RECAP: “House of the Dragon” Season 2 FINALE
There were any number of ways that I could have seen the “House of the Dragon” Season 2 finale going. Numerous plotlines had been building to a fever pitch over the course of the season. But the one option I didn’t have on my “HOTD” Finale Bingo Card? Absolutely nothing happens.
And yet, that’s basically what we got from “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 8, “The Queen Who Ever Was.” A lot of conversations about things that HAVE happened or MAY happen, and very little from events actually HAPPENING. If this was the penultimate episode for the season, that would be fine. Lots of players being moved around the board, or fortified in their places. In fact, for a little while there, I was certain that I had it wrong, that there had to be another episode after this one. Because there was simply no way this could be the end of the season.
But it was. This was the note the showrunners decided to leave the viewers on. No climactic battles. No stunning reversals of fortune. No incredible speeches to captivate characters or the viewers alike. Just a lot of people reflecting on their actions, and others continuing to gear up for war.
I suspect the showrunners were trying to make the point that war is the slow, agonizing result of a small number of people making a great number of terrible decisions, often for terrible reasons. And while those people make their plans, the smallfolk can do nothing but wait in a kind of half-life, knowing that they’re already likely dead. Thematically that is potent stuff. As a TV show? It doesn’t work. This show is, first and foremost, an entertainment venture, and this episode was not entertaining.
The season overall has been a very rough ride (more on that later), but this episode in particular was a colossal disappointment. And I don’t think the show has built up enough good will to leave its audience with a flaccid stopping point like this, so early in its run. If we can’t count on you to dunk on a season finale, on what exactly can we expect you to deliver?
Below find my thoughts on the various plotlines, organized by MOST important to the LEAST. SPOILERS AHOY. Although…what was there to spoil?
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Queen Rhaenyra & Queen Allicent
The central conflict of the show was, appropriately, at the core of this episode. If Season 1 established the Targaryen dynasty, and especially the relationship between Rhaenyra and Allicent, Season 2 is ultimately about establishing each of these women as independent figures trying to navigate a conflict in their names (or their children’s names), but which neither really wants. Allicent had the most dramatic arc, as she discovered that 1) she completely fucked up, misinterpreting King Viserys’ final words and inadvertently setting Westeros on a path to civil war, and 2) her sons are universally awful, and the men around her are almost to a one misogynistic buffoons. Last episode we saw Allicent walking herself through nature, unclear as to what was going on in her head. This episode we got the memo: Allicent wants out. She wants to take daughter Helaena and her surviving grandchild and walk away from all of it, to live simple, peaceful lives.
This information comes from a scene that will undoubtedly polarize viewers. Early in the season, Rhaenyra disguised herself as a nun to sneak into King’s Landing and secretly meet Allicent in the Sept of Baelor. Some viewers and critics thought it was ludicrous that such a gambit would even be attempted, much less that it would go off without a hitch. I defended that one, and argued that the conversation was crucial to the plot as a whole. I can’t defend this one. It was pushing the boundaries of credulity that Allicent’s Kingsguard would let her frolic alone in the woods last episode, given that assassins had already infiltrated their stronghold more than once. This episode, her Kingsguard AND her Maester are both in on her leaving the safety of King’s Landing, traveling across a body of water to an enemy stronghold, and just hoping that someone would allow her to meet with her chief rival, and not kill her on the spot? Preposterous.
And also, I think, unnecessary. While it was important for Allicent to pitch Rhaenyra on her plan — once Aemond takes Vhagar to Harrenhal in three days’ time, Rhaenyra can fly in to an undefended King’s Landing and claim it as her own — there were other, less ridiculous ways for her to relay that message. A raven, for one. Using the White Worm’s spy network, for two. Hidden fucking messages. Smoke Signals. Singing Telegram. An Edible Arrangement. The list goes on. For her to do it herself? Bonkers. I think the writers saw how well that initial meeting in the Sept worked, and hoped to recapture that magic. They failed. While Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy did as much as they could with the material, the script wasn’t tight and the scene went on too long. It lacked the urgency of the earlier meeting, as well as its impact.
