House of the Dragon recap: Black omens and dead dragons

After Rhaenys’s noble death in battle, the enormous head of her dragon Meleys is paraded through the streets of King’s Landing. But if Criston the Worst (Fabien Frankel) thought the smallfolk would cheer at the site of such a bloody war prize, he’s sorely mistaken. Someone in the horrified crowd yells out, “This is a black omen!” The Targaryen dragons symbolized their godlike status as rulers for over a hundred years, so killing a symbol of their great power is a bad sign to the already starving populace. Hugh Hammer (Kieran Biew) watches the Red Queen’s head ramble by and comments, “It’s just meat.”

Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) view the procession from the walls of the Red Keep. She warily eyes her younger son, who now has Aegon’s catspaw dagger in his possession, and notices the long coffin-like box trailing behind the dead dragon. The box does not contain the dead body of Rhaenys Targaryen, but that of the still-living but grievously injured King, whose state has been hidden from public view. 

Lacking the fireproof trait of other Targaryens like Daenerys in Game of Thrones, Aegon has been burned so badly that his hair is mostly gone and his armor has singed to his skin. Grandmaester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) frantically works to save the king’s life as Alicent looks on in horror. A watching Aemond coolly notes, “Someone will have to rule in his stead.”

Alicent knows that Aemond’s impulsive rule would be a disaster for the Seven Kingdoms, but Aegon cannot rule in his current comatose state. She suspects her younger son must have engineered Aegon’s fate, but when she asks Criston what part Aemond played on the battlefield, he dodges the question: “I could not say.”

In the Small Council meeting, Alicent tries to argue she should be Aegon’s regent since she served that role ably for Viserys, but is met with opposition from everyone save Orwyle. She looks to Larys (Matthew Needham) for support, but his former loyalty is gone. He asks, “What would it say if in response to Rhaenyra’s crowning, we raised up a woman of our own?”

If she thought Criston would support her claim, he soon proves his fidelity does not go beyond the bedchamber.  She silently seethes as Aemond takes the king’s place at the table and starts issuing commands. He wants the corpses of the ratcatchers gone, and after reports that the Sea Snake’s blockade has forced the starving smallfolk to flee King’s Landing in search of food, he decides to shut the gates so they can no longer leave. That wisdom eventually starts a riot where the smallfolk invoke his name in fury. 

When Alicent confronts Criston about his decision to support Aemond over her, he describes the horrors of Rook’s Rest. “We have given the war to the dragons. A dragonrider should lead us.”

“So you cast me aside?” she asks in fury. 

“Have I not spared you? What we must do now is terrible. Will you preside over it?” he responds. 

Aemond seems untroubled by the task before him as he gazes at the Iron Throne. His sister Helaena (Phia Saban) finds him and asks, “Was it worth the price?” 

But his elder brother isn’t dead yet. Battered and bruised, the king stirs enough to call for his mother.  

Daemon declares his true intentions

The horror movie at Harrenhal continues as Daemon (Matt Smith) has an explicit sex dream involving his mother Alyssa, which even for the incest-prone Targaryens is simply a bridge too far. Later, the ghost of his wife Laena (Nanna Blondell) appears to him during a meeting.

Daemon’s waking hours aren’t going much better than his nightmares. Despite being threatened by dragonfire, House Bracken still will not yield to him, so he suggests House Blackwood threaten what is most precious to their adversaries. Thus begins a campaign of terror against the innocent Bracken women and children, which gets the other houses of the Riverlands in an uproar. They inform Daemon that they refuse to raise their banners for a tyrant like him.  

Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is also not a fan of his tactics, and points out to him that it’s always the weak and the women who must endure the crimes of war. When Daemon tells her she should pray never to meet Aemond One-Eye (just wait), she inquires if Rhaenyra approves of his methods. 

Daemon finally admits that when he takes King’s Landing back, Rhaenyra is free to join him as queen, but he will rule as king. Rhaenyra cannot succeed on her own, for the people will not accept her. Who’s better suited to rule than Viserys’s first true heir?

When Alys asks, “And if you lose?”

“Then I will be dead and none of this will be my problem,” he huffs. 

He’s unnerved, though, when in response she mysteriously says, “It’s a pity, don’t you think, that you never knew your mother?”

From Driftmark to Dragonstone, the Blacks mourn Rhaenys

Rhaenys’s death has hit the Blacks hard. A bereft Corlys (Steve Toussaint) weeps on the Driftwood Throne as Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Baela (Bethany Antonia) reminisce at Dragonstone about how the bold Rhaenys claimed her dragon Meleys for herself as a young girl. The dragon once belonged to the aforementioned Alyssa, and Baela recalls that her father Daemon was mad that Rhaenys claimed his mother’s dragon when he could not.  Rhaenyra knows that her relationship with Rhaenys was complicated, but her tears for the Queen that Never Was are true. She asks Baela to visit Corlys with a request to become her new Hand, for she needs support she is not getting from her council.  

