REVIEW: Recapping House of the Dragon’s fourth and fifth episodes
Episodes four and five of “House of the Dragon” mark halfway point of the series. These two episodes are the final episodes that feature the younger actresses for the Rhaenrya and Alicent with the final five episodes featuring the older actresses.
Episode Four: “King of the Narrow Sea”
Hall & Oats said it is easy to hurt others when you can’t feel pain and the characters in this episode make choices without thinking of the consequences. Episode four opens with Rhaenrya at Storms End listening to long line of potential suitors and their reasons on why she should marry them. Rhaenrya has for the last three episodes been against the idea of marriage. In the previous episode Viserys gave her the chance to pick her husband after Alicent convinced him Rhaenrya will believe it is her own choice to marry someone, it is clear from this scene that she is not interested in any of these potential husbands. A boy from house Blackwood attempts to give his reasons on why he would be a great potential husband while constantly getting insulted by an older man from a rival house, house Bracken. Rhaenrya mentions that she likes the suitor from house Bracken which shows us that she still has feelings for Daemon who acts in a similar vein, the Blackwood kills the Bracken and this scene is reminiscent of the first episode where the knights from the tourney are killing each other in a place where they really should not be killing. The realm has been at peace for a long time and this act of violence is only the beginning of a conflict that will soon spill over, Rhaenrya decides to leave early and return to Kings Landing even though she has two more months of touring the realm.
She arrives when Daemon returns after his victory in Stepstones, he now wears a crown and is declared king of the narrow sea but when he presents himself to his brother he kneels and pledges fealty to him. The two make up and have a welcoming party in his honor where Alicent and Rhaenrya speak with each other, Alicent tells her how lonely it has been for her being a queen and how she has no friends to support her, Rhaenrya holds her hand like the previous episode and the two also make up. Daemon in the next scene talks to Rhaenrya about why she is against the idea of marriage, while she does not want to end up like Alicent and be stuck in a castle and made to birth heirs for the rest of her life she is also afraid of what happened to her mother and does not want to end up like her. Daemon gives her some surprisingly uplifting advice about not being afraid to live and to take what you want which is foreshadowing what happens later in the episode.
The next scene is when the small council is having a discussion on Corlys Velaryon and how he is planning on marrying his daughter to the Sealord of Braavos. The information was provided by Hobert Hightower Otto’s older brother, from that small line we see that the Hightower’s are still scheming and possibly spying on the other lords of the realm. We see this from Otto and Mellos interactions where they seem to be working together for an unknown purpose, Rhaenrya and Daemon go out and explore kings landing where Daemon brings her to a brothel and tells her that sex can be pleasurable and not just viewed as a duty. He tries to have sex with her but is put off perhaps it was from the result of knowing him just using her and trying to put her in a bad position as he wanted people to know who they were.
Rhaenrya runs back to the Red Keep where she inadvertently gets the attention of a child spy, when she gets back to her room, she manages to seduce her sworn sword Ser Criston. While reluctant knowing full well the consequences of what will happen to him if anyone found out he also feels a mutual attraction to Rhaenrya and has sex with her; Otto is told of what Rhaenrya has supposedly done with Daemon and goes to tell Viserys who begins to mistrust his hand of only wanting to make Aegon the new heir. Alicent who was in the room goes to confront Rhaenrya and wants the truth of if Rhaenrya slept with Daemon or not, Rhaenrya lies to her friend and tells her she did not have sex with Daemon. With this information she tells Viserys about what she was told and how she trusts Rhaenrya, Viserys and Rhaenrya have a talk about how her personal wants are second when it comes to being a future queen and orders her to marry Laenor Velaryon while Rhaenrya tells Viserys to get rid of Otto. Viserys strips Otto of his position of hand of the king in an emotional scene and has Daemon brought to him where he explains that now Rhaenrya will have this reputation follow her and no lord will want to risk marrying someone who is not a virgin. Daemon asks that he marry her himself only confirming the idea that he planned this from the start, Viserys orders him to return to his wife and banishes him for good. The episode ends with Grand Maester Mellos bringing Rhaenrya moon tea which is Westeros version of an emergency contraception and tells her it will rid her of unwanted consequences.
This is another excellent episode which sets up the upcoming conflicts that will happen later in the season. We get more characterization of Daemon being willing to put his family in a negative situation because of his ambition to be king. Rhaenrya adopts Daemon’s attitude of live in the moment and to not care about the consequences which falls in line to how her character in the books is portrayed. These two characters are in many ways similar to each other because of how they act. Both act without thinking of the consequences of what their actions may cause. Alicent unfortunately will feel the effects of Rhaenrya’s decision to lie in the next episode, furthering the idea that the selfish actions of Rhaenrya and Daemon will only set the stage for the coming events in the show. This episode gives slightly more attention to other characters which is a better change from the last three episodes. We see Alicent feeling more trapped and isolated in her role as queen with the scenes juxtaposing between someone who is allowed the freedom to explore what she wants versus someone who is duty bound to her society and has no say in what she wants.
