The top of Home of the Dragon season two is here, and whereas most storylines had been left unresolved—season three is coming!—the episode, “The Queen Who Ever Was,” did an admirable job specializing in its characters, with surprising evolutions, long-repressed emotional outbursts and confrontations, and deep soul-searching all coming to the fore. There wasn’t a ton of motion, however the episode nonetheless felt each daring and satisfying in equal measure.
The very first thing we see is a monkey strolling alongside, so we all know we’re not in Westeros anymore. Certainly, we have now traveled with Lord Tyland Lannister on his reluctant quest to strike a discount with the Triarchy, which solely Aemond thought was a good suggestion. However finally, after some excessive awkwardness negotiating with the Free Cities’ prime bosses (“it appears you want us greater than we want you,” they appropriately confirm), and a compulsory mud-wrestling match with the mischievous but intimidating fleet commander Admiral Lohar, he finds success. The value: permitting the Triarchy management of the Stepstones, which is able to certainly come again to hang-out somebody sooner or later; enduring some public humiliation (together with having his title mispronounced, repeatedly); and possibly impregnating a few of Lohar’s wives.
After realizing that Rhaenyra has out-dragonned him, Aemond, as petulant as he’s harmful, has ridden Vhagar to the unlucky city of Sharp Level and burned it to the bottom. He seems happy together with his handiwork, which has come on the expense of a whole bunch of harmless lives. We minimize to Aegon, depressed in mattress, in no temper for one more go to from Lord Larys, however what alternative does he have? This time, Lord Larys has an pressing directive: they need to depart King’s Touchdown directly. When Aegon protests that he’s the king—if Aemond’s inflicting issues, he can simply hobble to the Iron Throne and order him to be taken prisoner—Larys reminds him that Rhaenyra has enhanced her dragon fleet, and he’ll be doomed with out Vhagar to guard him.
Larys tells him he has loads of gold stashed within the Iron Financial institution in Braavos, and although Aegon snorts on the thought of dwelling “with the goat-fuckers” (and letting Larys, and by extension all of us, know that “my cock is destroyed… it burst within the flames like a sausage on a spit”), Larys says the perfect plan is to depart, let Aemond and Rhaenyra destroy one another, after which return in triumph. And it doesn’t take rather more convincing: “Aegon, the realm’s delight,” the king murmurs, dreaming of this idyllic future.
Within the Vale, Rhaena—having ditched her duties as a mommy surrogate for Rhaenyra’s youngest sons—is completely alone, flailing across the rocky wilderness, clearly decided to vary her destiny and observe down that wild dragon.
At Dragonstone, a pouty Jace comes upon Ulf and Hugh lounging across the Small Council desk. Effectively, Hugh is standing stiffly; Ulf is in full lounge mode, and tells the prince “I’d relatively not” when he snaps at him to take his ft off the desk. Ulf doesn’t notice who Jace is, however even when he’s introduced up to the mark you get a really clear sense that appearing deferential to royals is extraordinarily low on his to-do checklist. It’s protected to say that the glib, unrefined Ulf is the embodiment of Jace’s worst fears about commoners, even earlier than (however particularly after) he makes a crack about Jace’s un-Targaryen-like darkish hair.
At that second, Rhaenyra and Corlys are having a associated dialog. “We all know little of who they’re, and what’s the power of their character,” she worries, and he or she asks Corlys concerning the one new dragonrider he’s most acquainted with: Addam, in fact. Corlys says he’s identified to be a person of integrity, however “I’ve had little to do with him… to my remorse.” (At the moment isn’t the day Corlys owns as much as being the child’s father, apparently.) Then they discuss technique; Corlys advises hanging rapidly. Aemond now is aware of Crew Black has extra dragons, however that hasn’t been the deterrent Rhaenyra had hoped. Corlys additionally factors out that Aemond might name upon his teenage brother, Daeron (who we’ve but to fulfill), and his sister, Heleana, to hitch his death-from-above brigade; they each have dragons, in spite of everything. “Heleana isn’t any warrior,” Rhaenyra insists, however as Corlys reminds her, “Aemond won’t be denied.”
Then, a touching second when Corlys tells Rhaenyra he’s renamed his ship from The Sea Snake to The Queen Who By no means Was. “What I do now, I do for her,” he says, remembering his late spouse, earlier than steering the chat again to the necessity for Rhaenyra to behave as quickly as attainable. And as he reminds us, “there may be, in fact, one other participant that has but to be revealed.”
