Summary: Laena's funeral is held on Driftmark. Rhaenyra sends Jace to comfort Daemon's children. Viserys meets with Daemon who does not wish to reconcile. Corlys lashes out at Qarl regarding Laenor. At night, Rhaenyra and Daemon talk and have sex. Aemond sneaks over to Vhagar and rides her. Baela and Rhaena notice and wake Jace. They, along with Luke, confront Aemond. Things get heated after Aemond calls Jace and Luke bastards and a fist fight breaks out. Luke slashes Aemond's eye with a knife before Harrold is able to stop the fight. Alicent is furious and demands justice. Rhaenyra is angered by the insult which Viserys traces to originate from Aegon. Viserys orders everyone to stop quarrelling but Alicent grabs his knife and goes after Rhaenyra. She cuts Rhaenyra's arm before being pulled away. Otto meets with Alicent and is impressed with her. Laenor returns and tells Rhaenyra that he intends to be a better husband. Rhaenyra speaks with Daemon and they marry each other. They arrange a fake death for Laenor, who escapes to the Free Cities with Qarl.
The Good: Practically every scene in this episode was brilliantly put together. I thoroughly enjoyed Laena's funeral, even if it was uneventful. The character moments in this sequence were simply phenomenal, building on established relationships and further exploring the nature of some characters who we do not fully understand just yet. So many little moments impressed me. Viserys and Daemon's relationship continues to be brilliantly realized. You can tell that Viserys was hoping that Daemon would approach him, and it is nice to see him ultimately decide to forgive Daemon and offer him a place back at his side. But Daemon still wants Rhaenyra, and that remains a wedge that prevents them from getting back together. Rhaenyra and Alicent's children are given good depth in this sequence as well. We get to further see the extent of Aegon's depravity, Helaena's odd quirkiness, Aemond's observant introversion, Luke's innocent childishness, and Jace's sense of loyalty to those who need his help (in this case Baela and Rhaena). These moments are small, but they go a long way in characterizing the children, which pays dividends when they get into an enormous conflict later in the episode.. I quite liked Laenor's grief in the loss of his sister, and Corlys' frustrated remarks to Qarl in public suggest some family tensions, making Laenor's decision to leave everything at the end of the episode feel a little more plausible. The episode's big story moment gets underway when Aemond decides that he wants to tame Vhagar. Vhagar continues to be a terrifyingly huge dragon, and she is realized in her full glory in this episode at numerous points. This does make it significant when Aemond opts to take her, giving the Hightowers a huge asset for the conflict to come. However, the unintentional insult from Aemond is clear, and it's easy to see why Baela and Rhaena are so upset by his actions. He took their mother's dragon on the day of her funeral, and while Aemond might be within his rights to claim a dragon, the timing is insensitive. I expected to see this lead to some conflict, but the extent of the violence that happened really caught me off guard. The children got into a full-on fist fight, and it started as funny and evolved into being genuinely tense and life-threatening to the point where I thought that someone was going to die. The fight was wonderfully shot, suspenseful, and suitably violent and realistic. Rhaenyra and Alicent's rivalry has bled into their children, stemming hate between these characters where there should be familial love and connection. It's tragic to see, and I really like this portrayal of generational conflict which is something that we don't often see in television. Aemond losing his eye was a shocking moment and I appreciate that it was treated as a huge deal, especially since Aemond is the son of a king. Following what happened between the kids, we get to see the adults react and come face to face in a most dramatic and exciting way. This lengthy sequence where Alicent demands justice for Aemond's lost eye and Rhaenyra demands justice for Aemond's insults is simply superb. The characters are brilliantly defined, the acting is outstanding, and the scene is almost unbearably tense. The children themselves are almost non-factors, simply watching as their parents continue their quarrels. Aemond is surprisingly docile, and we learn that it's because he actually isn't too bothered by losing his eye; after all he has a dragon now, he must be elated! Meanwhile Jace and Luke stay quiet and whisper what happened to Rhaenyra, letting their loving mother fight their battle for them. The confrontation between Alicent and Rhaenyra is phenomenal and Olivia Cooke especially does a magnificent job of letting her character's frustrations boil over (see: Best Moment). Viserys' role in this scene is also excellent. Viserys has been such a compelling character and that continues in this