House of the Dragon' episode 6

On HBO's Game of Thrones spin-off, questions around several characters' lineage turn the show into one long episode of medieval Maury.

(This conviction of hers is entirely undercut by the fact that a couple episode back, she overheard Otto trying to convince the king about Rhaenyra and Daemon, and utterly failed to get through to him then.) As the episode progresses, however, and she's continuously set upon by the willful, thoughtless actions of the men around her, we watch her struggling to return to the status she knows she should hold as heir to the Iron Throne. This Alicent is a lot less placid and soft-hearted than the one we met over the first five eps — so much so as to seem an entirely different character. The show didn't do an adequate job of setting up Cole's assault on Joffrey, which is one reason it came of as gratuitous as it did; this episode's treating the whole incident with a shrug only compounds that feeling. We also get a glimpse of Daemon and Laena's relationship, which isn't great — as Daemon has taken to getting drunk and surly and holing himself up in the mansion's library, reading about ancient dragonlords. Alicent, cannily, pleads him with him to come out and say it, but he refuses, so the king insists he stay on. When Cole not-so-subtly hints at Jacye and Luke's true parentage, Harwin proceeds to give Cole a small taste of the face-punchy medicine Cole gave to Ser Joffrey, years before. He fancies himself a man of action, not words, but he's sorely tempted by the prospect of becoming a man of inaction. Vhagar was one of the three dragons that the original Targaryen king Aegon I conquered Westeros with, over 100 years prior to the events on this show. "I have to believe that in the end honor and decency will prevail," says Alicent, because she hasn't read these books. A couple other things to note in this scene: Ser Criston Cole isn't rotting in jail for the very public murder of Joffrey last episode; in fact, he's been promoted to the queen's personal guard. But I can't help feeling we've been denied the chance to see them grow into adults in their own right, instead of solely in relation to the men in their lives.

The adult stars of House Of The Dragon have arrived at last – and their rivalry is growing ever more intense.

Almost certainly, but Rhaenyra’s desire to get away from the endless attacks on herself and her children is understandable. And Alicent is left terrified of her own ally, having seen what the quiet, mild Larys is capable of. We finish with Daemon once again widowed – it’s becoming a habit – and Rhaenyra leaving King’s Landing for her ancestral fortress on Dragonstone, abandoning the court and its machinations to her rival. Daemon makes no choice, and it’s not clear whether he holds back out of respect for his wife – he does appear to have some – or from horror at the decision itself, a weakness in the face of unimaginable crisis. If her own death is certain and she accepts that, wouldn’t she let them try to save the child? Lord Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes) has offered to resign as Hand of the king following Harwin’s brawl, but Viserys won’t hear it – so Lyonel has begged leave to at least escort his son home to their (famously unlucky) stronghold of Harrenhal. In the novel, the baby is born deformed, and Laena simply dies in childbirth. Alicent obviously knows about it, but no one will make the accusation publicly for fear of treason – and Viserys (Paddy Considine) is willfully blind to the whole thing. Aegon and Rhaenyra’s eldest, Jacaerys aka Jace (Leo Hart), team up to play a trick on Aegon’s dragonless younger brother, Aemond (Leo Ashton), in the shadowy depths of the Dragonpit, which prompts Alicent’s fury at her eldest because she needs her sons to stick together against their nephews. With the women confined to bickering by court protocol and a shared deference to Viserys, their rivalry plays out by proxy. The umbilical cord is barely cut before there’s a demand from the queen to see the baby: Rhaenyra, stubborn to the bone, insists on carrying the baby herself as a sort of passive resistance. But perhaps the most illuminating exchange is the scene where Alicent interrupts her son Aegon (Ty Tennant) during his, er, private time (a boy prince wanking over an entire city is quite the metaphor) to explain to him the existential threat that his nephews pose.

Like it was for the Starks in early Game of Thrones episodes, the stakes for child's play are high for these little Targaryens. A recap of “The Princess and ...

It’s the last remaining dragon from the time of Aegon I’s conquest of Westeros, and — funnily enough — the dragon Laena once questioned Viserys about when she was a child, walking with him in the gardens while he contemplated marrying her. They creep and live in the dirt, but is there more to it? This is the kind of writing we need to see more of. (Those tongues are snipped out to keep the arsonists from talking.) If only we had ever seen the two interact together, to understand their relationship better, to get a sense of how one brother can grow up honorable and strong and the other huddle in the shadows and whisper in the ears of the noble. The last we see of him is driving his shoulder into a wooden door in the castle, trying to break his father free from a massive fire. Viserys can’t let go of the notion that his family will someday experience their own after-school special conversion and turn towards each other with love and acceptance, a blindness that is wreaking havoc. Of course, the elephant in this episode’s room was the clear fact that Harwin Strong is the real father of Jace, Luke, and newborn Joffrey. They have lived as guests of the Pentoshi prince Reggio Haratis for many years, raising their daughters Baela (Shani Smethurst) and Rhaena (a doleful Eva Ossei-Gerning) there. Even if Viserys claims this succession is solidified and Rhaenyra and her children will take the throne, their suspicious paternity has opened up a new avenue for Alicent to put Aegon on the throne. (The whole affair weirdly called to mind Kate Middleton, made to march out of the hospital and stand for a photo call hours after giving birth to the future king of England, though Middleton had the advantage of a glam team and modern medicine.) Game of Thrones also established early on that the stakes for child’s play were high; in the second episode, Mycah the butcher’s boy is slaughtered off the King’s Road after Arya hits Joffrey and events spiral out of control. “The Princess and the Queen” is bookended with birth scenes.