Other Doctor Lives: House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 8 – “The Queen Who Ever Was” (2024)

*Spoilers for episode 7.*

Just like “The Red Sowing” was a bit lowkey for a penultimate episode, “The Queen Who Ever Was” is a bit lowkey for a season finale. There are certainly big moments, but for the most part, they’re more about the characters than about violence or spectacle. We end the season poised on everything that’s about to begin.

In the last episode, Rhaenyra brought a crowd of King’s Landing bastards to approach her unclaimed dragons. A wave of devastation followed, and at the end, only two were left standing. With new dragonriders in her ranks, she plans her next move. Time is of the essence, because Aemond is on the warpath. Elsewhere, Raena searches for a wild dragon, Lord Larys warns Aegon that it isn’t safe in King’s Landing, and Daemon has to decide what to do with his new army.

There aren’t a lot of huge “oh shit!!!” moments in the finale, the sort of watercooler moments that set the internet ablaze. But that’s not to sell the episode short. It’s actually really good—quieter than usual, but it explores some excellent character stuff.

(Side note: I wonder if the switch from ten to eight episodes this season caused the show to recalibrate their plans somewhat. If they’d had two extra episodes to work with, would they have ended the season the same way?)

A lot of my notes on this episode are just names of characters put in scenes together, a la “Rhaenyra & Corlys,” “Jace & Baela,” because there are so many good dialogue scenes. The more plot-driven ones are good, like Lord Corlys advising Rhaenyra on strategy and Lord Larys telling Aegon that his brother means to have him killed. Some of the best ones for me, though, are the scenes that are less about advancing the story and more just about the characters and their interactions with each other.

There’s a brilliant scene between Alyn of Hull and Lord Corlys. His brother Addam has claimed a dragon, and now Corlys wants to help advance Alyn’s career. Earlier in the season, Addam was resentful of Corlys, the father who refused to claim them, while Alyn was more accepting of their lot. However, it takes a more overt gesture on Corlys’s side to make Alyn confront his true feelings about the whole situation, and he confronts his father about it as well.

I also love the interplay between Jace and the new dragonriders. He’s already understandably sensitive about his own place as a bastard, and he knows his dark hair makes him stand out. Being forced to rub elbows with lowborn Targaryen bastards—who look more Targaryen than he does—is hard for him. One of them, Ullf, does everything he can to make that harder, crowing about his new position and getting overly familiar with the prince. Baela offers a sounding board for Jace’s frustrations and helps him work through these feelings. It’s a role she’s played multiple times throughout the season, and I love that they’re able to be there for each other, but I hope we get to see more of Jace supporting her in the future too.

Then there’s Daemon. Rhaenyra has sent one of her advisors to check up on him: to see if he’s had any success raising an army in the Riverlands after all this time, and if so, whether he intends for that army to fight for her or himself. The moment has finally come for him to reckon with who he’s going to be. Is he going to serve Rhaenyra or press his own claim?

I like Daemon’s scenes with Ser Alfred, Rhaenyra’s advisor. Matt Smith gives us that mix of playful and menacing that Daemon does so well, carrying himself with a buoyant air that’s permeated with a slight whiff of “test me at your peril.” It’s also noteworthy to me that, even at a time when he’s been away from Rhaenyra and working at cross purposes with her, Daemon still knows her very well. He demonstrates this as Ser Alfred tells him about her latest plans, worrying that she’s going against her Small Council—“Rhaenyra will chart her own course, for good or ill,” Daemon replies.

And best of all, we get a scene between Rhaenyra and Daemon. I won’t spoil the particulars of it, but Smith and Emma D’Arcy play magnificently off each other. Daemon has always been at his best opposite Rhaenyra (both the younger and older versions of the character) or Viserys, and even though Smith’s acting has been strong throughout the season, this scene hammers home how much he’s been wasted in his Harrenhal arc. Again, his performance has been good throughout, but as soon as Daemon and Rhaenyra are put in a room together, the scene becomes electric. Hopefully we’ll see them playing off each other much more next season!

Other Doctor Lives: House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 7 – “The Red Sowing” (2024)

*Guest star spoilers, plus spoilers from episode 6.*

Penultimate episode time! I wouldn’t say this one hits the heights of some of the franchise’s best—it doesn’t give us the sheer momentousness of an episode like “Baelor” or “The Rains of Castamere”—but it still has some great stuff and leaves me excited for the season finale.