scene. We know that he loved Aemma and doesn't quite share that same feeling for Alicent (he even calls Alicent "Aemma" in this episode), and it appears that this extends to his children. Aemond, Viserys' son by Alicent, has his eye cut out and Viserys hardly seems to care. But when the legitimacy of Rhaenyra's children comes into question, Viserys is immediately stepping up to defend his daughter. Viserys is a passive king, but he has a clear preferred child and will do whatever he needs to for his daughter. I like this extra dimension to the character, and it also helps make Alicent more relatable, having to put up with the frustration of Rhaenyra always being favoured by the king. I love the ending of the episode. Laenor may not quite be a fully fleshed out character, but we get a good sense of who he is in the past few episodes, and I found him easily likeable as a comparatively simple and honest man in a world where so many people are driven by ambition. Rhaenyra and Daemon finally have an opportunity to be married, but Laenor is the one obstacle that they face, and I was concerned that the show was going to go too dark by making Rhaenyra and Daemon too unsympathetic by ruthlessly arranging Laenor's death. After all, Laenor is a good man and we had just seen a lovely moment where he affirmed to Rhaenyra that he intends to sacrifice his own enjoyment to be a better husband. For her to kill him after that would be heartless, and a step too far into the relentless brutality in the world of Westeros. Instead we got a terrific twist reveal where it turns out that Laenor's death was faked and that Rhaenyra and Daemon worked out a deal where he would be given an escape from his trapped life, a happy ending for everyone involved. I was certain that Laenor was a goner, so that ending reveal was an unexpected delight and a rare moment of hope and optimism in a world that is often far too brutal and unrelentingly depressing. The sequence of Laenor's death was very well edited, and the events we were shown were intentionally slightly inconsistent, making the reveal of Laenor's survival satisfyingly explain the weirdness in this sequence. A great piece of film-making. I'm glad to see Rhaenyra and Daemon finally get together, which seemed like a given over the last few episodes. It will be interesting to see their relationship evolve considering how both of them have a reckless, volatile nature. Going into the show, it was expected that Rhaenyra vs Daemon would be the main conflict, so I think that it's a clever subversion to have them ultimately get married. The Bad: I have heard a lot of complaints about the episode being too dark in several scenes. It never bothered me and I was able to see just fine, but when a good portion of people are having a hard time seeing then something is definitely being done wrong. It was blatantly obvious to me that all of the night scenes were shot during the day and darkened in post, and I think that the effects should have been better. I suspect that overdoing this effect is likely what resulted in the scenes being too dark for people to effectively see, especially those who watch in a well-lit environment. The director Miguel Sapochnik made the same mistake with "The Long Night" in "Game of Thrones" and it is disappointing to see him not learning from what went wrong last time. The Unknown: How will Viserys react when he learns of Daemon and Rhaenyra's marriage? Will we see Laenor again? Or is this a happy ending of sorts for him? Corlys and Rhaenys lost both of their children in short time, how will this affect them and their relationship? How significant will Aemond acquiring Vhagar be? How far will his rivalry with Jace and Luke go? Best Moment: Alicent going after Rhaenyra was the highlight of the episode for me. It was intense since you had no idea what would happen next, and the introduction of a knife put everyone's life in danger. On top of that, the emotional stakes were palpable. Alicent once loved Rhaenyra as her closest friend, and yet now she is charging at her with intent to kill, having had enough of Rhaenyra's reckless, privileged behaviour. Alicent has had to play by the rules to her own detriment, so it disgusts her to see Rhaenyra behaving so poorly, and it's absolutely believable that the loss of her son's eye would push Alicent over the edge in this moment. The scene is believable and fantastic, also featuring superb acting and top-tier dialogue. Certainly the best scene of the show so far. Character of the Episode: Alicent. Conclusion: An excellent episode. Coming off of last week's rocky instalment, this episode roared back into form with excellent character scenes based on established relationships, suspense-filled character drama that was earned and exciting, and an ending twist that gave us a rare burst of hope and happiness in an often overwhelmingly brutal show. Score: 71
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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