“House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 5: “Regent” Recap

I don’t know a word to accurately describe the feeling produced by the electrifying coda of episode five – the scene in which Rhaenyra and Jacaerys realize that there is no real shortage of dragons on Dragonstone.

Instead, the Blacks only suffer from a shortage of dragonriders, but even that might prove surmountable. A dragon must be ridden by someone of dragonblood, but apparently, back when the Targaryens were not yet incestuous, members of the bloodline occasionally married into various noble houses. This means that there are men and women in Westeros with dragonblood running through their veins, however small, hiding in plain sight behind mistaken surnames. This isn’t a cliffhanger or even a surprising twist – not really. I can only describe the feeling as Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit, shit is about to happen.

Also, episode five hits this mark twice in the space of an hour. The first time, Mysaria reveals herself to be more than just a mistress of whisperers, but the only deep-thinking tactician besides Rhaenyra. The fruit for sale in King’s Landing is rotting. Ser Criston parades Meleys’s severed head through the cobblestone streets, but his spectacle has no intended effect. The common folk aren’t impressed by the spectacle; they’re frightened. They thought dragons were gods, when in reality, as the guy whose role seems to be “King’s Landing’s number one blacksmith who’ll probably be important later” says, they’re “just meat.” God is dead, and power loves a vacuum. Rhaenyra’s small council talks endlessly about ground troops and dragon counts, but she’s not a queen. She’s a queen in exile. She can’t fight a traditional war because she doesn’t have traditional resources. So let Mysaria start dropping propaganda leaflets on the common people or, you know, the Westeros equivalent. King’s Landing is the crown jewel of the kingdom, but holding it leaves you vulnerable to losing it.

Meanwhile, at Harrenhal, Daemon has not publicly declared his opposition to Rhaenyra, but instead lets the possibility slip away from him slowly, so that the answer to the question “Do you take this queen to have and to hold, for better or for worse, in peace and in war, for as long as you both shall live?” has gone from “I do!” to “Sort of…” to “Not. A. Token” over the course of several episodes. Rhaenyra expected him to raise an army for her, but instead he has assembled one in his own name. This would be terrible news if Daemon weren’t so bad at raising an army in the first place. His delicate dragon-taming hands are blistered after a few days of chopping wood on the great renovation of Harrenhal Castle, and even Caraxes can’t seem to get anything done. Faced with the idea of ​​joining their mortal enemies, the Blackwoods, under the Targaryen banner, the Brackens choose to be burned alive. Let it never be said that Matt Smith can’t make jokes under that monstrosity of blond hair. “I didn’t think they’d be so eager to die,” Daemon says quietly, almost delighted to discover that there are people in this old world who can still surprise him.

Alas, Daemon refuses to burn them alive because the dead cannot fight. Instead, he gives the Blackwoods permission to unleash a campaign of sexual violence and kidnapping on the Brackens, not as a means of psychological warfare but as a means of persuasion. The fact that Daemon thinks this is an effective military recruitment strategy is one of the most disturbing things we know about him, and that’s saying something, considering we now know he fantasizes about performing oral sex on his own mother, her hands mysteriously bloodied. (Side note: If I were Daemon, I’d seriously consider forgoing any food or drink Alys Rivers has prepared.) While the King Consort acts like they’re at the beginning of an enemies-to-lovers seduction story, I believe the witch hates Daemon with every last drop of her being. How could anyone who hears the anguish of the innocents of Bracken on the wind feel any different?

And she’s not the only one wandering the halls of Harrenhal who’s skeptical of the Daemon. When he informs Ser Simon Strong that he’ll personally pay for the castle’s repairs rather than ask Rhaenyra to do it, the castellan looks at him with a doubtful look: “Really? And who are you stealing from?” The ghost of Daemon’s dead wife, Laena, comes to visit to berate him for betraying their daughters, Rhaena and Baela. Eventually, all the river lords come knocking in the wee hours of the morning to berate Daemon for his savagery because, apparently, the Blackwoods forgot to leave their Targaryen banners at home while they committed their war crimes. At times, Daemon feels like he’s in another TV series with his own sense of magic and style of humor, but here they intersect in a meaningful way. Daemon may be raising an army for his own purposes, but as far as the realm as a whole is concerned, the sexual violence he has authorized is happening in the name of Queen Rhaenyra.

