I basically commented on the final episode of House of the Dragon when I talked about the leaks that ended up on TikTok days before the official airing. Many people complained about an open-ended “conclusion”, but, by now, we know that the fan community already stands out for being grumpy, demanding, and even belligerent.

I usually end up in the group of complainers, but today, I’m not. It was a good conclusion as we’ve been next. There were foreshadowings, there were confrontations, there was betrayal, there was reconciliation, there was humor, and even drama. And we’re going to talk about it all here.

Those who expected a destructive battle to end season 2 (if you know, you know) or another loss felt on Rhaenyra’s side are in the group of those who were dissatisfied. The artistic liberties that changed some aspects of the known story (the clandestine meeting between Rhaenyra and Alicent in King’s Landing) also irritated the purists who hated yet another scene of our antagonists trying to negotiate the non-negotiable, but with Emma D’Arcy and Emilia Cooke performing, do you really want to criticize? I don’t.

I understood the writers’ choice, but I was much more bothered by Daemon’s grand vision mixed with Helaena distributing spoilers with greater commitment than MiscelAna. The idea of ​​House of the Dragon, in some way, is to highlight the difficulty women have in imposing themselves on the patriarchy, and in this mess that the relationship between the former childhood friends was left with, they manage to show many things. Let’s get to the episode.

The alliances that threaten Rhaenyra

In the War part, there is less a question of prejudices than the sadness of the failure of the human soul. The indignation of uncle and nephew, Aemond and Jacaerys are livid with the desperate attitude of Rhaenyra who “distributed” dragons to bastards and the poor, taking away the prestige of the Targaryens and much of the mystery of how to tame the animals. She only sees the numerical advantage, the men are already going back and forth on what it really means.

But before all that, we open the episode with tense but comical moments, of Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) in Essos negotiating with frustration the support of the Triarchy to support the Greens. It was the mission given to him by Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), but it has been difficult. After many physical, financial, and cultural challenges, he manages to win the trust and participation of Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn). Sharako wants an act of revenge against the Velaryon fleet. Together, they set sail to break the blockade around King’s Landing heading for Gullet.

In Westeros, Aemond vents his hatred for Vhagar by burning an entire city to ashes. We know that a Targaryen will follow his example centuries later; it is part of the House’s DNA. But he does not have the support of Helaena (Phia Saban) or Alicent, both horrified by what he did.

The two queens reach a common point: their interference in events is null, but they are the ones who deal most directly with the consequences, losing children and always expecting the worst. In an indirect complaint for what Alicent fought for – placing the Crown in the hands of Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) – Helaena confesses that she was happier before she was Queen, and Alicent knows exactly what she means. She also knows that it was she who, by forcing a marriage between siblings, placed her own daughter in an unhappy union and a complex role. Recently returned from a spiritual camp, Alicent asks Helaena where she would like to go if she wants to escape, but the two are interrupted by Aemond.

Without any tact, next to Aegon’s example, Aemond demands that Helaena fly on her dragon Dreamfyre to help in the war. She refuses, Alicent interferes, and a quick airing of dirty laundry ensues. Aemond ends up throwing yet another charge at his mother: if she didn’t want the conflict, why did she start it? Furthermore, she knows that being Queen is ephemeral and useless because what a woman wants is virtually weightless in the middle of a war. For now, Aemond keeps quiet and leaves.

In his room at the Red Keep, Aegon can barely walk, is depressed, and is asked by Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) not only to react but to run away and think about the future. How to run away, he is surprised. When he learns of Rhaenyra’s imminent invasion (more on this below), he wonders: why is he so destroyed and deformed, can’t pee without urine running down his leg, if his sister was supposed to keep the Crown as was always expected? Yes, the episode is not subtle in hammering home the pointlessness of violent confrontations.

Larys, the most cruel and cunning guy in the sad story, explains that it is just a pause, one that he always knew how to foresee. Letting Aemond deal with Rhaenyra is to Aegon’s advantage because he will come back better only to deal with the victorious but weakened party. Aegon is destroyed, but thinking about killing his brothers is incentivizing enough. He agrees to do whatever Larys wants.

Far away, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), so intent on destroying and killing, is now a sad philosopher of the impacts of the War. After Rook’s Nest he (finally?) understood his size amid everything, especially on the battlefield where there are dragons: nothing. He knows that death is certain and thinking about Alicent, he is confronted by Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) about his hypocrisy in having broken his Kingsguard vows by sleeping with his sister. Criston admits everything and agrees that his choice of women has only brought sadness and that it makes no difference if everyone will soon turn to dust. It seems that Gwayne had either forgotten or was just thinking the same thing there because the silence of both is yet another hint of the episode about the emptiness of the War in general.

