As the season starts to wind down, both the Hightowers and the Targaryens don’t seem to have made much progress since the war began. Both sides have suffered heavy casualties and are trying to find a boost.
Last week, Rhaenyra and Jace had the idea of seeing if any Targaryens who had married into other houses could tame the dragons with no riders. Ser Steffen Darklyn is this week’s lucky contestant on “Which distant Targaryen cousin wants to ride a dragon?” They try to have him tame Seasmoke, Laenor’s old mount. Remember Laenor, Rhaenyra’s first husband, Son of Corlys, who faked his death to run off to a foreign land with his boyfriend? Well, he obviously couldn’t take Seasmoke if he was going to maintain the whole “dead” ruse. Seasmoke has been moping around Dragonstone ever since. So how will Ser Steffon fare? Uhhh…
It goes…poorly.
Seasmoke does not wish to serve Ser Steffen unless he means “serve him for appetizers.” Which, yeah. The Targaryens spend their whole lives with their dragons. You can’t teach a distant cousin how to say dracarys and hope for the best.
Rhaenyra is shaken by this and is forced to listen to Lord Bartimos hector her about losing Rook’s Rest, Melyes, and now Ser Steffen. Finally, Rhaenyra has had enough and hauls off and slaps him, getting off the best line of the episode. “It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me.” I like angry Rhaenyra! Let’s have more of that. As a viewer, I’m as frustrated that she gets stuck in the castle and doesn’t get to lead her armies. Rhaenyra’s as restless as the riderless dragons under her feet.
Across the Riverlands, Daemon still wandering about Harrenhall having his waking nightmares, and look, enough. I’m as bored by these scenes as Rhaenyra is stuck in her castle. It feels like he’s been there for months without doing anything. At least Alys, the witchy lady, is willing to help him out by “attending” to the sick bed of Lord Tully so young Oscar will be in charge. And even though it should be obvious to everyone that she is the cause of Daemon’s night terrors, I’m glad someone is doing something to move that plot along.
Aemond is still eager to wage war. He knows the people are hungry, and he knows just what to do. He orders Tyland Lannister to go and find the Triarchy and get them to break up the Sea Snake’s blockade. Did I hear that right? The God Damn TRIARCHY? In case you have blissfully forgotten, these were the pirates of the Step Stones, who bedeviled Viserys’ navy for ages. They got a lot of hype but proved to be pretty easy to defeat and the plotlines never went anywhere. And you want to bring them back? Oh, Aemond.
Alicent rightly tries to be a moderating voice, but Aemond rather rudely stops her, basically asking what exactly is it you do here? He then suggests that maybe she content herself with more domestic responsibilities, and dismisses her from the council. Alicent pointedly asks him when will his childhood indignities be avenged. I’ll give Aemond credit, though. He sees right through Larys’s obsequious, suck-up attempts to be made Hand, and instead decides to bring Otto Hightower back.
Myseria’s plan hinted at last week, is to sew discord among the townsfolk. One of her agents spreads rumors of the lavish banquets being held in the Red Keep while the townspeople are starving. And it works! Like instantly! One word in a tavern and the next day the townspeople are ready to steal sheep off the royal cart. Myseria should work at Fox News. It’s also some of what Daemon counseled last season, namely that it’s important to get the small folk on your side.
Part two of the plan is to send dingies loaded with food – and bearing Rhaenyra’s sigil -ashore to King’s Landing under the cover of night. And again, it has an almost instantaneous effect. The townspeople swoon over how Rhaenyra still cares about the little people and then immediately start to riot against the Hightowers. There is a legitimately scary scene, where the mob descends on Alicent and Haelena. It’s a complete inversion of the funeral scene in episode two, where Haelena was beset by the sympathetic crowd. And, look, I know that the small folk don’t necessarily have the deepest loyalty, but the whiplash from switching from one side to the other is dizzying. Surely it should take more than a loaf of bread before you try and kill the royal family.
Corlys is made hand by Rhaenyra, and he also names his bastard son Alyn his first mate. Alyn has a brother, Addam, another one of Corlys’ bastards. Alyn shaves his head every day to hide the silver hair that would give his parentage away. Addam is in the spice port shopping when cries ring out. Seasmoke is approaching, and he seems to be circling Addam. Is he hungry, after frying up Darklyn? Addam seems to think so and is terrified as Seasmoke crawls up to him.
Back in the Castle, Myseria is telling her that the plan worked. The small folk are again singing her praises. (Rhaenyra the Cruel? More like Rhaenyra the COOL, amirite?) They have a nice moment, where Rhaenyra thanks her for her help. Myseria confesses that after her father horribly abused her, she promised herself she’d never trust anyone again. But Rhaenyra is a steadfast and honest person, and she is glad to be of service. Rhaenyra in turn admits that she feels she does not command the respect she would if she were a man. That’s what she always liked about Daemon: his freedom, his impulsiveness, in short, his maleness. The two embrace, and then the embrace starts to become something more.
I’m not opposed to sexy scenes in GOT or HOTD. But this kind of comes out of nowhere. I think they foreshadow it a bit by having Rhaenyra say she always wanted to be what Daemon was. Well, at least they’re not related, which is a nice change of pace for this show. Their make-out session gets interrupted by a Queensguard who bursts him to tell her that Seasmoke has been spotted at the spice ports, but with a rider! Rhaenyra immediately flies away on Syrax to see who this could be.
So, even though a Lord got set on fire and Alicent almost got killed by a mob, it didn’t feel like a lot happened this week. It felt like a lot of setup without a payoff. I am getting so bored with Daemon’s waking nightmares and Rhaenyra wandering around Dragonstone. Right now, there seems like far too many council meetings and not enough dragoning. There are only two episodes left in our abbreviated season, so I fully expect lots of action and twists next week. (The great tradition of Game of Thrones is to have the big shocks happen in the second to last episode: the Red Wedding, Ned Stark’s death, etc.) So, hopefully, the writers have something exciting planned.
And it better not be the goddamn Triarchy…
Episode Rating: 2.5 out of 5. I was going to stay at 3, but then you mentioned the Triarchy.
Who’s the Worst? Seasmoke burnt up some people, but Aemond had to go and bring up the Triarchy again, so that makes him the absolute worst.
