When last we saw Westeros, Aemond had chased Ulf and Silverwing back from King’s Landing, only to be forced to turn away when he saw Rhaenyra with her new dragon riders. After this humiliation, Aemond and Vhagar let off some steam by destroying one of Rhaenyra’s banner towns, Sharp Point. Yes, good. Totally normal behavior. The Seven Kingdoms will be in fine shape with you in charge.
While Aemond is destroying towns, Larys is encouraging Aegon to get out of King’s Landing before he returns. After being shown up by Rhaenyra, he might not be satiated by destroying a town. He might decide to finish the job he started on Aegon. And Larys has been squirreling the money from House Strong away, so they’ll have cash and can flee to Essos until this is all over. Aegon would rather lie in bed and moan about his ruined cock. “It burst like a sausage on a spit.” (Ok, between this and Theon Greyjoy’s travails, I am concerned the GRRM might have a few anxieties, and as my friend Mary Fan is fond of saying, “Writing is not therapy.”)
Across the narrow sea, Tyland Lannister is trying to get (sigh…) The Triarchy on their side. And, thankfully, they’ve gotten much more interesting than last season. They are having great fun tormenting him, but they agree to help. They’ll send the fleet to break the blockade, and in exchange, they will have the Stepstones and charge a modest fee to the ships passing through. (Remember the Stepstones? They were a pretty big deal in about Episode 3 last season.) Tyland protests that that will drive up the price of food. Well, better expensive food than no food. As Tyland is about to leave, they pull a Colombo on him. “Just one more thing, Tyland…” The crews only follow the Admiral Lohar, and Lohar will only go if Tyland impresses him. Lohar is played by Abigail Thorn. He appears to be presenting as female, but all of Essos refer to him as “he.” (And good for them! Far more progressive than the Westerosi.) Once Tyland has earned his respect through some mud wrestling, Lohar agrees to go. But first, he has a small request for Tyland to impregnate all of his wives. (Very friendly this Triarchy!) Tyland gulps and asks just how many wives he has?
Alicent has returned from her walkabout and is consoling Haelena when Aemond bursts in. He tells her to go and mount up on her dragon, Dreamfyre and get ready to fight. Haelena refuses. She wants no part of war and will not hurt people. Aemond starts to drag her away when Alicent intervenes and tells him to stop. (Again, bang up parenting, Alicent.)
At Harrenhall, Daemon is getting the troops of the River lands ready to march. Rhaenyra’s man, Ser Alfred Broome, shows up. He was sent to determine if Daemon was raising an army for her or for himself, but Broome has other plans. He tells Daemon that Westeros needs a king, and he is here to support him. Lord Strong overhears that and scurries off to send Rhaenyra a raven.
After another night of troubled sleep, Alyn Rivers takes Daemon to the Godswood, and tells him to put his hand on an old, gnarled tree. The knots of the tree start bleeding, and Daemon has a vision. Our old friend, the one-eyed raven, flies out of Alyn’s cheek and proceeds to show Daemon images of the Night King and his army of the undead. He sees Daenerys hatching her three dragons. And he sees Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne. In the vision, Haelena approaches him and tells him that he knows what has to be done.
It’s very cool to see some of the magic and portents of Game of Thrones tie into House. Last season Daemon was scoffing at Rhaenyra telling him about the dream of Aegon the Conqueror. Now he’s experienced it for himself and is a changed man. When Rhaenyra comes on Syrax, and flanked by Addam on Seasmoke, Daemon pledges fealty to her. The army he’s amassed fights for her. It’s fantastic to finally get some resolution out of the stagnant Harrenhall plotlines this year.
And it’s also cool to see that Haelena, who her family has always treated as daft and not all there, is like Bran and can see the future. This was hinted at before. Way back at the start of the season, she complained about the rats in her bedroom when there were no rats there. And this was about the ratcatcher that would come later to kill her son. And it’s also put to good use when Aemond comes to try and get her to ride Dreamfyre into battle again, and she tells him that she won’t burn anyone and that he’s going to die. (Fingers crossed!)
The new dragon riders are getting used to their stations. Hugh and Addam are suitably humble, but Ulf is living it up, interrupting the Queen to ask for “more of these little birds.” Rhaenyra pointedly says that knights are expected to uphold standards and he replies, well, better make me a knight then. And I don’t exactly blame him for acting up. He’s a dragon rider now, despite how much that pisses off Jacerys. At one point, Ulf hugs him while commenting on his black hair, saying “No one can tell us we don’t belong!” (Ooooh, you can see how angry this makes Jace.) He knows, somewhere in his cunning little brain, that the Targaryens need him on Silverwing more than he needs them, so he’s testing the boundaries. He has just two days to push since Rhaenyra tells them all to be ready to ride into battle in two days.
