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The latest episode of House of the Dragon is called ‘We Light the Way’ which is a reference to the words of House Hightower and a connection to the throughline of Alicent forging a path that might end very badly. Here we see a very clear path from Alicent being advised by her father in an unusual moment of actual affection to the end of the episode where she intercedes in Ser Criston Cole’s attempt to kill himself for his dishonor.
The episode starts by immediately breaking our hearts by introducing Daemon’s estranged wife Rhea Royce (Rachel Redford) who is already so great, that when Daemon kills her, it feels like something meaningful. There’s a lot of set-up too for what we discover is Laenor’s lover Ser Joffrey Lonmouth — the chemistry between them is apparent, even if perhaps he’s not entirely so smart when it comes to reading other people.
He correctly saw that Criston was obviously into the Princess, but what he didn’t see was that perhaps a Kingsguard from a very minor house might be sensitive about ‘keeping secrets’. Of course he didn’t know how Criston was spiraling after his little encounter with the Princess and how he feels like he’s betrayed his oath for no good reason.
The dude is spiraling throughout the episode and interestingly he is all too happy to admit guilt to the Queen — he wants absolution or punishment. No wonder he’s on such an edge that he snaps and kills Ser Joffrey later — or that Alicent chooses to take advantage of his circumstances for the potential upcoming ‘war’ of succession that her father warns her about.
It’s all very slow build stuff, and Alicent also has one of the great moments of the episode where she interrupts the King’s speech with a very particularly chosen dress that catches everyone’s eye. But although Viserys knows something’s up, he’s also focused on his own issues, like his continuing ailments and concerns about his legacy. His conversation with his new Hand Lyonel Strong was illuminating in this way, in that he’s still worried about how history will see him — but we already know people see him as weak.
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But will they see him as the cause of what was teased in the very start of the season, the fall of House Targaryen? The Strong family gets a great showing this episode too, with Lyonel continuing to give good advice and the disabled son Larys planting seeds of discord between the Queen and the Princess. And of course his beefy brother Ser Harwin shares a quick dance with the Princess and later literally picks her up to save her from the crowd. They seem like a fun family so far.
The clever interaction where Rhaenyra offers a compromise that compares sexuality to ‘dining’ on a duck or a goose is likely pointless after Ser Joffrey’s death, but it does serve as a useful reminder of her potential understanding of her political reality and her attempts to be as free as she is permitted to be.
The final moments of the wedding completing in a room with barely anyone at all, and then the King passing out while a rat nibbles on the blood on the floor is quite an obvious thematic image — but I don’t mind it, sometimes you don’t need things to be that subtle.
The episode handles a lot of the different dramatic perspectives quite well, to the point that multiple people are flirting with multiple people. Daemon continues to pursue the Princess in his own demented way while now pursuing the young Laena as a backup — not that she seemed to mind, of course.
A classic sort of Westeros wedding — inevitably something goes wrong and usually someone dies. In this case it’s several episodes worth of build-up leaving us in this place where it’s certainly all messed up but a lot of intrigue for the future. Unfortunately this episode spells the end for the younger versions of Rhaenyra and Alicent, whose actresses have really been so good this whole time — but at least we get two potentially new great ones to replace them.
It was a pretty wild ride of an episode, building up to the conflict we knew was inevitable, but man — what a great time until then. So far this first season has really cemented a very solid new entry into the Westeros universe and I’m completely invested in what’s to come.
New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO, streaming on HBO Max.
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