(Warning: Spoilers for Episode 5 of House of the Dragon ahead.)
Things in Westeros are spinning out of control. The Greens and the Blacks have officially declared dragon war, which no one is prepared for—but that’s not stopping anybody.
With Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon dead, the Blacks have just lost two valuable assets, as well as one of the only things standing in the way of open warfare. King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) isn’t quite dead from the encounter, but he’s nearly there, and the Green Council is about to make a huge mistake out of desperation (and, let’s face it, sexism). Both sides lost more than they gained at Rook’s Rest, and the fallout is going to be uglier than Aegon’s dragonfire burns.
War is a trap. No one knows this better than Alicent (Olivia Cooke), who basically spent her adolescence dooming herself to a life of dissatisfaction and frustration. She was queen for a while, but she barely got to enjoy it before her power was usurped by her own sons and her Small Council, all of whom dislike the optics of allowing a queen to sit the Iron Throne now they they’re waging war against the very person who once attempted to do that. It’s no wonder she spends half the episode’s council meeting with a loud whooshing in her ears.
Aegon is in bad shape, secretly spirited back into King’s Landing during the ill-advised Meleys parade (more on that in a second) so the smallfolk wouldn’t see that Vhagar’s dragonfire had burned Aegon the Conqueror’s Valyrian steel armor onto his skin in the type of bold symbolic detail that Tyrion Lannister would relish.
Alicent rightly suspects that Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) had something to do with it, but Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) refuses to tell her the truth. He has found himself hilariously outclassed by dragon-on-dragon warfare and insists that, to show strength, the Greens should be led by a dragonrider—if not the king, then the king’s evil brother will do fine. He claims to have spared Alicent from ruling over ashes, but she gets her licks in in private, hissing, “Has your loyalty faded or does it flourish only at night and flee the sunrise like a moth?” Talk about a nasty burn.
King’s Landing is not doing great thanks to Corlys’ trade blockade, and Aemond’s first act as king regent is to shut the gates and trap all the starving smallfolk inside. The procession displaying the head of “the traitor dragon Meleys” does not go over as well as the Greens hoped, the citizens calling it “a black omen” and “an abomination.” It’s a pivotal moment in the war: The Greens have effectively destroyed the notion that dragons are some mythical magical beasts that imbue the Targaryens with their god-given right to rule. “It’s just meat,” Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) sums up succinctly.
Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is stewing on Dragonstone in much the same pickle that Alicent finds herself in King’s Landing. The Black Council won’t listen to her now that Rhaenys, the sole voice of reason, is gone. She’s stuck on Dragonstone because the Blacks can’t lose her in battle, she can’t retaliate against Cole because they don’t have the manpower, and she can’t ask Daemon (Matt Smith) for help because he’s not answering his DMs. It’s the perfect time for Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) to reappear and get some pieces moving, encouraging Rhaenyra to outsource her influence and send Elinda Massey (Jordon Stevens), her lady-in-waiting, on a secret errand to King’s Landing, whose borders remain way too easy to cross.
If anything, this episode is for the kids. Baela (Bethany Antonia) is sent to Driftmark to ask a reluctant and now widowed Corlys (Steve Toussaint) to be Rhaenyra’s Hand. During their talk, she rejects Corlys’ offer to name her his heir (now that no boys are left, of course), announcing that she’d rather die in dragonfire as her grandmother and mother did. Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), whom Rhaenyra sent to deliver baby dragons to the Vale and to keep her safe from more conflict, commiserates with a defiant Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) over feeling powerless. Jacaerys (Harry Collett) embarks on a secret errand to the Twins and successfully negotiates a trade deal to secure the Riverlands, giving Harrenhal to the Freys if they declare for Rhaenyra. While the grown-ups are spiraling, their offspring are putting in work.
And what’s going on at Harrenhal, you ask? Daemon is still there, chopping wood and having sexy visions of his mother in the middle of dinner. He’s still attempting to raise an army, but the jury’s out on whether it’s for Rhaenyra or for him. He tells his new vassal Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) to start terrorizing the Riverlands, which does not result in legions of sworn swords loyally pledging themselves to the Blacks when the Riverlords show up in person at Harrenhal in the middle of the night to tell Daemon off, declaring “We shall not raise our banners for a tyrant.” All that fire and blood the Targaryens preach is not gonna fly among Westeros’ oldest and proudest houses. Caraxes can keep napping.
Everyone is desperate, but it’s Rhaenyra and Jacaerys who come up with a solution at the episode’s end. While poring over the histories of their house, Jacaerys mentions the old adage that anyone with Valyrian blood can ride a dragon, even the smallfolk bastards that may be able to trace their ancestry back a few generations. They don’t have 23andMe, but they do have a giant room full of scrolls, which is just as good.
Is it a great idea to put more dragons in the air so they can fight each other and breathe fire all over everything? Not really! If you know anything about the Dance of the Dragons you know it won’t end well for any dragons or humans involved. “Was it worth the cost?” tragically prescient Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) asks Aemond as they gaze upon the Iron Throne. How much more will these people be willing to pay?
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