Let’s talk about Criston Cole now: he was loyal to Rhaenyra and felt used and despised (with good reason, she doesn’t remember his existence), so he joined Alicent in a relationship built on resentment, envy, and jealousy. His rise to the highest position of Hand of the King came by chance and clear lack of choice, not exactly because he was the lover of the Green Queen or the true father figure of Aemond or Aegon, something that should have been explored and wasn’t.

Criston, in the book, is warlike and strategic, in House of the Dragon he is more like a young man of simple origins swallowed up by a superior social caste that destroyed his soul. He is not scary or commands respect like in the pages, he is more of an idiot, like Alicent, who joined the cause for more personal reasons and was not ready for the Game of Thrones.

And from there we go to the only one still committed and engaged in this war, Daemon (Matt Smith), already accustomed to Harrenhal and now with a large army to invade King’s Landing at his disposal. Awakened by Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), he is taken to Weirdwood where, in a teaser of what happened to Bran Stark, he has visions of the future (seeing everything that will happen to him, the dragons, the White Walkers, Brynden Rivers — better known as the Three-Eyed Raven — and even Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) with her three baby dragons. The vision ends with Helaena looking at him, telling him that he must play his part in the great history of Westeros.

Thank God that being a one-time thing, Daemon didn’t become robotic like Bran. In Game of Thrones, we only know more details about the future King Stark’s visions when he looks at the past, the glimpse of what is yet to happen is, as Alys expected, decisive for the show. After weeks of nightmares, erotic or not, Daemon is ready to decide whether he will betray Rhaenyra or not.

And if we had questioned as Helaena was in the vision and it is because she was REALLY there and saw everything and a little more. She is interrupted by Aemond, now meek, but still insisting that she help him in the attack on the blacks.

The conversation about the brothers, who we once thought were lovers (they are not), is tough. Helaena has not changed her mind and warns Aemond that his effort is in vain: Aegon will be king and nothing will stop that, not even having tried to kill him. Surprised that anyone else knows, he threatens his sister, but besides being assertive about what he saw, he warns him how and where he will die. Yes, once again, war is useless. And people, we are so careful to warn about spoilers, and here comes Helaena revealing everything with the subtlety of an elephant. So, if you didn’t know, now you do.

Resentments are the seeds of betrayal. From all sides. Rhaenyra has been mopping up ice since she was announced as Viserys’ successor, exactly as Rhaenys warned would be the case. She has no respect from her Council, her husband, or even her son, Jacaerys (Harry Collett). In fact, I disagree with those who are complaining that he is acting like a spoiled brat.

That is being very insensitive to his pain, a bastard who has been humiliated his whole life and almost the reason why the Crown was usurped from his mother and who is now equal to anyone else, and let’s agree that the attitude of the hateful Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) only confirmed it. It is a justifiable trauma for Jace and he expected more understanding from everyone. Baela (Bethany Antonia) tries to console him and encourage him to assume his position. Sorry, everyone: Jacaerys is not a seer, he is logical. And he is right.

Unfortunately, her encouragement will be a shortcut to tragedy. If you know, you know.

Because, my friends, those who have read the book – like me – are screaming at the parade of future villains. Ulf won’t even be a surprise, and Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) is already giving us hints when he reacts to Ser Corlys Velaryon’s (Steven Toussaint) strategy, embraced by Rhaenyra, of attacking the cities and unfortunately, killing thousands of innocents. For Ulf, the problem is greed. For Hugh, it’s more complex than that. He’s the son of a Targaryen princess and grew up with the small folk, he puts the people first and is divided. Pay attention: if you know, you know.

And so we’re going to talk about Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale) who FINALLY finds a way to warn Rhaenyra about what’s going on at Harrenhal. That’s because he sees the turncoat Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna), who recently arrived from Dragonstone under the Queen’s orders to report to her and take control of the situation, actually betray his sovereign and support Daemon – because he’s a man – for the Iron Throne. S.O.B. If you know, you know.

Rhaenyra leaves the awkward dinner with the seeds and chooses Addam (Clinton Liberty) to go with her. Baela and Jace’s reaction shows how much they still have to learn. Obviously, it wouldn’t be ideal for the Queen to leave Dragonstone to personally take care of marital and strategic problems, but she could never go accompanied by her direct successors. Just for the record!

The next steps of the Civil War

Once widowed, Ser Corlys is more taciturn and regrets many personal mistakes. Since Rhaenys (Eve Best) encouraged him to take care of the bastard children he disowned before she died, he does it the way he thinks is best: he starts using nepotism to promote them. He has not yet revealed to Rhaenyra about Addam, but he is closer to Alyn (Abubakar Salim) who does not seem so grateful.

