We recap and review Season 2 Episode 8 of HBO’s House of the Dragon, where a season’s worth of set up pays off in surprising ways.
Spoilers below for Season 2 Episode 8 of House of the Dragon and “Fire & Blood”, obviously.
Creators: Ryan J. Condal & George R.R. Martin
Number of episodes: 8
Episode 8 (Season Finale) Release Date: August 4, 2024
Where to watch: Max
Was it worth it?
It’s a question that is surely on the lips of many a House of the Dragon fan after watching Season 2, Episode 8, “The Queen Who Ever Was”. With the full picture of Season 2 finally revealed, fans now have to ask themselves if the payoffs delivered in this season finale made the (occasionally rocky) journey worthwhile.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
House of the Dragon opens Season 2, Episode 8 not with the familiar sights of Westeros, but in the foreign lands of Essos. Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), Master of Ships to King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), meets with the leaders of the Triarchy, the alliance consisting of the normally warring Free Cities of Lys, Tyrosh and Myr. Prince Regent Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) ordered Tyland to secure an alliance with the Triarchy in hopes of breaking the blacks’ blockade of King’s Landing, and Tyland knows that he cannot return home empty handed.
Against his better wishes, Tyland ultimately agrees to give the Triarchy the Stepstones, that stretch of islands in the Narrow Sea that Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) nearly lost his life fighting over, in exchange for their armada. But the Triarchy won’t simply hand their ships over to the Lannister lord. Their fleet will only sail under the command of Captain Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn), who refuses to sail under a man who cannot “best” her. Tyland asks how he might do so, and the Lyseni captain merely smiles.
Someone who has nothing to smile about is Prince Aemond, who was forced to flee in terror from Dragonstone after discovering that Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) had found riders for the unclaimed dragons that resided on the island. He takes out his anger on the town of Sharp’s Point, leaving it as nothing more than a pile of burning rubble.
The bedridden King Aegon, still recovering from the life-threatening burns inflicted on him by his own brother, receives the news of Aemond’s attack from Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) the Master of Whisperers who has become the king’s unlikely ally. Larys tells the king of Rhaenyra’s new dragonriders and insists that they leave the city and flee to Braavos to wait out the rest of the war.
Aegon initially balks at the idea, but Larys’ honeyed words start to get to him. Yes, he will have to let the realm fall to tatters, but that will only make his eventual return to the throne that much sweeter. The smallfolk will hail the return of their king, calling him, “Aegon the Victorious, Aegon the Peacemaker, Aegon the Rebuilder.”
“Aegon, the Realm’s Delight,” the king muses, imagining for a moment that the smallfolk might one day love him the way that they once loved his half-sister.
Meanwhile, Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) is lost, searching for the wild dragon that she suspects resides in the Vale’s Mountains of the Moon. Rhaena’s storyline this season has felt like House of the Dragon’s most inconsequential side quests, but her ultimate discovery of the Vale’s wild dragon does hint at the possibility that great things might be left to come for her, and that the blacks may yet add another dragonrider to their ranks.
That might be for the best, as Rhaenyra’s current dragonriders aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) enters Dragonstone’s throne room to find Ulf (Tom Bennett) sitting at the head of the Painted Table with his feet upon it as if he were a king. His fellow dragonseed Hugh (Kieran Bew) tries to get him to show some respect, but Ulf is far more eager to push Jace’s boundaries instead.
“Look at that hair,” Ulf says, “As dark as they say. Let them tell us we don’t have Targaryen blood, eh?” It’s pretty bold for anyone, much less a lowborn commoner, to call the heir to the Iron Throne a bastard right to his face, but Ulf is either too arrogant or too dumb to be cautious about such things. Jace, for his part, doesn’t back down, asking Ulf if he will be ready to face Aemond and Vhagar when he eventually comes for them or if he will make himself an easy target through laziness instead. Harry Collett has done an excellent job showcasing Jace’s growth as a leader throughout Season 2, and in this moment, he looks very much like a future king.
