Season 2 of House of the Dragon has come to an end. The finale may not have featured any big battles or stunning betrayals, but there certainly was plenty of story development that should pay off … eventually! What lies ahead for Team Black and Team Green in this drawn-out Dance of the Dragons? And how did the second season play as a whole? Let’s discuss.
1. What is your tweet-length review of the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale?
Katie Baker: Well that was fun, can’t wait to see how they wrap things up next week! Now to take a big sip of coffee and check the TV listings …
Ben Lindbergh: Great episode! So psyched for the big battle. It’s all been building up to this—next week will be the one we’ve all been waiting for!
Wait. Did you say finale?
Claire McNear: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? DID THEY FORGET TO INCLUDE THE LAST SCENE IN THE FINAL CUT? IS THIS THING ON???
Austin Gayle: My least favorite episode of the series thus far. It was (obviously) a letdown for anyone expecting dragonfire, but even beyond that, some of the writing—I can’t get the scene between Rhaenyra and Corlys out of my head—felt so rushed and spoon-fed. I expected so much more and didn’t get it.
Kai Grady: I enjoyed this season and the finale quite a bit, but there’s no denying the ending felt a tad bit anticlimactic. I love Game of Thrones politicking and scheming as much as the next person, but the fact that we’re still setting up chess pieces 18 episodes into the series makes it fall somewhat flat.
2. What was the best moment of the episode?
McNear: “I want you to fuck my wives” is very possibly the single best line in the history of the Thrones-verse.
Baker: I loved both of Rhaenyra’s exchanges in this episode with former loved ones—Daemon and Alicent—as they sought to appeal to her. Her character always works best when she can play off someone else, and these scenes reminded me of how incredible Emma D’Arcy’s work is. The Rhaenyra-Alicent convo was brilliant acting, on both sides: I loved how steely Rhaenyra became as she looked her desperate friend in the eye and named her price.
Grady: Ulf the White acting an absolute FOOL at his first dinner with the rightful queen. Do you see how many dragons Rhaenyra has now?! Ulf’s unseriousness brings HotD some much-needed levity and keeps his actions unpredictable. He reminds me of Tyrion, but if Tyrion was lowborn, less competent, and had no real interest in the machinations that come with pursuing the crown.
Lindbergh: Rhaenyra reuniting with Daemon at Harrenhal. These two problematic Targaryen lovebirds had been apart since Episode 2, and a lot has happened to both of them since then. It was immensely satisfying to see them come together again in such an atmospheric setting, under such suspenseful, high-stakes circumstances. I particularly liked the contrast between their theatrical exchange for public consumption, in the common tongue, and their private, personal communion amid that pomp and pageantry, in High Valyrian. Many Brackens and Blackwoods died to bring us this reconciliation, but ultimately Daemon did the right thing and resisted the temptation to coup-operate with Alfred Broome. Congrats to Rhaenyra on escaping confinement on Dragonstone, at least for one scene.
Gayle: Surprisingly, Criston Cole’s scene with Alicent’s brother, Ser Gwayne. He was (and maybe still is) the most hated man on TV right now, but I’ve grown to like Cole a lot more post-haircut. Some of his dialogue in his conversation with Gwayne cut deep:
“Or perhaps all men are corrupt. And true honor is a mist that melts in the morning.
“The dragons dance, and men are like dust under their feet. And all of our fine thoughts, all our endeavors are as nothing. We march now toward our annihilation. To die will be a kind of relief. Don’t you think?”
I love that he’s in his “all men suck, including me, and life is meaningless” era. Join the rest of us, lad.
3. What was your least favorite part?
Lindbergh:
Actually, no—people pay good money to see stuff like that online. Let’s go with Rhaena running around the Vale in pursuit of a dragon that the series hasn’t set up to seem particularly important.
Grady: When I started to empathize with Criston Cole. I’m familiar with your game, Thrones—look no further than the arcs of former GOT characters like Jaime Lannister, the Hound, and Theon Greyjoy, to name a few.
McNear: “Well, next season will be awesome” is not the compelling business proposition that Max seems to think it is.