In the last episode, Rhaenyra’s attempt to have a distant relation claim a dragon ends tragically, and she’s ready to give up the whole idea—until she learns that Laenor’s former dragon, Seasmoke, has a new rider. After meeting Addam of Hull, she gets behind the idea to search for potential dragonriders in the lowborn bastards of King’s Landing instead of in the genealogies of the noble houses. Meanwhile, Daemon seems to have caught a break at last in Harrenhal. The ailing lord of House Tully has finally died, and he hopes that his successor, young Oscar Tully, will get the Riverlands to bend the knee. But the new lord doesn’t prove as moldable as he expected.

I didn’t mention the Greens at all in my episode summary. It’s not that they’re absent in this episode, they’re just not up to much of anything big. The Blacks, it seems, have had more work to do to maneuver them into the place they’ll need to be for the season finale, so they do a lot of the heavy lifting today.

Nearly everyone is against Rhaenyra’s plan here. Once the idea is brought to her, Rhaenyra herself questions it at first, thinking that the smallfolk couldn’t possibly muster the same loyalty as the nobles who’ve pledged themselves to her. But she comes around, and as she puts her plan into motion, tons of people have misgivings, from her Small Council to some of the bastards who are being asked to risk their lives to claim a dragon. I especially like a scene between Rhaenyra and Jace, reflecting on the lot of a highborn bastard who’s claimed by his royal parent vs. a lowborn one who is not. Not to mention, this plot gives us another appearance from Samson Kayo’s smallfolk character, so that’s fun to see!

Speaking of guest appearances, we also see Viserys again in another of Daemon’s dreams! Paddy Considine gets more to do this time around, speaking to Daemon more directly. Viserys examines the crown Daemon covets, thinking back on “all that pain it caused” and noting that “it crushes whoever wears it.”

Last week, I really loved Ser Steffan the would-be dragonrider. Today, I love Ser Oscar Tully, the new lord paramount of the Riverlands. When Daemon first met him, he was jittery and easily intimidated, and he held his own against the Targaryen prince largely because he couldn’t even fathom speaking on his grandfather’s behalf—even if his grandfather was too old and ill to speak himself. But now, he’s the one in charge, and it’s up to him to do right by his house and the entire Riverlands, getting the minor houses to accept his leadership. His interactions with Daemon are absolutely delicious. I’m scared for what might happen to him in the finale or in future episodes, but it’s clear that this kid is more than anyone bargained for.

With most of his screentime tied up in this dream sequence with Viserys and this faceoff with Ser Oscar, Daemon himself doesn’t impress all that much today. Which is fitting for the circumstances—Matt Smith does what he ought to do and allows us to see Daemon twisting in the wind a little. When the newly lorded Ser Oscar comes to him, Daemon thinks he’s got it all sewn up, tossing off a bored, “Truly glorious, well done,” at the boy’s new position, even as Ser Oscar points out that his grandfather dying after a long illness isn’t exactly an accomplishment of his. And as Ser Oscar admits his concern that the minor houses won’t follow him, both because he’s too young to effectively lead them and because they hate Daemon, our man Daemon simply replies, “I don’t need their love. I need their swords.”

But from there, things don’t go the way Daemon plans. I won’t get into the specifics of it today, but Daemon is not ready for Ser Oscar’s first outing as lord paramount. Smith takes Daemon from commanding to confused to imperious to amused to quietly seething to “oh shit.” He’s much more reactive than proactive today, although Smith still turns in a good performance. My personal favorite moment comes after Daemon has been attempting to play the part of a good sport about Ser Oscar badmouthing him to the minor houses. His carefully worn self-deprecating smile disintegrates when Ser Oscar says, “I see no reason to cast aside that loyalty [to Rhaenyra as Viserys’ heir], no matter how loathsome I may find her representative the prince.” At that, Daemon switches on a dime, and he replies in an eerie-calm tone, “King. Mind your tongue, boy.” Nicely done.

Other Doctor Lives: House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 6 – “Smallfolk” (2024)

*Guest star spoilers, plus spoilers from episode 5.*

Great episode. Everything is coming to a head, and as we barrel towards the end of the season (already???), I’m excited to see where it all goes.