But the only way that Jace will ever sit the Iron Throne is if his mother claims it first, and Lord Corlys counsels her that she must press her advantage over the greens while she still has it. They have more dragons, yes, but the greens have Vhagar, Prince Daeron’s young dragon Tessarion, and Dreamfyre, mount to Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) and a formidable opponent if she chooses to ride it. Not only that, but as Corlys says, “There is of course…another player who has yet to be revealed.”
Cut to Harrenhal, where the player in question, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), surveys the massive army of rivermen that he has finally mustered after a series of trials and tribulations. He is interrupted by a sudden visitor – Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna), sent by Queen Rhaenyra herself to remind Daemon of his oath to her. Instead, Broome proves himself to be a turncloak, saying that while Rhaenyra’s intentions are good, he and the other lords of the realm will support Daemon if he decides to declare himself king. Unbeknownst to either man, Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale) overhears this potentially treasonous exchange.
In King’s Landing, Aemond, having returned from a light bit of murdering, orders Master of Laws Jasper Wylde (Paul Kennedy) to restrict the movement of any boats in or out of Blackwater Bay, a move which will surely anger the smallfolk further. Helaena has noticed this anger, and asks her mother Dowager Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) why the citizens of King’s Landing hate them so much. “I was happier before I was queen,” she confesses, and Alicent asks her daughter if she would want to escape from King’s Landing.
Before she can answer, Aemond bursts into the room and tries to drag Helaena out, telling her that she must fly Dreamfyre into battle. We see a side of Aemond here that we haven’t really seen before – the cool, calm facade has slipped, giving us a peek at the frightened boy underneath. Alicent, to her credit, calls him out at this moment, chastising him for the cruelty he shows towards the smallfolk he seeks to rule and refusing to let him corrupt Helaena, the gentlest among them. Aemond is staved off – for now – but Alicent wastes no time going to Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) and asking for his help with passage out of the city.
Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, holds tightly to the handkerchief that the Dowager Queen gave to him before he rode off to war. Her brother, Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), finally confronts him about his affair with Alicent. Criston does not try to deny it, saying that he has been devoted to the queen ever since she saved his life nearly a decade ago.
Gwayne could have his head for breaking his Kingsguard oath, or at least have him sent to the Wall. It matters not to Cole, who has realized that everything he has dedicated his life towards – honor, fealty to the crown – means nothing. “The dragons dance and men are like dust under their feet,” he says, seemingly complacent in the fact that he is but a pawn in the game of thrones between the blacks and the greens. “To die would be a kind of relief,” he confesses – time will tell if he gets his wish.
Back in Essos, Tyland attempts to best Lohar in the challenge she has set for him – a mud wrestling contest. To the surprise of both Lohar and her men, Tyland wins the fight, and she agrees to sail with the Lannister lord shortly after. These scenes provide some welcome bits of comedic relief, and Lohar (gender-swapped from the books, an interesting if ultimately inconsequential change) is a fun character, but these scenes might feel more welcome if they came earlier in the season; here, in the Season 2 finale, they mostly come across as an unnecessary diversion.
Across the Narrow Sea on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra dines with Jace, Baela (Bethany Antonia) and the dragonseeds, telling them that they will have to fly out in two days’ time to subdue Lannisport and Oldtown, hopefully bringing the greens to heel. The only one who doesn’t balk at the idea of killing innocents is Ulf, who once again forgets his place, behaving like a drunken oaf. When Rhaenyra tells him that “a knight will comport himself with grace at the queen’s table,” he quips that she better make him a knight then. Thankfully, the audience is spared more of Ulf’s buffoonery by the arrival of Maester Gerardys (Phil Daniels) bearing a message from none other than Ser Simon Strong regarding Daemon’s potential treachery. Rhaenyra says that she will not allow it and commands Addam (Clinton Liberty) to come with her to Harrenhal.
Daemon awakens in the middle of the night to find Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), Harrenhal’s resident healer/witch, sitting at the foot of his bed. He follows her to the godswood, the castle’s great weirwood tree looming over them. There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it image of what might be a young Robert Baratheon clad in armor and antlered helm stalking beneath the tree, but it soon disappears. Alys tells Daemon that after everything he has faced at Harrenhal, he is finally ready to learn his fate.
She places his hand against the face of the weirwood tree, blood running down his hand. Then, in a sequence that is sure to give YouTubers who like to explain pop culture minutiae to people several videos worth of content, Daemon sees the future – both his own, and the realm’s.
