[Editor’s Note: The following post contains spoilers for “House of the Dragon” Season 2, up to and including Episode 5.]
In the wise words of a real-world queen, children are our future. In “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 5, written by Ti Mikkel and directed by Claire Kilner, the fate of the Targaryen family’s war and the future of the seven kingdoms rests more than ever on the next generation of dragon-riding family, fresh off the loss of one of the last old guard relatives, Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best).
Episode 205 focuses on Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) survival, Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) betrayal, Jacaerys’ (Harry Collett) initiative, Baela’s (Bethany Antonia) compassion, Rhaena’s (Phoebe Campbell) diplomacy, and Helaena’s (Phia Saban) perception. While their parents (/cousins) deal in doubt and strategy, the realm’s heirs respond to a war that they never chose to enter.
The episode opens fittingly on Corlys (Steve Toussaint), walking numbly toward his throne at Driftmark, a tear soon rolling down his face. He and Rhaenys’ were the show’s strongest couple and most upstanding characters; fierce friends and allies, madly in love (despite recent revelations about Corlys’ fidelity), and unwaveringly loyal to Rhaenyra (though he has his doubts later on). There’s nowhere and no one more apt to pick up the story after Rhaenys died in battle in Episode 4 — if anything, the cutaway to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) undermines this opening a bit because their relationship, while special, was very different; it would have made more sense to then include quick snippets of Baela (Bethany Antonia) and Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) before the longer scenes that follow with the whole family still processing.
In King’s Landing, the head of Rhaenys’ “traitor dragon Meleys” is paraded through the streets in Aegon’s name, a decision which rankles the small folk as it did viewers when the scene first popped up in previews last week. Dragons are the symbol of House Targaryen, green or black; they are what makes the family close to gods and ostensibly invincible against other Westerosi contenders for the throne. If Meleys can be struck down, so too can the rest of Rhaenyra’s dragons — and Aegon’s as well. Not everyone has thought this far ahead, but Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) dubs it a mistake, calling the dragon head “an ill omen” in the people’s eyes.
Meanwhile, the alleged victor of Rook’s Rest is carried home practically in a coffin. George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” says that Aegon’s burns covered half his body, and that dragon fire melted his armor to his skin — all of which are realized pretty much exactly in this episode (broken ribs and hip become a broken leg, which gets a nasty closeup). He’s barely awake and the maesters don’t know if he’ll ever regain consciousness, but he gains just enough toward episode’s end to rattle out one word: “Mummy.”
“House of the Dragon” has done a lot this season to humanize Aegon, who was first depicted in Season 1 as nightmarishly entitled and a rapist to boot. Season 2 Aegon is a goofy little communist, viewed by his family and advisors as an incompetent ruler. It’s a stark character pivot even if it does work, especially in distinguishing him from Aemond (and Jack Gleeson’s Joffrey in “Game of Thrones”) and engendering empathy in viewers — or in this case, pity. After mother Alicent (Olivia Cooke) scoffed at Aegon for feeling like a figurehead in Episode 204, she leaves his side just before he breathes his first word in days — a desperate attempt to elicit her love and attention when he has already lost so much of it.
Will Aemond beat the fratricide allegations? Does he even care to? It’s an open secret in the Red Keep that he covets his brother’s throne, like Daemon (Matt Smith) before him. But for all his flaws, Daemon never tried to kill Viserys (Paddy Considine). Alicent and Cole (Fabien Frankel) share the unspoken understanding that she voiced to Rhaenyra in Episode 203: “You know what Aemond is.” Cole witnessed a point of no return when Aemond commanded his dragon to burn Aegon, and now it’s Alicent’s turn to relinquish the notion that this is the child she once had any control over. Even Helaena knows it! She appears to possess no sisterly warmth for the wannabe kinslayer, asking him dispassionately if it was worth it — while he gazes hungrily at the throne. (His answer is probably “yes.”)
Here again we see the contrast between the old guard and the new. Daemon and Rhaenyra at different points in this episode nudge their associates to do what they cannot, maintaining a thin facade of royal decorum. Meanwhile, Aemond attacked his brother in full view of thousands (many of whom are dead, thanks to Vhagar), and Jace marches off to parlay with House Frey while he thinks his mother wastes time. After the small council votes him almost unanimously into power, Aemond is given the keys to the kingdom and none of the greens can check his power while Aegon remains incapacitated.
Being disrespected by the council is yet another humbling moment for Alicent, and probably one in which she thinks about Rhaenyra, who experiences the same at Dragonstone. Patriarchal precedent continues to keep these two from any chance of brokering peace, as they acknowledged themselves in Episode 3. The war that was private to the two of them has been given over to sons and councils and dragons, and there’s no going back now.
I do not know why exactly Rhaenyra is now doing private therapy with her husband’s ex Mysaria, but no complaints for getting D’Arcy and Mizuno sharing more scenes together. If I were on Rhaenyra’s council I might advise against sharing secrets as vulnerable as the ones she divulges to Mysaria — specifically the part where she admits that Daemon is among the men who underestimates her because she was raised for court, not for battle. “I do not know my part, Mysaria,” she admits.
The less said of Daemon the better, as he trounces about the riverlands demanding people bend the knee to him, ordering Simon Strong to call him King, renovating Harrenhal, and having sex dreams about his dead mother. This is the third installment in the Haunting of Harrenhal™, with no end in sight, and as hilarious as it is, I doubt that’s the intention, and it’s killing momentum for what was previously of the show’s most unpredictable and exciting characters. He does however have his own therapy session with Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), telling her explicitly that even Rhaenyra’s followers “look to a man for strength,” and that he intends to take King’s Landing with or without her blessing, and she can join him if she wishes. She suspects as much, and sends an envoy to entreat with him.
It’s great to see more of Baela and Rhaena specifically this week, and to juxtapose their disparate positions in the war. Baela is surrounded by family, a respected dragon rider, supported by her betrothed and already acting like the queen she is expected to one day be at Jace’s side. Rhaena still smarts from being sent to the Vale, but conducts herself as a representative of Queen Rhaenyra, her personal grievances withheld in service of the crown. We get three great Baela scenes this episode, not particularly dynamic, but showcasing Antonia with a range of costars. First there’s the above with Jacaerys; then sharing her grief with Rhaenyra, then with Corlys. She evokes Rhaenys’ command in the final one, to the point that a stunned Corlys declares her his heir by the end of the scene. But Baela Targaryen is fire and blood, she says, and Driftmark must pass to salt and sea.
And yet for fire and blood to thrive, the former needs sowing. Episode 205 reeks of requisite yet plain table-setting after last week’s major battle sequence, but the final scene — courtesy of Jace, reinforcing the might of young Targaryen blood — sets up an intriguing diversion. There are dragons aplenty, but dragon riders few. Generations of Targaryen kings have sown their wild oats in the kingdom, which means that the blood of the Dragon, while not as thick as Aegon the Conqueror might have liked, runs further than just the families warring for the Iron Throne. There are more Targaryens out there, if not in name, and their dragons await.
Whispers on the Street
- Sorry, but I think it’s hilarious how much Alicent and Cole hate each other.
- I also find it very sad that he’s the only person she feels she can remotely confide in!
- When Mysaria said “Criston Cole made a mistake,” girl, you will have to be more specific.
- Let the small folk leave King’s Landing! No one should have to live there.
- THE DOG LIVES
Grade: C
“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streams via Max.
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