We recap and review Season 2 Episode 7 of HBO’s House of the Dragon, where the tides of war shift and forever change the fate of the realm.
Spoilers below for Season 2 Episode 7 of House of the Dragon and “Fire & Blood”, obviously.
Creators: Ryan J. Condal & George R.R. Martin
Number of episodes: 8
Episode 7 Release Date: July 28, 2024
Where to watch: Max
We begin with a meeting of dragons.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), having heard the news of the dragon Seasmoke flying with a rider in the skies above Dragonstone, flew out atop her own mount Syrax, thinking that it might be one of the greens, supporters of her usurper brother King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney).
Instead, she finds that the rider is one she does not recognize: Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), bastard son of Lord of the Tides Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint).
The two dragonriders have a Western-style standoff of sorts, their respective dragons howling at one another as they eye one another warily from across a stretch of beach. Addam tells Rhaenyra that he wishes to serve her, but she seems suspicious of how quickly he bends the knee for someone so recently elevated in status and power. Addam says that the dragon sought him out, not the other way around, and that if the gods have seen fit to give him this power, who is he to deny it? Rhaenyra admits that Addam has done what she thought impossible – and she is glad to see it.
The only thing that seems to travel as fast as dragons are whispers; in King’s Landing, Master of Laws Jasper Wylde (Paul Kennedy) quickly breaks the news of Seasmoke’s new rider to Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), asking for his advice as to whether or not he should relay the information to Prince Regent Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). After a bit of questioning, Lord Jasper admits that he has received this information fifth or sixth-hand; Larys says that given the fact that Lady Rhaena is the only dragonless member of the blacks that they know of, and that Seasmoke himself nearly devoured her when she tried to mount him some years previously, they elect not to share this particular whisper with the prince. By the end of Season 2, Episode 7, they will come to regret that decision.
Rhaenyra discusses Addam’s mounting of Seasmoke with Lady Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), her trusted advisor (and paramour, maybe? This episode asks as if the kiss between the two of them last episode never happened, which seems like a misstep). Mysaria tells her queen that she is most likely to find further dragonriders amongst the “dragonseeds”, bastards or descendants of bastards sired by Targaryens. While initially hesitant, Rhaenyra recalls the insults that the lords of the realm hurled behind her own bastard sons’ backs for years, and states, “Let us raise an army of bastards.”
Corlys Velaryon is proud of Addam for making something of himself, although he seems to have trouble showing it. He’s far more comfortable with his older bastard Alyn (Abubakar Salim), who rejects the idea that he might also be a dragonrider like his brother. “I am of salt and sea, and yearn for nothing else”, he tells Corlys, who nonetheless asks him for a favor in service of the queen his brother has now bent the knee to.
Speaking of bending the knee; now that Lord Paramount of the Riverlands Grover Tully has passed beyond this mortal coil and been succeeded by his grandson Oscar (Archie Barnes), King Consort Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) can finally raise the army that he needs to take the Iron Throne. Daemon seems to expect Oscar to bend the knee immediately, but the young Lord Tully will not be so easily swayed. After all, it was Daemon who encouraged Lord Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) to lay waste to the land of his enemies, the Brackens, and the Riverlords are calling for justice.
Oscar and Daemon treat with the lords in the godswood of Harrenhal; Lord Tully tells them that he will honor the oath his grandsire made to King Viserys (Paddy Considine) some 20 years previously and support Rhaenyra’s claim; but this fealty will not come without a cost. Despite his young age and inexperience, Oscar is clearly no fool, as he is fully aware of how much power he holds over Daemon during this assembly. Daemon may bristle when the lord calls him “prince” instead of “king”, but if he wants the Riverlords’ army, he will have to hold his tongue. Not only that, but Oscar forces him to take the head of Willem Blackwood as recompense for the war crimes he ordered in the name of the queen.
Daemon has spent much of season 2 of House of the Dragon on the back foot, desperately grasping for control as it slips further away from him with each passing episode. Even in the face of repetitive storytelling, Smith has done a consistently excellent job of showing the deepening cracks in Daemon’s facade, and episode 7 is no exception. When Daemon has a vision of a decrepit and sickly King Viserys asking him if he still wants the crown he has sought for so long, Smith’s weary, beaten-down expression is answer enough.
Daemon is not the only player in this dance of dragons who finds themself worn down. Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), having been stripped of her position on the small council by her own son, feels aimless. “All my life I have endeavored to serve my house and the realm, and somehow none of it matters,” she tells Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan). She asks her protector Ser Rickard Thorne (Vincent Regan) to take her to the Kingswood; when they’re there, she’s unsure if she wants to return to the city. For a moment, it even seems as if she might drown herself Ophelia-style in a lake, although she doesn’t go through with it. Cooke does a fine job in these scenes, but hopefully the next episode will provide a payoff to them that will make their inclusion in Season 2, Episode 7 seem worth it.
Back on Dragonstone, Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett) is furious that his mother not only has allowed a lowborn bastard to claim a dragon but is actively seeking more to join her army. He even goes so far as to call them “mongrels”, which is a bit hypocritical coming from “Lord Strong” himself. In fact, it is Jace’s own disputed heritage that concerns him the most about the elevation of the dragonseeds. In his eyes, there’s nothing to stop one of these Targaryen bastards from challenging his own claim to the throne once Rhaenyra dies, and now they will have a dragon of their own to strengthen their claim.