The images fly by, almost too fast to process. There’s the Three-Eyed Raven, followed by a White Walker leading an army of wights. Shots of dead dragons and men alike scattering the ground as Daemon falls through a puddle of blood into the abyss of a bottomless lake. He finds himself in the Red Keep, where Rhaenyra sits the Iron Throne. Helaena appears behind him, her voice echoing in his ears. “It’s all a story, and you are but one part in it. You know your part. You know what you must do.”
As quickly as the vision began, it’s over. Helaena stands atop the Red Keep’s battlements, her gaze making it seem as if she is aware that she was just inside Daemon’s vision. House of the Dragon has been hinting since the first season that Helaena has the gift of prophetic “dragon dreams”, and this scene practically confirms it. Aemond tries once more to compel her to join him in battle, and when she refuses, she asks if he will burn her like he did with Aegon. Aemond tries to deny it, but she insists that she saw it.
She then gives another prophecy, saying that Aegon will be king once again, but Aemond will be dead – swallowed up in the God’s Eye and never seen again. Aemond says that he could have her killed for such claims – but she tells him that it wouldn’t change anything, and Aemond seems to know it. The changes to Helaena’s character from her book counterpart have been one of House of the Dragon’s most interesting choices, and it will be exciting to see whether or not she ends up meeting the same fate that she does in “Fire & Blood”.
Rhaenyra and Addam arrive at Harrenhal atop dragonback; Ser Simon leads the queen into the castle’s great hall, where hundreds of rivermen have gathered. Daemon, seeing his queen for the first time since their falling out on Dragonstone, tells her that the men are all sworn to him. She demands to know who Daemon is sworn to – her or himself. Daemon speaks to her in High Valyrian so that only they can understand; “This war is just beginning. Winter is coming, with darkness and doom.”
Daemon finally understands Aegon’s Dream of the Song of Ice and Fire, the belief that a Targaryen must lead the realm against the threat to mankind from the great north. “The realm’s only hope is a leader who can unite it, and my brother chose you.” He bends the knee to her, his true queen, and the entire army of rivermen (and the traitor Alfred Broome, looking very embarrassed) follow suit.
Daemon’s story this season has been imperfect, to put it lightly. While seeing his ego constantly be put in check has been entertaining, his visions and descent towards madness eventually turned into a case of diminishing returns. However, the payoff in this episode makes most, if not all, of that time worth it. Daemon had to be humbled and reconcile with his desire for the throne, and him realizing that he is simply not the main character of this story was a brilliant capper to his journey throughout Season 2.
Speaking of payoffs – we finally get to hear how Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) really feels about his father Lord Corlys coming back into his life after years of ignoring him and his brother. Corlys tells Alyn that he should be grateful for being asked to be his first mate, and says that he is trying to help him. Alyn rejects the idea of this “help”, pointing out that it is only after all of Corlys’ true heirs have died that he finally acknowledges his existence. For years, he and Addam struggled to survive as Corlys and his heirs lived a life of luxury, and he is in no way ready to forgive his father for it. After spending all of Season 2 tight-lipped and stoic, it is great to see Salim finally let loose and show off his chops.
On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra confesses to Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) that she is still unsure if she is ready to inflict death and destruction to take the throne. It’s a refrain we have heard from her ten times over this season, and this particular scene doesn’t add any new wrinkles to her perspective. Plus, there doesn’t seem to have been too much of a change in the dynamic between these two women since they shared a kiss a few episodes ago, which makes what should have been a paradigm shift between the characters feel unfortunately unnecessary.
Later that night, Rhaenyra receives the most unexpected of visitors – Alicent. In a reversal of their conversation at the grand sept in King’s Landing earlier this season, it is now the Dowager Queen who comes seeking peace. She admits that has put her faith in the wrong people, and they have betrayed her; all she wants now is to live, not rule, and be free of the responsibilities of the crown.
Rhaenyra rightfully scoffs at this; it’s far too late for her to leave this all behind, especially after she was the one who brought forth the challenge against Rhaenyra’s claim. Alicent makes one last ditch effort to make things right; with Aemond soon flying off to the riverlands, Helaena will have authority as regent. If Rhaenyra flies to King’s Landing, Alicent will ensure that the city surrenders without a fight.