Despite having the supposed allegiance of the Small Council, Rhaenyra cannot get their respect, especially now that their largest dragon has been killed. When Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna) doubts her battle advice, she calls him out by noting that the long years of peace mean “you’ve seen no more battles than I have.” Since Daemon has gone silent since he left, Rhaenyra sends Broome to Harrenhal to see what her estranged husband is up to since no one, including her, trusts his intentions. 

Rhaenyra remains frustrated by being kept safe at Dragonstone. It's a bit frustrating as a viewer to watch D’Arcy spin her wheels in its halls while other characters get more action-packed scenes. Her son Jace (Harry Collett) feels stir-crazy as well, and now knowing the prophecy that underpins the Targaryens’ rule of Westeros, he wants to prove his mettle as heir. Without his mother’s knowledge, he takes off on his dragon Vermax to treat with the Freys, since Cregan Stark’s men will soon need to cross the Trident. Thankfully, the current occupants of the Twins are far less treacherous than their descendant Walder Frey. Jace, the unsung MVP of Team Black, secures their support with the promise of Harrenhal as a reward.  

Though Jace has also collected the support of the Eerie and the Vale of Arryn on his last diplomatic jaunt, Lady Jeyne is a little aggravated that she received two dragon hatchlings as protection rather than the full-size beasts she expected. Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) points out she never specified the size of the dragon she wanted, but Lady Jeyne is in no mood to be goaded and informs Rhaena of her grandmother’s death rather abruptly before taking her leave. 

As Jace secures alliances and Daemon blows them up, Rhaenyra complains to Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) that “the path I walk has never been trod.” Even though she was Viserys’s heir, she wasn’t prepared for battle like a son would have been. Mysaria points out that Criston made a grave error parading Meleys in front of the smallfolk and that they have seen it as an ill omen. They are starving, and that kind of discord may be enough to help bring the Greens down. 

Echoing something Daemon said earlier in the episode about keeping the Crown’s hands clean, Mysaria advises, “What you cannot do, let others do for you.” While Rhaenyra has been focused on physically joining the battle, “there is more than one way to fight a war.” On Mysaria’s orders, her handmaid Elinda is then dispatched on a secret mission to King’s Landing. 

But it would be much easier for Rhaenyra to rule if she could count on the Sea Snake’s support. Baela visits her grieving grandfather to make the request. At first, Corlys thinks Rhaenyra has asked enough of his house (and he has a point), but Baela points out that Rhaenys, the Queen that Never Was, died with honor in dragonfire as she wanted. Baela wishes to meet a similar end and to see Rhaenyra ascend the throne as her grandmother should have. Impressed by the young woman’s mettle, Corlys tells her she should be the heir to Driftmark, but she refuses. “I am blood and fire. Driftmark must pass to salt and sea.” And with that, I’m about to buy a “Baela Targaryen Rules” t-shirt. 

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As Jace returns to Dragonstone, he finds his mother reading about Aegon the Conqueror’s sister-wife, the fearsome Visenya, who was Vhagar’s first rider. With their biggest and fastest dragon dead, they have no match for Vhagar’s power. Jace points out that’s not quite true, since the mature dragons Vermithor and Silverwing sit beneath them in the pit. They have dragons aplenty. What they are lacking in is riders. Jace points out that many from their line married into other houses but still have the blood of the dragon, even if they go by another name. Though their blood might be thin by normal Targaryen standards, it might be enough for them to become dragonriders.  

As Rhaenyra looks at the long scrolls of Targaryen records, she ponders the idea. “It’s a mad thought,” she says. But it might be the only option they have.  

Notes from the Archmaester

• This show has had a dearth of purely good-hearted characters from the start, but Jace, Baela, and Rhaena are emerging as a trio to root for this season. 
• Though we’ve been introduced to various dragonseeds already, this plot has been slow to take off. Here’s hoping it starts moving faster now.
• One question is that the show hasn’t introduced the dragonseed Nettles, but there have been some fan suggestions that Rhaena might take over that plotline and become a dragonrider at last. 
• Vermithor and Silverwing were the dragons of King Jaehaerys and his sister-wife Queen Alysanne. According to Fire & Blood, both are around 100 years old by the time of the Dance, so they would be closer to the size of Vhagar than any of the other dragons at Rhaenyra’s disposal.