Exploring "House of the Dragon"--"Driftmark" (Season 1, Ep. 7)

Rubicons are crossed as the main players in the Dance of the Dragons move into position for the conflict to come.

I know I say this every week when I sit down to write my recap of the week’s House of the Dragon, but whew boy, what an episode! In this week’s installment, titled “Driftmark,” we bear witness to the aftermath of Laena Velaryon’s death in childbirth. Not only does the young Aemond manage to take her dragon Vhagar for his own; he also loses an eye during a vicious confrontation with his cousins. This, in turn, leads to a climactic scene between Rhaenyra and Alicent, one which solidifies their antipathy and will prove pivotal in the conflicts to come. And, perhaps most importantly, Rhaenyra finally consummates her passion for her uncle, Daemon, while Laenor escapes to Essos with his lover, freed at last from the obligations of his princely station. 

From the very first episode of House of the Dragon, it was clear there was a powerful connection between Rhaenyra and Daemon, and now we finally get to see this brought to fruition. The creep factor is still there, to be sure, but it’s less acute now that Emma D’Arcy has taken over the role of the Targaryen heir. The chemistry between the two seethes beneath the surface, and it’s there from the moment they lay eyes on one another during Laena’s funeral. Their shared glances simmer with barely-banked fire, and it reaches its climax on the beach, when they each give into their desires. It’s a beautifully-drawn moment, particularly since it is the culmination of a half-a-season’s worth of will they or won’t they back-and-forth.

The rest of the episode continues to showcase their extraordinary bond, and it quickly becomes clear that theirs is truly a meeting of the minds. For Rhaenyra, Daemon is more than just an object of physical desire; he is one of the few people who sees her for who she is. Much as she loves Laenor in her own way, it’s Daemon who knows what it is to bear the fiery blood of a Targaryen. What’s more, he can be the sort of warrior and ally that she so desperately needs as the battle lines continue to be drawn and it becomes ever clearer that a succession war is going to erupt upon Viserys’ death.

And, as I’ve said so many times before…poor Viserys. “Driftmark,” more perhaps than any other episode so far, shows us just how much he has lost even a semblance of control over his court, his family, and his realm. After Aemond loses his eye in his confrontation with his cousins, Viserys seems utterly perplexed by the rumors that Rhaenry’s children aren’t really Laenor’s. It’s to Paddy Considine’s credit that he really allows us to see how genuine Viserys’ confusion is. He has become so committed to the lie that Rhaenyra and Laenor have really produced children from their union that he can’t see it as a lie. This is in marked contrast to literally everyone else in the court. Even his younger brood of children–to say nothing of Rhaenyra’s eldest–know the truth but, for the ailing and aging king, the fiction is the reality, and nothing will make him change his mind. 

This all makes his refusal to punish Alicent for her assault on Rhaenyra all the more remarkable. The moment when the Queen, driven to madness by her husband’s refusal to see justice done for the assault on their son, takes a blade of Valyrian steel and aims to do the deed herself is a wrenching, intricately choreographed, and well-acted dance of dragons in its own right. Even more than the moment when she realized Rhaenyra lied to her about her affair with Criston, this marks a crossing of the Rubicon moment, when things are said and done that can never be taken back. The fact that Alicent actually manages to inflict a pretty significant wound on her stepdaughter–and even this goes unpunished–says all you need to know about affairs in Westeros. The court may now see Alicent for who she is, as Rhaenyra puts it with no small amount of satisfaction, but it also knows who the Princess is, as well. 

In fact, this is one of the things that I appreciated the most about “Driftmark.” It helps us to understand why it is that the Dance of the Dragons took place in the first place. For Alicent, seizing the throne for her son is literally a matter of survival. She long ago realized that her sons would always be a threat to their elder sister and, since her husband was feckless and naive, it was up to her to do what needed to be done. And, given that she has been one of the few characters to follow the rules, it’s really no wonder that she finally breaks under all of the pressure and, while I may not be Team Alicent, I can at least see that she is doing the best she can in a terrible circumstance. Like so many other tragic characters, she is caught up in a nexus of forces from which she can’t entirely escape. As her father Otto Hightower has told her again and again, in this particular game, you win or you die (though he doesn’t put it exactly this way, of course). In fact, it has come to seem as if this conflict with Rhaenyra, and their fateful duel in the throne room at Driftmark, is the cauldron which will forge Alicent into the formidable leader she will become. 