It did give us a powerful moment, however, as Rhaenyra made it clear that if she were to go through with Allicent’s plan, it would require actual sacrifice on Allicent’s part: Aegon would HAVE to die, publicly, so that Rhaenyra’s rule could be uncontested. (Presumably Aemond would also have to be executed, but I don’t think anyone has an issue with that.) Allicent struggled but ultimately agreed. That’s interesting, and it shows real growth for Allicent. She now sees her son clearly. She knows his faults. She knows SHE screwed up spectacularly. And in order to make things right, she understands that there is a price to pay, and that is her sons. Allicent exits this season humbled, but also committed to trying to avert war for the entire realm, even if it costs her dearly. It’s a kind of redemption arc I did not see coming. I’m curious where the show takes her, as it’s pretty clear this whole plan of hers isn’t going to work out.
As for Rhaenyra, I think she has had a less-successful season. I had hoped the prior conversation in the Sept of Baelor would have steeled her resolve, but even this episode we continue with more of Rhaenyra’s Inner Conflict, which has gotten VERY old. I get that the show needs us to understand that she’s a good person who doesn’t want to see her people destroyed over, essentially, a family squabble. But we have established this many, many times by now. The plane has landed. We have to move on.
Prince Daemon Targaryen
Speaking of storylines that needed to move along, the Haunting of Daemon Targaryen finally (I hope) comes to an end this episode, as Alys Rivers summons Daemon to the Harrenhal Godswood in the middle of the night and beckons him to touch the weirwood tree. First, were my eyes playing tricks on me, or was there a creature visible at the beginning of that scene, who disappeared behind the tree? Second, Alys basically tells Daemon that now that Harrenhal and its curse have broken him (“when you came here you were a closed fist”), he can truly understand what destiny has in store for him. This is essentially what Tyra Banks did to all the contestants on “America’s Next Top Model.”
Daemon touches the weirwood sap and starts tripping balls, seeing a variety of images. We see Daemon drowning. We see dragons stomping across blood-strewn bodies. We see the Three-Eyed Raven both in bird and human form. We see the Night King. And ultimately, we see Rhaenyra, seated on the Iron Throne.
Prior to Daemon’s tree adventures, Ser Alfred Broome arrived at Harrenhal, sent by Rhaenyra episodes ago to ascertain whether Daemon was marshalling an army in HER name, or for his own. But Ser Alfred is exactly that girl we knew he was, quickly telling Daemon that he’s dipping out on Rhaenyra and is now Team Daemon, because “we need a King.” Daemon called him out for being a turncloak, but also took him into his service. None of this went unnoticed by Ser Simon Strong, who quietly sent a raven to Rhaenyra to basically tell her that the jig is up, and she needs to get to Harrenhal FAST.
And she does, flying along with Addam and Seasmoke (interesting that she’s already so trusting of Addam), prepared to encounter a full-scale mutiny. The subsequent scene was a bit confusing. Minutes went by with Rhaenyra standing in silence as Daemon’s Riverland forces just stared at her in their tent village. I presume the point was to show that Rhaenyra was not sure what she would find, and regardless, these men did not show her the deference one would expect when in the presence of their queen. Ultimately Daemon approached, and after a quick convo in High Valyrian in which he obliquely referenced the visions from the weirwood, he knelt and pledged himself and his men to Rhaenyra. Ser Alfred Broome looked on, knowing he had fully shit the bed. Girl, you know Daemon is going to blow up your spot!
All of this to say, the point of Daemon’s time in Harrenhal was to basically bring him to heel, and fully accept Rhaenyra as not only his queen, but as the leader Westeros is destined to have. He is also, whether he understands it or not, now aware of the Song of Ice & Fire prophecy that Aegon the Conqueror had passed down through his line, including Viserys to Rhaenyra. Through Deamon, Rhaenyra also now has a land army. So that’s all good and well — but it took us literally seven episodes to get there. Seven. I would argue that was three episodes too long for this plotline, which ran out of narrative juice at least two episodes ago. One of the biggest faults of this show is understanding how to pace individual plotlines, and they did not do right by Daemon (or Matt Smith) this season, at all.
Prince Aemond & Queen Helaena
Aemond reacts very poorly to the news that Rhaenyra has basically doubled her number of dragons in play, and takes out his frustrtions by scorching the Sharp Tooth, a town pledged to Team Black. This was all done off-camera, presumably because the show blew the special effects budget last episode with the Vermithor Barbecue Showdown. It was quite confusing to jump into this situation in media res this episode.