Gayle: Corlys’s dialogue in his final scene with Rhaenyra; Daemon screaming giddily like a child in front of an army that he barely cobbled together while a known turncloak, Ser Alfred Broome, sneaked away effortlessly; all of the Triarchy scenes with Tyland Lannister—they included characters I didn’t care about and were more lighthearted than what I hoped from the finale. Also, the trailer-esque montage at the end?! I mean, they were laughing in our faces at that point.
Baker: In order from least to most egregious:
4. Criston Cole’s complete lack thereof. Dude, you are neither Laid-Back Jim NOR Cool, Hip Jim!
3. I liked meeting Admiral Lohar, who answered the unasked question of “What if Brienne of Tarth were more like Yara Greyjoy?” with weird leering aplomb. But! That mud-wrestling scene was cringe and tryhard and felt like something out of this season of The Boys. I shan’t be elaborating further.
2. Everyone who claimed that Mysaria’s accent had “gotten better” this season. I feel lied to, hoodwinked, led astray.
1. That we now probably have to wait years, plural, for some resolution. (I realize this is a very The food is terrible! And such small portions! complaint.)
4. The finale eschewed a climactic battle in favor of setup for future events. What story or character development are you most intrigued by?
Gayle: Cole. He’s somehow come out of this season as the only character who still feels capable of wowing me right now. Larys and Aegon are gone. Alicent and Helaena are looking for ways out. Daemon spent an entire season away from the main cast following ghosts around a castle just to have his entire outlook and demeanor change with one touch of a tree. The more Aemond spoke in the final episode, the less I feared him—his mystique carried so much more than his actual words (and boyish voice). I’m bored of Jace’s pouting. Corlys and his son Alyn are due for what should be fun ship battles, but I don’t feel super connected to either of them or to the Triarchy they’re set to square off against. Rhaenyra and her new dragonriders will be cool when, um, WE ACTUALLY SEE THEM FIGHT OTHER DRAGONS. We got as many dragon battles in Season 2 as we did in Season 1 … sure, the Season 2 escapade involved three dragons instead of two, but you get my point.
Baker: This question actually helps me see that the finale was a success on some levels, because I’m having trouble deciding. Kind of a three-way tie between (a) seeing what depressive-pixie-dream-girl Helaena’s role in the conflict will wind up being; (b) following along with Larys and Aegon out on the open road—someone get those guys a good Cameron Crowe soundtrack, stat!; and (c) seeing what happens when Rhaenyra tries to take Alicent up on her offer and finds the king’s quarters unoccupied.
Lindbergh: I’m interested in seeing the dragonseeds sprout. Given Rhaenyra’s current dragon advantage—which will only grow if Rhaena claims Sheepstealer—the queen suddenly seems OP. But with at least two seasons of Dragon to go, this civil war can’t be close to its end. Something has to happen to balance the scales (so to speak), and Rhaenyra’s inspired recruiting gambit could come with a catch. Will her upjumped dragonriders deliver? Or will the reaping be redder than the Sowing? As Addam told Ulf, “There will be time enough to see which one of us is a coward.”
McNear: Let’s get Daemon back in the game! Matt Smith’s roguish performance was perhaps the single best element of Season 1—only to have him spend Season 2 moping around Harrenhal, largely in solitude. With Daemon now officially back on Team Rhaenyra, I’m looking forward to him getting the heck out of the melted haunted house (and far, far away from Alys Rivers) and resuming the drawling, canny performance that we know and love.
Grady: Who the hell took Otto? He’s been off the board since early in the season, and the show no doubt suffered due to his absence. I need to know who took him and why. He’s a slippery snake, so it would presumably take someone of equal or higher intellectual stature to nab him.
5. Who was the sneaky MVP of Season 2?
Lindbergh: Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong. This season spent a ton of time in Harrenhal, where there was next to no action. Some of those scenes would’ve dragged much more than they did without the presence of Ser Simon to tether the Targaryen vision quest to reality, provide a more grounded counterpart to Alys, and add a little levity to brooding Daemon.
