*Episode premise spoilers, including a spoiler from episode 3.*
It’s hard to believe we’re halfway through the season already—Warner Bros. Discovery is really just leaving money on the table. As a halfway point, though, this episode definitely hits the mark. A lot of the characters are hitting a crossroads, reaching the point where it’s time to put up or shut up. The same goes for the approaching war.
The Blacks and the Greens are both jockeying for bannermen in the Riverlands. Rhaenyra is in the most uncertain position—Daemon left for Harrenhal after a huge fight between them, and he hasn’t checked in since. People don’t know if he’s really there to rally support for Rhaenyra or if he’s going to try and stake his own claim, and even Daemon may not be entirely sure. He’s being plagued by strange dreams that creep into his waking hours. And Ser Criston is marching on the Riverlands on Aegon’s behalf, but the young king is upset when he realizes that his new Hand is strategizing with Aemond instead of him. Against his wishes, Ser Criston isn’t leading his troops to Harrenhal, and Aegon doesn’t know what his true game is.
Before I get into the action in the Riverlands, I want to circle back to an important scene from episode 3, where, at Rhaenys’s suggestion, Rhaenyra snuck into King’s Landing in disguise to meet with Alicent. She reaches out to her old friend in the hopes that peace is still possible, and in doing so, she learns more about her father’s last moments. She realizes that there was likely no deathbed “change of heart” toward Aegon, that he was really talking about her and not her brother. Alicent, who didn’t know about the Song of Ice and Fire, misunderstood his talk of the prophecy. Going into this episode, Rhaenyra is surer in her claim than ever and now believes there’s no way to avoid war.
Alicent, meanwhile, is haunted by doubt and yet remains just as firm in her own position. After hearing about the prophecy from Rhaenyra, she’s been studying Viserys’s historical texts, trying to see if there could be any validity in what Rhaenyra said. But as she tells Larys Strong, it doesn’t ultimately make any difference: “Rhaenyra’s supporters will believe what they wish, and so will Aegon’s. The war will be fought, and many will die, and the victor will eventually ascend the throne. The significance of Viserys’s intentions died with him.”
Aegon has started to learn what his father knew, that being king can involve a surprising lack of choice/agency. He’s furious to learn that Ser Criston is sending ravens to Aemond and not him, and Aemond makes a serious play for control in the Small Council. When Aegon complains to Alicent about it, she’s not exactly filled with motherly understanding—“What sort of thoughts would you have [to offer Ser Criston and Aemond]?” she asks him. And out in the field, Ser Criston is keeping the full extent of the plan close, even from his own men.
Rhaenyra didn’t tell anyone she was going to King’s Landing, which has left her Small Council floundering without her. Lacking critical resources and manpower, her advisors are unimpressed with Jace and Baela’s attempts to hold things down in her stead, and her return doesn’t really improve things much. Jace, who’s backed all of Rhaenyra’s efforts pretty implicitly so far, pushes back on her in front of the council, taking her to task for reckless actions and arguing with her plans for a path forward.
It all comes to a head in a major way in the Riverlands. Everyone’s talking about it online right now, but I’ll refrain from getting into the details here—I’ll stick to my usual method of talking about the spoilers next week. Suffice it to say, it’s both exciting and emotional, and I’m very interested to see how the characters will respond in the next episode.
Despite so much happening in the Riverlands, and despite being at Harrenhal while it’s all going down, Daemon is kind of divorced from the proceedings. Since Ser Criston isn’t marching on the castle, Daemon’s in no immediate danger yet, but he’s not getting much forward momentum in his own objectives, whatever those may turn out to be. Ser Simon Strong is doing his best to arrange the meetings Daemon asks for, but the meetings aren’t really getting him anywhere. Because the elderly lord of House Tully is bedbound and unable to speak, his nervous grandson with zero decision-making power is sent in his place, and a meeting with the head of another prominent house is marred by confusion. Daemon’s been having strange dreams ever since he arrived, and they’re really throwing him for a loop—he sometimes sinks into a scene not sure how he got there, and he’s started to seeing visions while he’s awake as well. It all distracts and disorients him, which hinders his handling of an already complicated situation.
What I love about Matt Smith’s performance here is Daemon’s impatient disdain for everything going on at Harrenhal. When he asks for a meeting with the lord of House Tully and the grandson shows up in his place, Daemon snidely remarks, “Lord Grover is looking more hale and healthy than I expected.” And when Ser Simon reminds him which of two feuding houses declared for Aegon, I just love his over-it tone as he retorts, “Who can remember?” It’s a good rendering of a self-interested royal who’s not used to dealing with problems that he can’t fix with a sword or a dragon.
No comments:
Post a Comment