In addition to wantonly killing more of his subjects, Aemond continues to make everyone hate him by trying to force his sister, Helaena, into mounting her dragon Dreamfyre, so they can go attack Daemon at Harrenhal. Dreamfyre is a very old, very powerful dragon. But Helaena is not a warrior. She has no interest in fighting or killing anyone — much like shingles, Aemond doesn’t care. He tries to berate her into his plan, until Allicent intervenes; later he tries to manipulate Helaena emotionally into going to war, when she reveals that she knows that Aemond deliberately scorched Aegon in the battle of Rook’s Rest, and then watched him fall out of the sky, hoping he would die. (She doesn’t seem to be aware that Aemond was literally about to murder her brother-husband moments before Ser Criston Cole interceded.) Aemond threatened to put Helaena to death for “treasonous lies” (read: the absolute truth), but Helaena essentially said she’d like to see him try.
Helaena is one of my favorite characters, and I hope we get to see more of her in Season 3. This episode again highlighted that she has some form of future sight or mental gifts, as it was pretty clear she was actively interacting with Daemon at the end of his Harrenhal tree vision. She’s fascinating, and one of the only non-awful characters left. Justice for Helaena!
The New Dragonriders
Picking up from last week’s quasi-cliffhanger, Team Black now has a full compliment of dragonriders, with Targaryen bastards Hugh the Hammer now riding Vermithor and innkeeper Ulf on Silverwing, in addition to Seasmoke’s hand-selected rider, Velaryon bastard Addam of Hull. Things are not going great. Prince Jaecerys is furious that his mother has given illegitimate Targaryens they barely know access to, essentially, fantasy world WMDs.
And he may have a point. While Hugh and Addam are taking their duties and new positions seriously, Ulf is the absolute worst. He is a boor. He is a drunk. He is mouthy and lazy and astonishingly disrespectful. Rhaenyra tries to rein him in as gently as she can, but it’s pretty obvious this is not going to go well. Ulf is like a bad intern — three times more work cleaning up after them as it would be if they weren’t there at all.
In a related plot, Rhaena continues to try to track down the giant wild dragon she has discovered is hunting in the Eyrie. I was absolutely certain we would get Rhaena taming — or at least attempting to tame — the dragon in this season finale. In fact, I’m almost positive we saw clips of it in the teasers for not only this episode, but for the season overall. Instead, all we got was scene after scene of Rhaena running through the countryside, covered in dirt, silently searching. Rhanea runs! Rhanea sleeps next to a rock. Rhaena slurps water by a stream! Who thought this was a compelling way to spend our time? Finally, Rhaena encounters the dragon mid-sheep snack. She gasps at it as it screams at her. The end.
King Aegon/Ser Larys Strong
The good news is, this is probably the first week I have found Ser Larys to be a compelling presence. The bad news is that his plan was basically, “Dude, we need to GO,” trying to spirit the badly wounded Aegon out of King’s Landing, before an increasingly irate Aemond decided to focus his ire on his brother and fully claim the throne. Aegon initially rejects the plan — Larys wants to sneak the two of them over to Essos, as he’s moved most of the Strong family finances to the Iron Bank of Braavos, so look for him in the next installment of the Panama Papers — because basically, Aegon feels his life is already over, his body is wrecked, the crown has been stolen from him, and also, he has no penis. Seriously, this is stressed multiple times. Larys is giving Aegon the pep talk of the episode, and Aegon is like, “Naw man, my dick exploded like an over-microwaved hot dog; y’all go without me.” I think it was supposed to be comedic, but it was also VERY odd.
Ultimately Larys got his way, and he and Aegon are last seen exiting King’s Landing in a livestock wagon. That’s going to complicate things if/when Rhaenyra decides to follow Allicent’s plan, and finds the usurper king nowhere to be found…
Ser Tyland Lannister
In probably the most batshit plot of the episode, Tyland Lannister parlayed with the Triarchy — basically the pirate tribes of Essos — to try to get their help in smashing through House Black’s blockade of the bay around King’s Landing. The Triarchy put the screws to Tyland, making outrageous demands including but not limited to ownership of the Stepstones, the long-disputed chain of islands between Essos and Westeros. Ultimately Tyland agreed.
But then things took a turn for the bizarre, when the Triarchy pulled a Columbo and said, “…but just one more thing” — this deal is only valid if their pirate admiral, Sharako Lohar, agrees to sail with Tyland. I do not know WHAT to make of Lohar, to be honest. They’re a gender fluid, chaotic ball of energy, who demands that Tyland best them in mud wrestling, then serenade them with a song, and then asks Tyland to impregnate their wives.
