This week’s installment of House of the Dragon, “The Red Sowing,” written by David Hancock and directed by Loni Peristere, marks the penultimate episode of Season 2. Naturally, the expectation might be that the rising conflict between the Blacks, led by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), and the Greens, currently ruled over by Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) (while his brother King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) lies in recovery from the Battle of Rook’s Rest), would be close to reaching a fever pitch. Although there’s still one more episode left to close out the second season, this week introduces one of the most pivotal moments in the Dance of the Dragons — and concludes with Rhaenyra making a strong statement to her enemies about just how much literal firepower she now has on her side.

Let’s back up, though, and recall what happened in the closing moments of last week’s episode — apart from the kiss between Rhaenyra and her new advisor Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), that is. After trying and failing to get the dragon Seasmoke to accept a new rider in the form of her Lord Commander, Ser Steffon Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan), Rhaenyra was at her wits’ end, but it turned out that all Seasmoke needed was to claim a rider himself, swooping over Driftmark and declaring his intentions with one of Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) bastard sons, Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty). Does this scenario change everything we think we know about who gets to sit upon a dragon? Maybe, but it turns out that Addam won’t be the only lowborn who is tested, especially since there are still two more dragons out there in need of riders (three, if you count that wild one flying around the Vale…).

The Greens Ignore an Important Rumor in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 7

In King’s Landing, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) is recovering from the wound she sustained during the riot outside the sept in last week’s episode. (It seems she will now also bear a scar on her arm in a very similar position to the one Rhaenyra sustained during their tussle back in Season 1.) The dowager queen is in a state of self-reflection this week, reconsidering her place not only within this overall war but in the city itself. Even the Red Keep seems to be falling into disrepair, with rats running around freely — but that’s to be expected after Aegon had all the ratcatchers murdered back in Episode 2. It seems as though what Alicent is really seeking is a change of scenery, and she taps a member of the Kingsguard, Ser Rickard Thorne (Vincent Regan), to accompany her to the Kingswood — no retinue, no handmaidens, just him as her escort. Ser Rickard looks understandably concerned by this idea, given that public sentiment hardly lies with the royal family at the moment, but he also can’t refuse the dowager queen either.

Alicent taking a mental health day, camping and swimming in the Kingswood, may be laden with Ophelia imagery, but it also couldn’t have come at a better time given what’s happening back in the city. As punishment for helping to start that riot at the sept, all of Aegon’s friends who the king unwisely promoted to Whitecloaks are being stripped of that honor and sent to the Wall, courtesy of Aemond. As Master of Whisperers Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) and his fellow small council member Jasper Wylde (Paul Kennedy) oversee the proceedings, the Master of Laws privately admits to Larys that he has heard rumor of the dragon Seasmoke bearing a new rider. Admittedly, the identity of said rider is currently unknown, and when Larys inquires about where this intelligence came from, Lord Wylde confesses he happened to hear it third or fourth-hand — his squire, who heard it from a stablehand, who heard it from his father, who heard it from his shipmate. It seems Larys prefers to get his gossip closer to the source, however, as he points out that Lord Wylde is welcome to bring this information to Aemond, but adds that maybe it would be best to leave this particular whisper “to the wind.” Little do either of them know, however, that said rumor is actually rooted in a truth that won’t be discovered until it’s too late.

Inside the Red Keep, Aegon’s physical therapy sessions with Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) have commenced, but the king is struggling to walk even with the assistance of a cane barely strong enough to bear his weight. When Larys interrupts them, chiding Orwyle for attempting the rehabilitation effort by himself, the two men use their combined power to get the king back to bed. Aegon is clearly starting to heal from the worst of his burns, but he’s now missing an ear, and his broken bones are clearly still causing him significant pain — yet Larys tells Orwyle that he’ll need to have Aegon up and trying to walk around again in a few hours. He may never move the same way he used to, but Aegon needs to be pushed into strengthening himself, and, as Larys quietly reminds Orwyle, it may be some time before he can truly rest again, with so many threats consistently looming.

The Blacks Audition New Dragonriders (With Mixed Results) in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 7

The confrontation between Rhaenyra and Addam, which starts off the episode, is about as anticlimactic as one could expect given that the queen’s newest dragonrider is already on her side. It’s rather delightful to see Syrax, Rhaenyra’s dragon, and Seasmoke, Addam’s new dragon, occasionally making rumbles and grumbles at each other even as their riders stand warily at a distance. At one point, Syrax lets out a long bellow, warning off Addam from getting closer, but similarly, when Rhaenyra moves to address her kneeling subject, Seasmoke asserts himself nearer to his rider, roaring with clearly protective intent. When Rhaenyra inquires about Addam’s parentage, however, the shipwright is tight-lipped about his connection to Corlys, simply professing that he was born to “no one of consequence.” In Rhaenyra’s eyes, Addam has done the impossible, and the smile that breaks over her face seems to be linked to her hope that the tide of the war is beginning to turn in her favor.

Less thrilled about this development, however, is Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), who displays firm disapproval of this course of events but doesn’t allow his real feelings to be known until he has a private audience with his mother. There, the truth comes out, and it’s more deeply rooted in Jace’s own feelings about his legitimacy as heir. The subject of Rhaenyra’s three children with the late Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr) was a major source of controversy in Season 1, a wild topic of speculation for her naysayers but vehemently opposed by her father, King Viserys (Paddy Considine), even though the evidence of the boys’ true parentage was too obvious to ignore. As Jace posits, though, if anyone can ride a dragon, regardless of their status, what will happen if one of them decides to challenge the line of succession and sit on the Iron Throne? The fact that both Corlys and Addam are being deliberately obtuse about their blood connection, however, is part of what makes the situation worse, especially since we know that Jace doesn’t have all the puzzle pieces that we do about why Addam might have been chosen.

