Welcome again to Westeros, the place everybody’s nonetheless reeling from the final events of House of the Dragon season one: the installment of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the Iron Throne instead of designated inheritor Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy)—and the tragic death of Rhaenyra’s son, Lucerys, because of Aegon’s brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his monumental dragon.
The struggle Sport of Thrones followers know as “the Dance of the Dragons” hasn’t totally damaged out but, nevertheless it’s definitely looming in the season two premiere, ominously titled “A Son for a Son.”
Initially: a revamped opening sequence (similar acquainted music, although), exhibiting us Targaryen drama, each Inexperienced and Black, coming to life via embroidery relatively than as blood flowing via stone and metallic. There’s nonetheless loads of pink stuff oozing up via the fabric, nonetheless, in addition to fiery sparks dancing across the body—nodding to George R.R. Martin’s supply materials Hearth & Blood in a artistic new means.
We open in a spot acquainted to Sport of Thrones devoted: Winterfell. Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) is exhibiting Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett)—who’s visited on dragonback to remind the Starks of their loyalty oath to his mom—that there are components of Westeros extra spooky and mysterious than he can comprehend. It’s a pleasant method to open season two, and ties Home of the Dragon into Sport of Thrones in methods solely somebody from Home Stark can do. We get a reminder in regards to the Evening’s Watch, which has recent context because of Home of the Dragon’s season-one introduction of Aegon the Conquerer’s prophetic dream a couple of menace from the frozen north, and we even get a “Winter is coming.”
“Coming?” Jace jokes because the younger males journey the elevator to the highest of the Wall amid snow flurries. “What is that this then, that falls from the sky and shivers my bones?” All jokes cease when Jace beholds what lies past the Wall. Dragons are highly effective, however as we noticed on Sport of Thrones, there are issues much more highly effective than dragons on this world. “What does it preserve out?” Jace asks. “Demise,” Stark tells him, then lets Jace know that whereas he can’t sacrifice his prime defensive forces with demise on the opposite aspect, he’ll ship “hundreds of greybeards” (translation: previous dudes who nonetheless kick ass) to assist bolster Rhaenyra’s military. The convivial second ends when a raven arrives with information from Dragonstone—and that’s how Jace finds out his little brother Luke is gone.
Again in Dragonstone, Princess Rhaenys (Eve Finest) returns from patrolling the skies, in no temper to take orders from Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), who’s all sizzling to fly to King’s Touchdown and take out Prince Aemond and his dragon, Vhagar—the duo accountable for Luke’s demise. “A son for a son,” he says. Rhaenys reminds Daemon {that a}) he’s not the king, and b) Queen Rhaenyra, who’s determined to seek out tangible proof of her son’s demise, wants area to grieve. Moreover, she’s not one to behave on vengeful impulses. Daemon snaps again that if solely Rhaenys had barbecued the usurper and his household when she had the prospect, they wouldn’t be having this downside. Rhaenys, who has already made very clear that this struggle wasn’t hers to start out, walks away… however not earlier than reminding him that he can’t problem instructions as a result of he’s not the king.
Down on the Driftmark docks, Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) is checking up on repairs being made to his fleet, and we meet a brand new character: Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), who updates the Sea Snake on the progress. They’ve a pleasant rapport—Alyn presents condolences over the lack of Luke, who was Corlys’ inheritor to Driftmark—and Corlys thanks Alyn for rescuing him throughout season one’s (off-camera) battle in opposition to pirates at sea.
In King’s Touchdown, members of the Kingsguard are keeping track of the skies—“Dragonnnn!” is a really terrifying factor to listen to anybody yell—whereas contained in the fortress, the royal household, together with married siblings Queen Heleana (Phia Saban) and King Aegon and their white-blonde kids, are going about their enterprise. Heleana is embroidering and when she tells Aegon she’s afraid—particularly of the rats within the fortress—his awkward response to the maids gathered round is “The queen is an everlasting thriller, is she not?”
In a close-by bed room, shock! Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) are usually not simply courtroom colleagues… they’re secret lovers, too! He has his head up her gown! That is clearly not the primary time they’ve been intimate, and clearly received’t be the final, regardless of Alicent guiltily muttering “we can’t… once more” as they reassemble themselves. As they head into the Small Council assembly, they move a rat catcher—a seemingly insignificant character, only a man you’d see doing his job within the Pink Preserve—however one we’ll be seeing once more earlier than the episode is over.
