Dear sweet baby Dracarys, they’ve done it again. Another episode of House of the Dragon has laboured to move pieces into place and establish character dynamics and deliver some beautifully written dialogue and failed utterly to deliver the hoped-for action alongside it. In terms of story and drama, this eighth episode was a triumph – or would have been had it arrived two or three episodes ago. But for a season finale to be all cliffhanger and no spectacle is close to unforgivable.
Seriously, as we finish this week we have the armies of the Riverlands, the Lannisters, the Starks, and the Hightowers converging on Harrenhal. We have a Tyroshi fleet sailing to challenge the Black blockade of King’s Landing. We have Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) ready to unleash her dragons on Casterly Rock and Oldtown. And we have important confrontations for Rhaenyra with Daemon (Matt Smith) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke). That’s great stuff, a fantastic shift from neutral into forward drive. The problem is that none of these forces actually meet this episode, and the closest we get to a fight scene is some mud wrestling. We’ll have to wait, what, two more years to see the outcome of all this elaborate preparation. Will Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) even have finished hiking by then?
The problem is not really with this episode but with the incredibly slow pace earlier in season 2, and the fact that the season is only eight episodes long. That’s what creates the startlingly abrupt turn as Rhaenyra, determined to recruit new dragon riders last episode, wonders too late if she can trust them. Judging by Ulf’s (Tom Bennett) table manners, they might indeed be out of place, though Hugh (Kieran Bew) and Addam (Clinton Liberty) are coping better. Alicent, last seen floating in a lake on a camping trip, is suddenly back in the Red Keep and formulating a plan to save as many of her kids as possible – just in time, given that her second son seems willing to murder at least two of the others.
That’s because the cold war has entered a new and warmer phase. Awful Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), humiliated after he was scared off from Dragonstone last episode, is taking out some of that pent-up fury on whatever enemy town he happens to pass: notably, here, the barbecue formerly known as the town of Sharp Point. (Population: considerably fewer than yesterday.) Rhaenyra has, a full season after everyone else, accepted that there’s no peaceful way out of this, though her immediate decision to flame civilians seems out of step with that. Luckily Alicent’s visit with a proposal to hand over King’s Landing in return for the life of Helaena (Phia Saban) and her children seems to offer another path forward – though that final lingering shot on Alicent, and the revelation that Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), whose life she reluctantly agreed to forfeit, has already fled, suggests that there may be wheels within wheels for Alicent.
More importantly, perhaps, the vision quest that Daemon has spent his season on comes to a climax with a striking series of visions that might sum up Aegon’s Dream, the vision that sent the Targaryens to Westeros in the first place. Certainly he sees the Night King, slaughtered dragons, puddles of blood, a comet, and Daenerys cradling her newborn dragons. He doesn’t obviously see the actual Prince Who Was Promised, Jon Snow, but it’s some nice connective tissue even so. More to the point, he sees Rhaenyra sitting on the Iron Throne and Helaena appears – very much in prophetess not idiot mode this episode – to tell him how things are. It also turns Daemon around, so that when Rhaenyra, showing no small measure of personal bravery, flies to Harrenhal to confront him after Ser Simon (Simon Russell Beale) warns her of the possibility of treachery, he swears fealty. He does so with an expression suggesting he can’t believe he’s doing it, but he’s clearly accepted the truth the vision showed him and, at least to some degree, his place in the world.
There is some fun, loosely so called, this week. Tyland Lannister’s (Jefferson Hall) efforts to win over the Tyroshi and their admiral Lohar (Abigail Thorn) are amusing even before he descends to mud wrestling and wife-shagging, while there is a deeply twisted, incredibly disturbing horror-comedy in Aegon’s description of his injuries while Larys (Matthew Needham) is trying to save his life. The posturing by an increasingly angry Jacaerys (Harry Collett) against Hugh and Ulf is also kind of amusing – or would be if you didn’t foresee trouble ahead.
For a season finale to be all cliffhanger and no spectacle is close to unforgivable.
Tyland’s efforts certainly look like trouble for Corlys (Steven Toussaint), who still doesn’t have enough to do, but who at least gives Rhaenyra some solid advice this week and then continues to screw up his relationship with his unacknowledged son Alyn (Abubakar Salim). There’s also that rarest of things: a genuinely great scene with Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), who manages to express both an overwhelming sense of medieval romanticism and all-consuming despair as he marches off to battle dragons, certain he’ll die in the attempt. He infects Ser Gwayne (Freddie Fox) with the same emptiness; that may not sound it, but it’s an excellent scene.
Largely, however, this is Rhaenyra’s episode. She has barnstorming encounters with not only Daemon but also with her new dragon riders, and most importantly of all with her old friend Alicent. There’s a huge clearing of the air there, and Rhaenyra leaves believing there’s a path to the throne not paved in slaughter. The fact that Alicent is still holding back, however, shows that there’s still much more to come next season. Someone, somewhere, is holding Lord Otto (Rhys Ifans) prisoner. Rhaena may have found the dragon she longs for. Armies are marching, with dragons in the skies. Why, the next episode will be a heck of a season finale – oh. Damn.
