Warning: This review contains graphic descriptions of infant loss and stillbirth. This content may be triggering to some readers.
We are about to recap the House of the Dragon finale in copious detail. If you haven’t finished the season, stop reading now!
The penultimate episode ended with the “Green” faction, led by Otto and Alicent Hightower, taking advantage of King Viserys’ death and Princess Rhaenyra’s absence from the capital to usurp the throne and crown Alicent’s Very Bad son, Aegon.
But their plan was not perfect. Viserys’ cousin, Princess Rhaenys, escaped captivity and crashed the coronation on her dragon. Passing up a chance to roast the Greens alive, and end the coup in one stroke, she fled to Dragonstone to warn Rhaenyra.
We begin with a shot of Dragonstone’s famous Painted Table, which is carved in the shape of Westeros and shows its various cities and castles. It is calm and peaceful, with only the sound of waves crashing in the background.
Later in this episode the table is lit from below by candles, giving it the appearance of being on fire. Which is fitting, as the realm is about to be set ablaze by war.
Rhaenyra’s second eldest son, Lucerys, tells her he can’t become the next lord of Driftmark. His logic is pretty sound: the role involves commanding fleets of ships, and he can’t set foot on one without getting seasick. But that is not how it works in this world, where such roles are inherited through family lines rather than merit.
Rhaenyra responds that she was the same age, 14, when her father named her heir to the Iron Throne, and carried the same self-doubt.
They’re interrupted by the arrival of Rhaenys, who bears the unwelcome news that Rhaenyra’s father is dead and her throne has been stolen.
Daemon leaps to the conclusion that Viserys was murdered, just as poor old Lyman Beesbury did before his head got smooshed. Is it really so hard to believe that a man whose limbs were falling off and whose face was melting died of natural causes? Apparently so.
Much was made of Rhaenys’s decision not to kill the Greens last week when she had them at her mercy. Daemon confronts her over it. Here, then, is the explanation in her own words: “A war is like to be fought over this treachery, to be sure. But that war is not mine to begin.”
When someone could have murdered all your enemies for you but now you’re gonna have to do it yourself. Photo /HBO
Rhaenyra’s shock at the news brings on the stillbirth of her daughter. This scene was addressed by the showrunners in their Inside the Episode clip, so I’ll let them explain it.
“I think there’s a deep sense of injustice. The thing that she had always fought so hard against, about being kind of the fetid mother, is exactly where she finds herself at the point where the most important conversations of her life are happening,” said Rhaenyra’s actor, Emma D’Arcy.
“She’s at war with herself, with her own body. There’s a lot of emotional complexity in terms of this war that’s starting without her, and that’s literally tearing her apart,” said the episode’s director, Greg Yaitanes.
Daemon addresses what few lords and knights are present on Dragonstone, organising the island’s defence. He also orders that ravens be sent to friendly houses, to start rallying support.
Rhaenyra’s eldest son, Jacaerys, tells him to stop, citing Rhaenyra’s order that no action be taken without her. Daemon is not best pleased by this.
Ser Erryk Cargyll arrives, having fled King’s Landing in the previous episode. It turns out Erryk stole Viserys’s crown on his way out – that’s what he was carrying in his little satchel.
He presents it to Rhaenyra, swearing fealty to her, and the small crowd of assembled lords kneel before her. With one exception: Rhaenys remains standing.
Stellar work from composer Ramin Djawadi here. Just as Aegon’s coronation included a triumphant version of Alicent’s theme, this scene gives us the culmination of Rhaenyra’s, mixed with the music from episode one when she was named heir. It’s a banger.
The newly crowned Queen holds a war council to take stock of the situation. In terms of manpower, it’s not good for her. But as one of her bannermen, Lord Celtigar, points out, she has one key advantage: dragons.
Every viewer’s face when Otto shows up. Photo /HBO
The Greens have three, ridden by King Aegon, Queen Helaena and Prince Aemond. By Daemon’s reckoning, he and Rhaenyra have 13, though the majority of those do not currently have riders. Which might be a problem.
Daemon proposes they gather an army at Harrenhal, surround King’s Landing with dragons, and “have every Green head mounted on spikes before the f***ing moon turns”.
The meeting is interrupted by the less than welcome arrival of a ship whose sails bear a green Targaryen dragon. Otto Hightower has come, bearing the terms Alicent pushed for last week.