At the end of episode 5, Jace came to Rhaenyra with a new proposal: she has more dragons than she does dragonriders, so he suggests seeking out Valyrian blood that married into other houses generations ago. After studying Targaryen genealogies, she thinks she’s found a likely first candidate. In King’s Landing, the new prince regent refuses to be controlled, and at Harrenhal, Daemon reaches a critical point with both his kingly aspirations and his disturbing dreams.

I’m loving this dragonrider story. Ser Steffon Darklyn is one of Rhaenyra’s loyal knights. Previously, he caught my eye because he’s played by Anthony Flanagan, who I’ll always remember as Tony the police officer from Shameless. But this week, we learn that his line can be traced back to the Targaryens. The scene where he attempts to claim Seasmoke is so good, tense and exciting—it’s also neat to consider in the context of Daenerys and her dragons a couple hundred years later. And besides Ser Steffon, the episode dangles several other prospective dragonriders for us. There’s Raena, who nearly died in her first attempt to claim a dragon but is still haunted by it. There are Alyn and Addam, the lowborn illegitimate sons of Corlys Valaryon. And we can’t say for certain if he’s to be believed, but one of the smallfolk in King’s Landing purports to be Daemon’s half-brother. Bastards may not inherit titles, land, or crowns, but they could still carry the blood of the dragon. Who might emerge as an important player in the last two episodes?

Also, Rhaenyra has had it up to here with trifling men who talk over her. While she waits for the wheels to turn on a subtler plot of hers, she tells one of her more outspoken advisors, “It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me.” Get his ass, Rhaenyra! And although she doesn’t know if Daemon is actively moving against her or just hasn’t succeeded in securing her a land army, she’s realized that she can’t rely on him. I really love her speech reflecting on their relationship, noting the qualities that both coveted in the other—qualities like Rhaenyra wanting to be a strong, reckless man like Daemon and Daemon desiring the love Viserys had for Rhaenyra. This is a great line: “He’s never been at peace. He wished to possess me but not to be possessed.”

No surprise, things are incredibly tense in King’s Landing under Aemond’s rule. Alicent’s chickens have been coming home to roost most of the season, but she really takes a hard hit in this episode. In another fantastic scene, Aemond undoes her in such a gentle yet menacing way. For all that he can be terrifying when he’s riding Vhagar, I like that he’s often so quiet in his one-on-one interactions with other characters. He rarely shouts or rages, but that doesn’t make him any less of a threat. There’s also a very interesting scene between Larys Strong and Aegon, who’s still clinging to life for now—it’s like a self-serving corollary to Tyrion empathizing with Bran after his accident.

Over on the Daemon side of things is where we get our big guest star, in the form of an old face reappearing in his dreams. This isn’t the first time it’s happened—Milly Alcock returned earlier in the season as a dream form of young Rhaenyra—but this time, it’s Paddy Considine Viserys! My beloved feckless king who wanted to do right by Rhaenyra and the realm but was too weak to offer either what they really needed. We don’t really get anything new from him here, because in Daemon’s dreams, he’s basically replaying old memories in this episode. So Viserys is sort of stuck in time, repeating scenes from the past. But it’s great to see Considine on the show again.

(Side note: I still can’t believe he wasn’t even nominated for an Emmy. I spent the fall of 2022 praying that he'd submit for Supporting Actor so he and Diego Luna would be in different categories, but then neither of them got nominated! Zero sense.)

But even though Viserys is going through the motions of past scenes, it’s still really effective for seeing Daemon’s reaction to him. Now, Daemon has obviously been unnerved by his dreams ever since he got to Harrenhal. They unsettle him at night and disorient him during the day. But to my eye, this is the first time we’ve seen him palpably upset by them. Matt Smith plays this fantastically well. As Viserys announces that he’s naming a new heir, Daemon’s reaction is merely an understated, “Don’t,” but Smith infuses that single word with so much feeling, his voice softly breaking as he says it. By the end of the scene, this dream has worked him into an actual panic, and he pounds on the door while begging to be let out.

This takes us directly into a scene with Ser Simon—like many of Daemon’s dreams, this one slides directly into waking with a sickening sort of lurch. In past episodes, Daemon has struggled to right his muddled head with as little notice as possible, trying to disguise his confusion. Now, though, he’s had it, and as he rounds on Ser Simon in his paranoia, Smith gives us absolutely All the Emotions. He’s fierce and threatening, he’s on the verge of tears with some lines, and there are moments where he breaks into laughter. So, so good! Smith gives us a wonderful portrait of a man who’s unraveling.