Seems Aegon is not a reluctant ruler. He’s having the time of his life being “in cost,” although Grandpa/Hand of the King Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) is clearly the one who’s truly working the present. There’s rather a lot to debate, being that Workforce Inexperienced is attempting to determine which noble homes they will depend on within the looming struggle, however the assembly is nonetheless dominated by Aegon’s son Jaehaerys—who, being a toddler, is busily pestering Ser Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Corridor). The Grasp of Coin’s endurance is stretched skinny, particularly after Aegon mockingly asks “Is the inheritor to the throne bothering you?”
Aemond stalks in because the little one is being escorted out, and the facility battle continues. Everybody thinks their strategy is one of the best one; when Otto advocates “endurance and restraint,” Aegon slithers down in his chair and sighs dramatically like a college child who’s simply realized there’s a pop quiz. Afterwards, Lord Larys Sturdy (Matthew Needham) materializes to bend Alicent’s ear. He’d tried to speak to her earlier than the assembly, he says, however her handmaiden mentioned Alicent was “indisposed.” (Needham’s impeccable line supply right here lets us know Larys is aware of precisely who and what Alicent was doing throughout that timeframe, and Cooke’s wordless response exhibits us Alicent is aware of he is aware of, too.) Anyway, now that Larys has rooted out all of the “betrayers” within the fortress, “I’ve chosen your new workers personally,” he tells her. In her chambers, Alicent shoos all her attendants away, preferring to do her personal scrubbing whereas taking a contemplative bathtub, totally conscious that any notion of precise privateness doesn’t exist.
On Dragonstone, there’s one other “Dragonnnn!” second as Rhaenyra swoops in to behold the terrible proof she’s been looking for: a severed dragon wing caught in a fishing internet, with what seems like Luke’s cape tangled alongside. As she sobs, her dragon, Syrax, lets out a mournful cry.
Again in King’s Touchdown, a self-satisfied King Aegon II struts into the nice corridor, able to perch on the Iron Throne and listen to from his topics. As he’s introduced, his standard array of titles (Sport of Thrones followers know the drill: “King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Males,” and many others.) features a new descriptor: “Aegon the Magnanimous.” Even he finds that ludicrous, muttering “the magnanimous?” towards considered one of his sycophants. The smallfolk are in battle mode—their POV is something House of the Dragon seems intriguingly interested in exploring this season—and Aegon has no understanding that his regime is the explanation why. He blithely tells a sheep farmer the crown will replenish the sheep they took from him, till a lurking Otto Hightower—who’s visibly dying inside, watching this child who is aware of nothing about management make random declarations—reminds him that sheep are required to feed hungry dragons now that all-out struggle is imminent. And he reminds Aegon to watch out earlier than he opens his mouth: “When the king speaks, Your Grace, all hear it.”
The ever-present Lord Larys has some reminders to move alongside, too. King Viserys had a fame for being “pliable,” he tells Aegon, and factors out how controlling Otto has at all times been. Perhaps a change is so as? Perhaps it’s time to face aside out of your father and discover a new Hand? As Aegon ponders this, the implication for the viewer is obvious: who’s pliable now?
This leads right into a loaded assembly between Otto and Alicent, the place they agree they’ve the identical endgame (they wish to see Rhaenyra bend the knee), however they’ve been touring opposing paths to get there. Alicent would really like Otto to help her on the Small Council; Otto is near boiling over with frustration over all the pieces that’s occurred since Viserys died. “Should you undermine my voice, each these boys will develop deaf to it,” she tells him, which means her sons Aegon and Aemond. Otto considers this, however he additionally reminds her that the best way issues are actually, “The trail to victory is considered one of violence.”