That’s a reference to Daemon, naturally! At Harrenhal, reparations for battle are lastly in full swing, however first, Ser Alfred Broome has arrived from Dragonstone with pressing enterprise. Ostensibly he’s been despatched there by Rhaenyra to check out her husband’s army-building progress, however he’s acquired his personal agenda to push: whereas he’s loyal endlessly to King Viserys, and his banners are pledged to Rhaenyra, he’d certain relatively serve a king on this fraught time. Within the second, we are able to’t fairly inform if that is music to Daemon’s ears or not; his response is to form of chuckle as he walks off. Lurking in a doorway, Ser Simon Sturdy overhears each phrase. However the perfect a part of this scene is when Ser Alfred swears he hears a sinister whisper hissing by means of the timber, and Daemon gives this affirmation: “This place may have you barking on the moon.”
Within the Purple Maintain, Alicent (again from final week’s tenting journey) and Heleana are having a second. “What would you consider leaving this place?” mom asks daughter, however earlier than they’ll actually talk about the concept Aemond barges in. As Corlys predicted, the Prince Regent is filled with bluster, insisting that his light sister saddle up her dragon and be a part of him in his marketing campaign of fiery destruction. She refuses, in fact, and Alicent steps in to inform her livid son to again off. The subsequent scene is Alicent going to the Grand Maester and asking for “passage… and your discretion.”
Within the forest, Ser Gwayne is lastly confronting Cole about his oath-breaking illicit affair with Alicent. However what at first looks like it’s going to escalate right into a vicious brawl—a trademark response for Cole prior to now—as an alternative turns right into a deeply reflective back-and-forth. Alicent saved his life twice, he tells Gwayne, and he thinks of her as his “beacon.” It additionally appears Cole has gained one thing resembling a conscience due to the horrors he witnessed at Rook’s Relaxation. “The dragons dance and males are like mud below their ft,” he says. “And all our wonderful ideas, all our endeavors are as nothing. We march now towards our annihilation. To die will likely be a form of aid… don’t you suppose?” To this startling speech, Gwayne has no response; he simply takes it in, then silently sits down beside Cole.
Again to a pouting Jace. All the time pouting. And at last, Home of the Dragon has one thing to say about it: “It doesn’t befit a prince to pout,” Baela tells him. As normal, she’s one in all few voices of cause round these components, telling him to get his crown prince head out of his ass, cease sulking about being known as a bastard (reality examine: he is a bastard), and take his rightful place at Rhaenyra’s aspect.
That leads us right into a supremely awkward dinner, the place an obnoxious Ulf as soon as once more exhibits off his lack of social expertise. Rhaenyra, sporting her crown for as soon as, toasts the three new riders and tells them in the event that they serve her effectively, she’ll make them knights. And the time for serving is imminent: “You’ll fly in two days’ time,” she says, telling them they’ll be hanging at Crew Inexperienced’s strongholds in Oldtown and elsewhere. “You want for us to kill innocents?” Baela (voice of cause) asks in disbelief. “We should break the need of our enemy, or extra will die in a wrestle that stretches on with out finish.”
Simply then, a message from Harrenhal—Ser Simon, particularly, letting Rhaenyra know that Daemon may be about to stab her within the again. She picks Addam as her journey buddy (Jace, once more, seems a wee bit pouty at that) and off they fly. And communicate of the satan, we minimize to Daemon snoozing at Harrenhal, at the very least till he’s woke up by Alys Rivers. She leads him to the Godswood, the place the good tree at its middle has a message for him. First, although, she commends him for coming round to the concept as a lot as he needs he might, he can’t bend the world to his will. And he or she tells him he’s lastly able to glimpse some reality, Outdated Gods-style. When he touches the trunk, he has a imaginative and prescient: a three-eyed crow, a blue-eyed White Walker, a fallen dragon, a battlefield coated in our bodies, dragon eggs engulfed in flame, the Mom of Dragons (glimpsed from behind, so in all probability not an precise Emilia Clarke cameo), and Rhaenyra sitting on the Iron Throne. “You understand your half,” an apparition of Heleana says. “You understand what you should do.”
We discover the true Heleana in King’s Touchdown, midway between the spirit realm and the true world. Aemond has one other crack at making an attempt to get her to hitch the struggle, taking a softer method this time. However his faux-gentle whispers flip to indignant hectoring when she tells him she is aware of he’s the rationale Aegon was horribly injured at Rook’s Relaxation. “I noticed it,” she says merely. When Aemond threatens her, she’s unruffled: “Aegon will likely be king once more … and also you, you’ll be useless. You had been swallowed up within the God’s Eye and also you had been by no means seen once more.”
He once more threatens his sister after her prophetic phrases, however she tells him that killing her “wouldn’t change something.”
