Daemon (Matt Smith) sissies that walk.
Ollie Upton/HBO
This is a recap of the most recent episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon. It contains spoilers. That’s what a recap is.
Credits! And a pretty sizable amount of thread is newly devoted to the Red Sowing – last week’s dragonrider recruitment drive. (Red Sewing joke goes here.)
On behalf of Team Green, Tyland Lannister meets with representatives of the Triarchy (sing along with me: the Free Cities of Myr, Lys and Tyrosh, which lie on, or just off, the continent of Essos across the Narrow Sea). They agree to give him an armada of 100 warships to break Rhaenyra’s blockade of the bay in exchange for control of the Stepstones – the same place they fought Daemon and Corlys for control over, back in season one. But they will only do so if Tyland can best their admiral, Sharako Lohar, in a mud fight. High stakes diplomacy meets Stripes.
On an overlook above the town of Sharp Point, Aemond regards its burning ruins, which he’s just had Vhagar flick her Bic at. Sharp Point lies at the tip of a peninsula sticking up into Blackwater Bay, not too far from the islands of Driftmark and Dragonstone. Which is important, because, as predicted, Aemond didn’t deal well with getting chased away by Rhaenyra’s new dragons last week and has immediately taken it out on the nearest thing he could, which in this case is the entire populace of the Westerosi equivalent of Provincetown. Aemond looks upon his handiwork with smug satisfaction, although in fairness that’s kind of just his face.
Catching up? We’ve got recaps for every House of the Dragon episode so far.
Larys, whose official title is Master of Whisperers but could easily be Guy Who Can Read The Writing on the Damn Wall or Dude Whose Like Entire Gig is Knowing Which Way the Wind’s Blowing, tells a bedridden King Aegon that they need to leave King’s Landing yesterday. There’s a fun bit of back and forth between them, as Larys tries to sell Aegon on running away to Essos and waiting it all out, only to one day return in glory. But Aegon, always a creature of carnal appetites, can’t see past the damage that’s been done to his body, which he describes in such detail it’ll put you off sausage breakfast sandwiches for a week.
Larys (Matthew Needham) tells Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) to put his best foot forward.
Liam Daniel/HBO
Let’s check in on Rhaena for an update: Desperately seeking dragon. Still. Again. Some more.
On Dragonstone, Jacaerys happens upon Ulf and Hugh. Ulf behaves like the Shakesperian comic character he’s written to be, and gets a little overfamiliar with the Prince, lumping himself in with him overtheir shared ability to ride dragons and have brown hair. Hugh, who’s used to being looked down upon by royals, attempts to smooth things over.
We’re all born naked; the rest is dragon
Over on Driftmark, Rhaenyra asks Corlys for any intel on Addam, but he’s not forthcoming. “I’ve had little to do with him,” he says, speaking truthfully. We get a helpful new dragoncount, if you need to update your Dance of the Dragons Scorecard. Rhaenyra’s got six. Aemond has only Vhagar, and two others: The dragon Tessarion, belonging to the oft-mentioned-but-not-yet-seen Daeron Targaryen off in Oldtown, on the other side of the continent. But Tessarion is very young and untested. There’s also Dreamfyre – she’s fierce, and almost 100 years old. But she belongs to Queen Helaena, who doesn’t ride her often.
Rhaenyra makes some noises about hoping her dragon advantage will act as a deterrent, so she won’t have to go to war. Still, she says this. After everything that’s happened, if you can believe it. Because I’m not certain I can.
Over at Harrenhal, the Riverlords armies are mustering, and Daemon is doing a West(eros) Wing walk-and-talk with Ser Alfred Broome. You remember him – he was the pouty jamoke on Rhaenyra’s Small Council who was always second-guessing her, so she sent him off to check in on Daemon.
In the weirwood courtyard, Ser Alfred tells Daemon that he has the support he needs to overthrow Rhaenyra and declare himself king. Which, if you haven’t been following SIX! EPISODES! worth of frustratingly repetitive dream-visions, is something that Daemon wants. Or does he? Daemon’s reaction is unreadable. This whole exchange was witnessed, Polonius-behind-the-arras-like, by a lurking Ser Simon Strong.
Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) don’t see eye to eye.
Theo Whiteman/HBO
Alicent has returned from last week’s aimless (pointless?) touch-grass walkabout to talk soothingly and motherly to Helaena. Just then, Aemond swoops in to demand Helaena mount up Dreamfyre and head to the front. Alicent attempts to shame him for turning Sharp Point into Smoky Stub in a fit of pique. She tells him they’re better than that, though I’d be surprised if she still manages to believe it.
Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) mopes like his s’more fell into the fire.
Theo Whiteman/HBO
On the road from King’s Landing to Harrenhal, Criston Cole is even mopier and moonier than baseline. He’s told Ser Gwayne that he’s slept with his sister the Queen, and Gwayne’s anger causes Criston to wax faux-poetic about honor and desire and dragons. “We march towards our annihilation,” he says. And millions of TV viewers whisper “From your mouth…” in unison.
On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra hosts a dinner party for her dragonriders, both old (Jacaerys and Baela) and new (Addam, Hugh and Ulf). Ulf has the table manners of the Steward of Gondor. She informs them that they will attack the Green strongholds of Oldtown (seat of House Hightower) and Lannisport (seat of House Lannister) in two days’ time.
But just as Ulf is ramming still another squab down his gullet, a raven from our precious, precious jewel Ser Simon Strong informs Rhaenyra that Daemon might be turning on her.
“I would like to propose a toast!” Rhaenyra (Emma D’arcy) launches into “Ladies Who Lunch” as her dragonriders look on.
Ollie Upton/HBO
Daemon come and me wanna go home
At Harrenhal, Daemon follows Alys Rivers to the godswood, where he places his hand on a weirwood tree, which proceeds to weep sap all over him. He gets a series of visions very like what ol’ Bran McGuffin Stark used to get on Game of Thones. Greensight, it’s called, if you need to check the wiki.
The visions are familiar to GoT watchers: The three-eyed raven, the red comet, Daenerys and her three dragons, the White Walkers. But there’s a new bit: Rhaenyra, sitting on the Iron Throne. Queen Helaena, who as we know is given to prophetic visions herself, is here, too. She tells him that it’s all just a story, and he’s only a part of it. Which: Way to go meta, girl! And also, that’s a dangerous thing to tell someone who’s bringing as much delusional Main Character energy as Daemon is. “You know what you must do,” she tells him.
At the Red Keep, Aemond once again tries to convince Helaena to mount up. She refuses, and tells him that she saw him turn Aegon into a charcoal briquette over Rook’s Rest. He denies it, but she goes on – Aegon will be king again, on a wooden throne, while Aemond will be dead – lost in the God’s Eye (the mysterious lake on which Harrenhal sits). He takes this about as well as you’d imagine, which is not very well at all.