And this is an incredible coherence of Ser Corlys: even at a low, he sees himself on top. He is so ambitious and proud that he does not even realize that he can’t erase a life of abandonment and even mistreatment when he wants to. Alyn has an important and intense moment, in which he puts his father in his place. These Hull brothers are the best addition to Rhaenyra’s team.

Speaking of her, when she arrives at Harrenhal, the worst confirmation is: that Daemon has assembled an army that can stand up to the Greens, but apparently for him. She has the power to walk into a room full of men and keep the attitude of a Queen. But wait, there is the unexpected.

In my opinion, Rhaenyra should have sought out Alys and thanked her, creating a role on her Council because, without the witch, the war would be lost. Daemon finally understood his, and better yet, Rhaenyra’s, role in the War.

He kneels before his Queen again and ignites his soldiers to fight for her. And now they will truly burn together, until the end. He promises.

Moving quickly to the Vale, there is a plot that is the most different from the book, and that we will see how it will be in House of the Dragon. They took away from Nettles the Sheepstealer narrative for Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) who left aside the only and most important mission given to her: to take care of Rhaenyra’s heirs to try to have a dragon to call her own.

Look, I wanted to be nice to Rhaena, but her obsession with having a dragon caused two important losses for Rhaenyra: 1st when she “lost” Vhagar to Aemond, calling her cousins ​​to defend her and thus leading Lucerys to cut out his uncle’s eye, only to be killed years later for it. And now comes this escapade just as the princes are being shipped to Essos. Those who know, know what I’m talking about.

So we covered almost everything. The writers decided to change some facts, but there is room in the book for this, creating a new meeting between Alicent and Rhaenyra to try to resolve the mess that the Queen of the Greens made when she tried to put Aegon on the throne. Now that she has been discarded by all the men she helped to elevate, Alicent says she understands that she “made a mistake”. A little too late, Rhaenyra makes it clear.

Alicent wants to negotiate the exile of herself, Helaena, and her granddaughter, Jaehaerys, since with at least seven dragons with riders, the black air army becomes unbeatable. She finally admits her envy, resentment, and jealousy of Rhaenyra as reasons for her being led to so many mistakes, but I swear it was shortly after more than 10 years of harassment and a coup d’état. Still, Rhaenyra listens, even if irritated by her former friend’s intellectual limitations.

I think it’s important to highlight how Alicent is responsible for the worst atrocities in history due to pure incompetence. If she had obeyed her father from the beginning, 100% and not just 50%, they wouldn’t be where they are. If she had obeyed at the time of the Coup, the same. But she had to please Rhaenyra and then “defeat” her, and with that, she created a deadly zone in the Kingdom. And she continues to do so!

When she betrays Aemond, she tells Rhaenyra that he will leave the capital in three days to join Criston Cole: he only needs to arrive and the gates of King’s Landing will be opened to her. Rhaenyra does not believe her former friend but continues the negotiation. “And Aegon?”, she asks.

Alicent seemed to have forgotten about the son she abandoned in physical and psychological pain. “He is destroyed”, she tries to defend him. I am with Rhaenyra when she loses her patience with the Green Queen’s stupidity. Now it’s not possible, right? “A son for a son”, she demands. “You choose”. Well, we know that Aemond will not be forgiven, so going back to the Cheese and Blood arc, a Queen has to choose which son she wants to live. Alicent hesitates but chooses Helaena.

The two say goodbye, with promises made and mutual distrust. Valid ones, by the way. After all, Alicent doesn’t know, but we see that Larys fled the capital with Aegon, so when she arrives at King’s Landing, it will be very difficult for Rhaenyra to believe in her innocence, and she will certainly not fulfill her part of the agreement, arresting both Alicent and Helaena (and thus remaining next to the book).

The episode ends with the Green and Black forces preparing for an all-out war. The Lannisters join the Greens (with a quote from their theme song), the ships of the triarchy – in an allusion to the end of the sixth season of Game of Thrones – cross the Narrow Sea towards Gullet Bay, where Viserys II and Aegon III, abandoned by Rhaena, are heading. What’s more, we see the great blue dragon, Tessarion, fly over the Hightowers’ army. This is the entrance of Prince Daeron Targaryen, Alicent’s son who has not yet appeared in the series but has been away in Oldtown the whole time.

Corlys and Addam, now in uniform, embark to lead the Velaryon fleet, and the Starks march south to join the fight (also to the sound of their theme).

The big surprise of the episode comes when we discover that Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) is locked in a dungeon somewhere. Who captured him? How did no one miss him? Can we start speculating?

For those who complained about the lack of blood and deaths, even with the brutal and significant ones we’ve had so far, you can be sure: season three will be a Red Wedding on Sunday. Don’t get attached to anyone!

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