Off Dragonstone, a ship being looked for stowaways yields a well-known face: Daemon’s previous pal, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), also referred to as the White Worm. There’s no pleasure of their reunion; he’s livid that she revealed a then-reluctant Aegon’s hiding place earlier than the usurper’s coronation, however she tells him her secret-selling methods are purely transactional. They’re a way for survival in a world the place she’s going to be stepped on in any other case, and he or she doesn’t care who sits on the Iron Throne so long as she will get paid for her companies. Ser Erryk Cargill (Elliott Tittensor)—the Kingsguard twin who took Rhaenyra’s aspect and is now Workforce Black; his brother, Arryk (Luke Tittensor), is on Workforce Inexperienced again in King’s Touchdown—stands up for the imprisoned Mysaria. Daemon is in a Very Dangerous Temper and barely listens, criticizing how Erryk/Arryk dealt with themselves in King’s Touchdown, however you need to really feel for Ser Erryk when he factors out that when your complete gig is defending the royals, issues get difficult when the royals begin turning on one another.
Talking of royals, Rhaenyra lastly exhibits up for a council assembly, however she’s not serious about listening to in regards to the Sea Snake’s blockade or Daemon’s plans to fly to Harrenhal. She has one factor on her thoughts: “I need Aemond Targaryen.”
That’s all she says, no specifics—however we minimize to Daemon pestering Mysaria to make use of her distinctive data of the Pink Preserve to assist the trigger. “Scheme with another person, Daemon,” she groans, however he tempts her by providing to set her free in change for info. Hearth & Blood followers can start to get an inkling of what’s coming… however earlier than we get to Blood and Cheese, Home of the Dragon takes a beat to let the emotional weight of what’s occurred to date actually sink in. As Rhaenyra and her household maintain a fiery Dragonstone funeral for Luke, we cross-cut to Alicent lighting candles within the sept at King’s Touchdown—together with, with seen emotion, one in tribute to Luke.
Then it’s proper again to Daemon, now in full-on scheming mode, sporting his scheming disguise and scheming his means into King’s Touchdown. He meets with a hulking member of the Metropolis Watch who nonetheless addresses him as “Commander.” (The massive dude additionally says “Fuck the Hightowers!”, so we all know the place his loyalty lies.) Then they discover the rat catcher we noticed earlier within the episode; for a bag of gold he’s persuaded to share his personal distinctive data of the Pink Preserve and its many tunnels (he is aware of them “higher than the form of my very own cock,” he brags). Daemon lays it out plainly: “Discover and slay the Prince Aemond Targaryen. He has silver hair and one eye… must be simple sufficient to seek out.” Women and gents: Blood and Cheese have arrived.
At that very second, in truth, Aemond is discussing struggle methods with Cole—two individuals who don’t have any authority to debate struggle technique, and Otto is very displeased when he discovers what they’re as much as. After Cole leaves the room, Otto expresses his concern—politely however firmly. “There are many items at play right here, a few of which you’ll’t but see,” grandfather reminds grandson; one other motif of Home of the Dragon season two that’s already coming into focus is that sure characters have issues envisioning the massive image. “You could preserve a grip in your impulses,” Otto says. “We each know that your brother can’t.”
And certainly, as the 2 assassins enter into the fortress—it should be famous that Pink Preserve safety is awfully porous—we get a glimpse of a tipsy Aegon perched on his Iron Throne. “Nobody is aware of what magnanimous means,” he says to his gathered cronies, and guffaws on the suggestion he must be known as “Aegon the Dragon Cock” as a substitute. The intruders sneak their means upstairs, however they will’t discover their supposed goal. However going from room to room, they do discover… Queen Heleana and her kids. Figuring if they will’t discover the prince they’ve been tasked to kill, any prince will do, they drive Heleana to level out which of her equivalent kids is Jaehaerys, the child who triggered such a scene within the Small Council assembly earlier within the episode. (Now we notice why Home of the Dragon needed us to take particular discover of him.) Whereas the present does use some tact and minimize away whereas the deed’s being completed, the sound of muffled screaming after which sawing that accompanies the removing of a small little one’s head from his physique is unmistakably terrible.
A terrified Heleana grabs her different little one and runs into her mom’s room, the place she doesn’t react in any respect to the sight of a unadorned Alicent in mattress, having her means with a unadorned Cole. (The queen is an everlasting thriller, in any case—and he or she was proper to be afraid of the rats!) As an alternative, all she says, very matter-of-factly, is: “They killed the boy.” The final shot closes in on Alicent’s horrified face. Although the homicide didn’t fairly go off as deliberate, effectively: “a son for a son,” mission completed.
New episodes of Home of the Dragon arrive Sundays on HBO and Max. Atone for season one here.
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