The Targaryens Take on All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic

On this week’s ‘House of the Dragon,’ both sides of the war in Westeros confront weakness within and enemies without

If Season 1 of House of the Dragon was about the formation of the rift in the Targaryen royal family, then Season 2 is about the civil war that that split incited.

But in addition to fire and blood and battle tactics, a delicious undercurrent runs through Season 2, which complicates the potentially simple narrative about two opposing factions: This season of television is also about how much both sides really have in common. In Episode 2, the main characters on both team black and team green suffer similar family fractures; in Episode 4, both parties lose a dragon in the same battle.

And now, in Episode 6, the theme continues with yet more parallels between the blacks and greens. Both dueling rulers fear an internal challenge from a fiercer relative (Daemon in Rhaenyra’s case, Aemond in Aegon’s). Both leading women doubt their ability as mothers. And both sides weigh similar strategic considerations as they face challenges from both their rivals and themselves.

On Dragonstone, Mysaria advises her queen (and new crush), “It is harder to wage war abroad when you must also keep peace at home.” And in King’s Landing, Larys—the green version of Mysaria—tells his acting ruler, “The enemy without may be fought with swords. The enemy within is more insidious.”

For team black the enemy within is most apparent at Harrenhal, where, in this episode, Daemon sees yet more visions, as Paddy Considine returns as the now-dead King Viserys. The “much weaker” version of the rogue prince that actor Matt Smith promised is at his nadir, lunging at Simon Strong with a knife, threatening to abandon the castle, and nearly breaking down at multiple points in the episode.

It is only when Daemon finally admits, without pretense, “I need help, Alys,” that the witchy woman gives him direct advice and hints at her aid. Later in the episode, Daemon and viewers alike learn the rare spot of good news for the blacks: Alys has traveled to Riverrun to attempt to help (supposedly) cure the ailing, aged Lord Tully, only for him to die and be replaced with a younger, more vigorous heir who might be able to sway the riverlords to Rhaenyra’s side.

But the fractures between queen and king consort, wife and husband, and niece and uncle still reverberate in this episode, contributing to the “enemy within” theme. “I fear he may have turned against me,” Rhaenyra admits about Daemon. “I have lost him, and Caraxes with him.”

The black queen finds herself in an “impossible position,” she says—simultaneously short on allies and unable to exert her own force in battle, lest she be injured à la Aegon at Rook’s Rest. Even her innovative ideas seem to backfire, as the attempt to bond Seasmoke with Ser Steffon Darklyn—a knight with ancient Targaryen ancestry—ends in utter disaster.

At first, Seasmoke bows his head and seems to accept Steffon’s slow approach—only to light him and several dragonkeepers aflame with a sudden burst of fire. Perhaps Seasmoke didn’t appreciate the overconfidence of Steffon’s “I’ve done it!” exclamation before the knight had so much as touched the beast.

The loss of her devoted knight sends Rhaenyra into a further spiral, as she second-guesses her place in the war. She slaps Lord Celtigar, saying, “It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me,” then picks up a sword with reverence in her own chambers. Mysaria likes how the black queen looks with a blade in hand; “this becomes you,” she says, then apparently files away the image for later.

But if Rhaenyra is miserable on Dragonstone, at least her rivals aren’t any happier across the Blackwater. Aegon is asleep 90 percent of the time and in great pain the other 10 percent. Acting regent Aemond rages about his overly cautious allies and must deal with discontent among the smallfolk. And Alicent is dismissed from her service on the Small Council after yet another disagreement with her son; when the dowager queen cups Aemond’s face, caressing his scar, he grabs her hand and pulls it away, rejecting that tendril of maternal affection.

I’ve mostly made my peace with Dragon’s strange casting choices, whereby 30-year-old Olivia Cooke, as Alicent, plays the mother of 29-year-old Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon) and 27-year-old Ewan Mitchell (Aemond). But I found it impossible to suspend my disbelief in this latter scene, which lacked the gravitas of Robb’s reprimand of Catelyn in Game of Thrones. In the latter, it actually felt as if a young man had to wrestle with a decision to castigate his mother, but that weight was missing in Dragon’s Small Council chamber.

