Summary: The story jumps 10 years in the future. Rhaenyra has given birth to 3 sons and Alicent notes that they are not Laenor's. The children are Harwin's and everyone knows it except Viserys, still alive, who is in willful ignorance. Alicent's sons train with Rhaenyra's sons under Criston Cole who is biased towards Alicent now. Harwin takes notice and is upset, Criston provokes him and Harwin attacks him in public. As punishment, Harwin loses his position in King's Landing. Lyonel goes to Viserys and tries to resign but he isn't allowed to do so. Lyonel asks for leave to take Harwin to Harrenhal. Alicent tells Larys what happened and expresses desire for Otto to return. Larys takes matters into his own hands and arranges for some men to create a fire in Harrenhal, killing Lyonel and Harwin. Feeling her grip on her power slipping, Rhaenyra decides to take her children to Dragonstone along with Laenor and his paramour Qarl. Meanwhile, Daemon has married Laena and they have two children. Daemon is happy to live in Pentos but Laena points out that he is unhappy. They return to Driftmark where Laena gives birth. It goes wrong and Laena takes her own life by dragon fire.
The Good: The opening scene of the episode was a magnificent way to re-introduce the characters and story after such a long time-skip. We are treated to a wonderful cinematic feat with the long-take oner as Laenor and Rhaenyra go to meet Alicent. This scene is so effective because it brilliantly introduces us to Emma D'Arcy's Rhaenyra and illustrating how she behaves while simultaneously showing us how her relationship with Laenor has evolved over the years with Laenor being a bit of an ignorant man, but he is honest in his attempted support at the least. Furthermore, we get a good introduction to the change within Alicent without even meeting her. Her demand to see Rhaenyra's baby immediately tells us that Alicent has embraced her ruthless side, and that much is confirmed when we finally get to meet her and see how she has changed. Seeing how these characters have evolved in the most enjoyable aspect of this episode. Rhaenyra is surprisingly quite similar to before despite becoming a mother. She maintains that same strong-willed fiery personality as she makes increasingly poor decisions out of lust. Namely, she and Laenor both decide not to force having sex with each other, and Rhaenyra ends up bearing Harwin's children, a decision that really hurts her in this episode. We also get to see a new version of Alicent, and I think that the timeskip worked best with her. Alicent was beginning to go through a transformation in the previous episode, and when we catch up with her now, she has become a ruthless politician just like her father. It's a natural development which feels earned and logical. Laenor is another character who aged up well. We didn't know him too well before, but this episode takes what we knew of him and shows how those traits have amplified. Laenor is a glory-seeking, vain, individual who indulges in the finer acts of life (hooking up with other men). He's still likeable, primarily because he is quite funny, but he is a product of a society that glorifies the roles of men. While Rhaenyra fights the political battle for her future, Laenor is out drinking and dreaming of going out to a glory-filled war, just like what he did when he was younger. I like this added depth to the character, it makes him feel more real. Some characters change without having to change actors, and these changes feel more natural since the character feels the same. Viserys is one such example. He looks horrible physically, like he's barely clinging on to life, and his characterization furthers that idea. Viserys used to have some fire to him when he was younger, but now he comes off as increasingly passive. He no longer troubles himself with whatever chaos Rhaenyra is causing, and he delights in the simplicity of peace, such as when Rhaenyra makes a proposition to Alicent. As he has aged and his health has worsened, Viserys has gained a newfound appreciation of peace. Daemon is a character who returns in a very surprising position. Following the last episode, he has kept quiet for 10 years, married a woman he loves, and started a family in Pentos. This was totally unexpected but it works pretty well. Daemon managed to find a satisfying new adventure through Laena, and it has kept him busy, unlocking a new part of Daemon. The time has come for the rogue Daemon to move on to something new, but newfound love for his family is holding Daemon back, and he bristles when Laena suggests that they return to Westeros, wanting to continue his current life. Though that quickly becomes impossible when Laena dies in childbirth, and it appears that the door has opened for Daemon's return. I like the idea of this story a lot, and it almost works very well. Larys is the star of this episode for sure. He went from a forgettable background character to a terrifying psychopath over the course of this episode. Larys seems innocuous and unthreatening because of his demeanor, but he proves that he is the terrifying Littlefinger-esque politician that is here to cause chaos to further his own agenda. Larys' decision to murder his own family based off of a mild suggestion from Alicent that she wants her father back was horrifying, and my reaction was the