The episode directed by “Succession”s Andrij Parekh has attempted dragon riding, more insight into the small folk, and a shocking, steamy ending.
‘House of the Dragon’
“House of the Dragon” is on week three of Daemon’s (Matt Smith) Harrenhal staycation, and I feel like I, the viewer, am starting to hallucinate as well.
Certainly that was the predominant feeling at the end of Season 3, Episode 6, written by Eileen Shim and directed by Andrij Parekh — but we’ll get there.
All is not well in King’s Landing, where Prince Regent Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) reigns in lieu of his mother or brother. As predicted, the King’s brother is a known tyrant, intent on demonstrating his strength and his house’s during any length of rule. Admittedly Aemond has success and skill in battle, but diplomacy isn’t his forte, and the more his council pushes for it, the more he eschews political civility. He finally makes the one decision that none of them will disagree with — the council is, as you say, sexist — and dismisses Alicent to exercise his control. Aemond might be outright disrespectful to his mother, but the decision runs deeper than that. Though others who sit there also knew him as a child, only Alicent sees the wounding and vulnerability in him as an adult — and that’s partly because she wants to. The only way she can make sense of Aemond’s cruelty in the present is by blaming his past.
“Have the indignities of your childhood not yet sufficiently been avenged?” she asks. Shockingly, he does not like being reminded of said indignities, and says nothing.
At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) entreats Ser Steffon Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan) to attempt mounting the riderless dragon Seasmoke, because his lineage shows Targaryen blood. Too much time is spent on their conversation in the small council (nice to have Corlys back though!), but Darklyn’s confrontation with Seasmoke is morbidly entertaining. I expected Episode 6 to be more of that — a prolonged sequence or montage of potential dragon riders trying their hand (as in Fire & Blood). I did love the chase scene with Addam (Clinton Liberty) through the lens of Seasmoke essentially wagging his tail after his human, but why not more? There are still more episodes to go and more dragon riders to find, but it would have been engaging to do all at once.
To that end, it occurs to me that people who haven’t read “Fire & Blood” have no idea who these new characters are or why they’re being integrated — and we’re on week six of that integration in some cases. Addam and Alyn (Abubakar Salim) make sense, as they’re clearly Corlys’s heirs and Addam ostensibly became a dragon rider this week (it’s made very obvious to the point that it was worth revealing before episode’s end — but again, the actual ending…). But what of Hugh (Kieran Bew) and Ulf (Tom Bennett)? They have purpose that should be revealed shortly, but for now they’ve simply been planted into the wider story as if the audience relates to them the same as Alicent, Rhaenyra, and the others — a false equivalence that does not serve the characters. Addam and Alyn work because we know who they are and they have a clear connection to the main story, but the others are still untethered from it.
Well, not entirely — they serve as the audience conduit into the lives of the small folk, who suffer more every single day under the greens’ rule. They’re suffering, and they’re frustrated, and they’re tired of eating fish! Is this important beyond underscoring public opinion week-to-week? Not yet! In a back-and-forth about the season thus far, I dug deeper into the sanctification of Rhaenyra in particular; as much as she blusters about wanting to take flight and enter the fray, she’s not allowed to, so her idea of subterfuge is sending care packages to the citizens of King’s Landing. It is a very nice gesture, but so maddeningly kind in contrast to her opponents that once again we must wonder why anyone is taking sides at all (again, sexism).
And now of course we get to this episode’s stunning finale (Olivia Cooke voice), which did prompt me to type out “AM I HALLUCINATING” because the last thing I had typed was “Mysaria!! U should kiss.” AND THEN THEY DID.
I sometimes forget “House of the Dragon” is not nearly as canonically queer as Rhaenicent’s internet would have me believe, and while I did not have Daemon’s current wife and ex-situationship getting together on my bingo card, I’ll take it?? Mizuno and D’Arcy have insane chemistry, as evidenced by the many scenes they’ve shared thus far and how quickly their characters did develop a closeness that Rhaenyra doesn’t have elsewhere — not since Alicent. Before the season premiere, I posited that Mysaria had no allegiance to green or black, but for the time being, I think she’s firmly for the queen.
