Editor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 1.
The Big Picture
- Prince Jacaerys Velaryon goes north to secure allegiances before receiving devastating news, setting the tone for divisive threats.
- The Greens are at odds in their small council meeting; Aegon favors the use of dragons to intimidate their foes, causing tension with his advisors.
- Grieving the loss of a dragon and a prince, the Blacks plot their revenge; assassins target Aemond, leading to a tragic outcome.
Regardless of how long it's been since HBO's House of the Dragon last graced our screens, the series doesn't waste any time at all in picking up days from where we left off. You'd probably suspect otherwise, since after the brand-new opening credits sequence concludes, the episode begins not within the walls of the Red Keep or among the cliffs of Dragonstone, but much further north — as far north as one can go without running into the Wall.
That's where Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) has found himself, still working to secure precious allegiances on behalf of his mother, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy). It's no surprise that a trip to the Starks would take a little longer to return from — so much time, in fact, that Jace has had a massive glow-up, hairstyle-wise — but if Season 1 clued us into the origins of the Song of Ice and Fire, Season 2 is quick to remind us of what it prophesies, courtesy of the current Lord of Winterfell, Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor). Winter is coming — and though it may not be coming for Rhaenyra, Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), or any of their children, that doesn't mean that the present threats surrounding all of them won't be just as costly, or prove even more divisive in the weeks to come.
The Greens Aren't All on the Same Page in 'House of the Dragon' Season 2, Episode 1
Before the biggest retaliatory measure yet comes to pass, "A Son for a Son," written by co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal and directed by Alan Taylor, is as much a chance to refamiliarize ourselves with the whereabouts of every relevant player as it is a subtle harbinger of what lies ahead. Some positions may be more of a surprise than others — you could have knocked me over with a feather when the episode cut to Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), on his knees before Alicent, clearly worshipping her rather than the Seven. Moreover, the casual exchange they have about the weather afterward, as well as Alicent's quiet insistence that their brief lapse in judgment can't happen again, seems to suggest this has probably been happening for a while, so the real question is: how long has this been going on?
There's no time for Alicent and Criston to discuss their illicit relationship further, and even less time for us to process it too, before they're summoned to the latest war update meeting for the newly-crowned King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and all members of his small council. Aegon has taken it upon himself to treat it as a Bring Your Kid to Work Day, much to the chagrin of his sister-wife, Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), and her concerns about their eldest son and heir, Jaehaerys, tagging along aren't completely unfounded. The kid is definitely too young to understand any part of what's going on; he's more content to play with Ser Tyland Lannister's (Jefferson Hall) stone ball, and Aegon, in turn, is more distracted by his son's antics, while the rest of the council attempts to discuss Rhaenyra's newly-implemented blockade, one that cuts off seaboard travel and trade to King's Landing. Alicent even has to use her stern mom voice to get everything back on track.
Less desirable is the fact that Aegon has invited one more unwanted guest to the small council meeting in the form of his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), who has his own suggestions for how to take the fight directly to the Blacks. If it were up to Aegon, he and Aemond would simply hop on their dragons and either intimidate or burn those houses still on the fence into submission, but Alicent and current Hand of the King, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), aren't in favor of this plan. "If we loose the dragons to war, there'll be no calling them back," Alicent says, which feels like a particularly pointed remark towards Aemond, considering that an inability to restrain dragon impulses is exactly what got Rhaenyra's son killed. Ultimately, Otto says they have to favor “patience and restraint” in their approach to this conflict, and the obnoxious sigh Aegon lets out as he sinks in his chair is so boyish and petulant that I just have to laugh.
Speaking of Aegon, he's clearly still adjusting to his position of power, especially when it comes to hearing petitions from his people. The building war appears to be taking its toll on the people of King’s Landing as well. Apparently, a regular tithe of livestock has been demanded in order to sustain the dragons and their increased patrolling over loyal territory, and Otto has to remind his grandson that he can’t just go around promising farmers that he'll simply give them back their sheep on a whim. But even Otto's position as Hand feels a bit more precarious than normal, especially because Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) sees no problem with cozying up to the king himself or planting the seed that Otto has been installed in his role since Aegon's grandfather was king. Surely, Aegon doesn't want to be the king that Viserys (Paddy Considine) was, does he?
And Larys' machinations don't stop there, as he also informs Alicent, privately, that he's taken the liberty of hiring an all-new staff for her after eliminating those maids who were revealed to be spies for the infamous White Worm last season. Naturally, the suspicion that they'll only be spies for Larys himself remains high, and even Alicent herself seems to be aware of that possibility, later dismissing all of her maids as they attend her during her bath, so she can truly be alone. In fact, the one person she should be able to trust — her own father — seems to be undermining her in front of her own children at almost every turn, but at least now, Otto's been made aware of how much Alicent needs him on her side, especially while they're waiting for Aegon to just get tired of ruling, so they can pull the strings again. If the premiere emphasizes anything, it's that even within this supposedly allied family, individuals are plotting against each other. Why else would Criston and Aemond appear to be hatching their own plan of attack, separate from Aegon or the small council? After being called out for it by Otto, as blatantly as one can imply treason without actually saying the word aloud, Aemond professes loyalty to the crown, but the prince doesn't seem to be fooling anyone, least of all his own grandfather.
It isn't merely tension between brothers that seems to be driving this subterfuge, either; Aemond makes it known to Criston that his mother's sympathies toward Rhaenyra are a weakness. Criston, more than a little biased where Alicent is concerned at present, readily defends the queen, citing her "warm heart" while simultaneously categorizing Rhaenyra as a "cunning spider" capable of drawing anyone into her web. If Alicent holds any lingering love for Rhaenyra, Criston claims, it's only because she was manipulated into it. But, as we see later on, when Alicent is alone and lighting candles in prayer for lost family members, she deigns to honor Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) too. This private moment of mourning may very well be the last time that any kindred feeling happens between these two sides of the family — especially once Helaena's strange observation about a fear of rats takes on a tragic meaning.
