The specter of open warfare has loomed over the entirety of the second season of House of the Dragon, and while we haven’t seen full-on battles between armies crashing together on the field, we’ve gotten a taste of what’s to come. At the close of the season finale, war is still looming (no big battles in this episode), but decisive, bloody combat is closer than it’s ever been now that all the main Houses of Westeros have declared for one side of the other, and one of our main gals has been pressured to make an unthinkable sacrifice.
After weeks of bouncing back and forth between King’s Landing, Dragonstone, Harrenhal, and The Shipyard Where Nothing Ever Happens, we’ve finally unlocked a new location! Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) is on a diplomatic mission to the Free Cities to ask the Triarchy for help in breaking the trade blockade against King’s Landing. Patterned rugs, palm trees, servants wielding straw fans… there’s that Thrones-ian soft Orientalism we were missing.
After chatting with representatives from the three islands (nice to finally see one of those blue-bearded Tyroshi), Tyland nearly buckles under the sheer aura of Shararo Lohar (Abigail Thorn), admiral of the Free Cities’ fleet, but ultimately wins a bout of mud-wrestling, gaining her ships and the opportunity to sleep with her harem of wives. Good for Tyland, finally catching a break after dealing with Aemond all season.
Speaking of which, Larys (Matthew Needham) finally says the quiet part out loud during his visit to a still recuperating Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney): If Aegon doesn’t leave King’s Landing now, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is going to murder him. The Prince Regent took out his anger at Rhaenyra by burning the coastal town of Sharp Point, which has the misfortune of being situated directly between King’s Landing and Dragonstone.
Aegon can’t kill him or have him jailed, because his side still needs Vhagar. Larys very smartly tells him it would be better to slip away from the capitol and wait for this all to blow over, returning to the throne after both sides have killed each other. Would that it were so simple.
Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), for her part, was hoping that boosting her number of dragons would be enough to deter the Greens from continuing, still half-trying to stop a conflict she knows will only end after the deaths of thousands.
Corlys (Steve Toussaint) tells her she needs to act fast, and soon: The Greens want a fight, and a show of force against the Lannister and Hightower armies could be enough to sway things in her favor. Rhaenyra’s new riders Addam (Clinton Liberty), Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), and Ulf (Tom Benett) jockey for position during a few awkward encounters with Jacaerys (Harry Collett), who is still worried about the security of his position. Addam and Hugh seem to be taking to their new high status with aplomb, while Ulf is more concerned with ordering the kitchen staff to bring him more roast birds.
The “Will Daemon Do Something Stupid?” plotline finally breaks in this episode after Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) shows Daemon (Matt Smith) his final vision: He touches the bark of Harrenhal’s weirwood tree and watches all eight seasons of Game of Thrones in ten seconds. None of this has anything to do with this show! Why are they hammering this stuff so hard? But at least it has the benefit of snapping Daemon out of his royal daydreams, and when Rhaenyra arrives on dragonback to finally ask him what’s up, he bends the knee in front of all the Riverlands. Really, the credit should go to Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale), who sends a fed up raven at the eleventh hour asking the queen to please come pick up her man.
Regrettably, Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) gets the best dialogue of this episode, and maybe of this entire season, Gwayne (Freddie Fox) confronts him about his relationship with Alicent and Cole counters with “Perhaps all men are corrupt and true honor is a mist that melts in the morning,” before explaining why he really, really doesn’t want to fight in a dragon war: “The dragons dance and men are like dust under their feet, and all our fine thoughts, all our endeavors, are as nothing.” That’s what you get for being the worst, Cole!
After Aemond tries to strongarm Helaena (Phia Saban) into riding Dreamfyre into battle (Dreamfyre is older than Vermithor, and possibly around the same size), Alicent (Olivia Cooke) floats the idea to Helaena of leaving King’s Landing (everyone except Aemond is trying to get the hell out of Dodge). Helaena and Aemond have a tense showdown wherein Helaena tells him that not only does she know he burned Aegon, she knows how he’ll die. Alicent makes it out of the city through its extremely un-secure border and surprises Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, explaining that she took some time off to reconnect with nature, and doesn’t want to be a queen anymore, and that she was always jealous of Rhaenyra for forging her own path while Alicent did her duty.
Rhaenyra, whose god complex has been subtly building all season, says that she can’t win the war without killing Aegon. Alicent, desperate to save the life of just one of her children, bargains Aegon’s life for Helaena’s. She asks Rhaenyra to run away with her, just as Rhaenyra did the very first time we met them both in the show’s very first episode, but they both know it’s too late for that.
Cue one last dramatic montage where we finally see all the pieces on the board: The Hightowers with Prince Daeron riding blue Tessarion; the Lannisters marching towards Harrenhal; Tyland and Lohar sailing across the Narrow Sea; the Starks crossing the Twins; Corlys and Alyn boarding souped-up flagship The Queen Who Never Was; Rhaena finally finding Sheepstealer; Larys and Aegon fleeing the city; Otto Hightower in jail where he belongs (guess that’s why he wasn’t answering anyone’s mail); and Rhaenyra and Alicent gazing off into last sunset before Westeros is changed forever.
If Season 2 began with the possibility of diplomacy, it ends with the promise of bloodshed. The overture is over, and the Dance of the Dragons begins.
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