Summary: Rhaenyra cuts short her tour of Westeros to find a suitor, upsetting Viserys. Daemon returns to King's Landing and is forgiven by Viserys. Alicent and Rhaenyra begin to reconnect. That night, Daemon sneaks Rhaenyra out of the Red Keep and they have a good time in the streets. Daemon takes her to a pleasure house and he starts to kiss her. Rhaenyra gets into it but Daemon pulls away and leaves. Rhaenyrs goes back, upset, and has sex with Criston instead. The next morning, Otto's spies report to him that Daemon and Rhaenyra were together and he tells Viserys that they had sex. Viserys is furious at the allegations. Alicent overhears and confronts Rhaenyra who denies it. Viserys confronts Daemon and banishes him again. Viserys scolds Rhaenyra and tells her that he is forcing her to wed Laenor. Rhaenyra agrees on the condition that Otto is removed as Hand. Viserys, no longer trusting Otto's judgement, agrees and strips Otto of his position.
The Good: What I'm enjoying the most about this show is how varied all of the characters are. There are no traditional good or bad characters in this series, and viewers will be finding different characters to sympathize with. Some, like myself, will really connect with Viserys and his plight, while others will despise him for his weakness as king. Some will love Rhaenyra and find her relatable, while others will think she is bratty and too immature to be a good ruler. Some will love Daemon for being an entertaining rogue, while others will despise him for causing so many problems whenever he is around. Every single character in this series has upsides and downsides, and it is up to the viewer to decide who they want to support in the story. It's impressive that this show has managed to create interesting, compelling characters without allowing any single character to feel like the true protagonist of this story. This makes the show feel wholly unique, and it's going to be exciting when the conflict finally breaks out to see who we end up siding with. The stories in this episode are excellent and many relationships are given thorough explorations. Rhaenyra gets the most screentime here and she is excellent. Milly Alcock has been brilliant so far and I am going to miss her when she is replaced by an older actress. Rhaenyra has great scenes with every character in this episode. Her relationship with Viserys remains strained, and for every step forwards there are multiple steps back. The two of them worked out a deal in the previous episode, and yet Rhaenyra's inability to fit in with the expected role of women in the realm continues to be a thorn in Viserys' side. We don't ever see him explicitly scold Rhaenyra, but pointed remarks and looks make it crystal clear how angry Viserys is that Rhaenyra is still not finding a husband, even after he organized an entire tour for her. But Rhaenyra isn't wholly unsympathetic here. We see that she has a desperate urge for freedom and control in her life, and it frustrated when she realizes that she can't find it. That quality is relatable and it ensures that we still connect to Rhaenyra in spite of everything she does. Rhaenyra's relationship with Alicent is given more time in this episode as well. We haven't seen enough of these two since Alicent's marriage to Viserys, so I'm glad that we have a better idea of their relationship now. They are awkward around each other, but they still have a connection there, a connection that emerges again in a nice scene where Alicent opts to console Rhaenyra when everyone else ignores her. We see them finally starting to reconnect until it all goes wrong when Rhaenyra's actions go a step too far against Alicent's personal morality. Where Rhaenyra challenges the system, Alicent accepts the way things are and bears the consequences. This opposition forms a very natural conflict between them which occurs in this episode when Alicent hears the salacious rumour that Rhaenyra had sex with Daemon. Daemon is quite the loose cannon in this show. Early on it seemed that he was a misunderstood rogue, but this episode shows us that he's every bit as depraved, power-hungry and desperate for attention as he had initially seemed. After Viserys forgives Daemon following his return to King's Landing, Daemon wastes no time in trying to win over Rhaenyra to elevate his position and secure a new marriage. It's shockingly depraved for Daemon to do this, and he even throws the idea of marriage right at a fuming Viserys to make things worse. Matt Smith has done a magnificent job painting the charismatic awfulness of this character, and he is always gripping when he is on screen. From Daemon's creepy and uncomfortable seduction of Rhaenyra, to his blunt anatagonism of Viserys, the character elevates the show and is a genuine hook whenever he appears. Viserys has a good episode again, and he continues to be the most fascinating character on this show. We see him continuing to drink and run away from his problems, further proving that this man is not a good king. But at the same time, he manages to show a real fire for protecting his family. He shows genuine love in reconnecting with Daemon, making it that much more brutal when he realizes that Daemon betrayed him and was after Rhaenyra all along. Furthermore, Viserys has several fantastic scenes when he realizes