Episode Grade: (9.1/10)
The season finale sees the focus shift on Rhaenyra and her allies’ reactions to Aegon’s rise to power. Peace in Westeros is hanging by a thread, and Rhaenyra is trying her best to maintain that peace despite calls for immediate action from Daemon and other lords. In an effort to shore up support from other Westerosi houses, she sends her sons out as messengers. By the end of the episode, this proves a costly mistake.
Plot (45/50)
Whereas episode nine focused entirely on Alicent’s side, this episode focused on Rhaenyra’s side. As expected, Rhaenys arrives with the news that Aegon has been crowned King. Daemon jumps to conclusions about the manner of Viserys’ death before quickly turning his attention to Rhaenys. He essentially asks her why she didn’t burn the “Greens” when she got the chance, and her justification was that it isn’t her war to start. How disappointing… I had mentioned in episode nine’s review that the only reasonable and semi-consistent explanation would be that she wanted to maintain the peace. That didn’t happen, and she made no effort to convince Rhaenyra to accept peace terms either, which makes this a giant annoying inconsistent mess. The only consolation here is that Daemon literally pointed out the obvious, that she could’ve ended it all, yet she chose not to. The simultaneous look of rage and disgust on his face was fitting to say the least. Rhaenyra’s reaction was more of shock and anguish, which sadly led to the premature birth of a stillborn child. During the baby’s funeral, Ser Erryk arrives to Dragonstone with a crown to pledge his loyalty to Rhaenyra, which leads to a mini-coronation that sees her crowned as Queen. The rest of the episode focused on Rhaenyra’s war preparations. This episode did a good job of setting up Rhaenyra as the underdog, which is the right choice. With that said, the matter of the dragons’ involvement looms large over the show heading into season two. Daemon is hellbent on using dragons to crush the Greens, but Rhaenyra is reluctant to unleash that sort of destruction on Westeros. Lucerys’ shocking murder might just change her mind. Speaking of the Lucerys, it was nice to see the issues between the children have such a dramatic effect on the plot. The fact that Aemond didn’t intend for Lucerys to die will have absolutely no bearing on how Rhaenyra reacts to her son’s death. It’s interesting that the writers decided to make Lucerys’ death accidental because now it’s fairly comparable to Aemond losing his eye. GoT is so good at presenting near-identical situations that draw different reactions from the viewers. When Alicent wanted revenge for Aemond’s eye, she came off as unhinged; however, I suspect most people will find it much easier to justify Rhaenyra’s thirst for revenge. Of course, there’s a difference between losing an eye and losing a life, but the premise of the situations is the same. Moving on, Corlys being alive is the right call, him siding with Rhaenyra was necessary to establish some balance between the Greens and the Blacks. The way Daemon and the other lords reacted to the news of Aegon’s crowning is exactly the type of reaction that one would expect. It was nice to see the prominent Westerosi houses act in a way that is consistent with what was established in GoT. The ending was shocking even though you could sense something would happen to Lucerys as soon as he was left alone. The episode was mostly easy to follow until we got to the part about the wild/unclaimed dragons as well as which houses are on who’s side. It does add significant intrigue to season two as the loyalties of the Starks, Arryns, Tullys, Baratheons, and other houses will likely take center stage. It’ll be interesting to see how Rhaenyra reacts now that the first move has been made. Does she hold her nerve or does this tip her over the edge? How involved will the dragons be? Was Daemon able to master Vermithor? Will the other dragons be claimed as well? Once thing is for certain, season two is poised to be one hell of a ride as the Targaryen civil war gets underway. The amount of diversity in the suspenseful scenes in this episode was thoroughly impressive. There was great drama, some action, and awesome fantasy with the dragons. The format of the episode basically followed that of the previous episode, but it still felt fresh. Heavy dragon involvement in Lucerys’ murder and the unintentional nature of the murder itself was a fitting and realistic thing to do given wars often are “started” by an “unintentional” spark. Points were taken off for the blatant inconsistency in Rhaenys’ behavior (more on that in a bit). Also, how would anyone have known that Lucerys and Arrax were chomped out of existence by Vhagar? It’s not like anyone is watching the skies just outside of Storm’s End… I’m not saying they couldn’t have pieced it together, but there’s no way news reached them that quickly.
