A screenshot from House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 4.
Finally! The showrunners finally showed off the bloody War Dragons, and it was awesome!
Episode 4, “Red Dragons and Gold,” marks a return for the series to its heyday, and true to Game of Thrones form, the carnage will include the murder of major characters. This time, two major characters die in a bloody battle between dragons, and both Aegon II (Tom Glynn Carney) and the brilliant Rhaenys (Eve Best) likely die in a fall. Side note: Why hasn’t the Grand Maester invented the parachute yet?
The battle takes place at Lucrest, a weakly defended coastal fort that is key to cutting off Dragonstone from the mainland. Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) attacks in broad daylight, which would have been suicidal had it not been for a clever plan by him and Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). The elaborate trap involves luring one of Rhaenyra’s (Emma Darcy) dragons to the location so that Vhagar can slay it, thus eliminating a major player on the board and winning the epic battle in one fell swoop.
But King Aegon II spoils the party: he kamikazes himself at Samfire; when Aemond sees him from hiding, he swoops down on him and calls him a “fool” in High Valyrian. In the ensuing battle, Rhaenys and her dragon Meris appear to overcome Aegon/Samphyr, tearing open Samfire’s chest with his claws, when suddenly, Aemond appears with the monstrous Vhagar.
This calls to mind Aegon’s merciless taunting of Aemond at the brothel last week, and his dragon-and-swine taunt when they were children. When Aegon suddenly appears and cries “Dracarys” (which means “dragon fire” in High Valyrian), we know he’s aiming for the And One, and intends to burn down the tangled mess of Rhaenys and Aegon II’s dragons.
After his brother attacks Aegon II with a nuclear bomb, Aegon II crashes to the ground on Sunfire’s back, Meris survives, but Rhaenys inexplicably attacks again. In a surprise attack, Meris knocks Vhagar to the ground with a frenzy of sharp claws and deadly dragonfire. As Vhagar falls to the ground and crushes his soldiers with his massive claws, we witness the true horror of dragon-on-dragon combat. In the end, the “Queen Who Never Was” dies at Lucrest, along with one of Rhaenyra’s most fearsome dragons. A major win for Team Green.
In the books, Aegon II miraculously survives the battle and returns to King’s Landing maimed and burned, while Aemond is crowned Protector of the realm and Prince Regent. It will be interesting to see what the showrunners do.
Another exciting ending is Ser Criston’s reckoning. In this episode, Ser Cole (Fabian Frankel) covers himself in glory by conquering the minor lords north of King’s Landing and turning them into loyal soldiers of the Green Team. They call him “Kingmaker” and after the Battle of Duskendale, when Ser Cole beheads Lord Gunther Darklyn (Steven Pacey), Darklyn spits and curses Ser Cole: “Kingmaker (spits) you are no match for the white cloak… so shall your reckoning come.”
His harsh words were not a big deal to Sir Cole, who chopped off his head and the other Darling men quickly bent the knee and declared they would join Team Green.
Speaking of decapitations, Daemon is now running amok in the dreary, cursed Harrenhal. As the episode begins, he decapitates a young Rhaenyra (Millie Alcock) at the foot of the Iron Throne. Daemon then wakes up with blood on his hands, but the gore quickly fades in the cold, cursed morning light of Harrenhal, where Laris Strong claims to be “lameer than I am.” So what exactly is Daemon doing?
Damon is desperate to make allies. First, he speaks to the Tully family, whose current head is a boy. Sir Grover Tully is frail, and Damon suggests that Grover’s immature grandson Oscar (Archie Barnes) “put a pillow over Sir Grover’s head” to hasten his grandfather’s demise. “The Tullys are brainless fish,” Damon spat. Who exactly are these bastards?
Damon then has another vision, this time of him wearing Aemond’s eyepatch, and then he encounters the mysterious Alice Rivers. She tries to “shrink” him. “Why don’t you have a raven for a wife? Are you your own aspirant for the Iron Throne?” and so on. And she says, “Here, drink this.” And he drinks her concoction without a second thought. He must be trying to get her into bed. What else?
After drinking the concoction, Damon meets with Lord Blackwood, who promptly tells Damon that he won’t join Damon’s side in the war unless he helps him defeat Brackens. Damon doesn’t care at all; he hallucinates his dead wife, Lena, pouring him a drink, and maybe even sleeping with Alice Rivers and drinking more of the hallucinogenic mushrooms and goo the sexy witch made in her kitchen.
The scene then switches to King’s Landing, where Aegon II is playing with a large marble, he promptly dismisses the Small Council and runs off to complain to his mother, Alicent.
“They don’t care what I think,” Aegon II complains like a five-year-old.
“What do you think?” Alicent says sarcastically.
Mommy isn’t in a good mood. She’s just downed a goblet of moon tea, a Westeros birth control that prevents unwanted pregnancies and can also result in abortions. After “meowing my belly,” as the Jamaicans say, she’s in no mood to put up with any fools, even those born from her womb.
“What can I do?” lamented Aegon II.
“Just do what you’re asked to do… nothing,” Alicent sneers.
it hurts!
A gloomy Alicent continues in this vein when Rarith Strong visits her later, and the two discuss Viserys’ supposed intention in mentioning Aegon’s name on his deathbed, a speculation Alicent denies.
“Wars will happen, many will die, and the victor will ultimately take the throne. The importance of Viserys’ intentions will die with him,” she says. Isn’t Alicent truly a beacon of light this week?
All these scenes are merely prelude to the real action in the final 10 minutes of this fantastic episode, with the characters merely pawns, tiny chess pieces on the way to a final clash at Luke’s resting place and epic dragon-on-dragon violence.
After killing Rhaenys, Aemond puts his dragon down, draws his sword and stomps through the forest to where Aegon and the dragon lie in a smoldering mess on the ground. Sunfire’s wings are broken, never to fly again.
Aemond raises his sword, indicating that he intends to either finish the mission or return it to its sheath.
But we’ll never know, because Cole, the newly appointed Hand of the King and Alicent’s wonderful afternoon lover, arrives just in time.
Say goodbye to the fantastic Eve Best as the Queen Rhaenys never was, whose keen eye and wise counsel were the only source of reason and control for the Queen’s often-quarreling advisors at the Painted Table. Why did Rhaenys turn back after surviving the first two attacks? Vhagar is the largest and oldest dragon in House of the Dragon, towering over the other dragons on the show. Given his size, he would likely win a one-on-one fight in the air. Why, why, why?
Rhaenys was also the wife of Corliss (Steve Toussaint), another important ally in control of the ship. So how will her death affect him? Will it shake his resolve? Will he respect his wife’s wishes and acknowledge his illegitimate child?
I can’t wait for episode 5. Will the Brax fight back? Will Aegon II survive? Will Daemon bounce back? Is season 2 in danger of peaking too early and not reaching the climax of the Battle of Luke’s Resting Place?
You’ll find out soon, more details to come.