Daemon meets him on the same bridge that hosted their confrontation in episode two. Just as she did then, Rhaenyra arrives on dragonback. She lands in precisely the same spot and, once again, strolls casually through Otto’s retinue.
Otto calls her “Princess Rhaenyra”, ignoring the crown on her head.
Aegon’s supposedly generous offer is as follows: Rhaenyra keeps Dragonstone, and it passes to Jace when she dies; Luke remains heir to Driftmark; and her sons with Daemon get places “of high honour” at court. As the King’s cupbearer, for example.
Daemon, with a typical turn of phrase, responds that he’d rather feed his children to a dragon than have them carry wine for Otto’s “drunken usurper c*** of a king”.
Rhaenyra is also pissed off – she rips the badge of office from Otto’s chest and throws it into the sea, calling him a “f***ing traitor” – but her fury is halted when he hands over the ripped out page of a book.
It’s the page Rhaenyra herself tore out of Alicent’s history book in episode one, when they were still close friends. Clearly Alicent has kept it all these years, even when the pair were antagonistic towards each other. Tears well in Rhaenyra’s eyes.
“Queen Alicent has not forgotten the love you once bore for each other. No blood need be spilled. The realm can carry on in peace. Queen Alicent eagerly awaits your answer,” Otto tells her.
Daemon is keen to send back their answer now, stuffed in Otto’s mouth “along with his withered c**k” – there’s that turn of phrase again. Rhaenyra instead says she will consider the Hightowers’ offer.
I guess all the usurping and couping is OK then. Photo /HBO
Night falls, and the war council reconvenes. Rhaenyra resists the idea of using dragons, citing her father’s warning that doing so would make “everything” burn. She says she has no desire to rule a kingdom of “ash and bone”, and suggests her duty to preserve “peace and unity” is more important than placing herself on the throne.
“That’s your father talking,” an increasingly huffy Daemon says. We know he saw Viserys as weak and dithering. Now, to his frustration, he feels Rhaenyra is falling into the same pattern.
“You know my oath reaches beyond our personal ambitions,” Rhaenyra says, assuming, as Daemon was once heir to the throne, that Viserys shared the information about Aegon’s dream with him (apparently this topic has never come up before in all their years together).
Daemon, in fact, had no idea, and he’s not keen on letting prophetic dreams guide their actions. He grabs Rhaenyra by the throat and chokes her.
“My brother was a slave to his omens and portents. Anything to make his feckless reign appear to have purpose. Dreams didn’t make us kings, dragons did.”
Then he releases her. Rhaenyra is genuinely shaken, suggesting physical abuse has not been a feature of their marriage before now. We, the audience, have seen what Daemon is capable of, and while Rhaenyra is certainly not naive, perhaps this was her first glimpse of just how dark he can be.
Oh no, turns out my husband who is also my uncle and who groomed me from a young age and murdered his first wife is a sociopath. Photo / HBO
Elsewhere in the castle, Corlys Velaryon wakes up to find his wife, Rhaenys, at his bedside. I believe this is the first time they’ve seen each other in about six years, since Laenor’s death.
Rhaenys berates Corlys for abandoning her. He, having almost died from his illness, is contrite, and renounces the ambitions that previously drove him. He says they will remain neutral in the building conflict and retreat to Driftmark with their grandchildren.
It’s Rhaenys who points out the glaring problem with that plan: Jace, Luke and Joffrey are all in the royal line of succession, and “will not be safe” with Aegon on the throne.
And while her opinion of Rhaenyra has never been great, she gives the Queen credit for showing restraint while all her advisers push for war. It seems she has gained new respect for Viserys’ daughter.
“Wife, I swear, I’m ready to give up fighting.” “A war’s about to happen.” “Well hell, why didn’t you say so, count me in.” Photo /HBO
Back to the Painted Table. Corlys makes his grand entrance and declares his support for Rhaenyra. This gives her control of the largest fleet in Westeros, and also of the Narrow Sea. Corlys suggests a blockade of King’s Landing, which will allow Rhaenyra’s forces to encircle the capital and force the Greens’ surrender.
For that plan to be viable, though, she needs more soldiers. Rhaenyra identifies houses Stark, Arryn and Baratheon as her most important diplomatic targets.
