Yahoo News House of the Dragon Recap: Hand Off — Plus, Who Dies This Week?
Better get that LinkedIn profile spiffed up, Otto. Because, by the end of House of the Dragon’s latest episode, you are officially unemployed.
Whether Aegon’s dumping of the long-standing Hand of the King is a good idea or not kinda depends on who you ask. The baby-man king thinks his grandfather is too conservative in his counsel, too hesitant to avenge young Jaehaerys’ death. Alicent knows that her dad is one of the few guiderails keeping Aegon from going nuclear against Rhaenyra & Co.; his dismissal creates a whole new set of problems for a family already full up. And Larys? Well, this was his plan all along, wasn’t it?
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Meanwhile, at Dragonstone, Rhaenyra has a sickening realization that leads to a major rift with Daemon. Read on for Episode 2’s highlights.
CHAOS IN KING’S LANDING | In the immediate aftermath of Jaehaerys’ murder, a distraught Aegon destroys Viserys’ model of Old Valyria and declares war on his enemies. Aemon returns home, sees the secret door in his room open, and has to infer that he was the attack’s target, right? Alicent sees the killing as somehow tied to her getting some good-knight lovin’ from Ser Criston. “The gods punish us, they punish me!” she cries, but Otto is very chill. “We mourn as we must, but some good may yet come of this,” he says, and pragmatism is good and all, but dude, THEY JUST DECAPITATED YOUR BABY GREAT-GRANDSON.
At an emergency meeting of the small council, Aegon demands to know where Ser Criston was when everything happened. “Abed, your grace,” he replies, which technically is not a lie! The king then turns his ire toward his mother for wanting to show Rhaenyra some leniency, but Larys interrupts with the news that they apprehended Blood trying to flee town “with the child’s head in a sack.”
Aegon wants to kill the man himself, but Otto counsels that they need to question him. And, he hints, even if the hit wasn’t ordered by Rhaenyra, they’ll make the realm think it was in order to help bolster public opinion in Aegon’s favor. To that end: They’re going to parade Jaehaerys’ corpse through the city to show everyone what Rhaenyra allegedly did. “Jaeherys wil do more for us now than a thousand knights in battle,” Otto intones, adding that Alicent and Helaena will ride behind the boy’s body, even though neither of them wants to. And when the dowager queen brings her daughter the news, she also tries to gauge how much Helaena saw when she burst into Alicent’s room the night before. But the queen doesn’t want to discuss it, and that’s that.
WORST. PARADE. EVER. | Meanwhile, in the dungeon, Larys proves he is the lowkey scariest person on this show by getting a full confession out of Blood – including the implication of the ratcatcher and Daemon — just by laying out his instruments of torture.
The funeral procession goes about as well as you’d think. “Behold the work of Rhaenyra Targaryen, pretendahhhhhh to the throne! Kingslayer! Defilaaaaahhh of the innocent!” a guard shouts repeatedly as the carriage snakes its way through the city. Neither Alicent nor Helaena is having a good time, but when the wagon gets stuck in a rut and the grieving populace closes in, the younger woman physically tries to flee the carriage. In the tumult, someone yells “A curse on Rhaenyra, the monstress!” like he’s trying to audition to play this guy in Frozen.
Later, Alicent and Cole have a whispered conversation about absolution. “There is none for what I’ve done,” he says, balling up all those bad feelings and then (metaphorically) vomiting them out all over Ser Arryk Cargyll later. Cole picks on his fellow knight for having a dirty cloak, then lays into him, wondering where he was when the prince was killed. Cargyll replies that he was with Aegon, who was drinking in the Throne Room. But while we’re on the subject: “Where were you, Lord Commander?” (Side note: I laughed out loud at how quickly everyone else leaves the room when it becomes clear things are going sideways.) Ser Criston says that Erryk’s defection, as well as the prince’s murder on Arryk’s watch, has “brought disgrace upon our ranks, and now you must restore it.” So he orders the knight to go to Dragonstone, pretend to be his twin brother, and kill Rhaenyra. Cargyll really does not want to do so, but he also can’t disobey an order, so he says he’ll go.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE | In a King’s Landing brothel, Aemond — sans eyepatch and everything else — is cradled by the establishment’s madam. He boasts that he’s proud that Daemon wants him dead and confesses that he’s sorry he “lost my temper” the day that Lucerys died; she tries to turn the conversation to sexy times, but he just wants to cuddle, putting his head in her lap as he curls into the fetal position. “I would remind you only that when princes lose their temper,” she counsels, “it is others who suffer. The smallfolk, like me.”
In related smallfolk news: We see Hugh, the smith who petitioned Aegon in the premiere, at home with his wife and daughter; the latter is ill. She mentions that food is becoming more scarce because of the blockade, and she’s not comforted by his report that the king promised payment.
MEANWHILE, AT DRAGONSTONE… | News of Jaeherys’ killing, and her blame in the matter, reaches Rhaenyra. “But it’s a lie,” she says, incredulous. “Having lost my own son, that I would inflict such a thing, on Helaena of all people? An innocent?” One of my favorite moments in the series so far comes immediately after, as Rhaenys — who immediately knows what’s up — gives Daemon the hairy eyeball from across the painted table, and he slooooooooowly turns his head to meet her gaze. My next favorite moment immediately follows, when Rhaenyra does a literal double take as she, too, realizes how depraved her husband truly is.