“What of Aegon?” Rhaenyra asks. Alicent tries to say that she can convince the broken king to bend the knee, but Rhaenyra calls her out for trying to have her cake and eat it too. If she takes the throne, she must take Aegon’s head with it, no matter how Alicent tries to evade it. So she gives her old friend a simple command: “Choose.”
Alicent can’t form the words, but she nods all the same, as the two former friends try to hold back their tears. “History will paint you a villain,” Rhaenyra tells her, “A cold queen, grasping for power and then defeated.”
“Let them think what they must. I am at last myself,” Alicent responds.
One of the smartest changes from “Fire & Blood” that House of the Dragon made from the get go was to focus on the friendship between Rhaenyra and Alicent. In the book, there is a near ten-year age difference between the two, with Alicent taking on much more of a surrogate mother role that Rhaenyra grew to resent. Aging Alicent down and making the two best friends before Alicent married Viserys allows the audience to track the entire arc of the civil war through the ups and downs of their friendship. The war between the blacks and the greens hurts so much because it is fought by those who should love or have loved one another, and nowhere is that clearer than in the relationship between these two queens.
While Alicent and Rhaenyra might be ready to end this war, the rest of the realm hasn’t gotten the message. The dragonseeds armor themselves for battle. The Hightower army marches on as we finally get a glimpse of Tessarion (but still no Daeron) flying overhead. Lord Cregan Stark’s army of northern greybeards makes their crossing at the Twins, just as the Freys had promised to Jace. An armorclad Daemon oversees his army as the Lannisters march for Harrenhal. Lord Tyland, Lohar and the Triarchy’s fleet make for the Gullet as Alyn and Corlys sail out to join the Velaryon blockade. We see the former Hand of the King Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) in what looks like a prison cell as Lord Larys and King Aegon flee the city in a covered wagon.
As composer Ramin Djawadi’s piano score crescendos, both Alicent and Rhaenyra stare out across the waters of Blackwater Bay, both unsure of what comes next. We cut to black; so ends House of the Dragon, Season 2.
So let’s return to our initial question: Was it worth it? Did the finale provide a worthy capper to the season, tying up loose ends and paying off episodes worth of set up? At first glance, many fans might answer, “No”. To be fair, the season does end with many threads left dangling, and the finale decidedly avoids any moments of spectacle that fans might have expected given the buildup. For a show about a continent-wide civil war, it really only gave us one big battle this season, the Siege of Rook’s Rest, which gave us our first taste of dragon-on-dragon combat.
But instead of further escalating its spectacle, House of the Dragon decided to hone in on its characters and the effects of the war on their relationships and psyches, and it’s a better show for it. Season 2 is so different from the first season in what it is trying to accomplish in terms of pace and storytelling focus that it feels futile to try to compare them, although many fans are undoubtedly doing just that.
Let us then take Season 2 on its own merits. Was it a perfect season? Definitely not. Certain storylines felt like filler either in moments or in their entirety, and the show could sometimes feel as if it was repeating emotional beats rather than finding new ones to explore. Could Season 2 have ended with a big battle or other moment of spectacle to leave audiences talking? Sure, but another big set piece coming so soon after the Red Sowing could have led audiences to say that the show was focusing entirely on spectacle a la GoT’s final seasons.
As it is, Season 2, Episode 8 feels like a reward for viewers with a bit more patience. Both House of the Dragon and its predecessor have always shined brightest in the intimate moments between its characters and their interpersonal conflict, and the season finale gave us several tightly-scripted, well-acted moments that felt cathartic for characters and viewers alike.
The wait for Season 3 is going to be a long one, but, to this viewer at least, it’s the promise of more well-written dialogue, of fine character work and payoffs to arcs years in the making, that will have me excited to see where the show takes audiences next. Fire and blood is more than fine, but it’s the characters that make House of the Dragon one of TV’s most exciting shows.
Season 2 Episode 8, the season 2 finale, of House of the Dragon, titled “The Queen Who Ever Was”, is now available to stream on Max.