That said, things are not going well for the green team. Nine hundred men died trying to take the useless little Spire’s Rest, and Meleys’ severed head was only the second most important thing Criston was carrying to the Red Keep on a sled. The body of King Aegon II, scalded and pulverized, was brought home after the battle in a fruit and vegetable crate. I can’t tell you more about the horrible remedies the Grand Maester is administering to save him, because I nearly closed my eyes; when I glanced over, I couldn’t even tell what part of the body I was looking at.

Sure, you can wrap a drunken fool in Valyrian steel, but that won’t make him fireproof. The sound of the maesters removing the armor from Aegon’s charred body can only be described as… stifling. Alicent looks alarmed, as she should be; the most learned men in Westeros seem to be treating her son’s extensive burns with bandages of chard. Even Helaena looks upset, and she hates Aegon. Aemond, on the other hand, has no qualms about taking charge of his own work.

Or to take over his brother’s crown as Prince Regent and make decisions about the course of the war until further notice. Aegon’s small council briefly discusses the possibility of Alicent presiding, as she did Viserys, but war is not the time for the steady hand of experience to take the helm again. Nor, as Larys indelicately puts it, is it the time to cede Green’s advantage: they have a big, strong man leading them, while Black has only a small queen.

Aside from the Grand Maester, everyone agrees that Aemond, the natural heir and the deadliest dragon rider in the realm, should take the throne. Even Alicent’s boyfriend supports his former drinking buddy, though it’s unclear if Criston does. despite witness of Aemond who nearly murdered his own brother or because The staging of this scene is impeccable. Aemond lifts his little marble ball and nonchalantly sticks it into his brother’s little cone thing as if he were doing his duty as king, and there’s not much to say. We hear the scene in a muddle as if we’re underwater or listening through Alicent’s dazed ears. As if the ship has already sunk or as if none of this matters. Aemond’s first order of business is to close the gates of King’s Landing to prevent the common folk from fleeing in fear of Rhaenyra’s counterattack, a move that will surely do wonders for morale.

At the small council meeting at Dragonstone, a defiant Ser Alfred talks about destroyed castles, dead dragons, and estranged husbands as if anyone in the building is confused about how bad things are for the Blacks. It’s not that he doubts Rhaenyra’s intelligence or even that her loyalty is wavering, he tells her. It’s just sexism! Make babies, not war. And while Rhaenyra correctly claims that the men on her council have also known a life of peace, she seems baffled as they discuss possible next steps to avenge the deaths of Rhaenys and Meleys. Perhaps they should ask Daemon for help? Perhaps they should launch a surprise attack on King’s Landing without a land army and no victories to their credit? Vhagar East I probably feel like Monday.

Rhaenyra is starting to doubt herself, like the others. She wasn’t raised as a boy soldier, but as a geographer. And while I doubt that’s something you win by wielding a sword, the feeling of helplessness has made Rhaenyra sullen. Without Rhaenys by her side, she turns to Mysaria for guidance and her daughter-in-law for comfort. Baela has become increasingly important to the war effort, and this week, Bethany Antonia, who plays her, gets a handful of scenes that finally bring the character out of the shadows. Baela Targaryen emerges with her grandmother’s confidence and an easy self-awareness. She tells Rhaenyra about the time Rhaenys snuck into the dragon pit as a girl to steal Meleys, her grandmother’s dragon, from her own father. They both know the story already, but it’s the only eulogy they’ll have time to give for the Queen Who Never Was, a wild and willful woman born before her time and dead far too soon.

At Rhaenyra’s request, Baela goes to Corlys, who is in a bad way in Driftmark, grieving for his wife. The queen asks him to be her hand, but hasn’t he given her enough already, he asks his granddaughter, a certain anger creeping into his tearful mourning. He means, of course, that he gave his wife to the Blacks, but he might as well be thinking of his own children. Rhaenyra may not have caused their deaths, but their deaths made the life she has now possible. But with Rhaenys and Laena gone, Rhaenyra is also the only mother Baela has left. Baela boldly encourages Corlys to take the job, and I believe he probably will, if only to better care for his…