Jacaerys interjects, suggesting his mother send him and Luke in person as envoys instead of relying on ravens. There is an echo here of the Small Council scene from episode two, when Rhaenyra told her father to send her to the Stepstones.
Viserys shot her down. Rhaenyra does the opposite, accepting the wisdom of her son’s suggestion. She sends Jace on the longer journey to both the Eerie and Winterfell, and gives Luke the (seemingly) safer job, tasking him with winning over the Baratheons.
She assures Luke that Lord Borros Baratheon will give him a warm welcome, which is a sure giveaway that something bad is coming.
Jace imagining all the northern girls he’s about to meet. Photo /HBO
Daemon has disappeared at this point. It turns out he is walking alone through the Dragonmont, where the riderless dragons make their home, singing in Valyrian.
We see him come face-to-face with a particularly fierce looking beast, which I believe is Vermithor, once the dragon of King Jaehaerys.
And with that, we reach the main drama of the finale. Luke arrives at the seat of House Baratheon, Storm’s End, to find Vhagar – the oldest and most battle-hardened dragon alive – chilling in the courtyard.
Her rider, Aemond, is already inside the castle, being hosted by Lord Borros. Aemond has offered to marry one of his daughters in return for his support.
Luke delivers his mother’s message – Borros is illiterate, so there’s an awkward silence while he sends for the maester to read the scroll for him. The message is merely a reminder of the Baratheons’ oath to Rhaenyra, which she assumed would be sufficient.
Wrongly. Borros asks which of his daughters Luke will offer to marry. The boy notes that he is unavailable, having been betrothed already. So Borros essentially tells him to p*** off.
When your fashion sense is “sinister chic”. Photo / HBO
As Luke turns to leave, Aemond calls him back. He throws Luke a knife and tells the 14-year-old to cut out an eye “as payment” for his own childhood wound.
Aemond also removes his patch, revealing he’s replaced his lost eyeball with a fetching sapphire – a real rich boy move, that.
Luke refuses. When Aemond threatens to do it himself, Borros stops him, demanding there be no blood shed in his hall.
Outside a full-blown storm has begun. Luke mounts his dragon, Arrax, and flees into the sky. But he’s followed by Aemond on Vhagar.
Aemond chases his nephew for a bit, seemingly toying with him, and laughing like a madman. Luke is terrified – and so is Arrax.
In what seems to be an instinctive, defensive move, the younger dragon ignores his master’s commands and blasts Vhagar in the face with a volley of fire. Vhagar isn’t hurt by it, but she is infuriated, and Aemond loses control of her.
As Luke and Arrax break through the clouds and emerge from the storm, Vhagar swoops on them and rips the smaller dragon, and his rider, into shreds.
You vs the dragon she tells you not to worry about. Photo /HBO
Hey I think we’re in the clear. Photo / HBO
Oh. Photo /HBO
This is an important change from the source material.
In Fire and Blood, an in-universe history book which tells the story of House Targaryen (and is the basis for this TV adaptation), Aemond is said to have murdered Luke on purpose. Here we see it was an accident – he was just trying to scare Luke when both young men lost control of their dragons.
This twist, it transpires, was foreshadowed in plain sight all the way back in episode one, when Viserys discussed the Targaryens’ dragons with his daughter.
“The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They’re a power man should never have trifled with. One that brought Valyria its doom. If we don’t mind our own histories, it will do the same to us,” he said at the time.
The Targaryens did “trifle” with that power. They allowed children to ride around on sentient weapons of mass destruction, thinking they were in complete control. And that hubris is what causes Luke’s death, the inciting incident for a war that will leave the family at a fraction of its former might.
Anyway, Aemond has a long flight back to King’s Landing in front of him. Remember the sinking feeling you had in the pit of your gut when you were taking a terrible school report card home to your parents? That’s Aemond now, trying to come up with a good way to tell his famously short-tempered mother that he kinda sorta murdered his nephew and started a continent-spanning civil war. Oops.
The season ends with Rhaenyra learning about her son’s death. At first we only see her back, but then she turns, and we see the mix of grief and fury upon her face. If peace was an option before, it isn’t anymore.
My face when I go to the cookie jar and it’s empty. Photo /HBO
House of the Dragon is available to stream on Neon
