House of the Dragon: S2 E4
Dragonfire, massive battles, treachery, egos and unbridled hubris: the fourth episode of HotD finds its "Red Wedding" moment, and reminds us why sword & sorcery can be so compelling.
For last week’s episode review, click here.
If you’ve been reading my episode reviews for season two of “House of the Dragon” on Max — and thanks for doing so! — you probably have detected a creeping note of impatience along with favorable appraisals of the spinoff of “Games of Thrones” by George R. R. Martin.
While slowly stoking an audience’s anticipation can produce bountiful results, if overdone it can feel like the showrunners are simply treading water, stretching the storytelling overfar for the impact it holds. Episode 3 last week showed promising narrative momentum.
Well, the waiting’s over. The eggs have hatched, the civil war brewing between the Targaryens is officially on and the stakes have been raised in a major way.
How high? I can’t and won’t spoil anything. But let’s put it this way: this season will be remembered by what happened before this episode, and after. HotD has found its “Red Wedding” moment.
The title is as good a hint as any: “The Red Dragon and the Gold.” Expect some serious dragon duels, along with much balefile consuming entire armies. Many people will die… and not just cannon fodder characters.
OK, I’ll hush now.
If heretofore HotD has felt like simply a spinoff of GoT, here’s the point of departure where it plants its own flag as a piece of sword & sorcery iconography. Not only does it feature all the hallmarks of Martin’s very mature take on the genre — dragonfire, massive battles, treachery, egos and unbridled hubris — it reminds us why this sort of storytelling can be so compelling.
If you recall from episode 3, Ser Cristan Cole (Fabien Frankel) was leading an expeditionary force northward from King’s Landing to make the first all-out feint at Harrenhal, the dank but pivotal fortress in the Riverlands. Unbeknownst to him, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has already captured it with his dragon, though he’s essentially a king sitting an empty castle with no army of his own.
Cole, recently elevated to King’s Hand by callow young King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), turns out to have Robb Stark-level acumen as a battle leader, quickly subduing a series of enemy armies and conscripting them into his ranks. A pivotal choice lies ahead, one that may put Aegon in conflict with his increasingly defiant younger brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).
Meanwhile, Daemon fares less well, getting lost in a series of haunting visions after a visit with a local maester/witch.
The big reveal at the end of episode 3 was the in-person faceoff between childhood friends turned warring matriarchs, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). During this exchange Alicent learned that what she thought was her kingly husband’s deathbed reversal of his intention to have Rhaenyra succeed him on the throne was just a colossal misunderstanding on her part.
Don’t expect a big show of contrition. Both women now seem resolved that the war they’d hoped to avoid is inevitable.
“There are those who have mistaken my caution for weakness,” Rhaenyra announces to her council of sniping lords. Clearly her mettle is settled.
“A Dance of Dragons” really takes wing in the last 20 minutes or so of its 50. It’s the most action-packed sequence of the entire show thus far, boasting killer CGI, tons of excitement and show-changing consequences. I was utterly rapt.
Having completed the first half of the second season, consider me fully under the show’s spell, almost unable to contain my anticipation for episodes 5-8.