I’ve mentioned that an issue with “House of the Dragon” is that there are no comic-relief characters to balance out the very heavy scenes we get over and over again; “Game of Thrones” had a few of these, from early-season Tyrion to Bronn to Tormund Giantsbane, etc. I suspect that Lohar is supposed to be our comic relief, but 1) tonally it is SUCH a shift from everything else going on in this show that feels out of place and forced; and 2) this was not the episode to introduce this nonsense. We spent a great deal of time with this plotline this episode, and yet we didn’t get any resolution to key plotlines we have focused on all season? This is not going to go over well with this fandom, at all. The whole thing reeks of a forced hand, and I expect the blowback to be brutal.
Ser Criston Cole & Ser Gwayne Hightower
In another scene we seemed to join already in progress, out in the Crownlands, Ser Gwayne confronted Ser Criston over the fact that Ser Criston has obviously been sleeping with his sister, Queen Allicent. I guess the tip-off being that Ser Criston kept staring at Allicent’s favor, given to him right before they left on their mission. And…OK? Like, I get that Kingsguard members are technically not supposed to be having sex, especially with the dowager queen. But this seemed absurd to me, the whole fight. Gwayne literally had a sword to the man’s head because he was having sex with his sister, who is a widow? Your ruling family is basically a Who’s Who of Westerosi incels and sibling-fuckers, and this is what is freaking you out? Wild.
Criston barely flinched, and instead went off into a thoroughly depressing speech about how he loves Gwayne’s sister, owes her his life, but it’s all irrelevant because all of them are about to die anyway. Comforting. I know we’re not supposed to like Ser Criston. He’s aggro, he’s violent, he’s a misogynist. But are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Because at this point, he’s now crossed into pathetic territory. And I don’t think that’s the intention.
Alyn of Hull & Corlys Velaryon
It’s only fitting that we conclude our recap of Season 2 with the least essential character of the season: Alyn of Hull, who has been — again — forced on us for almost the entire season, with very little reason. This episode we actually got SOMETHING out of Alyn, as he called out his unacknowledged father, Corlys, for forcing his way back into his life after decades of ignoring him, but only after every one of his legitimate kids died.
I’m glad we finally got SOME emotion out of Alyn, who has been stoic to the point of absurdity this entire season; I guess that was a deliberate acting choice on the part of Abubakar Salim, but I would argue it did nothing to endear the character or actor to us. While I’m glad we finally had the subtext of their situation made actual text, I’m still not sure why I should give a single fuck about this dynamic. Corlys is at best a third-tier character, and Alyn barely a character at all. Addam is now a player in this drama, but Alyn remains the ultimate Who Cares? character of this show, and I still don’t see any path forward to changing that.
Overall, I think this season was a mess. There were some bright spots — Episode 4, featuring the Battle of Rook’s Rest was outstanding; I think there was some good work done with Allicent; the new dragonriders subplot took forever to get going but climaxed wonderfully in Episode 7 — but not nearly enough to outweigh the bad. The season was incredibly dark and maudlin, which I guess we should have seen coming given that Episode 1 ended with a literal beheading of a CHILD. I understand that this is a story about the realities of war, even in a setting that is unrealistic. I’m all for the showrunners exploring those themes in a way that resonates with viewers in a meaningful way. But the pacing has to improve. The dialogue has to be sharper. The motivations of the characters have to become more apparent and less obtuse. Time needs to be better allocated to characters and storylines that are actually compelling, and away from characters and plotlines that are not working or have seemingly little to no bearing on the overarching story.
I genuinely worry that the showrunners did this series a massive disservice with this finale. I cannot be the only viewer wondering why I invested the past 8 Sundays in a show where the last impression I have for probably a year or more is going to be, “Well a bunch of people are going to fight at some point, but I have no idea when.” The stakes may be high, but the urgency sure is not. If anything, this season finale telegraphed that the showrunners don’t think they have enough material to sustain this show for more than another season or two. That’s worrisome.
Showrunner Ryan Condal has promised that Season 3 will be “all-out war.” Why are you promising me things happening years in the future instead of delivering a compelling product now? A lot of work needs to be done for Season 3, and I’m not sure how many more chances this franchise is going to get before people stop caring. One of the recurring themes of this season is that tomorrow is promised to no one. That goes for this show, too. The material is there for a terrific series. I thought Season 1 was very promising. I was glad that viewers seemed to forgive the bitter taste of the “Game of Thrones” series finale and return to Westeros. But I am deeply concerned about the future of this series after this finale. For “A Song of Ice & Fire,” I need a LOT more heat from a season ender…
What did you think? Were you satisfied by the finale? Drop your thoughts in the comments.