods’ support for his army is contingent on destroying their ancient rivals, House Bracken. But after Daemon threatens the head of House Bracken with destruction lest they bend the knee, Bracken more or less tells Daemon to go fuck himself — which impresses Daemon. He decides why have half an army made up of stubborn assholes, when he can get a WHOLE army of stubborn assholes, and so he gives the Blackwoods his cover approval to “do what needs to be done” to bring the Brackens to heel, but to do so discreetly. “There are some things the crown cannot be seen doing.”
What might those things be? How about kidnapping women and children? Burning fields? Stealing livestock? And other rampant horrible behaviors! And doing so while branding Queen Rhaenyra’s flag. Oh, DAEMON. This leads to the lords of the Riverlands visiting Daemon at Harrenhal in the dead of night, telling him that they know that he’s behind the Blackwood rampage, they further know he’s the one who ordered the hit on Aegon’s child son, and that the gods watch the Riverlands — and Daemon is fucked.
It all underscores how woefully ill equipped Daemon is at leading (as is his younger reflection, Aemond). None of this is escaping the notice of Ser Symon Strong, with whom Daemon is now explicitly sharing his plans to assume the Iron Throne himself, nor Alys Rivers, the witch who is making clear that she has Daemon’s number, and who spells out for him how his actions are sowing only seeds of destruction.
Daemon is completely lost. He hasn’t hit rock bottom yet, but he’s getting perilously close. His attempts to raise an army have only turned the Riverland intensely against the Blacks, and his own machinations for the crown are no longer a secret. Rhaenyra has a messenger on the way, and Aemond One-Eye has his gaze fixed on Harrenhal. Alys warned Daemon explicitly when he arrived at Harrenhal that he would die in that cursed place, and the walls surely seem to be closing in…