House of the Dragon Ep. 9 Recap: The Green Council

The king is useless. Now the query is, lengthy stay who? Or possibly that is the higher query: Does there must be a king no matter his unfitness—or if somebody who everybody agrees could be far superior ought to rule, even when they’re feminine? It’s a query that divides just about all of the characters after final week’s loss of life of Viserys in tonight’s wonderful episode.

First off, it’s price saying that “The Green Council” is masterfully directed by Clare Kilner, who additionally helmed the wonderful “King of the Narrow Sea” and “We Light the Way.” When the present is over, three seasons and an episode from now, it’s seemingly I’ll nonetheless bear in mind the haunting, melancholy opening scene of a darkish and empty Red Keep, its inhabitants nonetheless asleep, not understanding their lives and the whole lot of the Seven Kingdoms have been irrevocably modified with Viserys’ loss of life throughout the evening. That’s till a younger web page who checked on the king tells a handmaiden, the handmaiden tells Alicent, and Alicent tells her father Otto Hightower, who summons the Small Council to interrupt the information.

Although Alicent already mentioned many occasions she thought Rhaenyra shouldn’t change into the queen, it’s clear Al took their reconciliation on the earlier evening’s dinner critically, a minimum of critically sufficient to be appalled when she realizes that the council had by no means been planning on elevating Viserys’ acknowledged inheritor. Well, many of the council; when Lyman Beesbury, who doesn’t imagine Alicent, angrily factors out that is treason, Criston Cole coldbloodedly slams his head on the desk, killing him. As if anybody (together with the viewers) wanted a grim reminder this can be a coup that can result in violence and bloodshed, the remainder of the assembly takes place with Beesbury’s corpse nonetheless on the desk.

Alicent can also be appalled when she realizes, regardless of his phrases on the contrary, her father Otto plans to have Rhaenyra and her household killed to take out the apparent challenger to Aegon’s throne, stopping different Houses from rallying round her, waging conflict, and thus defending the realm. And whereas it’s true that spilling a small quantity of blood now would stop a torrent of blood from cascading by means of the Seven Kingdoms later, Alicent really needs to comply with her late husband’s needs. While she believes meaning placing Aegon on the throne, she is aware of he wouldn’t need his beloved first daughter murdered within the course of.

Whoever can get to Aegon first and persuade him what must be performed will seemingly have their approach, so father and daughter race to seek out the prince first—solely to find he’s lacking from the palace. No one is aware of the place he’s or what he’s doing, though primarily based on his earlier reprehensible actions, everybody is aware of it’s seemingly someplace wicked. Otto sends out the dual brothers and members of the Kingsguard Arryk and Erryk Cargyll (who I’ll every check with as Ærryk from this level on, which is complicated however adequately represents my full incapability to know which is which at any given time) to seek out the king-to-be and produce him on to Otto. Alicent orders Criston Cole to carry her son to her as a substitute, and Aemond tags alongside.

“The Green Council” is a captivating character research for Alicent, who finds herself within the unusual place of preventing the patriarchy in her makes an attempt to uphold the patriarchy. She doesn’t understand it—fairly, she chooses to not acknowledge it, even after she confronts Rhaenys, who’s been imprisoned in her room to stop her from escaping by her dragon to tell Rhaenyra of the coup. As Alicent tells the Queen Who Wasn’t, “[Women] do not rule, but we guide the men who do.”

“And yet, you toil still in service to men,” says Rhaenys wryly, however cuttingly. “You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?” Watching the ideas and feelings cross Alicent’s face as she realizes she has wished to be in cost herself after which forcibly pushes these ideas out of her thoughts is a superb little bit of appearing from Olivia Cooke, who kills it simply as a lot as Paddy Considine did final week.

Meanwhile, the seek for Aegon takes Criston, Aemond, Ærryk, and Ærryk to the seediest elements of King’s Landing, together with the whorehouse the place Aegon took his 13-year-old brother and a spot that levels child fights, a horrible scene made extra horrible when the Ærryks understand Aegon has deserted a minimum of one bastard there. Eventually, a minion of the White Worm, who’s given Otto data earlier than (about Daemon and Rhaenyra’s tryst again in episode 4), finds the Ærryks and arranges a gathering between Otto and the Worm herself. Given how she’s been seen assembly with spies from the palace already, it ought to shock nobody the White Worm is Daemon’s former lover Mysaria, who provides Otto Aegon’s location for a promise he’ll shut down the kid-fighting rings.

As it seems, Aegon is hiding in a sept (the Westerosi equal of a church, when you don’t recall), as a result of he really has no need to be king. He simply needs to stay his lifetime of debauchery and assault, and when Ærryk and Ærryk drag him out, he even tries to run away from them and his future. And when Criston and Aemond intercept the Ærryks, Aegon tries to run away once more, solely to be tackled by his little brother and dragged again to their mom. This provides Alicent the son-to-be-crowned king’s ear, and thus the chance to inform him to ship phrases telling Rhaenyra to desert her declare to the throne and rule at Dragonstone as a substitute of getting goons kill her and her complete household, as Otto needs.

Alicent is totally conscious she’s battling her father and confronts him as soon as Aegon is safely secured. It’s one other fabulous scene for Cooke, who angrily tells him she’s now in cost—form of—and he or she’s now not his pawn. When Otto asks that absolutely she needed to be queen, she permits herself the self-awareness to answer tartly, “How could I know? I wanted whatever you impressed upon me to want.” But the opposite second that can follow me from “The Green Council,” much more so than the epic ending, is when Otto tells Alicent, “You look so much like your mother.” It’s such an apparent, condescending try and play on Alicent’s feelings, to siphon away the small quantity of company she’s taken for herself, Alicent leaves in disgust. It’s a second that epitomizes a lot of what House of the Dragon needs to look at, and it’s good.

