This week's episode of House of the Dragon concluded with more bloodshed, and while the scene was nowhere near as harrowing as the season 2 premiere's child murder (more here), we did witness the deaths of two supporting players.
Spoilers ahead!
The majority of the episode deals with the aftermath of prince Jaehaerys' brutal murder, with his father, King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), officially declaring war on The Blacks. His grandfather and Hand Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) urges patience, and convinces the king to hold a funeral procession for the boy so that the realm might turn against "Rhaenyra the Cruel" (Emma D’Arcy).
The ploy works... until Aegon has every ratcatcher in the palace hung after one of his son's killers, Blood, tells him of his unnamed accomplice. Otto is furious, but Aegon does not take being admonished as a "fool" very well and ends up ordering his Hand to remove his badge and give it to Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), who had decided to make up for his own failure to protect the prince by sending Arryk (Luke Tittensor) to Dragonstone to assassinate Rhaenyra.
Arryk gains entry by impersonating his twin Erryk (Elliot Tittensor), who arrives just in time - likely after being alerted by Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) - to fight his brother to the death. One of them does survive, but immediately throws himself on his sword after first begging the queen's forgiveness.
Was it Erryk apologizing for ending his life and leaving her service, or was it Arryk, unable to live with killing his own brother and realizing that he should have backed Rhaenyra all along?
Either way, Rhaenyra now finds herself without another formidable protector after dismissing Daemon (Matt Smith) upon learning that he was responsible for Jaehaerys' death.
What did you make of this week's episode of House of the Dragon? Drop us a comment down below.
"The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires—real and imagined—crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm."
House of the Dragon season 2 sees Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans reprise their respective roles. Additional returning cast includes Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, and Matthew Needham.
The directors for the new season are Alan Taylor (Episodes 1 & 4), Clare Kilner (Episodes 2 & 5), Geeta Patel (Episodes 3 & 8), Andrij Parekh (Episode 6), and Loni Peristere (Episode 7).