*Spoilers up through episode 3.*
Matt Smith/Daemon is coming in hard this episode. The whole thing is very Targaryens Take No Prisoners, which he and Rhaenyra are very much about. After a couple episodes in a row that were light on Daemon, I’m glad to have more focus on him here.
Rhaenyra is on a “tour” of the Seven Kingdoms meeting would-be suitors, an exercise that she disdains with her very soul. When she’s taken as much of it as she can, she returns home early, much to her father’s annoyance. Also newly arrived is Daemon, after his victory over the Crabfeeder’s pirates. Daemon schemes to give Rhaenyra a brief taste of anonymity, along with some less-than-avuncular advice about how one doesn’t necessarily need to give up desire for the sake of duty.
Even though Rhaenyra has so far stuck within a very specific archetype for a female lead, I still like her and am sympathetic to her situation. In this episode, she attempts to stand up for her own autonomy, which features some dumb mistakes that could prove very costly. She also explores what it is she actually wants, and she pushes hard to attain it.
I think the relationship between Viserys and Rhaenyra has definitely emerged as my favorite on the show, and not just because Paddy Considine is killing it so hard in his performance as the ineffectual king. There seems to be a clear pattern when it comes to these two. Rhaenyra’s behavior angers/perplexes/worries her father, and he can’t help those emotions from coming out, leading them to butt heads regularly. But for all his aggravation, Viserys fiercely defends her against anyone who would cast aspersions on her. And when they finally talk openly and earnestly with each other, usually near the end of the episode, the love and understanding comes through—even if they’re still pretty entrenched in their differing opinions, they reach a point where they can differ and still love each other.
As the episode was going along, I thought it might not have many good scenes for Considine, but things really ramp up for him in the second half. In addition to a great heart-to-heart with Rhaenyra, he also has two excellent scenes with Rhys Ifans’ Otto Hightower. Amid the dragons and battles and spectacle, I find that most of my favorite moments in this franchise come down to two fine actors simply going toe-to-toe, which is what we get here.
Alicent also has some interesting material in this episode. It’s clear that trying to navigate being her best friend’s stepmother has been rough, to say the least. In every conflict between Rhaenyra and Viserys, she’s been caught in the middle, and she doesn’t always know when to be Rhaenyra’s friend vs. her queen. Furthermore, because Rhaenyra’s hurt feelings over the marriage put so much distance between them for quite a while, Alicent hasn’t really had anyone to support her in everything that’s been going on.
Then there’s Daemon. He’s a slippery one—four episodes in, it’s still hard for me to predict what he’s going to do in any given moment. He shows up in King’s Landing wearing a homemade crown (he’s been named the “King of the Narrow Sea” of the episode title,) but the way things proceed from there are very unexpected.
One thing is clear. Despite all of his ambitions and capacity for making serious trouble for the crown, he also very much loves his family. Conflicts between him and Viserys are so impactful in part because it’s evident neither really wants to hurt each other. Similarly, Rhaenyra replaced him as heir, but he cares deeply for her. In this episode, his recklessness stands to rain a lot of shit down on Rhaenyra, but I can still see some bizarre good intentions within it. She feels trapped in her situation, he offers her a bit of freedom. She feels entitled to the crown her father is giving her, he reminds her that a king’s proclamations won’t hold much weight after the king dies if the smallfolk don’t back her. She chafes against the prospect of an arranged marriage, he explains that marriages are simply politics and don’t have to be a prison. She fears dying in childbirth like her mother, he shows her that sex for a woman doesn’t solely have to be about producing heirs.
There’s a lot of messed-up, exceedingly Targaryen stuff within this. And Daemon’s advice is based on his own experiences, which are inherently different than Rhaenyra’s because she’s a princess and not a prince. Does he truly want to help her, or is he trying to confuse, corrupt, or ruin her? It’s hard to say and I’m not even sure what he wants, but Smith is playing this ambiguity wonderfully well. In all his interactions with Viserys and Rhaenyra, I feel both warmth and danger, with one or the other taking prominence in different scenes. It’s very effective, and I love trying to figure out his deal.
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