Last week, Rhaena wandered off from her babysitting duties to go look for the wild dragon in the Vale. It’s not going great. She’s freezing and hungry, gulping down water from streams, and hasn’t found anything yet. Finally, as she is close to freezing to death, she hears a telltale growl from beyond the hill. She races over and sees the dragon, and they start to feel each other out. Oh good. Rhaena has dealt with the childhood trauma of her dragon egg never hatching by risking her life to (maybe) trauma-bond with a wild one. I guess that’s better than Aemond, the teased child who turned into a cruel bully. You know, Westeros would have a lot less bloodshed if they invested in a few family therapists. Maybe the maesters could start a program or something.
Corlys is about to put to sea with his new ship, and rather than name it the Sea Snake II, he’s christened it The Queen Who Never Was, in honor of Rhaenys. Aw, that’s nice. He tries to give Alyn, his first mate, some advice on how to relate to the crew, and Alyn loses it. He snaps at Corlys that he’s not about to take advice from him now after he and Addam were on their own their whole life. As he froze in the marketplace, selling fish from sun up to sundown, he saw Corlys and his “real” son walk through the market in furs. And good for you, Alyn. The Dad who abandoned you doesn’t get to erase 20+ years of neglect by getting you a job. Maybe he and Alicent can team up and do a parenting workshop at the Learning Annex.
As Rhaenyra lies in bed, her guard enters to give her some important news. She has a visitor. And not one that can wait until morning.
Alicent has visited her, in a reversal of Rhaenyra’s visit to King’s Landing. Last week, when Alicent skipped out of the castle and went into the woods, she felt at peace for the first time in ages. She is tired of plotting and scheming and is – quite frankly – scared of her sons and scared for her daughter. She offers Rhaenyra a deal: In three days, Aemond and Vhagar will fly off to fight in the Riverlands. If Rhaenyra’s forces attack King’s Landing then, Alicent will open the gates for her, and Aegon will kneel to her and the throne will be hers. All she asks is that she and Haelena be allowed to escape the city.
This is a wonderful scene. There’s some excellent back and forth, with Rhaenyra acting mock-scandalized when Alicent confesses to having a lover, then using that to remind her how she used her purity as a weapon. And the deal is not enough for Rhaenyra. It’s not enough that Aegon kneel. To secure her claim to the throne, she will need to publicly execute the usurper. (This is exactly what Otto warned her would happen years ago.) A son for a son. Alicent reluctantly agreed.
So as Alicent leaves, we get flashes of all the pieces in motion. Addam, Hugh, and Ulf are gearing up for battle. The Starks are marching south. The Triarchy fleet is sailing. Christan Cole’s forces are heading to the Riverlands. Laerys is smuggling Aegon out of King’s Landing in a wagon filled with chickens (which will screw up Alicent’s promise to Rhaenyra, if Aegon has skipped town). And we see a glimpse of Otto, who Alicent was unable to contact, in a cell of some kind. Everything is ready for what promises to be a battle for the ages.
And credits.
Dammit, MAX! We have to wait till SEASON THREE? When are you going to deign to release those episodes? 12 months from now? 18? 24? Not since The Sopranos has an HBO ending irritated me so much.
And this is where the season length becomes a factor. Last season, like most seasons of Game of Thrones, was ten episodes long. An episode like this one, that ratcheted up the tension and built up character arcs, would have fit in perfectly as episode 8 of 10. Following the long-established GoT patterns, episode nine would have had the fireworks and episode ten would have dealt with the fallout. But as a season finale? With a wait of a year and a half for some resolution? That’s just annoying.
Still, it was some expertly crafted tension and it brought some of the more annoying plot lines to a close. Now that Daemon has seen the visions of Winter, he is fully on Team Black and all in on Rhaenyra, so let’s all get the heck out of Harenhall, ok? Rhaena has finally found a dragon, so she can stop roaming through the countryside. Corlys has been a shitty dad. Great, let’s go toast some Hightowers.
Alas, we will not get to see any of this until 2025 at the earliest, and more likely 2026.
Episode and Season Rating: 4 out of 5 It was going so good, but you lost points for that tease of an ending.
Who’s the worst? While Ser Broome was being a real, chauvinistic dick by trying to betray Rhaenyra, we have to give it to Aemond for burning a whole town out of spite and then trying to force his sister into fighting in the war. I look forward to Vermithor or Caraxes or whoever chomping on you and then spitting out the eyepatch.