Whatever Jace’s feelings about who gets to be a dragonrider, though, Mysaria is the one who plants the seed of looking into the scores of Targaryen bastards in King’s Landing or Dragonstone. Several generations of illegitimate children have been sired by princelings, misbegotten offspring that no one would think twice about. It seems difficult for Rhaenyra to comprehend, but, as Mysaria points out, she could very well earn her deepest allies from the lowborn — and aren’t her half-brothers, pure Targaryens themselves, the ones who are currently waging war against her claim to the throne? The hypocrisy inherent in this particular search isn’t lost on Rhaenyra, who easily recalls the insults leveraged at her own sons for years as a result of their parentage. At this point, she’s not above raising, in her words, “an army of bastards” to win this war.

Meanwhile, at Harrenhal, Daemon (Matt Smith) has successfully finagled a meeting with the new Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), who has been promoted in the wake of his grandfather’s death. Yet Oscar is already far from the green, wide-eyed innocent that the king consort first met with earlier in the season, and that’s made more than evident when he and Daemon square off this time around. Daemon’s hands are tied this week; even Oscar points out that he’s made rather a mess of things. He knows he needs the support of House Tully and all the Riverlords who have sworn fealty to their Lord Paramount, to bolster his forces, but Oscar has a few conditions of his own before agreeing to team up.

In private, Daemon tries to wrangle a show of loyalty from the young Lord Tully, but once they’re standing in front of the other Riverlords, Oscar professes that his house will honor the oath they made to Viserys and his rightful heir, Rhaenyra. He won’t cast aside that commitment, even if he considers Daemon a particularly “loathsome” representative. Before the Lord Paramount hands over the sizable army of the Riverlands, however, a punishment must be exacted on House Blackwood for its terrorizing tactics of war visited on House Bracken, and Daemon is tasked with denouncing those crimes and personally dispensing justice. With the Riverlords bearing witness, Daemon claims the head of Ser Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones), but what remains to be seen is whether he’ll continue to play nice with his new allies or find some other way to muck it up.

In terms of auditioning new dragonriders, Rhaenyra needs to go straight to the source — so she does, sending boats to King’s Landing, steered by armed sailors and under cover of darkness, to round up anyone who possesses even the smallest drop of Targaryen blood. Her loyal lady-in-waiting, Elinda (Jordon Stevens), who remains hidden in the city, has already been hard at work spreading the word at Mysaria’s direction, and ultimately, about 50 or so men and women are there on the beach at the agreed-upon hour to be escorted to Dragonstone. Among them are blacksmith Hugh the Hammer (Kieran Bew), who views this potential dragon-claiming as something of a last-ditch effort after the death of his ailing daughter, as well as Ulf the White (Tom Bennett), who we already know is the bastard half-brother of Viserys and Daemon based on his own claims in various taverns around the city.

Given how much time the season has already spent building up these two characters, it seems fairly obvious who we’ll see survive to claim a dragon and who will end up being devoured, burned to a crisp, or both. That said, it does seem important for Rhaenyra to address the group en masse before they descend into the caverns of the Dragonmont where the unclaimed dragons sleep, asserting that their lives will be forever transformed from this moment — either by the honorable sacrifice of death or by the link between dragon and rider. Her decision to bring bastards to Dragonstone, however, doesn’t sit well with the Valyrian dragonkeepers, all of whom walk out in protest rather than participate in the ceremony.

The first dragon available to be claimed, Vermithor (who we’ve met before, back in Season 1 when Daemon first sang to him), is also known as the Bronze Fury, and it’s a fairly apropos name given what transpires. Those who are familiar with the beats of Fire & Blood will know that this event ultimately goes down in history as the Red Sowing or the Sowing of the Seeds; many men and women step forward to potentially earn the right to become a dragonrider, and many of them lose their lives in the process. Amid fiery destruction, terror, and bloodshed, Ulf is knocked off the platform into the caverns, and Hugh ultimately finds himself face-to-face with Vermithor, screaming at the dragon to simply finish him off already. It turns out, though, that all the big, bronze dragon apparently needed was somebody to match his freak, and Hugh’s energy is the exact kind of bold fearlessness in the face of death that leads to him bonding with Vermithor. Meanwhile, Ulf stumbles around the caves beneath Dragonstone, searching for a way out, when he encounters a sleeping Silverwing. The dragon wakes up when he accidentally steps on a clutch of eggs, but instead of killing him where he stands, she playfully knocks him down a few times with her snout.

The next time we see Ulf, he’s hanging on for dear life in the saddle as he rides Silverwing over King’s Landing. Shouting from smallfolk in the streets eventually earns the attention of Aemond and the small council, and the sight of a dragon circling above immediately drives the prince regent to ride out to the nearby field where Vhagar is soundly sleeping, taking to the skies himself. What first appears to be an easy target for an untrained dragonrider, however, becomes a trap set for Aemond, as well as a display of strength; when the prince flies closer to Dragonstone, he realizes that Rhaenyra’s seat is practically swarming with dragons now — Silverwing, Syrax, and Vermithor, all of whom bear new riders, not to mention Moondancer and Vermax. Caraxes might still be a big question mark, thanks to Daemon, and we know Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) has ventured into the dangerous cliffs of the Vale out of a desire to claim her own dragon, but in terms of pure numbers, Rhaenyra is in a much stronger position than she was before. That said, it’s difficult not to consider the words of the dragonkeeper who chided the queen this week; how many of these dragons will become “playthings for the games of men,” ultimately sacrificed in pursuit of a war that was almost beneath them to begin with?