Character Development (11/15)
Much like episode 9, the complete focus on one side of the conflict (in this case Rhaenyra’s) gave us a deeper dive into the relationships between Rhaenyra, Daemon, Rhaenys, Corlys, and the children. When Rhaenys delivers the news of Aegon’s crowning, we see two very different reactions from Rhaenyra and Daemon. Rhaenyra is shell-shocked and deeply hurt by the betrayal, but she is also saddened by the death of her father who she loved dearly. She’s overwhelmed, and as a result, she tragically has a miscarriage. As she’s giving birth to her stillborn child all alone, she can be heard screaming for Daemon to be by her side, but he offers absolutely no comfort. And that takes us to his contrasting reaction to the news. Unlike Rhaenyra, who tries to process the news in a somewhat reasonable manner, Daemon’s rage immediately takes over and leads him to assume the worst. In his mind, the Greens killed Viserys which makes Aegon a usurper. He’s also unimpressed by Rhaenys and rightly calls her out on her inaction. His initial reaction as well as his attitude towards Rhaenys for the rest of the episode suggests that he doesn’t trust her completely. Fast forward to when Rhaenyra is literally screaming for Daemon to be by her side, and his rage has already consumed him to the point that the only thing on his mind is war. He’s already planning the defense of Dragonstone should the Greens come after them while also strategizing about which houses might offer them support. This leads to an early power struggle as Jacaerys arrives to the main hall at the instruction of his mother to inform Daemon that he isn’t to execute any strategy without Rhaenyra’s express approval. Of course, Daemon ignores the command, and while the lords hesitate for a moment, they follows Daemon’s instructions. Then, in a bit of a twist, Daemon takes on a bit of fatherly role as he brings Jacaerys out to teach him a lesson about loyalty. In Daemon’s mind, people show loyalty out of fear, not love. The scene with the two knights was a brilliant way to convey this message. Ultimately, Rhaenyra and Daemon are both shown mourning the loss of their child, albeit separately. When they and everyone else finally unite for the funeral, Ser Erryk brings Rhaenyra a crown, and Daemon is the first to acknowledge her as Queen. Everyone else follows suit, except for Rhaenys, who defiantly stands while those around her kneel. This defiance continues until she and Corlys have a heart-to-heart. Here’s where the inconsistency rears its ugly head. Corlys admits that he made mistakes in his overambition for power and suggests that they sit the war out like Rhaenys always wanted. However, Rhaenys pulls a U-turn and tells Corlys that they must stand by Rhaenyra. What are her reasons you might ask? Rhaenyra’s levelheaded approach to the conflict even as those around her clamor for war, and the inherent danger to the lives of their grandchildren that will always be there by association. The problem here is that both of those reasons were existent last episode when she opted against burning the Greens. One could argue that Rhaenys couldn’t have known that Rhaenyra would react in such a “worthy” way, and that would be a somewhat valid point; however, it’s a relatively moot point in comparison to the danger on her grandchildren’s lives. That, in itself, is enough reason to burn the Greens. Furthermore, even after the Velaryons officially committed to Rhaenyra, Rhaenys never fully acknowledged Rhaenyra as Queen. The whole ordeal is messy, at best. For the sake of preserving Rhaenys’ character and furthering the divide on Rhaenyra’s side, consistency is sacrificed. At least there the friction between Rhaenys and Daemon was highlighted time and time again. As the episode goes on, Daemon gets more and more violent in his pursuit of power/revenge. He’s more than happy to unleash dragons onto King’s Landing, so much so that he visits the dragon pit to try and add the untamed Vermithor to their side. Earlier in the episode, his frustration with Rhaenyra boils over when she tells him she has a responsibility to peace in the realm in accordance with the Song of Ice and Fire as passed on by Viserys. Upon hearing this, he chokes her and reminds her that dragons are what gave Targaryens power. Shocked by Daemon’s violent reaction, Rhaenyra realizes that Viserys never passed this information along to Daemon because he never deemed him worthy enough