“House Of The Dragon” Season 2, Episode 2 Recap and Review: “I Love You Brother”

Following the formula established in last week’s season 2 premiere Dragon House, the series offers us another episode of politics and staging punctuated at the very end by extreme violence. This scene, however, was much funnier than last week’s traumatic child murder. That’s not to say the scene was enjoyable, but I’d rather watch two knights fight than that grisly scene from Blood and Cheese any day.

Spoilers follow.

We’ll start at the end this week, since it’s certainly the moment everyone will be talking about after the episode airs on HBO and Max. The fight to the death of Arryk (Luke Tittensor) and Erryk (Elliot Tittensor) Cargyll worked wonderfully, largely thanks to the excellent, even perfect, casting of these two knights, twins in real life and in the series .

The Cargylls were each sworn knights of the Kingsguard of the previous ruler, King Viserys I (Paddy Considine), but when the Hightowers pulled off their little coup at the end of last season, the two brothers each chose different queens to support. Erryk, disillusioned by Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) frequent trips to brothels and illicit fights where poor children fight for the amusement of others, tries to convince his brother, Arryk, to support Rhaenyra (Emma D’ Arcy), but he is inflexible. He has taken an oath and is not willing to break it, regardless of the prince’s “proclivities.”

(Quick note: I would be annoyed at Mom and Dad Cargyll for naming their sons in the most confusing way imaginable, but I’m just going to pin this one on George RR Martin who had a lot of fun with the names in his book. Fire and blood, including a whole line of Tullys with names like Grover, Oscar and Elmo).

Disenchanted with Aegon, Erryk fled King’s Landing and traveled to Dragonstone, pledging allegiance to Rhaenyra and becoming one of her royal guard. Erryk stayed behind, although in tonight’s episode he probably should have realized that whether or not he could support Aegon, remain under the iron fist of the diminutive Lord Commander, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel). is a bad idea. Cole, angry that young Prince Jaehaerys was murdered on his watch, looks for someone to blame and when he notices Arryk’s white coat is muddy, he was guarding the Dowager Queen, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and the Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) on their parade of grief through town – he decides that Arryk will bear the brunt of his anger.

Not only does Cole order the knight to take care of his cloak before eating, but he concocts a mission for him on the spot: he must go to Dragonstone, infiltrate the fortress by pretending to be his twin brother, and massacre there Rhaenyra. Arryk balks at this – he’s a knight, not an assassin – but Cole doesn’t comply and sends him on a suicide mission without consulting Aegon or the Hand of the King, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans).

When Arryk arrives, he is almost stopped by the white worm, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), as she walks by, having just been at the castle with her brother and the queen. I kept waiting for her to sound the alarm, but she never does, unless we’re supposed to understand that she’s doing it off-screen, which is why help arrives in time.

Arryk heads to Rhaenyra’s chambers, where he relieves the knight on duty, then enters her chamber, drawing his sword as he approaches. At that moment, Erryk also bursts into the room and the two fight in one of the best fight scenes this series has ever offered. What makes it so great is the fact that in a short time the two men, who look almost identical, are almost indistinguishable. Those of us watching certainly can’t tell, but neither can the spectators who rush into the fray to help Rhaenyra. The heat of battle, the armor, the ferocity of combat, all of it makes their similarities – which we might be able to see past in a quiet moment – ​​impossible to distinguish.

“I can’t tell which is which!” exclaims one of the Queen of Rhaenyra’s guards. Me neither! This adds another level of tension to the fight. If one kills the other, is Erryk protecting Rhaenyra, or is Arryk there to kill her? In the end, they kill each other, although the last man standing turns to Rhaenyra and begs her forgiveness before throwing himself on his blade. Was it Erryk begging for forgiveness for taking his own life, stealing one of his protectors? Or was it Arryk, shocked and grief-stricken by his brother’s death, finally realizing it wasn’t worth it. “We are one soul divided into two bodies,” Arryk told Cole earlier (I’m paraphrasing). These stupid oaths. As if Criston Cole would ever defend his.

Elsewhere in the episode, we see the parade of grief I mentioned earlier. Otto Hightower thought it would arouse the sympathy of the common people by publicly displaying the prince’s body in a procession which almost went very badly. And not just sympathy, but anger at Rhaenyra for the assassination, which Otto made very public, sending crows everywhere to denounce the act. It’s a plan that almost works, until Aegon hangs all the ratcatchers outside the Red Keep, although most of them are innocent (although Cheese was also hanged; we let’s see his poor dog, whimpering as he looks at his hanging corpse).

Otto is furious but he goes too far, berating the young king until Aegon has had enough. “You were my father’s hand, not mine,” he said. Clubfoot Larys Strong is about to get even more powerful, it seems. Otto leaves for Hightower, appalled by his grandson’s (unsurprising) recklessness. This is the bed that Otto himself made; he only has himself to blame.

In Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is furious with her uncle-husband, Daemon (Matt Smith) over the role he played in the prince’s death, although he denies telling Blood and Cheese that any son would the case. However, Daemon is a liar, so we don’t know what he actually said. They argue and he leaves for Harrenhal to raise armies and prepare for war.

Outside the courts of power, we find several scenes with Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) and his brother Adamm (Clinton Liberty). We also see the desperate situation blacksmith Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) finds himself in, with no money and a sick daughter.

At this point, we’re just beginning to get to know these characters. It’s unclear why we get to know them (and even if I do, having read the book, I won’t spoil it here. They’re important characters! You’ll find out why soon enough!)

All in all, this was still a bit of a slow episode but I don’t really mind that. I accepted this Dragon House is simply a very different beast from Game Of Thrones. We’re still on the verge of war, and I suspect that once we get there, and all the battles in heaven and on earth break out, things will get a lot bloodier and crazier.

I think the only complaint I share with some viewers is that I struggle to care much about the characters. There are very few that actually make you want to root for them, like the Stark children, or Brienne or later, Jaime Lannister, or Tyrion or Jon Snow or Daenerys (especially) or The Hound and so on. Thrones is filled with rich characters that Martin has fleshed out and given shape to in his books.

Fire and Blood the characters are just characters in a story book, and the HBO adaptation – while it certainly gives them a lot more to do and a lot more depth – doesn’t really make us fall in love with any of them them. Rhaenyra and her son Jace (Harry Collett) perhaps, and Daemon’s daughters. We root for Daemon because he’s attractive and dangerous, but he’s a bad man at heart. Viserys was a good king, but weak. Alicent is accessible but not really friendly. There’s not much comic relief, that’s for sure! No one throws out slogans like “I drink and I know things”.

Still, it’s a brilliant spectacle that I find completely absorbs me. It’s a great story even if the characters are much less likeable than the heroes. Thrones. It was still heroic fantasy. It is more of a Shakespearean tragedy.

What did you think of this episode? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.