how duplicitous Otto really is. Now that time has passed, Viserys has a full picture of how Otto has profited from being Hand of the King, so when Otto has a convenient gossip to discredit Rhaenyra, Viserys is wisened to his tricks. Seeing Viserys viciously tear down Otto for following Rhaenyra for his own selfish motives is superb, a great scene that lets us know how Otto has overstepped his bounds. And the scene is followed up with another cracker as Viserys gives Otto a final dressing down, telling him exactly why he can't be Hand of the King anymore before removing him from the position. Paddy Considine is amazing in both of these scenes, and it is so satisfying to see Otto's scheming finally backfire and he faces some very big consequences. Lastly, I want to talk about Criston Cole. Criston is given the unfortunate role of being Rhaenyra's second choice after Daemon spurns her. He tries to resist, but it's clear that he does have feelings for her and he eventually gives in to having sex with her. It's sad to see because this is clearly genuine for Criston, who had to break his vows to be with Rhaenyra, whereas Rhaenyra likely just sees the night with Criston as a bit of fun. Despite his poor choices, it's again easy to sympathize with Criston because his decisions are relatable. The Bad: I'm not a fan of how this episode handled Corlys. Corlys hasn't done much since allying with Daemon, and it feels like the character has been underserved significantly. This episode delegates him to being discussed at small council meetings, with his actions and decisions being treated as exposition. I'm not a fan of this, considering how important the character has been up until now. Surely we deserve to spend more time with the Velaryons than this. Some relationships in this show aren't quite as well fleshed out as they should be. For example, Rhaenyra and Criston's relationship could have used a lot more depth to build up to the moment of them having sex. It would have been nice to see what exactly Criston sees in her, and how Rhaenyra feels about him. We don't have much to go off of, and while it is fun to speculate, I feel that this relationship needed more clarity for their hook-up to be more impactful. The same goes with Rhaenyra and Daemon's relationship. Outside of the obvious chemistry between them, we don't know much about their relationship. I also wish that we spent more time with Alicent and Viserys. Alicent has a good scene where we see her dutifully having uncomfortable sex with Viserys, but I find myself craving for more insight on this relationship. It would be great to understand more about how Alicent feels about her current situation and if she regrets listening to Otto when he told her to visit Viserys the night his wife died. The show has got the broad strokes right, but some of these little relationship details haven't been nailed down just yet. While I was happy to see the famous Blackwood/Bracken rivalry on screen, it is absolutely ridiculous that a brutal fight and killing would ever happen in a major castle like Storm's End like this. Furthermore, it seems that there were no consequences for Willem murdering Jerrel and that's pretty shocking. Westeros can't possibly be this lawless, or we would be seeing much more murder than what we currently are. I feel similarly about this violence as I do to the deaths in the tourney from the first episode. The Unknown: Why did Daemon try to have sex with Rhaenyra? Was it to get back at Viserys, to attract more attention to himself, or because he genuinely does want to marry her? I'm can believe all of these reasons. Why did he leave her? Is it because he realized that what he was doing is wrong? Or could it have something to do with arousal issues, calling back to the first episode? How will Otto's demotion affect him? Will he return to King's Landing again? Who is going to replace it? Will it be Lyonel Strong? Will Rhaenyra drink the moon tea? Will this accelerate rumours that she slept with Daemon? Is the tea only for Viserys to uncover if she actually did it or not? Will there be consequences if she drinks the tea? Is Mysaria the White Worm? Was she working for Otto all along? Or did she recently ally with him once Daemon left her to fight in the Stepstones? Did Viserys imply that he suspects that Otto or is family played a role in Baelon's death? Is that true? Has Otto always been motivated by selfish interests? Or did he become corrupt over time? Best Moment: There were lots of excellent moments in this episode. I'll go with the immensely satisfying moment of Viserys stripping Otto of his position. It was great to see Otto finally get what he deserves, and yet Viserys still makes sure to honour the many great things that Otto accomplished as Hand of the King. A well-written, well-acted scene that perfectly encapsulates the greyness within the characters. Character of the Episode: Rhaenyra. Conclusion: A very good character-centric episode that deepened the characters and story through some well-written drama that makes excellent use of the established characters and their relationships with each other. The strongest episode so far. Score: 67
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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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