After last week’s House of the Dragon, the charge of that secret sept meeting lingered. It was bold enough for Rhaenyra to just go, to broker the entire operation through Mysaria’s whispers and leave her advisory council lost in their endless arguments over strategy. But what really stuck was how Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke played it. The shock of that first contact, as it gave way to the shared intimacy of their former lives as friends, before a total collapse into the personal and political realities of the current schism. Death was definitely a participant in Rhaenyra and Alicent’s dialogue. But what will linger from HOTD Season 2 Episode 4 is all of the dying at full volume, as dragons and their riders go beast mode on one another over a traditional field of battle. Used to be you could bring your own battering ram, outlast your target’s archers, and breach a castle’s defenses. But winning a battle with siege weapons, infantry, and cavalry isn’t as simple with no less than three dragons duking it out in the skies above. As pure spectacle, the Battle at Rook’s Rest promises thrills to come. But its outcome has massive implications for rule over Westeros and the deadly dramas of this fantasy world we can’t stop watching.
But first! Milly Alcock returns again to HOTD as the Ghost of Rhaenyra Past, and she’s putting into words the thoughts Daemon doesn’t wish to confront. “You created me,” she tells him as she sits on a version of the Iron Throne. “Yet you are now set on destroying me. All because your brother loved me more than he did you.” That last gibe gets Daemon to draw his sword and cut the ghost down, but it’s clear that Harrenhal has got him twisted. At night, he’s drawn from his sleeping chamber by visions of himself crossed with Aemond and his eyepatch. And he meets the mysterious Alys Rivers as she brews potions and portends more danger. Does Daemon even know that the very bed in which he sleeps was fashioned from the wood of a heart tree? Dripping walls and prophecy! Harrenhal is not treating Daemon well. Nor has he been able to gather any forces to the Blacks’ cause. It’s like Larys Strong says at council in the Red Keep. “Harrenhal is more crippled than I am, your grace.” And it might very well drive Daemon to madness.
What sibling hasn’t switched into High Valyrian, that beautiful old language, so as to more effectively needle their brother that he’s out of his element as a military ruler? “Do you have a wiser strategy, my king? If so, you should voice it to your council.” It’s an open challenge on Aegon II’s authority and position, made worse because Aemond is already making tactical plays with Ser Criston Cole, and he knows Aegon’s command of High Valyrian is limited. Later, in her chambers, Alicent will also highlight Aegon’s impetuousness and naiveté. The installed king can’t just drink away this problem. Taunting a naked Aemond in a brothel doesn’t diminish his brother’s power. There’s only one way Aegon can see that will seat his authority properly. He will seek glory by donning the armor of Aegon the Conqueror, hopping onto Sunfyre, and joining the forces of Ser Criston Cole as they romp their way through the Riverlands. As it turns out, this decision is…rash.
“Either I win my claim, or die.”
“The significance of Viserys’ intentions died with him.”
These two statements from the royals of two warring factions prove that, after the failed diplomacy of their secret sept meeting, any reservations Rhaenyra and Alicent still had about a Westerosi war of succession have burned away. In the Red Keep, Alicent gulps medicinal moon tea – is it Ser Criston’s baby she wants no part of? – while at Dragonstone, Rhaenyra decides to send Rhaenys and her veteran dragon Meleys in support of Lord Staunton at the beleaguered Rook’s Rest. “I inherited 80 years of peace from my father. Before I was to end it, I needed to know there was no other path. Now I do.” But Rhaenyra also shares with Prince Jacaerys the Song of Ice and Fire. A dream of unification and protection, passed down from king to heir. Last week, she removed dragon’s eggs and the Targaryen babes for protection in the Vale. This week, she shares with her heir an important generational secret. Rhaenyra is preparing, because she knows the casualties in this war are only increasing, and nobody’s safe from harm.
And so to battle. A broad daylight attack on Rook’s Rest was deviously designed as a lure by Cole and Aemond. But while the castle’s proximity to Dragonstone does bring Rhaenys on Meleys into the fight – one second you’re a sellsword pushing a battering ram, the next you’re melted human mush – Aemond ignores Cole’s signal to break from cover. He waits in the woods with Vhagar as a brash Aegon II appears on Sunfyre, who Rhaenys immediately engages, and Meleys’ claws eviscerate the smaller dragon’s gullet. His impulsive decision to fight has Aegon in way over his head. But Aemond is not going to be his brother’s savior. Instead, he’s his attempted incinerator. Vhagar doesn’t hesitate to send a blast of flame at both Sunfyre and Meleys. And as a severely wounded Aegon II and his destroyed dragon crash and burn in the forest, Rhaenys pierces the smoke of the battlefield with Meleys, only to be caught off guard by Aemond and his massive mount.
Before she flew this time to war, Rhaenys had a moment in Driftmark where she purposefully touched Alyn of Hull’s face. Almost like a mother would. “I know who he is,” she told Lord Corlys with emphasis. But the brief scene was left in question. Was it simply because Alyn had saved Corlys in a sea battle? Or because she knew he represented something more to her husband? We will have to see what moves Lord Corlys Velaryon makes next, because Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was and a talented dragonrider from way back, isn’t gonna make it out of this dance of dragons alive. One of the coolest characters in House of the Dragon, played with gravity and grace by Eve Best, becomes one of this wartorn season’s earliest indications that we should not get attached to any of these people.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.