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The latest episode of House of the Dragon is called ‘The Princess and the Queen’ which is also the title of a story by George R. R. Martin about this very tale, the Dance of the Dragons. We have experienced small and large time jumps already in this show, but this time, ten years worth, is the longest yet.
We get new actors for siblings Laena and Leanor (their third portrayals) and a new one for Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) — stellar performances all around, especially as this is the first we’ve seen of characters we’ve already gotten a chance to know either a little (the Velaryons) or a lot (the titular Princess and Queen).
The episode does work quite well as a new sort of pilot for the show, but it’s also a bit jarring because there are a lot of missing segments that I think we’ve missed out on. We see that Rhaenyra now has three children, after a very well done one shot opening sequence of the post-birthing Princess limping her way through the Red Keep — and that all are from Ser Harwin Strong, the strapping dude who’s been teased since the first episode in different ways.
Although the episode does do a good job to show his care and affection toward his natural sons and lover, the fact that we don’t see any of the start of their relationship makes it a bit harder to really connect to his death at the end of the episode. In the book, there are many suspects for the death of the elder Strong men, but it is ruled by most as an accident.
Larys is indeed one of the potential suspects listed, but the confirmation by the show is the first truly horrific act by one of our actors in the world of the show — the act of kinslaying. Larys serves to gain much from his horrible deed, but we see nothing but mild okay vibes between the Strong brothers so the surprise is a little hard to justify within the context of the show alone. His being disabled and oft ignored are drivers hinted at but never fully explored, so it’s certainly a bit of a shock, albeit one that’s teased a bit at least in this episode.
In similar ‘we’re missing some scenes’ vibes, we also catch up with Laena and Daemon, now a somewhat happily married couple with two children and another one on the way. We saw their flirtation (initiated by her) in the last episode, but there’s an enormous amount we still could’ve seen. The older version of Laena (played by the striking Nanna Blondell so well here) is already shown with such agency and depth that her suicide-by-immolation completely tracks for her character as shown so far — if only we could’ve seen more.
Her death made perfect sense from her perspective — she wanted to die a ‘dragonrider’s death’ instead of a housewife and she’s well aware of how the men were talking about maybe trying to kill her to save the baby. Whether or not Daemon would’ve really considered it is hard to say, because his low energy in this episode didn’t give as much info to really grasp their rapport — the only thing we really know is that he certainly had no issue with impotence this time around.
Another one of those ‘I’m not sure how this works’ missing bits is our foolish Ser Criston Cole, now a loyal servant to the Queen and with a lot of jealousy and rage a decade after being hurt by the Princess. Exactly how he managed to get off from his murderous rage in the last episode is left unexplained (even if easy explanations, like self defense, could’ve been offered). It’s an annoying little detail that is frustrating if not a major problem, but there are a few of those brought up by the ten year jump.
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Perhaps the most significant is that of the children, the three silver haired kids from Alicent, and the two dark haired boys from Rhaenyra. We get their names and hints of things — but mainly all we know is that Aegon is a bit of a jerk and his mother is passing on Otto’s paranoia about his future (as well as giving him that ‘you should be the king’ mantra). And his younger brother Aemond is a sad boy without a dragon, and their sister is an odd girl who likes bugs.
But from the two ‘Velaryon’ boys we get almost nothing to differentiate them. These are the sorts of things that a little bit less of a time jump would’ve helped, and would’ve truly made the deaths of Harwin and Laena memorable in a way that would live past this season. But the episode makes smart choices with the two of them, both dying by fire, but only one by choice.
I’ll miss smart, mostly impartial Lyonel Strong, perhaps one of the most level headed people we’ve seen in this realm of Westeros, and the potential stories lost for Harwin and Laena more than the characters themselves. Viserys is even more decrepit than ever, missing an arm but still trying to keep the peace and wilfully hiding from the truth. In a way, he’s one of the most relatable characters because he’s just sick of the politicking and just wants his family to be happy.
The episode does a good job of balancing our views of Alicent and Rhaenyra, with the latter by far the more overtly mature one but one that we know has been lying about her children for a decade. The Queen seems more problematic and troubled, but we know that above all she fears for her children — the legacy of her father’s warning. So war is closer than ever.
Other than my quibbles about the missing time jump scenes, it was a very strong episode, and a good example of how these new ‘adult’ actors can easily step into the characters we’ve already seen so much depth from. Honestly I think the season could’ve been even longer considering the story we’ve gotten so far, but I’m quite pleased by the progress so far.
New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO, streaming on HBO Max.
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