*Spoilers for the end of episode 1.*
Much like last week’s premiere, the second episode of the series explores the fallout from the bungled, startling death of an innocent as a result of the escalating conflict between the Blacks and the Greens. I wonder how much of this war is going to play out that way.
Last week, in the throes of her grief over Luc’s death, the only words Rhaenyra spoke were, “I want Aemond Targaryen.” To that end, Daemon steals away to King’s Landing to hire a butcher and a rat catcher to do the deed. But when they instead kill Aegon’s young heir Jaehaerys, it lights a powder keg. Aegon is out for blood, Otto is painting Rhaenyra as a child murderer before the realm, and Rhaenyra is horrified at Daemon’s part in this.
One of the first things that strikes me about this episode is how alone everyone is in their grief. Both sides have now lost a child in a brutal way, but the demands of these rising tensions keep anyone from reaching out to one another. Even within their own camps, there’s no comfort to be found. Aegon is raging and distraught, clamoring for revenge against Otto’s advice. Queen Helaena is hardly about to find solace in her volatile brother-husband, and when she wants to mourn in peace, Alicent tells her daughter she’s needed to ride in an open carriage while her murdered child’s body is paraded through the streets on the way to the funeral. Otto is thinking only of how to press the tragedy to their advantage, winning the war of public opinion against Rhaenyra. So many of the King’s Landing characters are desperately sad here, sorrowful over the same horrific event, but none of them can help each other right now.
Then there’s Ser Criston, who’s on his guilt complex BS more than ever. We of course saw how things broke down between him and Rhaenyra last season, but he’s since mellowed on the sanctity of his Kingsguard vows, serving as Alicent’s boytoy. He was with her when Jaehaerys was murdered, and Helaena saw them together when she burst into Alicent’s room in distress. Now, Ser Criston’s festering guilt is causing him to lash out at others, blaming them because he’s so sickened by his own failings. It leads to push another Kingsguard, Ser Arryk, into a rash, dangerous gamble to get revenge.
I realized I haven’t mentioned Ser Arryk or his twin Ser Erryk yet (side note: how dare their parents.) They’re played by Luke and Elliott Tittensor, who both played Carl Gallagher on the first series of Shameless before Elliott carried on the role solo. While both knights served as Kingsguard under Viserys, Ser Erryk decided to bend the knee to Rhaenyra following the succession shit storm after Viserys’ death. The two brothers deliver the best scene of the episode.
The second-best scene, for me, is the confrontation between Rhaenyra and Daemon after the news reaches them that she’s being blamed for Jaehaerys’ murder. Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith are just so good together here. Rhaenyra comes in hot, as she’s wont to do, and Daemon initially tries to shrug everything off before eventually matching his fiery nature with hers. Daemon insists that it was all a misunderstanding, explaining, “I was clear in my instructions: Aemond, the brother of Aegon the usurper.” He even has the gall to add that he “cannot be responsible" for what happened.
But Rhaenyra argues that 1) you can’t just “oopsie” away child murder, and 2) she doesn’t know if it was a mistake. “I cannot trust you, Daemon,” she tells him. And even more, the crux of the matter comes down to this: “Do you accept me as your queen and ruler, or do you cling even now to what you think you lost?”
Impressively, I’d say Daemon still hasn’t reached Prince Philip levels of trashness for me. That said, he definitely doth protest too much in his claims of unconditional support for Rhaenyra—he lets it slip when he refers to the need to protect “[his] brother’s throne,” prompting Rhaenyra to remind him, “My throne, Daemon! Mine!” The two of them pull no punches with each other in this scene, and it’ll be very interesting to see what happens between them next.
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