This evaluation incorporates spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 1.
Last season, House of the Dragon wrapped up with a spectacular dragon battle amid flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. It is perhaps unfair to count on this new season to open on such an arresting word, however then once more, a way of the stakes for these characters wouldn’t be a foul factor to ascertain. Instead, we get an episode that for a lot of its working time looks like a lengthier “Last season on House of the Dragon” montage earlier than a tiny little bit of actual motion will get underway after the midpoint.
We begin at Winterfell, because the Starks go to ship volunteers to the Wall to mark the beginning of Winter. Harry Collett’s Jacaerys is with them, attempting to win the North’s loyalty to his mom’s trigger; Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) affords him older troops for back-up, all he can spare as a result of – sing it with me – Winter is coming. Alas, that’s all we get of the plain-speaking Northerners as a result of a raven arrives and Jacaerys learns that his brother is lifeless and should fly residence to Dragonstone.
There, he’ll finally discover Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). She flies south first, to scour the shoreline for Lucerys’ stays. She retrieves one thing to burn, and calls for that her council convey her Aemond – however in any other case she’s misplaced in grief, lacking in motion simply when her Blacks want to maneuver to safe key allegiances and fortresses for the approaching battle.
Matt Smith’s Daemon is left answerable for the warfare effort, however with out the authority to be efficient: solely a prince consort and never a king. He tries to order Rhaenys (Eve Best) round and is rebuffed; he challenges her on her failure to only incinerate all of the Greens final season, however she is unrepentant. Daemon believes that he and Rhaenys collectively – or reasonably their dragons Caraxes and Meleys – can tackle the large Vhagar, and possibly he’s proper. It seems to be like we gained’t be discovering out any time quickly although.
Helpfully, Rhaenyra’s knight, Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor), finds the spy grasp and plotter Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) aboard a ship and brings her to Daemon. He quickly turns to her for assist in killing Aemond. Ser Erryk counsels in opposition to assassination, and reveals his ache on the Targaryen divide. His oath as Kingsguard, he says, was to defend the Royal household. “What had been we to do once they turned in opposition to one another?” It’s a plaintive word and a welcome little little bit of character perception for the generally underserved Kingsguard; keep in mind that his twin Ser Arryk (Luke Tittensor) serves Aegon.
Back in King’s Landing, Olivia Cooke’s Alicent is hooking up with the terrible Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), nonetheless sour-faced regardless of the hanky panky. She tells him that is the final time they’re going to do that; by the tip of the episode she may have already gone again on this promise. After a conflict in council as Alicent suggests peace overtures to Rhaenyra and her father shoots her down, she and Ser Otto (Rhys Ifans) meet privately and conform to work extra intently: he lastly accepts her as a real co-conspirator and never merely a genetically handy reproductive system. Yay woman energy?
We additionally get a glimpse right here of Aegon as King: his fawning frat-bros-turned-courtiers name the lazy, disengaged sod “the Magnanimous”. He momentarily tries to dwell as much as that in a public viewers however rapidly tires of the hassle. In council, he’d reasonably permit his little son, Jaeherys, to distract his advisors than hear. He tolerates, barely, his sister-wife Helaena (Phia Saban), a barely otherworldly woman who was one thing of a simpleton within the books however who has unusual insights right here. She says she’s afraid of “rats” and by the tip of the episode it’s clear why.
That’s as a result of Daemon has set about getting Rhaenyra her head. Sneaking into King’s Landing, he recruits a disgruntled Goldcloak and a ratcatcher – recognized, respectively, as Blood and Cheese within the guide; unnamed right here – telling them to infiltrate the Red Keep and convey him Aemond’s head. When they, fairly, ask what to do if they will’t discover him, he muses silently – however it later turns into clear that he will need to have informed them “A son for a son”. When they will’t discover Aemond, due to this fact, they discover the King’s children and put a knife to Queen Helaena’s throat to pressure her to inform them which is which. They kill the tiny inheritor to the throne, slicing off his head to convey to Daemon. These are irredeemable bastards, underscored (unnecessarily) by Cheese kicking his personal canine. As if killing an toddler wasn’t sufficient.
The episode finishes in silence, to go away you haunted by the sound of butchery; the homicide itself is heard however not seen, as a result of even Westeros attracts a line someplace. But there are a couple of different issues to notice. Characters talked about within the guide arrive onscreen for the primary time: within the Sea Snake’s shipyards we meet a shipwright and sailor known as Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim); he’s solely a younger teenager within the books, and the truth that they’ve aged him up might imply he’ll see some motion. One of Aegon’s petitioners is a smith known as Hugh, performed by Kieran Bew; he’s given a fraction an excessive amount of consideration to be a one-off character.
We additionally get a reminder that Ser Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) is a deeply creepy dude who scares Alicent at the same time as she makes use of him; Larys additionally tries to show Aegon in opposition to his grandfather and Hand. Aemond has had sufficient ready and desires to fly to warfare. He tries to enlist Ser Criston’s assist and like Daemon, he sees Harrenhal as a key stronghold. Could be bother sooner or later!
It’s a well-shot episode, with out a number of the dim lighting that made some conversations final season nearly invisible. Sure, there are darkish moments, like Mysaria’s below-decks hiding spot, however there are additionally lovely scenes, with beams of moonlight illuminating Rhaneyra and Jacaerys’ reunion on Dragonstone. The intercutting between Alicent’s candle-lighting (for her mom, Alerie; her late husband Viserys and – after some hesitation – Lucerys) and the Blacks burning what stays of Lucerys is efficient too.
But there’s a draw back to that opening scene within the North. The Wall should remind us of the broader stakes of the battle for Westeros: a genuinely world-ending menace lurks on the market beneath the timber. These Targaryen squabbles are a distraction from the true menace, and actually threat Westeros’ capacity to satisfy the specter of the Night King. All this plotting, and this horrible homicide, solely weaken the dragon riders who ought to lead the combat in opposition to the ice, and that’s a irritating reality on the coronary heart of this entire present. Alas, now that either side have taken heartbreaking losses, all hope of peace appears misplaced. Surely the warfare should now start.