In contrast, the emotional implication of Alicent’s dismissal hits much harder in a later scene, as she says her farewell to brother Gwayne before he and Criston Cole depart on another military campaign. Gwayne tells his sister that her youngest son, Daeron—who hasn’t appeared on the show—is blossoming in his wardship in Oldtown, full of kindness and chivalry. When Alicent notes that Aegon and Aemond don’t possess such positive traits, Gwayne suggests the rotten Red Keep might be at fault.

“Was it the court or was it their mother?” Alicent asks, in the clearest reflection yet of her ongoing self-flagellation. She doesn’t even get a chance to speak with Criston before he departs, instead only sharing a brief glance with her lover before he rides off to battle—and danger—once more.

The greens’ internal problems aren’t confined to the castle; they extend into the streets of the capital city as well, as the blacks’ blockade continues and hunger spreads through King’s Landing. The greens can afford to slaughter sheep for their dragons, but not for their subjects, and anger simmers until a nudge from Mysaria sets the pot to a full boil.

Under cover of night, Rhaenyra’s advisor ships boatloads of fresh food to King’s Landing, the crisp reds and greens in a sack of apples popping against the dull browns of the starving city. The food comes accompanied by the blacks’ sigil, and sets off a stampede reminiscent of the hunger riot in Thrones.

The result is a public relations masterstroke from Mysaria, in a twist just one episode after Rhaenyra’s political failings came to the fore. “She thinks of us even now!” shouts one commoner grabbing at food, and soon, “Long live Queen Rhaenyra!” permeates the streets of the capital.

The result is also near-disaster for the greens. Alicent and Helaena, praying at the Grand Sept—now an apparent hub of activity—are caught up in the chaos and only narrowly escape the growing mob. In a fitting illustration of how Alicent’s mistakes have paved the way for violence against others, the dowager queen is not injured herself, but leaves the scene staring down at a spray of smallfolk blood on her arm.

Aegon is in even worse straits in the castle because he was injured when he erred (goaded to rash action at Rook’s Rest partly by Alicent’s belittlement). As the only obstacle between Aemond and total control of the Iron Throne, Aegon knows he’s in danger, so he seems to pretend that he remembers nothing about the battle that nearly killed him.

And the king, like Daemon, admits in the feeblest terms his need for assistance, whispering to Larys, “Help me,” when the latter visits his bedside. In a scene reminiscent of an early Thrones exchange between Tyrion and Jon, the man called the Clubfoot—whom Aemond rejected for the position of hand and called a “toad”—tells his crippled king, “People will pity you either behind your back or in your presence. And they will stare at you or turn away. And they will underestimate you, and this will be your advantage.”

In the episode’s closing stretch, the unlikely close relationship between the master of whisperers and his king finds a parallel on Dragonstone, when an intimate conversation between Mysaria and Rhaenyra grows much more intimate after a long hug. But just as Rhaenyra commits herself to the moment of passion—a release from the headaches of Daemon’s potential betrayal and a succession of military defeats—an interruption arrives: Seasmoke has been sighted with a new rider, which gives Rhaenyra the excuse to mount Syrax and fly out to meet the potential challenge.

Mysaria asks if the rider is a green, and Rhaenyra answers, “I don’t know who else it could be.” But this reaction doesn’t build much tension, because of the dramatic irony inherent in the presentation. Instead of a green, it seems far more likely that Addam of Hull, one of Corlys’s bastard sons, who probably smells like Laenor (Seasmoke’s old rider) and was last sighted being cornered by the dragon, managed to foster a bond.

The result is a rather weak cliffhanger to an otherwise strong episode, which shouldn’t diminish the impact of many of its thematic sentiments and affecting heart-to-hearts. Other than the roasting of Steffon, this marks two consecutive episodes, post–Rook’s Rest, without heavy action—but that presumably sets the stage for more set pieces to come, as the show’s main characters confront their weaknesses and the enemies within, before they return their full attention to the war’s opposing side.

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