same as Alicent's when I realized what Larys was doing. The ending speech is superb, and Larys' utter lack of emotion is genuinely terrifying and gripping to watch. Also terrifying is the scene where Larys recruits some prisoners, cutting out their tongues so that they can't tell anyone who sent them. This is uncomfortable to watch, but it further establishes the psychotic extent that Larys goes to in order to further his agenda. The Bad: If you've read enough of my reviews, you know that I am not a fan of time skips, and this one caused a lot of issues for the story. It is jarring to continue the story with new actors coming in. While they do a good job, there is a certain suspension of disbelief that is always present when dealing with these new actors who are clearly not the grown up versions of the characters we knew. But this is not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is that the time skip has ruined the emotional impact for much of this episode. Three major characters die by the end of this episode, and none of their deaths hits hard because these characters' stories were rushed and all of the characters felt undercooked by the time of their death. It felt like there was much more we should have learned about these characters to make us care about them, and the show did not succeed at making these deaths feel impactful. Laena's death is the biggest offender of this. We hardly knew who Laena was until this episode, making it impossible to care when she died. But even worse is that her relationship with Daemon had zero development before her death. They briefly flirted last episode, but that is not enough to convince me that these two would be married in 10 years, exploring the world together. We don't get even a hint of why these two hooked up, and how it affected both of them. Laena brings up that she was a second choice for Daemon, and I wish that we got to see Daemon make this choice, giving more context to their relationship. Since we don't get that context, it is hard to feel for Daemon when Laena dies since we hardly know how they feel about each other. I wish that we had more time to spend with these two characters together. Harwin was similarly disappointing, and I was left underwhelmed by his character arc. He was a non-factor in the story up until this episode, and now we suddenly find out that he's in a relationship with Rhaenyra and is happy to be the father of her children. This comes right out of nowhere, and it was jarring to me. Looking back, we see hints of this relationship in previous episodes, but hints are not enough to justify this development and make me care. It's frustrating that this episode tries to make me care about Harwin being a caring father to make his death feel more painful when the character has not been built up or developed at all. It's a damn shame because there is a really good scene between Lyonel and Harwin in this episode that makes me wish that Harwin was a fully realized character so that this story could have more meaning. It should have been absolutely tragic when Harwin and Lyonel die in Harrenhal, but I felt nothing because the story was undercooked, just like Laena's. Much of these problems that I've outlined above could have been rectified if this episode had been split into two separate episodes. The stories felt rushed, and had the show taken the time to develop the storylines and characters in more depth, the plot beats would have landed much better. This makes me wish that this first season had received 13 episodes instead of just ten, so that it could have further developed some of the storylines that were raced through. I've expressed how I wished that certain characters and storylines were given more time (Criston, Crabfeeder, etc.), and extending the season would have fixed this. It's a shame that this show wasn't quite given the time it needed to breathe. The Unknown: Who will be the next Hand of the King? Will Otto return? Viserys has aged significantly, so it is realistic that he may opt for the familiarity of Otto instead of appointing a new face as Hand. What will happen with Rhaenyra returning to Dragonstone? Does she have a plan to keep hold of her power? Will Daemon return to Westeros now? How will his return be handled? What will become of his children with Laena dead? Daemon doesn't strike me as the type to settle down as a father with his wife out of the picture. What are Larys' intentions and motives? He just killed his own family on a whim. What is he trying to accomplish? Will Rhaenyra be able to maintain her narrative about her children? If she can't, then will Alicent's children be able to ascend to the throne? It should be very interesting to see who succeeds Viserys. Best Moment: The magnificent oner early in the episode was quite the spectacle to open with, re-introducing us to these characters perfectly. Character of the Episode: Larys. Conclusion: Easily the weakest and most disappointing episode so far. The massive time jump and a rushed narrative hurt the story badly and could very well cause significant narrative issues down the line. Despite all that is done well, these major problems cause this to be a weak episode. Score: 55
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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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