Early that morning, unwilling to assist the horrible Aegon as king, Ærryk frees Rhaenys and spirits her out of the fortress, just for them each to get caught up within the crowds of King’s Landing as they’re herded into the fortress above the Dragonpit to witness the coronation. It’s a second of spectacle that will need to have delighted George R.R. Martin with its utter grandiosity; the constructing appears 100 occasions bigger than the Great Sept of Baelor proven in Game of Thrones, and it seems a crowd of tens of hundreds of commoners match inside. Dozens upon dozens of knights precede Aegon as he walks to the stage, their swords falling ceremonially behind him as if to dam his escape. The pageantry is unimaginable, and greater than sufficient distraction for Rhaenys to slide away downstairs to retrieve her dragon Meleys.

Criston Cole locations the crown on Aegon, who has tears in his eyes at his sad destiny. But as he turns to face the gang, and the smallfolk start cheering, he all of a sudden feels the approval he by no means acquired from anybody, together with his mom. He raises his sword in triumph… which is when Mereys bursts by means of the stone ground, Rhaenys atop it.

If House of the Dragon had been squirreling away a part of its VFX price range for this scene, with its destruction and chaos and immensity, I’d say it was price it. It’s absolute chaos till the dragon and Rhaenys stare stonily on the usurpers on stage, who can solely surprise in the event that they’ll be killed with a single dragon breath. I believe Rhaenys wonders as properly, for a second, however as a substitute the pair fly off, ending the episode. Why didn’t Rhaenys soften these traitors when she had the possibility? Eve Best’s enigmatic gaze leaves it tantalizingly open to interpretation. Did she know that an assault in entrance of the whole lot of King’s Landing may provoke the smallfolk in opposition to Rhaenyra? Did she really feel pity for Alicent as a mom, or empathy for a lady who additionally voluntarily stayed trapped in her cell?

But that’s hardly probably the most fascinating side of “The Green Council,” which is that this: Everyone is aware of Aegon is a horrible one who will make a horrible king, and that features Aegon himself, which forces characters to choose sides. Discovering their motivations—or fairly, questioning about their motivations—is what makes the episode immensely wealthy. Are they for the patriarchy or not? Are they in search of alternative, or do they imagine they’re making the appropriate choice?

How a lot bloodshed does Otto really imagine he’ll be averting if Aegon turns into king when Rhaenyra and her allies will undoubtedly wage conflict over her declare to the throne, and the way a lot does he merely need his bloodline to rule Westeros? How a lot is Rhaenys siding with Rhaenyra to keep up the phantasm her youngsters are Laenor’s, following her husband Corlys’ needs, and the way a lot does she nonetheless resent being handed over for the Iron Throne herself all these years in the past? How a lot does Alicent unconsciously imagine Aegon must be king to justify the unhappiness she’s endured and the futility of her self-sacrifice over time?

Some of those solutions are apparent, however for a lot of characters, the solutions are tantalizingly unknown, which is what has made House of the Dragon so nice and one of many components that made the unique Game of Thrones such a success. It’s a testomony to HotD that “The Green Council” makes Alicent so splendidly comprehensible and sympathetic within the episode whilst she calls her son an imbecile when he asks if she loves him. She’s attempting to do the appropriate factor by her husband, the realm, and even Rhaenyra, she’s lastly resisting her father, and but nonetheless forcing herself to repeatedly propagate the social system that imprisoned her by means of responsibility. She’s hardly a hero, however she’s attempting to do higher for the buddy she as soon as had and simply reconnected with, and the husband she had affection for and sure by no means beloved.

It received’t final, after all. Rhaenyra will really feel extremely betrayed by her former buddy, particularly after they simply made up. She’ll battle for her throne, and each she and Alicent will undergo for it, which is able to make them angrier and extra decided to destroy the opposite, regardless of the price. Next week is the primary season finale of House of the Dragon, however no matter occurs, it’s solely simply begun—and it’s unlikely any heroes will emerge from it unscathed.

Assorted Musings:

• Just FYI, HBO has introduced it received’t be giving out screeners forward of subsequent week’s season one finale—though I can think about a few websites which may get a “sneak peek”—so I’ll be watching together with you guys and writing it that evening. Expect it someday Monday morning.
• God, I don’t wish to discuss Larys’ foot fetish or how Alicent has clearly gotten into the behavior of permitting him to jerk off to her toes in return for his varied nefarious companies. It’s as gratuitous as it’s gross, and it’s a testomony to how good the episode is in any other case that I nonetheless beloved it.
• Aemond will get some great character work when he takes Criston to the whorehouse. He purposefully offends Criston on the way in which there, however when alone with the madam, who taunts him about his go to, awkwardly freezes up.
• By the top of the episode, Ærryk chooses to go away King’s Landing to presumably battle for Rhaenyra, whereas Ærryk stays behind. I’m certain an Ærryk battle is in House of the Dragon’s future, which feels so George R.R. Martin it makes my enamel harm.
• The creepy Helaena stitching a cross-stitch of a spider made me genuinely chortle out loud. She’s such an unapologetic weirdo! The woman is dying to buy at a Hot Topic and he or she doesn’t even understand it.

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