‘House of the Dragon’ – ‘The Queen Who Ever Was’ – Review
The moment we have been waitng for has arrived, and we now find ourselves at the end of the Second Season of House of the Dragon, and the Greens and Blacks are heading for a confrontation that will the shape of destiny of all Westeros to come in ‘The Queen Who Ever Was’.
As Aemond becomes more volatile, Larys plots an escape. Alicent grows concerned about Helaena’s safety. Flush with new power, Rhaenyra looks to press her advantage.
Season Two of HBO’s House of the Dragon has seen plenty of dramatic flair and risky challenges as both the Greens and the Blacks vie for supremacy and power, and each side has done everything it can to play to its advantage. Alliances were forged, chances were taken, and blood spilt as each side formed its banners. While violent skirmishes were had, death and fire reigned, and the ultimate battle was still ahead of us. In Episode Eight, ‘The Queen Who Ever Was’, we see the formation of a war that is growing to its decisive moment, and in this episode, the idea of reflection and loyalty are deep thematic frames that are explored to their fullest depths. What we get with this episode is a pondering of what has been and a realisation from all our characters that they can never go back to who they were and that the most brutal and decisive moments are still to come.
Throughout this season, we’ve seen considerable growth and change in most of our key characters, and it has painted them as far more complex, fractured, and interesting characters. While their sisterhood once bound them, both Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) are now completely at odds with one another and both realise that only victory for their own side will suffice in leading to any kind of peace. In their conflict for their houses sit a range of characters who have all undergone extraordinary changes. Matt Smith’s Prince Daemon Targaryen, the ‘Rogue Prince’ has undergone considerable transformation as his mind and soul have turned against him in the haunted halls of Harrenhal, while Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) has shown himself to be a ruthless man of calculating political intrigue, who can spin any situation to his advantage, but who now sees the danger and destruction that dragonfire wrought.
One of the key aspects of ‘The Queen Who Ever Was’ is the focus on loyalty, and we see this across both sides in the war for the Iron Throne. After the epic conclusion to ‘The Red Sowing’, and the joining of The Blacks of three new Dragonriders, collectively known as the ‘Dragonseeds’, we see these previously acknowledged smallfolk now risen to the levels of knights of the realm, and while sudden, the severity of their elevation is hammered home hard to them. This is a do-or-die war, and having picked their side, it is young Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) who reminds them of their loyalty to his mother and the harsh consequences for failing to deliver for them. The presence of the ‘Dragonseeds’ makes for an interesting new turn to the proceedings of House of the Dragon, and these characters bring considerable drama with them.
The crux of ‘The Queen Who Ever Was’ comes to the character of Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), who, through Harrenhall’s ghostly remains, and the presence of the woods witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is finally delivered a vision of things to come. And it’s hallucinating and out-of-control imagery sweeps audiences up into a frenzy. It’s a picture of Aegon the Conqueror’s dream of Ice and Fire and of the future that we have already witnessed in Game of Thrones, and its fever-dream aesthetics make for a hell of a sequence. This vision of things to come also leads to an acceptance of his and Rhaenyra’s destiny on his behalf, and we see Daemon finally bend the knee and declare his loyalty and might for his Queen.
But it is the episode’s final moment that takes audiences fully by surprise as our two queens, Rhaenyra and Alicent, meet for one final moment and exchange a fateful promise that will have consequences for both of their houses. It’s here that the narrative returns to the fated moments of the season’s first episode, and in Alicent’s desperate bid for some semblance of peace, she adheres Rhaenyra’s ‘a son for a son’ rhetoric that has shaped this bloody and brutal Second Season of House of the Dragon. And it’s a showstopping moment. It’s the final piece of what has been a fateful season, and its ramifications will soon be seen.
Season Two of House of the Dragon ended on a hell of a cliffhanger for audiences, and its retinue of montage imagery in the final moments sets up the excitement and thrills that await in the upcoming Third Season, and the continuation of the Dance of the Dragons. No corner of Westeros will be spared in this war for the Iron Throne, and only fire and blood will end it.
Season Two of House of the Dragon is now streaming on Neon and SKY TV.
Image: SKY TV