For Rhaenyra, on the other hand, her major conflict stems from her reluctance to become a tyrant. In her conversation with Daemon as they watch her father sail back to King’s Landing, he powerfully reminds her that, though a king should never rule extensively through fear, he–or, in this case, she–must always make sure that those in her realm know just what she’s capable of doing. To this end, they orchestrate a scheme whereby Laenor is “killed” by his paramour, an act which most of the realm will assume had Rhaenrya’s involvement. In reality, of course, it's all a well-laid ruse. In fact, a Velaryon retainer has been slain and his body burned in the fireplace, leaving Corlys and Rhaenys in agony at the death of their sole remaining child (and Steve Toussaint and Eve Best deserve many plaudits for their acting during this whole episode, which really reveals a lot about their characters). It’s hard not to feel their agony at yet more loss.

To some degree, we’re invited to feel relief that our beloved Laenor has been spared the fate of so many other queer characters in the Game of Thrones universe. These two episodes have made me absolutely fall in love with John Macmillan, who brings a soulful, deliciously melodramatic mien to this role. Laenor has gone from being a pensive and distant youth to a man tormented by the pull between his desires and his loyalty to his family and to his wife. Macmillan marvelously and wrenchingly conveys Laenor’s anguish at not being able to love Rhaenyra in the way she clearly deserves, and their final scene together is one of the best of the season. 

It’s thus all the better that Rhaenyra and Daemon, rather than going with the tried and true Westerosi route and actually killing him, let him live. From a story perspective, this is a nice bit of atonement for the indulgence in the “bury your gays” trope that marred both the earlier episode “We Light the Way” and Game of Thrones (to say nothing of the book Fire and Blood, where Laenor is actually killed by Qarl). It also shows that, however morally questionable these two might be–and however dangerous Daemon can be when he sees an obstacle in his way to power–there are some boundaries they just won’t cross. Then again, Laenor is also family, so it makes a certain kind of sense that they would spare his life. Whatever their reasoning, it is quite lovely that the last thing we see of Laenor is him sailing away to Essos, where he will presumably get to live out the rest of his life with his beloved Qarl (when are we going to get a Laenor/Qarl spinoff?). 

All that being said, it is still a bit distressing that an innocent man has to lose his life in order for this whole charade to be put into effect. It’s another potent reminder that, in the world of House of the Dragon, as with Game of Thrones, there are few people whose hands are unsullied by death and violence. And, just as importantly, it’s often those with no power whose lives are the most expendable to those who sit at the top of the social and political hierarchy.

Like some others, however, I do have to voice a pretty strenuous complaint about the cinematography. I literally have no idea why this show, like Game of Thrones, insists on having entire episodes be so poorly lit. If the tenor of the Twitter discourse is people relentlessly mocking your series for being almost impossible to see, then you’re doing something wrong. I truly don’t think it’s too much to ask that I be able to see and understand what is happening on one of the most expensive series currently airing on television.

That quibble aside, I thought this was a very strong offering from House of the Dragon. It continues to ratchet up the tension. Though we in the audience know how this all ends up–with a conflict that tears Westeros apart–the series has done a very good job of showing us how this actually comes to pass. The showrunners had a real challenge in taking what is essentially a look back at the past and turning it into a show very much rooted in the present, and they have met that challenge spectacularly well. Like the characters, we often feel as if we are caught up in the momentum of history, unable to arrest it, even as we see the inevitable doom and bloodshed waiting for all of us at the end. 

Let the Dance of the Dragons begin.