Episode Five: “We Light the Way”
Episode five is the last episode with the younger actresses who play Alicent and Rhaenrya. The next five episodes time skip to the older actresses. The episode opens in the Vale specifically Runestone where we find Daemon’s wife Rhea Royce out hunting, she happens upon Daemon where she insults him on how he was disinherited in place of a girl and is being forced back the Vale. She quickly figures out that he is only there to murder her so that he can remarry and, in her attempt to defend herself he causes her horse to fall on her and cripple her he then finishes her off with a rock.
We then cut to Viserys and his entourage traveling to Driftmark to plan the wedding between Rhaenrya and Laenor, Viserys is not looking good in this episode he is struggling to breath, sweating profusely and has lost two of his fingers his time is coming to an end. When he arrives, he meets with Corlys and his Rhaeneys, Viserys cousin, they discuss the marriage where Corlys tries to negotiate any children from this marriage have the Velaryon family name and not Targaryen. Viserys shuts this down immediately stating that any children from this union will have the Velaryon last name but the first born will have the Targaryen name. Corlys wanted to push this because his wife Rhaeneys was passed over to be queen and feels that this will make up for what he feels was stolen from her, they discuss about the future of their son, and how it will be dangerous for him since the Rhaenrya’s claim to the Iron Throne is still contested and this will only put their son in danger.
Laenor and Rhaenrya talk along the beach where she essentially tells him that she knows he is gay and that she is in love with someone else with both agreeing to be in an open relationship. With the details about the wedding wrapped up they return to Kings Landing where Criston and Rhaenrya discuss their relationship. Criston tells Rhaenrya he loves her and wants her to run away from it so they can truly be free, Rhaenrya turns him down and tells him she will be queen and while he cannot marry her, he can still be with her. Criston does not want to be kept as a secret lover and angrily tells her he has soiled his reputation as a knight and a Kingsgurad and now has nothing left and storms off.
In King’s Landing we find Alicent going to see her father Otto as he rides away after being stiped of his position, she tries to apologize stating that she did not know this would happen. Otto warns her that Rhaenrya is not telling the truth and will only see Alicents children as threats to her position and tells her to push for Aegon to be the next heir. Later, Alicent is visited by Larys Strong son of the new hand of the king Lyonel Strong, he tells her about how Mellos gave Rhaenrya a tea that made her feel ill that next morning. When Alicent tells him how she did not see any changes to Rhaenrya he plays it off as something he mistook but has planted the seed of doubt in Alicent.
When Criston returns, he is immediately summoned by Alicent, when he meets her, she starts to tell him about the rumors of Rhaenrya and how she had done something bad. Not knowing she was talking about Daemon and Rhaenrya, he tells her that it was he who had sex with Rhaenrya and asks for a quick death due to the quilt, now knowing the truth she simply dismisses Criston. The Velaryons arrive for the wedding as a feast and tournament will be held to celebrate the wedding. All the powerful lords and ladies arrive including Daemon who causally walks in after being banished and is allowed to stay, Viserys gives a speech when Alicent who was late to event walks in her dark green dress which as Larys points out to his brother is the Hightowers color when lighting their beacon when war is declared.
After this the feast takes place with choreographed dancing, Daemon is accused by Rhea Royce’s cousin of him murdering his cousin but Daemon laughs this off and states he will return to claim what she owned and is free to challenge him at that time. During the dance Laenor’s lover discovers it is Ser Criston that is Rhaenrya’s secret lover and confronts him telling him that if they work to keep each other’s secret safe then everyone will okay. Daemon dances with Rhaenrya and the two have an argument about how she will not be happy in this marriage she replies that he should just take her and kill anyone who tries to stop him. The party is soon interrupted when Criston brutally beats up Leanor’s lover Joffrey who he eventually kills, Leanor and Rhaenrya then have a rushed wedding after this, and we see Ser Criston attempt to kill himself only to be stopped by Alicent. The episode ends with a rat licking up the blood left on the floor symbolizing the decay that the Targaryen dynasty will see later.
This was a fantastic episode, the scene with Alicent walking down with her green dress was the highlight of the episode and I would say this first season. The music in this episode was one of the best parts for me, the last four episodes music never really hit its mark, but this episode averts this by giving us fantastic themes for both Alicent and the Velaryons when they are on screen. The players for of the Dance of the Dragons have all been assembled and only tragedy and destruction will follow these events. The four episodes did a good job building up the tension we see in this episode with all the pieces falling in perfectly in place, while the in the books this event takes place over the course of years, the sped-up timeline benefits the show and will allow the later part of the show to follow the book’s timeline.
It is sad knowing that this will be the last episode we will see of the younger actresses who played Alicent and Rhaenrya. They played their characters extremely well and gave them more personality and characterization than the book did. It will be very exciting to see what the actresses who play their older counterparts will do in the next five episodes and how the first season will expand from these five episodes and beyond.
