TV Review: "House of the Dragon: A Son for a Son" (S2, Ep. 1)
The HBO series hits the ground the running with a premiere that combines a deliberate pace with an ending that is uniquely horrifying and tragic.
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Now that House of the Dragon has finally returned, it’s time for me to return to my episode analyses, beginning with the very first episode of the second season, the aptly-titled “A Son for a Son.” In a deliberately-paced but suspenseful episode, we watch as the various players in this drama reckon with the aftermath of the first season finale, particularly the death of Prince Lucerys and his dragon at the hands (and jaws) of Aemond and Vhagar. While Alicent and her father Otto try to secure the Iron Throne for the dissolute Aegon, Rhaenyra grapples with grief and Daemon, intent on proving himself dispatches a pair of malcontents to assassinate Aemond or, at least, some other male member of the royal family, with truly horrifying results.
I for one appreciate the extent to which the series paints Alicent in a quasi-sympathetic light. It’s important to remember that this is a young woman who was essentially thrown into the bed of the late King Viserys by her unscrupulous father and has had to grapple with the consequences of that, and the split from her former best friend, for many years. Olivia Cooke endows Alicent with an almost desperate humanity that makes us feel for her, even if we also grow impatient with her refusal to acknowledge the world as it is and her ill-judged affair with the deeply hypocritical Criston Cole. For me, though, the real highlight of her arc in the episode was the moment in which she actually lit a candle for the slain Lucerys, a touching moment that shows there is still a decent heart underneath her more cunning exterior.
Among the Blacks, Emma D’Arcy continues to knock it out of the park as Queen Rhaenyra, a woman who not only has to contend with the loss of her rightful throne but also the death of her son in a particularly brutal and gruesome fashion. It’s worth noting that D’Arcy only speaks four words in the entire episode, yet so strong is her emoting that we feel with her as she scours the beach for signs of her dead son and hugs Jacaerys in a moment of shared grief. Given how moving this all is, it’s going to be even more wrenching to watch her descent into bitterness, grief, and murderous rage as the Dance of the Dragons gets well and truly underway.
Matt Smith, likewise, continues to give a dynamic–and sometimes downright chilling–performance as the haughty and sneering Dameon. His brief confrontation with Eve Best’s Rhaenys is a particularly notable moment, particularly since she's not afraid to put him in his place and to remind him that, for all of his pretensions, he is manifestly not the king. It’s thus possible to read his later actions–hiring a disconnected member of the Goldcloaks and a ratcatcher–as a way of both asserting his own authority and also doing something a little nice for his beloved wife/niece. With Daemon nothing is ever simple, and it’s to Smith’s credit that he continues to make this character into someone we can both love and hate with equal measure (the same goes for his rendition of Prince Philip in The Crown, who is quite similar to Daemon in many ways).
And then there’s the duplicitous, cunning, yet absolutely compelling Otto Hightower. I continue to love what Rhys Ifans is doing with the role. He brings such brooding potency to his performance that you can’t look away, even if he doesn’t really do much that is captivating, per se. Instead, his appeal lies in his ability to grasp the nature of power in Westeros: how to get it, how to wield it, and how to maintain it. Yet for all of his cunning and his political subtlety, it’s clear that his grasp of matters, both within the Red Keep and within the realm at large, isn't quite as steady as he would like to believe. Among other things, he’s saddled with a dissolute “King” (Aegon), a rebellious prince prone to blowing shit up (Aemond), and a scheming and dark-spirited manipulator of events (Larys Strong). He’s canny enough to see what’s happening but not quite ruthless enough, yet, to really do what’s necessary to keep his House in order.
Now, there’s been a great deal of online commentary about the infamous Blood and Cheese moment, when the two assassins Daemon has dispatched end up killing the young Prince Jahaerys in front of his mother. In the book, poor Helaena has to make a choice between her two sons, only for the assassins to kill the one she didn’t choose, leaving her with her guilt. In the adaptation, though, the other boy is eliminated but young Jahaerys–who we’ve just seen teasing one of the members of the small council–is still butchered.
For me, this was a truly horrifying scene, one that captured the essence of the story as related in Fire & Blood without the full extent of the tragedy. The wet sound of the slaughter is enough to give anyone nightmares, and one can just imagine the torment that Helaena is going to endure going forward. This is a young woman who is already tormented with visions of the future; how much worse would it be to have to bear witness to the death of your own son at the hands of brutal thugs? If the brutal death of Lucerys at the end of the first season was an accident (sort of), this one is not: it’s an act of cold-blooded assassination that is going to have far-reaching consequences for both the Targaryens and the realm over which they seek to rule.
House of the Dragon, even more than Game of Thrones, leans into the tragedy of its story. This is a family that is being slowly torn apart by unresolved tensions, rivalries, and jealousies, and while blood has already been spilled, it’s only a matter of time before the slaying escalates and the entire realm is consumed with it. With its premiere House of the Dragon has made the stakes potently and powerfully clear, and things are only going to get worse from here.
Let the dance begin.