Home of the Dragon: season two, episode three recap – discuss eye-popping TV

Spoiler alert: this recap is for folks watching Home of the Dragon. Don’t learn on except you might have watched season two, episode three.

‘Quickly they won’t even keep in mind what started the struggle within the first place’

When does a struggle start? With the official declaration of hostilities? With some inciting incident, such because the homicide of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914? Or, to paraphrase Varys in Recreation of Thrones, does a struggle start when folks consider it has begun, when sufficient anger has constructed up {that a} tipping level is inevitable? That’s the theme of this third episode, and maybe this complete second season, as a shrinking variety of restraining voices – Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Rhaenys (Eve Greatest) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) chief amongst them – battle to stem the tide of violence that threatens to overwhelm not simply King’s Touchdown, however the entire of Westeros.

And if they’ll’t cease the struggle itself, because the opening scenes between duelling homes the Brackens and the Blackwoods recommend, then at the very least they may have the ability to management it, to information it, to maintain the dragons from getting concerned. It’s Rhaenys who means that one of the simplest ways to discover a path to peace is for Rhaenyra and Alicent to talk head to head – an absurd plan, on condition that Rhaenyra is essentially the most needed girl within the Seven Kingdoms, however one she nonetheless accedes to.

‘What’s the lifetime of a queen value, today?’

First, although, there’s enterprise to take care of on Dragonstone, specifically what to do with the Queen’s three youngest youngsters. If it’s barely onerous to care concerning the disappointment of younger Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) at being despatched away with the little ’uns, that’s partly as a result of we have now been given little or no time together with her, but additionally as a result of the scenario is a lot worse for Rhaenyra, compelled to bid farewell to her smallest offspring. Nonetheless, at the very least she has a brand new sidekick-slash-Grasp of Whisperers, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), to open up to.

And the erstwhile White Worm wasn’t the one one granted that title this week. It was solely a matter of time earlier than King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) seen that Ser Larys Sturdy (Matthew Needham) was mainly doing the job already; all he needed to do was make it official. Certainly, there appear to be titles aplenty being handed out, together with a brace of newly minted Kingsguard knights drawn from Aegon’s pool of fawning followers, a lot to the chagrin of their Lord Commander, Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel).

‘Good. To struggle, then’

Recent from being named Hand of the King, Ser Criston selected this second to depart King’s Touchdown altogether on a mission to safe the strategically important fortress of Harrenhal earlier than their enemies may do the identical. However he wouldn’t be travelling alone: enter Alicent’s youthful brother, Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), the type of completely objectionable little snot the noble homes of Westeros appear to breed by the wagonload. Nonetheless, it was virtually value his presence simply to see the look on Ser Criston’s face when Alicent ordered him to take the blighter alongside.

Little did both of them know, however the Blacks had already reached Harrenhal, answering the query of the place Daemon flounced off to final week. The infamously huge, derelict fortress most lately witnessed the deaths of Lord Lyonel Sturdy and his son Harwin, on the orders of the aforementioned Ser Larys. Now, it’s being held by Lyonel’s brother Ser Simon (Simon Russell Beale), a comfort-loving type whose avuncular exterior would possibly simply masks a razor-sharp thoughts.

He clearly hasn’t been taken in by his kinslaying nephew, anyway, and his apparently unintentional mis-titling of Daemon occurs simply sufficient instances to really feel intentional. As for the Prince in query, he’s clearly questioning a few of his latest life selections, wandering within the evening and dreaming of younger Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock, making a fiendish, feverish return) – however was it a dream, or some sort of phantasm, maybe introduced on by Ser Simon’s mysterious courtier, the decidedly witchy Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin)?

‘There could also be one other manner’

Nonetheless, one enigmatic determine did turn into much less so this week, as we acquired a solution to the query of who precisely is Ulf (Tom Bennett). A stunning monitoring shot drew us right into a bustling King’s Touchdown boozer-cum-brothel, the place this seemingly atypical bloke started bragging about his connections to the royal household. He might not look the half, however in keeping with Ulf he’s really a Targaryen, the son of the late King Viserys’s long-lost bastard brother. How a lot inventory we will place within the ramblings of a person who appears like a Harry Enfield character gone rogue is unclear, however he definitely clamped shut when Aegon confirmed up unexpectedly, alongside together with his retinue.

The ultimate a part of the episode was all about Rhaenyra and Alicent, as the previous enlisted Mysaria to assist put her reckless plan into motion. After a lot dress-up and subterfuge – didn’t we do that two episodes in the past? – the royal rivals had been reunited within the sept, for a heart-to-heart that ended up taking a flip neither of them may have predicted. Certainly, in hindsight it’s clear that this complete escapade was arrange purely in order that Rhaenyra may clear up the riddle of why Viserys muttered his son’s identify to Alicent on his deathbed – in spite of everything, she is the one one who is aware of concerning the Track of Ice and Fireplace. Alicent’s response was predictable: shock, disbelief, denial. However anticipate to see the reality consuming away at her within the weeks to return, as she progressively involves phrases with the truth of what Rhaenyra has informed her.

Extra notes

This week, a number of folks have been complaining – within the feedback under, and in articles equivalent to this one – that Home of the Dragon is boring, simply a number of gloomy chit-chat and no enjoyable stuff. Whereas I can’t deny that the collection is taking its candy time to get going, I don’t discover it remotely boring: I really like all of the backstabbing and loyalty-switching, partly as a result of I do know it’s all constructing to one thing nice.

The one grievance I agree with is that, so far, there isn’t any character we will actually root for – a Tyrion, a Jon Snow, a Daenerys earlier than she went tonto. They’re all as ruthless as one another, and it does make discovering an emotional connection moderately tougher.

These 4 vibrant dragon’s eggs are clearly going to play a significant half within the wars to return. Disgrace they regarded as if that they had been purchased at a department of Oliver Bonas.

Good Gods, however Rhaenyra’s courtiers are a bunch of interfering mitherers, aren’t they? Time to get in some recent blood!

Nudity depend

Willies, heaps of ’em! Effectively, at the very least two, which for Westeros is value noting – to not point out the truth that one was erect, huge and within the means of being, um, serviced, which for any non-porn present remains to be daring. And but, the scene that adopted was maybe essentially the most shifting of the episode, as Aegon’s teasing lower Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) to the short, reminding him of the times when he was the brunt of each childhood prank, and driving an additional wedge between the brothers simply when Aegon may use some dependable backup.

Violence depend

Might being chased by a dragon be thought of an act of violence? The sudden look of Baela (Bethany Antonia) on her irritatingly named mount Moondancer might have appeared scary, however it may also have provided Ser Criston and younger Gwayne the excuse they wanted for a spot of on-the-road bonding, in addition to giving Criston the possibility to show he isn’t just a scheming royal-fucker, however a gifted and skilled knight.

Random Brit of the week

Regardless of stiff competitors from Freddie Fox and Gayle Rankin – each of whom might nicely get their flip later within the season – it needs to be Simon Russell Beale, or Sir Simon Russell Beale, because the opening credit knowledgeable us. A stage veteran whose companies to theatre led to a knighthood in 2019, his work in movie and TV has, maybe inevitably, tended in direction of the intellectual and theatrical, from taking part in Falstaff in The Hole Crown to a brace of collaborations with the late, lamented Terence Davies.