Harry Collett has proven himself a promising actor throughout this season, and he does an excellent job of letting Jace’s years of built-up resentment towards his mother bubble to the surface as he confronts her over his bastardry. When he begs Rhaenyra not to go through with her plan for the sake of his own claim, you can’t help but feel sympathy for his plight.
Unfortunately, Rhaenyra’s plan is already in motion, and soon the entire tide of the war between blacks and greens will be forever changed. Alyn of Hull delivers a message to Rhaenyra’s handmaid, Elinda (Jordon Stevens), who spreads word throughout King’s Landing that the queen is seeking Targaryen bastards to come to Dragonstone and attempt to claim a dragon. Ulf the White (Tom Bennett), the drunken layabout who boasted of his Valyrian heritage a few episodes ago, requires the encouragement of his friends to test whether the rumors he’s been spouting for years are actually true.
Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) needs no such encouragement; he tells his wife Kat (Ellora Torchia) that his mother was a Targaryen who worked in a pleasure house (heavily implied to be Saera Targaryen, a fun little easter egg for “Fire & Blood” readers), and that she had always told him that he was no different than Viserys and Daemon. This offer to claim a dragon might be his last and best chance to prove his mother right, and so he joins the throngs of his silver-haired kin as they board rowboats in the dead of night and head to their fate on Dragonstone.
While the dragonseeds might be eager to claim the queen’s dragons, her dragonkeepers are less than thrilled. They tell Rhaenyra that she is committing blasphemy by placing non-Valyrians in front of dragons, sacred creatures who represent the last bit of magic from the days of Old Valyria. They refuse to take part in Rhaenyra’s scheme to find new riders for Vermithor and Silverwing and leave her to handle the process herself.
Rhaenyra thanks the dragonseeds for the sacrifice they have made in coming to Dragonstone, and warns that they may have to give up their lives if it means that a handful of them will become dragonlords and help bring peace to the realm. The fact that she is so convinced that having three more dragons will be enough to force the greens to bend the knee to her seems naive given how relatively easily Vhagar dispatched Meleys at the Battle of Rook’s Rest, but this is the queen’s plan, and she is sticking to it.
She leads the smallfolk to the dragonpit, calling forth the dragon Vermithor, “the Bronze Fury”, mount of Old King Jaehaerys and second-largest dragon in the world after Aemond’s mount Vhagar. Even she seems frightened as the great beast lumbers out of the darkness, but the dragon soon calms to her presence. She tells the dragonseeds, “I have nothing more to tell you. It must be the dragon who speaks,” before leaving them behind to their fate.
For a moment, Vermithor remains calm as one brave soul approaches him with trepidation. But the calmness of the moment is false, and Rhaenyra watches in horror as the dragon starts tearing through the dragonseeds, spitting flame and chomping down on them in equal measure. Ulf the White falls off the walkway into the pit below, taking a torch and running deeper into the caves. Hugh Hammer survives the initial attack and attempts an escape, but the dragon’s flames block his path. Season 2, Episode 7 director Loni Peristere shoots this sequence (the titular “Red Sowing”) like a kaiju movie, his ground-level oner selling Vermithor’s terrifying power.
Just as it seems that Rhaenyra’s plan has failed and all is lost, Hugh calls Vermithor’s attention to himself, saving the life of his next would-be victim. He screams in the dragon’s face, daring it to roast him alive – which of course means that Vermithor chooses the blacksmith to be his new rider. The smile that Hugh gives as he feels his own power in this moment hints that he may yet turn into the version of Hugh Hammer that “Fire & Blood” readers will recognize.
Meanwhile, Ulf has no time for heroics. He’s too busy running for his life, and his escape leads him straight into the lair of Silverwing, the other unclaimed dragon residing beneath the Dragonmont. Ulf takes the opposite approach of Hugh, closing his eyes and throwing up his hands as if bracing for death – but this deference seems to please Silverwing, as she nudges him like a dog with a new toy, and bends her neck for Ulf to claim as her new rider.
Ulf does exactly that, even flying his new mount over the streets of King’s Landing, much to the enragement of Aemond. The prince regent mounts Vhagar and follows the smaller dragon across Blackwater Bay. As he approaches Dragonstone, we see an unfamiliar look in his eye: fear. He turns Vhagar around and retreats, Vermithor, Silverwing and Syrax howling into the sky as Rhaenyra gives her brother a look that seems to say, “I’ve got you now.”
While the events of Season 2, Episode 7 are all well-executed and make sense from a character and narrative development standpoint, one can’t help but feel like all of this could have happened a little earlier in the season. Did we really need to dedicate two whole episodes to the finding of the dragonseeds? Surely there could have been some way to incorporate the Red Sowing into the previous episode and move on to the next part of the story that involves them.
Beyond that, this episode didn’t provide too much in the way of new emotional ground for its characters. It’s good to see that Daemon’s plotline is finally shifting into a new gear, one that will hopefully move away from the repetitive visions that at this point, aren’t revealing new information about his character or state of mind.
With only one episode left in the season, here’s hoping that House of the Dragon has broken out of some of its narrative ruts and will leave audiences on a truly thrilling note to end season 2.
House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 7, “The Red Sowing”, is now available to stream on Max. Join us next week for our recap & review of the season finale!