Rhaenyra arrives at Harrenhal, however the greeting she receives is in no way what she’d feared. Although he has definitely flirted with the concept all through season two, Daemon has not betrayed her. He’s caught a glimpse of the Music of Ice and Hearth, is aware of “winter is coming,” and his loyalty is totally re-affirmed. It begins off tense, nevertheless it’s a young reunion, extremely. And for those who didn’t get goosebumps when Daemon bent the knee, pledged his loyalty, after which led the assembled crowd in cheers for his queen, you should not have been watching Home of the Dragon for the previous eight weeks.
In the meantime, we go to a different long-overdue confrontation: Corlys and Alyn. Corlys can’t perceive why Alyn appears so sad with what most would think about a coveted promotion to the Sea Snake’s first mate. There’s unbelievable work by Abubaker Salim as Alyn on this scene, as he clothes down his estranged (and nonetheless not publicly acknowledged) father, telling him how agonizing it was to see Corlys out and about together with his professional kids, dwelling an opulent life whereas Alyn and Addam grew up barely scraping by. Corlys has no heirs left, Alyn says, and “now you bear in mind I reside? Now you want to all of a sudden scatter the crumbs of your favor? I’m an honorable man and I’ll serve you as a result of I need to. But when it’s all the identical, I’ll decline any gives of assist,” he hisses. “If I survive this battle, I’ll proceed as I started: alone.”
Again within the Vale, Rhaena spots the wild dragon! At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and Mysaria have one other one in all their talks whereas gazing at Crew Black’s tame (comparatively talking) dragons circle overhead. “The gods favor you. They put the means to victory in your arms,” Mysaria says. However Rhaenyra is feeling in poor health about having to slaughter harmless individuals to reclaim her throne. Her father definitely wouldn’t have needed it that approach. “Be robust,” Mystaria tells her. “You understand you’re simply. You need to not let the realm fall to those that look after energy greater than peace.” (Sadly, there’s no scene on this episode exhibiting us what Daemon—nonetheless again at Harrenhal—thinks of the shut relationship that’s developed between these two.)
However… talking of Rhaenyra’s shut relationships: right here’s one thing no person anticipated. Bear in mind when Alicent requested her Grand Maester for one more favor? It wasn’t for the needs of smuggling Heleana out of King’s Touchdown. It was to sneak to Dragonstone and meet Rhaenyra, a reversal of Rhaenyra’s secret journey to speak to Alicent at the start of season two. It’s a implausible and really essential scene, with Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy exhibiting simply how conflicted their characters are on so many ranges.
A contrite Alicent is searching for—absolution? Forgiveness? Rhaenyra isn’t right here to offer both and he or she’s disgusted with Alicent’s need to take Heleana and her surviving grandchild and go reside someplace in blissful anonymity. As Alicent bites her nails, a little bit of her childhood insecurity effervescent again up, she slowly will get to the purpose, telling Rhaenyra that in three days, after Aemond flies into battle and leaves Heleana in cost, she’ll prepare it in order that Crew Black can conquer King’s Touchdown with out resistance.
Rhaenyra factors out that there’ll be no claiming the Iron Throne with Aegon nonetheless alive. He should die as a part of this. “If I’m to take the throne, I need to put an finish to the opposition. I need to take Aegon’s head and I’ve to do it for all to see. You know this,” she tells her former pal. It comes again to this: “A son for a son,” she insists. Alicent should make the last word sacrifice. She does know this. And he or she agrees. She simply needs to be finished with all this and “be free”—and he or she even impulsively invitations Rhaenyra to come back together with her.
However there’s no being free for Rhaenyra. She has her duties laid out for her, and the Music of Ice and Hearth have to be sung.
Because the episode, and with it season two, involves an finish, we get a montage. The dragonriders suiting up. Rhaena face-to-snout with the wild dragon (which doesn’t incinerate her on sight, which appears promising, although we don’t see what occurs subsequent). Numerous armies on the march. Dragons screeching by means of the air. Ships on the ocean; there’s Alyn and Corlys, wanting very grim—and on the opposite aspect, Ser Tyland and his new buddy Admiral Lohar. We get a glimpse of the long-MIA Ser Otto Hightower imprisoned… someplace. Alicent solemnly heading residence.
And—uh-oh—there’s King Aegon and Lord Larys in a carriage that’s presently making its approach out of King’s Touchdown, a state of affairs that’s poised to make a large number of Alicent’s grim discount with Rhaenyra.
The final photographs are of Alicent and Rhaenyra, deep in thought, gazing off into the gap—towards season three, little question.
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