to be King. This was an interesting scene because it reminded us that Daemon is capable of hurting just about anybody, no matter how close. It also materialized his frustration with Viserys’ weakness which is what he likely believes got them in this mess, and the fact that Rhaenyra has inherited this perceived weakness absolutely enrages him. He’s also hurt by the realization that Viserys never really trusted him. Ultimately, this keeps Daemon and Rhaenyra apart for much of the second half of the episode, and this was well done as it also kept Daemon and Corlys apart. When Corlys first arrives in the war room where everyone is gathered, he challenges Rhaenyra and her plans to mount an assault on King’s Landing. He keeps pushing her until she finally pushes back, at which point he pledges his support and acknowledges her as Queen. One interesting point here is that he had already executed his strategy to blockade the Narrow Sea, and while that is beneficial to Rhaenyra’s cause, it continues an early trend of her advisors acting on their own behalf instead of actually advising her on what to do. This was a clever wrinkle that will surely test Rhaenyra leadership skills in the second season. This is especially relevant because she’s already suffered another devastating loss by the end of the episode when Lucerys gets chomped out of the sky by Vhagar. Rhaenyra must shoulder part of the blame, as she failed to recognize that Lucerys wasn’t ready despite him explicitly saying it time and time again. Instead, she sends him to Storm’s End alone to remind the proud Borros Baratheon of the oath his house swore to Viserys. Meanwhile, Otto had sent Aemond with an offer to marry one of Borros’ daughters in exchange for Baratheon support. This was an effective way to highlight Rhaenyra’s political inexperience and a brutal reminder that in the Game of Thrones, mistakes often cost lives. Aemond’s taunting was in line with his character, but the horror on his face when he realizes what he just did was interesting. Finally, it looks like we have another classic brotherly feud brewing between Erryk and Arryk.
Theme/Messages (5/5)
- “Hope is the fool’s ally.”
- Healthy ambition can quickly turn into “heedless ambition” if left unchecked.
- Rules are so fragile… if you play by a set of rules that your opponent doesn’t acknowledge, then you’re just imposing crippling limitations onto yourself.
- Humans are capable of justifying just about anything to themselves.
- The fact that people are willing to commit violence they normally wouldn’t in the name of self-defense is interesting to say the least.
- Achieving peace by any means necessary is a dilemma as old as time.
- Weapons of mass destruction are a deterrent to violence, and as a result, they are ironically a mechanism of peace… until they aren’t…
- If you ever find yourself believing that humans are capable of absolute justice, look no further than how they react if someone they love is hurt vs. if someone else is hurt.
- When we push people past their limits and they fail or get hurt, is it our fault or theirs? What does the allocation of responsibility look like?
Acting (14/15)
Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra) was phenomenal once again, as was Matt Smith (Daemon). Even Best (Rhaenys) and Ewan Mitchell (Aemond) continue to impress in their supporting roles as well.
Cinematography (16/15)
The cinematography in this episode was next level:
- Great shot of a menacing Daemon with his dragon next to him (14:34)
- Fantastic shot of everyone present during the funeral bending the knee to Rhaenyra except for Rhaenys who was standing in defiance behind everyone (20:53)
- Cool shot of the war table in the main hall at Dragonstone lighting up to reveal a map of Westeros (21:52)
- Great shots of Dragonstone (26:20 onwards)
- Great callback shot of Daemon standing face to face with Otto on the pathway to Dragonstone with the sunset in the background (26:45)
- Nice shot of Rhaenyra from behind as she watches the sunset (43:33)
- Stunning shots of Storm’s End in the closing scenes of the episode as demonstrated by the shot where lightning struck to reveal Vhagar above Arrax to highlight the massive difference in size (55:20 onwards)
- Stunning shot of the clouds and the sun shining through the clear sky ahead after clearing the storm (57:35)
- Powerful slow-mo sequence following Daemon as he arrives to inform Rhaenyra of Lucerys murder (58:08 onwards)