‘House of the Dragon’ – ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’ – Review
Season Two of House of the Dragon started off with a BANG, and one brutal act spun the show into full-on horror territory; as we now enter the ambience of Episode Two, no one, neither the Greens nor the Blacks, will be spared in the darkness that is to follow in Daemon’s cruel act.
As Otto schemes to turn the public against her, Rhaenyra questions Daemon’s loyalty. Ser Criston Cole concocts a misguided plan for revenge.
No one could have anticipated the horrors that were to be unleashed in the opening episode of Season Two of House of the Dragon, and the fallout upon Kings Landings and the family and court of King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) is an awful bloody affair. Episode Two, ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’, is aptly named, but its significance leads more to the political than Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) own actions. The first spark of war has been struck, and blood has been spilt in the heinous act of the murderous decapitation of the young Prince Jaehaerys. This brutal event leaves a lingering sense of tragedy throughout the episode, and the fallout only worsens as the minutes tick by.
Episode Two, ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’, is equally about the balance of power and political posturing as it is about the state of bloody vengeance and swords at the ready. In the wake of such a tragic loss, we see the already volatile and weak King Aegon II fall even deeper into his own grandiosity, and his oath of vengeance has little effect at the start. It’s his grandfather, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who chances upon the situation for political spin and finds a way to press the advantage to his House’s own cause. The funeral precision that follows is a sombre, sad, and awful experience to witness, made more so by the grief-stricken performances of Olivia Cooke’s Alicent Hightower and her daughter Queen Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban), and this moment in the episode hit audiences in the hardest way possible.
Standing amongst all of the tragedy is Fabian Frankel’s Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, whose interests on the night of the Prince’s murder lay elsewhere, particularly in Queen Alicent’s bed. Frankel’s performance as Ser Criston made him a breakout star in the first season of House of the Dragon, and his character’s arc leads him further into even greyer territory, beginning with ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’. Forsaking all responsibility for the Prince’s death, he soon hatches a brutal plan of his own of low-born cunning to rid himself of any guilt, and in doing so, becomes a favourite of King Aegon II and finds himself named Hand of the King in the process. The vitriolic backlash that has suddenly spurred up around Ser Criston is a credit to Frankel’s subtle performance, and his hand-of-iron approach to the ‘Game of Thrones’ is sure to add fuel to the fire.
Having already recognised that she can no longer control the actions of her two sons, the louche, arrogant and impulsive King Aegon II Targaryen, and the murderous and vindictive Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), Olivia Cooke’s Queen Alicent is now in a dangerous spot, and despite her best efforts, war is now on the horizon. ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’ brings a great perspective to Queen Alicent’s emotional psyche, and with her father now banished from court, her’s is the only reason left in this palace of horrors. However, what good that will do remains to be seen. Alicent also begins to feel the weight of her children’s grief, and we see a family who now ‘communicate through pain’, and this will only grow further with her son’s rash and bloody actions. ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’ also focuses on the clandestine and complex relationship that Alicent shares with Ser Criston, and their feverish lovemaking hides all strands of responsibility as they seek to escape from the chaos that is beginning to envelop them.
While the Greens may be in turmoil, the Blacks are also not faring much better, and Prince Daemon’s (Matt Smith’s) plan for vengeance has horribly backfired, and Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) holds him personally responsible for the chaos that is to come. Where we last saw the two of them committed to one another, it is now evident that the rational and focused Queen Rhaenyra cannot live with Daemon’s brash action, and a rift is already beginning to form amongst them. The action on Dragonstone also takes an incredibly dark and brutal turn, in a melee of wanton violence that leaves Rhaenyra with further blood on her hands and emphasises to her and the audience that things are about to get much worse from here on forward.
‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’ takes audiences by surprise in the biggest possible way, and its emotional heaviness lingers on audiences. Our characters have also shifted, and there’s a callousness to their actions that will affect all of Westeros, and as war looms, the chaos has only just begun.
Season Two of House of the Dragon is now streaming on Neon and SKY TV.
Image: SKY TV