Baker: Aemond! Something about the increasingly cold look on his face as he was talking to his sister/sister-in-law Helaena sealed the deal on this for me. Every time he’s been on-screen this season I’ve perked up, and I’m fully on board with whatever “Aemond is the Night King” theory it is that I’ve seen cooking.
Grady: Lady Mysaria! The White Worm leveled up in a big way this season by proving her worth to Rhaenyra, both in the streets and in the sheets (I’ll see myself out). Cozying up to the once-heir to the Iron Throne was the smartest move she could have made and already has given her a greater purpose and a higher standing. Oh, and Sonoya Mizuno’s accent work was sooooooooooo much better this time around.
Gayle: Cole, of course. He’s off women for now and working on himself. We love a self-aware, self-caring king.
McNear: What is Larys up to? Last season, he was at Alicent’s beck and call. This season, he betrayed her to back Aemond as regent. Now he’s smuggled Aegon out of the Red Keep to safety—both from his stabby brother and his newly infanticidal mother. It’s not clear at this point that he serves anyone other than himself, and he does it with aplomb.
6. A word on Daemon’s spiritual journey this season, please. What are your thoughts on his arc?
Grady: Daemon finally completed his Harrenhal side quest, and HotD is better for it. While the opening few episodes of his hallucinogen-filled dungeon arc were intriguing, it ultimately overstayed its welcome. The return of fan favorites Milly Alcock and Paddy Considine was a treat, but it wasn’t worth sidelining the show’s most compelling wild card for an Aaron Rodgers–esque vision quest.
McNear: I say this from a place of love: Daemon needs to go to rehab. Maybe a nice one with a pool in Dorne! More to the point, I’m not much of a fan of the way prophecy is used in George R.R. Martin’s work. Daemon’s latest binge of the good stuff has shown him that winter is indeed coming—which, sure, glad he’s on the same page as Rhaenyra (finally). Is it somehow beyond the powers of weirwood to convey more specific information—say, how to effectively fight the Night King, or that Daenerys isn’t a good egg, or, I don’t know, that the Night King is ultimately defeated and Westeros lives on? Perhaps his vision conveyed to him some critical fact about why Rhaenyra must triumph over the greens in order for his prophecy to come true—but if so, why not share it far and wide? In any case, I don’t know that I buy that Daemon would instantly take this vision as canon but not, say, the dream where he was rolling in the hay with his mother.
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Baker: Daemon was probably my favorite character in the first season, and I was excited to see what Matt Smith meant when he described his role as “softer, lazier, fatter, slower” this season. (Otherwise known as: me watching the Olympics.) I assume that his arc this time around was likely necessary to set up what’s to come, but the actual week-to-week experience of watching him mope and stagger around Harrenhal was mostly pretty unpleasant! All that said, it took only a few lines of High Valyrian exchanged with Rhaenyra, and I was immediately back in.
Lindbergh: I like where it wound up, even if it was sometimes slow going to get there. I share Zach Kram’s concerns about Dragon’s dependence on predestination and ties to Game of Thrones and the large Westeros small-screen universe—Alys’s line “It’s all a story, and you are but one part in it” sounds like something David Zaslav would say as he orders another spinoff—but on an individual level, I love this more mature, chastened Daemon. Having been humbled by Oscar Tully and having received the same foreknowledge that’s driven Viserys and Rhaenyra, Daemon is embracing his brother’s wishes and heeding the advice of the Viserys in his visions. “Leave me again at your peril,” Rhaenyra warns her uncle/consort. Daemon answers, “I could not. I have tried.” Is he surrendering to fate, or has he gained perspective? Daemon isn’t a good man, but he is a changed man, which makes for a compelling counterpoint to Ser Criston’s nihilistic turn.
Gayle: Boring. It was obviously necessary, because it turned him into the tree-toucher he needed to be in order to see the future, but you can’t argue that it wasn’t boring. Daemon is one of the most beloved characters in the show. Matt Smith is one of the series’ best actors. I kept saying to my partner as we watched every Sunday, “Can Daemon just do something cool?” I didn’t even care if it was good or bad; I just wanted to see something.