“Did you send assassins to murder children in their beds?” she asks in horror when they’re alone. “I sent the queen’s vengeance for her son,” he replies, unbothered. She demands details. “I was clear in my instructions… I cannot be responsible for their mistake,” he says, which is a good rationale for when I’m not irked that Dunkin made my coffee with cream when I asked for skim, but perhaps a weak one in these circumstances. It’s also not enough for Rhaenyra, who’s had enough.
“You have wounded me. Weakened my claim to the throne. My ability to raise an army. My standing among my own council,” she says, adding that she doesn’t believe Daemon’s orders weren’t to spill Hightower blood, no matter what. “And so we come to it at long last: I cannot trust you, Daemon. I’ve never trusted you wholly, much that I wished to, willed myself to.”
He’s angry, and he only gets angrier when she says he’s only backing her as a means to reclaim the inheritance he thinks he’s owed. He violently sweeps a cup off the table. He grabs her face. He whisper-spits at her that he put the crown on her head himself. But she reminds him that he held a war council while she was *checks notes* laboring through a stillbirth alone on the bedroom floor. When he refers to the Iron Throne as belonging to Viserys, she loudly corrects him, “My throne, Daemon. Mine!”
Gods, at this point, Rhaenyra is so upset and tired that she looks like she needs a good bath, a good book and a week living in a Nora Ehrpon movie. “Do you accept me as your queen and ruler? Or do you cling, even now, to what you think you lost?” she asks, already knowing the answer. He counters that Viserys made her queen to spite him. She says no, it was that Viserys never trusted him. She calls him “pathetic,” but there’s no fight left in her, and she sits defeatedly as he stalks out, mounts his dragon and leaves.
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THE MURDER PLOT THICKENS | For a palate cleanser, let’s spend some time with a couple who actually like each other, hmm? Rhaenys and Coryls lie in bed, naked and presumably post-sexy times, discussing whether or not Daemon will challenge Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne. Rhaenys doesn’t think it’s likely, but “neither can he allow her to command him,” she says. “Pity,” he notes with a smile, “I have had occasion for that to be quite enjoyable.” Corlys, you little minx! (Side note: I love this scene so much. The easy way they hold each other. The way she distractedly plays with his chest while they’re chatting. The genuine affection these two have for each other, regardless of everything that’s gone before/is currently going on. Such good stuff.)
Elsewhere, Rhaenyra summons Mysaria and demands to know what part she played in the killing of Helaena and Aegon’s son. She eventually cops to giving Daemon two names, but says it was in exchange for her freedom. As they talk, Rhaenyra remembers that Mysaria was someone who had a relationship (of sorts) with Daemon; they bond (slightly) over their shared hatred of the Hightower family. Rhaenyra ultimately grants Mysaria her leave.
BUT, as Mysaria is walking down to the ship that will take her away, she notices Ser Arryk Cargyll walking up to the castle, and she knows something is up. The Greens-loyal twin gains access to Rhaenyra in her chambers and pulls a blade, saying, “Believe me, I had on choice.” But then Erryk enters, and they get into a sword fight, right there in the bedroom. A handmaid runs for help while Rhaenyra tries to stay out of their way; when Ser Lawrence arrives, he can’t tell which brother is the interloper. I’m shorthanding here, but the Cargyll’s really wound each other. “I still love you, brother!” one cries, just before one of them runs a sword through the other, asks Rhaenyra for her forgiveness, then puts the weapon through his own belly. Not to get all Ron Burgundy here, but that escalated QUICKLY.
NO MORE BLOOD, NO MORE CHEESE | Aegon goes to the cell where Blood is held and kills him. Then, because Blood couldn’t cough up Cheese’s name, the king orders the deaths of all the ratcatchers in the city; all are strung up outside the castle. Otto is irate when he hears about it — not because it’s so much needless death, but because he thinks it undermines everything he did with the funeral procession and smear campaign. THEN Aegon announces that Ser Criston sent Arryk to kill Rhaenyra, which causes Otto to lash out at his grandson. “F—k dignity. I want revenge,” Aegon says, noting that his father is dead and no longer in charge. “He is,” Otto shoots back. “And we are the poorer for it.”
There are some more harsh words exchanged, and Otto makes to leave, but Aegon stops him. “You were my father’s hand, not mine,” the king says, parroting Larys’ comments from the previous episode and instructing Otto to take off the Hand pin. “Insolent pup,” Hightower says. “Give it to Cole. My new Hand will be a steel fist,” Aegon replies, seemingly surprising the knight as much as anyone else in the room. “You will regret this,” Otto says on his way out.
Otto and Alicent commiserate about how no one is playing a long game here. They strategize that he’ll go to Highgarden to shore up support among the Tyrells’ bannermen, and she’ll work on Aegon in the meantime. She tries to unburden herself to him before he leaves (“I have sinned”), but he doesn’t want to hear what she has to say.
On her way to her room, she finds Aegon weeping over the loss of Jaehaerys, but makes no move to comfort him. When she reaches her quarters, Ser Criston is waiting for her near the bed. She slaps him twice and shoves him, and he doesn’t try to stop her until he grabs her hands and pushes her toward the armoire. Then they kiss, and pretty soon, he’s sticking her with the pointy end, right there against the wardrobe.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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