"House of the Dragon," Season 2: review

Harry Collett as Jacaerys Velaryon and Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark

I binge-watched Season 2 of "House of the Dragon" with my buddy Mike, which made for a richer experience than watching it alone, partly because it gave me a chance to ask questions and to bounce ideas off my friend. You'll recall from my Season 1 review that the story is about the Targaryen civil war. With dragons on both sides, it's not likely that anyone is going to come out a winner. In true Game of Thrones form, the cast has somewhat changed this time around. And also true to form, we (i.e., those of us who've never read the novel Fire and Blood) have no idea who's going to survive to the end.

At the end of Season 1, young Lucerys Velaryon (Eliot Grihault) was accidentally killed by Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), riding the old and venerable female dragon Vaghar. Aemond had been trying to scare Luke, but he owns the killing all the same, knowing it will add to his reputation as a vicious fighter with the most powerful dragon. Season 2 begins at the Wall, with the son of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), visiting the Night's Watch to recruit soldiers. He treats with Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor), who sees his service at the Wall as a proud duty, and who offers Jacaerys two thousand old soldiers who, he promises, will fight with the native viciousness of Northerners. Stark avers that the Wall doesn't merely hold back Wildlings and other minor threats, but rather death itself, an allusion to the White Walkers. Meanwhile, at King's Landing, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) chafes under the always-pacifying influence of his Hand, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), servant of three kings and a believer in avoiding a cavalier, impulsive style of rule. Aegon brings his small son Jaehaerys to the Small Council, where the boy torments Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall, playing twins). At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra returns from searching for the body of Luke and flatly says that she "wants" Aemond Targaryen, the killer of her son. As the council dithers, a frustrated Daemon (Matt Smith) takes matters into his own hands and secretly commissions two nameless men to go to King's Landing, find Aemond, and kill him. If they can't find Aemond, well... "a son for a son" is darkly implied. Eventually, the ruffians find little Jaehaerys, sleeping in a bed next to his female twin Jaehaera. The cutthroats also find their mother, the king's wife, Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), who is prone to weirdly prophetic pronouncements and visions called "dragon dreams." The two men commissioned by Daemon kill little Jaehaerys, sawing off his head, while Helaena escapes the room with Jaehaera, going to Queen Dowager Alicent's room (Olivia Cooke), where Alicent is once again having sex with Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the supposedly chaste Kingsguard assigned to her.

Things only go down from here. Daemon, ever impatient, claims the weird and cursed ruin of Harrenhal for himself, ostensibly in a move to declare himself king: he insists on being called "Your Grace," a term of address for a ruling royal (more common in our own world several centuries ago). Aegon's council at King's Landing also concludes that Harrenhal is of strategic importance. Meanwhile, a desperate Rhaenyra secretly meets with Alicent after sneaking into King's Landing, and by accident, she discovers some of what dying, leprous King Viserys (Paddy Considine) had said before expiring. Rhaenyra reveals to Alicent that, when he'd said "Aegon," he was referring to Aegon the Conqueror of old, not to her son Aegon. This fundamental misapprehension arguably lies at the center of the coming conflict. Alicent, now knowing the truth—that her son had never been meant to be elevated to the Iron Throne—doubles down instead of admitting error. The game has gone too far, and there's no turning back. Toward the end of Season 2, Alicent sneaks over to see Rhaenyra, and while she expresses a desire for peace and reconciliation, she still can't admit her error and back down. I told Mike that I saw Alicent as the central reason for the coming conflict.

Many critics have referred to Season 2 of the show as a "placeholder" or "bridge" season: the large conflict hasn't quite begun yet (although there was one episode devoted to a magnificent dragon battle), but the pieces are all in place and on the march by the end of the final episode. A lot of viewers found this development frustrating; the season didn't seem to go anywhere despite all of the important deaths and the cripplings-via-dragonfire. I found Season 2 very interesting myself, but I can see why people got frustrated. The show apparently earned the moniker "House of the Draggin' On" because so little of the plot seemed to advance. Daemon gets to Harrenhal and stays put for the rest of the season, entranced and freaked out by the strange visions caused by Harrenhal's curse and the weirwood bed on which he sleeps. So we're left with machinations, petty rivalries, and a study of the "smallfolk" of King's Landing, i.e., the normie population living at the mercy of the rulers.

I found my own sympathies leaning mostly toward Rhaenyra, who represents the so-called Blacks, while Alicent and her family are the Greens. It seemed to me, as the season went on, that Alicent had it within her power to stop the war, but in the end, her own pride kept her from acknowledging the truth. It could be counterargued that Rhaenyra, too, could have stopped the war by letting go of her desire for the crown, but to me, Rhaenyra felt more like the wronged party here. Whatever the case, the mood is one of crushing inevitability.

The show's production values remain high, and as a lover of language, I found myself enjoying the strange rhythms and turns of phrase that would pop up in the dialogue. I do think Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent, looks far too young to be a grandmother (her son is King Aegon; his kids are—were—Jaehaerys and Jaehaera). My understanding is that most of the main characters, like in a Shakespearean tragedy, will not meet a happy end. The coming war promises to consume almost everyone of importance, I think. The special effects and music remain top-notch, and Mysaria's weird accent has been toned down. A lot of the seemingly minor characters end up having dimensional character arcs; as Rhaenyra goes searching for more dragon riders, one in particular (Ulf White, Tom Bennett) seems rough around the edges, very unlikable, yet possibly crucial during the coming conflict.

Whatever the season's pacing problems, it left me primed and ready for Season 3. I think the show is going on for only four or five seasons total; the showrunners won't be making the "Game of Thrones" mistake of dragging the show beyond what George RR Martin has written. Which is a relief. True to the spirit of "Game of Thrones," "House of the Dragon" doesn't protect its main characters with very much plot armor, and since I've never read Fire and Blood, the novel on which the series is based, I have no idea who's going to make it out of this story alive. At a guess, the forebears of "Game of Thrones" need to eke out an existence so that we have our Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, Tywin Lannister, and Walder Frey. Otherwise, I proclaim myself entertained by Season 2. Others might disagree, but I see the season as a decent successor to Season 1, and I look forward—partly in dread—to whatever comes next.