7. What are you most looking forward to in Season 3?
Baker: More footage of Otto Hightower cowering in a cage.
Gayle: Matt Smith acting with more of the main actors from the show, PLEASE. His scene with Emma D’Arcy in Episode 2 is one of the most memorable moments of the series, and we didn’t see them together after that for over a month. I’m praying to the old gods and the new that Matt isn’t off on another side quest in Season 3.
Lindbergh: I’m specifically looking forward to [redacted]. And [redacted]. More broadly, though, I’m anticipating the start of next season tapping into the pent-up demand generated by this abrupt Season 2 finale and the ensuing two-year wait. Early Season 3 will be nothing but bangers, and the rest of the season should keep up the pace. We’ve seen the setup; now prepare for the payoff. The delayed gratification is going to be good.
Grady: BLUE DRAGONS!!! I have been anxiously waiting to see Dreamfyre on-screen for no reason other than that blue dragons are sick. I mean, let’s not forget how cool Viserion looked after you know who did you know what. Unfortunately for me, my hopes and dreams were squashed when Helaena declined Aemond’s pleas for her to saddle up and join the war effort. So imagine my pleasant surprise when Daeron Targaryen’s dragon, Tessarion, swooped in over Cole’s army toward the end of the finale. I can’t wait to see the Blue Queen (and hopefully Dreamfyre) in action!
McNear: One of the central problems with Fire & Blood as a source text is that many of the Dance of the Dragons’ key figures spend much of the war in separate places. This season, the House of the Dragon team wasn’t shy about diverging from that and getting characters back together for events that don’t occur in the book. Those scenes—Rhaenyra sneaking into King’s Landing, Alicent coming to Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and Daemon’s standoff at Harrenhal—were some of the season’s strongest, and they added new, interesting dynamics to the written story. To me, this feels like a sign that the powers that be are growing more comfortable tweaking and adding to the original tale, which is crucial for the show to succeed in the seasons to come.
8. As humble audience members, what is your best advice for the House of the Dragon creative team going forward?
Lindbergh: You’ve done the hard part: the introductions, the time jumps, the first stirrings of civil war. Now just get to the good stuff without additional delay. And if HBO tries to shorten next season, say no.
Grady: More dragon dancing variety, please.
Gayle: More Matt Smith. More dragonfire. (We didn’t even see Aemond torch Sharp Point … like, come on. Show us the goddamn dragons.) And better plotters and schemers?! Larys is running away. Alicent is trying to run away. Fire is Aemond’s only plot and scheme. I WANT MORE.
McNear: It was always going to be difficult to tell a story with this many characters. The weaker episodes of this season often felt like strings of meetings: This person went to talk to that person, and then that person went to talk to this person, for 75 minutes. The earlier seasons of Game of Thrones are a useful example here: That show also had a bounty of personas playing out their own dramas in different places, but Thrones did a much better job of keeping the would-be tedium of noble house roulette at bay. That was principally accomplished by zeroing in on the more compelling story lines and leaving some characters at the periphery, or even off camera entirely. I think House of the Dragon would be much better served by trying to do that—maybe we don’t need 10 scenes of Rhaena’s soul-searching at the Eyrie, or Jace being a cranky teen, or Mysaria purring at Rhaenyra. Some of that will be necessary setup for future events, but I’d leave much of it on the cutting-room floor and refocus on the action.
Baker: Dear creative team, keep up the weird work! I actually think you should turn this whole operation into a formal high-concept bit in which every season is just a bigger and bolder advertisement for the season to come. The game within the game, if you will. Perhaps Nathan Fielder can advise? See how many times you can force the book readers to get into that amazing mode where they are simultaneously internally apoplectic and outwardly defensive about the material. (“Oh, just you wait! They’re laying the foundation!” is to GRRM fans what “Uh, actually, the car is supposed to fall apart like that; it’s a feature, not a bug” is to Cybertruck owners.) You can’t spell House of the Dragon’s hugely anticipated third season! without a bunch of e-d-g-i-n-g, after all.