Mastering the ‘House of the Dragon’ Timeline in Chronological Order
The Dance of the Dragons has just begun.
The Blacks Grieve One of Their Own in 'House of the Dragon' Season 2, Episode 1
The other side of the war is much more scattered to the winds in the wake of Lucerys' death — Jace learns of his brother's passing while still at the Wall, hanging out with the Starks, while Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) decides he'll take it upon himself to fly to King's Landing and kill Vhagar if that's what it takes. He can't make his next move alone, though, and calls upon his cousin, Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) to tag along. Two dragons are better than one, of course, especially against one as old and storied as Vhagar herself, but Rhaenys rejects the invitation to join in on something so impulsive and misguided as attacking King's Landing now. Both she and her dragon, Meleys, are exhausted from efforts spent flying over every body of water between Dragonstone and Storm's End, guarding the blockade that the Blacks have held against King's Landing. Daemon takes advantage of their conversation to assert that if Rhaenys had burned the Greens to a crisp on Aegon's coronation day when she had the chance, this subsequent tragedy wouldn't have happened.
To a point, he's not wrong, but Daemon's frustration mostly seems to stem from the fact that Rhaenyra is currently wallowing in her own grief as a mother instead of making vengeful decisions to strike back as a queen. At present, in fact, she's riding around on Syrax, looking for any signs of her son's or his dragon's body in the aftermath of the clash with Aemond and Vhagar. As Rhaenys astutely points out, Rhaenyra clearly needs to know for certain that Luke is gone before making any firm moves.
Eventually, her flight path leads her to a beach where Arrax's remains have washed up on shore, but the instinctive public response to a dragon landing nearby seems to be fleeing in terror, leaving Rhaenyra enough space to investigate what's caught in the tangle of a fishing net herself. There's a dragon wing, and just enough of Luke’s clothing left behind in the tangle to confirm that her worst fears are true. Even Syrax joins Rhaenyra in mourning for her son, releasing a cry that resonates across the shore. By the time the queen returns from her search, the only word she spares for her council is a demand for the head of Aemond Targaryen. In private, once Jace returns from the Wall, he barely makes it through recounting his success with the Arryns and the Starks before mother and son fall into each other’s arms, mourning their shared loss.
Meanwhile, the White Worm's retreat from King's Landing appears to have just become Dragonstone's gain when Daemon finds the spy herself, plucking Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) out of a fleeing ship's cargo hold. For a moment, it almost seems as though he might be inclined to make a go of it with his former paramour, considering the current fracture that's only been widening between him and Rhaenyra, but, given that Mysaria was willing to take money from their enemies in exchange for information, she's considered more of a prisoner of war than a potential ally. Later, however, Daemon suggests a transaction between them; if she gives him relevant information about how to sneak into the Red Keep undetected, she'll earn her freedom. In the wake of Rhaenyra's grief-laden demand for Aemond's head, Daemon hatches his own plan for revenge, hiring assassins to sneak inside the palace and murder the prince. One of them happens to be a member of the City Watch's Goldcloaks who still privately professes loyalty to Daemon (Sam C. Wilson); the other, a royal ratcatcher-in-residence with intimate knowledge of the Red Keep's layout (Mark Stobbart).
The two men (dubbed Blood and Cheese in George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, though they're never given those names outright in the series) sneak into the castle and, at one point, in a particularly cruel stroke of irony, walk right past Aegon and his cohort of loyal lords drinking while sprawled across the Iron Throne. It's also a plan that almost doesn't come to fruition at several points — initially, the ratcatcher has second thoughts about going upstairs to the royal apartments where servants of his ilk aren't permitted, and later, Aemond is seemingly nowhere to be found, though he's clearly just concluded his secret planning meeting with Criston if the map and coins still left out on the table are any indication.
In another set of rooms, however, the assassins discover Helaena alone, with her two children both fast asleep in bed. Remembering Daemon's words — "a son for a son" — and not wanting to return empty-handed, they order the queen to choose between her sleeping children, since they can't tell which of them is a boy merely at a glance. At first, Helaena wavers, instead offering them the very jewelry she's wearing if it'll satisfy, but then when forced, she points a trembling finger at Jaehaerys. Even then, the assailants themselves hesitate, wondering if the queen is attempting to trick them into killing a less-prized child, but one look at Helaena confirms that she's truthfully giving up the heir to the Iron Throne to be murdered.
It's an event that proves even more horrifying thanks to what we don't see, but rather hear. Grabbing her surviving daughter, Helaena runs out of the room to the horrific sounds of her firstborn son and the heir to the Iron Throne being stabbed and decapitated, through the Red Keep, all the way to her mother's bedroom — where, unsurprisingly, Alicent and Criston are going at it yet again. Helaena sinks to the floor, her second son in her arms, seemingly numb at first, until she looks at Alicent with resolve and says, almost calmly, "They killed the boy."
House of the Dragon
In the House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere, Rhaenyra and the Blacks reel from a devastating loss, while Alicent and the Greens seem more divided than ever.
- Emma D'Arcy is impossible to look away from in their performance as a grieving Rhaenyra this week.
- Olivia Cooke continues to offer depth and dimension to Alicent, who feels torn between clashing loyalties.
- The infamous Blood and Cheese storyline is almost more horrifying based on what we don't witness.
- The season premiere feels more like a prologue for much bigger events rather than a first chapter.
New episodes of House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.
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