Another strong episode of House of the Dragon, which was well written, had great acting, was dramatic, suspenseful and introduced some new characters who could prove to be game changers in the days to come.
OBSERVATIONS :
1. I used to think that perhaps Rhaenyra and Ser Criston Cole are falling in love with each other, but I was completely wrong. Rhaenyra never felt anything for Criston, he was a just a guy who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Rhaenyra and Daemon are smitten with each other, they are willing to break the rules for each other; even in the pleasure house Rhaenyra wanted to make love with Daemon. All this just makes me feel bad for Criston Cole, who finds himself in a situation where he is heartbroken and has nowhere to go. The conversation that Criston has with Rhaenyra on the ship, about running away from the Kingdom and getting married felt very earnest and heartfelt. Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole was the star of this episode, perhaps the most valuable player. Fabien perfectly portrayed the emotional state of a conflicted man, who is desperately trying to make sense of the events taking place in his life. His appeal to Rhaenyra felt sweet as well as sad, because we all know that she is a Princess and he is a no one, there is absolutely nothing that can happen between them. I can understand the mental state of Criston at the wedding, he had placed himself in a hopeless situation, his death could have been ordered any moment, he was a silent ticking bomb and Joffrey's talk triggered him because it came across to him as a threat in disguise; but it's not possible to justify his act at the wedding, Criston took it too far, he should have stopped at a few punches. Ser Criston Cole is a broken man, and Rhaenyra is responsible for it, and now there will be consequences, some unwanted consequences.
2. Alicent Hightower's entry into the wedding hall wearing all green was nothing short of spectacular. Alicent is not some warrior who would just barge in with a sword and start fighting to make a statement; her way of showing defiance would obviously be something in line with her personality, which is that of a noble lady. She attended the event, completed her duties but also let everyone know that things are not the same anymore. Alicent, who has always been known to be a soft spoken introvert girl, this time chose not to stay silent and make a bold statement instead. With this act of hers, the battle lines have been drawn; it's not one happy family anymore, it's a divided unit now and both of them will be fighting for the throne. Emily Carey was the other star of this episode with an impeccable performance. She may not say a lot but her expressions and body language speak a thousand words. Although, I am really fond of Olivia Cooke; the actress who will play the older version of Alicent; I am really going to miss Emily.
3. Undoubtedly, Paddy Considine has been the best actor of this series so far. This actor has added so much realism to the King's situation that you just don't feel that he's acting at all, you genuinely feel bad for him. This actor doesn't even need to say dialogues all the time, his facial expressions, the way he eats food make it loud and clear about how frustrated he is with his life. In the wedding sequence, his stressful look added a lot of intensity to the scene; he barely said anything but his expressions allowed the tension to hit the roof.
4. I liked how the fight sequence and the chaos that followed was depicted. We were shown everything from the King's point of view, who was as confused and unaware as the viewers of what was happening. A lot of tension kept building up as the scene went by, and Viserys's brilliant performance added even more stress to it.
5. When the fight broke out in the end, Daemon mysteriously disappeared. The most logical explanation would be that Daemon ran out angrily after confronting Rhaenyra and a fair amount of time passed before the fight began. We were of course shown the events in that way to create a stressful situation and make it confusing.
6. The dialogues in this episode were very well written. This is something that the later seasons of Game of Thrones couldn't do and ended up disappointing everyone. But thankfully, we have written material available for this show and the writers are doing a pretty good job in adapting and filling in the blanks. The conversation between Rhaenyra and Laenor about Roast Duck and Goose was perfectly fine as it is, but it actually had nothing to do with Goose or Duck; usage of metaphors to explain something feels amazing when you understand what's happening. The writing in this episode was just beautiful. Once again, when Alicent is confronting Criston about the night Rhaenyra went out with Daemon; her hesitation led her to talk in such a layered manner, it felt as if she is reciting a poem! The writing department deserves some appreciation for the wonderful work they have done so far.
7. We got a proper introduction to the Strong brothers in this episode, Larys Strong and Harwin Strong. Harwin always comes across as a self-assured man, and in this episode we even see that he fears no one when he's given a job. The casting team has done a fantastic job in selecting Ryan Corr for the job. Till now, I used to think that Otto Hightower is the Little Finger of this show, but I guess he is not that bad; the perfect candidate is turning out to be Larys Strong. His conversation with Alicent gave an impression that he is an extremely sneaky and shrewd person, who is secretly spying everyone and filling their ears to create chaos, because chaos is a ladder. But a key question arises as to how does Larys know about the tea that the Maester himself served to Rhaenyra? Is the Maester on his side ? Is Lyonel Strong, the new hand aware of this ? Is there truly a maester's conspiracy to weaken the Targaryen Empire? Make them fight among themselves, so they end up destroying each other? Maester Mellos hasn't exactly helped Viserys in getting better, his treatment has made the King weaker and weaker; and despite that the Maester is unwilling to try out new kinds of medicines and treatments; why?
8. A very interesting character got introduced in this episode, but unfortunately got killed too soon. I was quite impressed by the acting of Solly McLeod, who played the character of Joffrey Lonmouth. He was giving the vibes of a solid grey character and his confident acting made be believe that we are in for some interesting mind games. But since it's too soon to kill off the main characters, I guess we will have to prepare ourselves for more such deaths.
9. I really wish the creators of this show could do away with the white wigs and let all actors have their natural hair. In Game of Thrones, only Daenerys had white hair and it looked decent, but since this show is about the Targaryen's so there are quite a few people with white wigs and it looks terrible. Alicent Hightower looks lovely with her natural hair, I wish I could say that about every other character. I feel the show runners should have taken some creative liberty and avoided white hair completely.
10. Rachel Redford made an impact in just a three minute role as Lady Rhea Royce, and now I wish we could see more of her. The actress was extremely beautiful and did a fantastic job of portraying the fiery Princess.
11. I didn't quite like the music in the dance sequence of the wedding. It felt like Ramin Djawadi used some left over or rejected tunes from the red wedding episode of Game of Thrones here.
12. There was a lot of mist and smoke in the wedding hall sequence, which unfortunately reduced visibility. I don't know why the creators of this show are going for these kind of visuals for this show; why can't they opt for crystal clear sharp visuals ? Why make a creative choice that renders half the things invisible ? The creators will perhaps say, well there was a lot of fire for lighting, so lot of smoke came out and hence we had to show it to keep things realistic; well so much realism is not needed, we want to see things properly. It seems the showrunners haven't learnt much from the disaster that was the Long Night episode.
13. I don't know why George Martin said that Daemon is his favourite character, because Daemon just doesn't come across as a good man. Daemon has the vibes of Ramsay Bolton, sharp, smart, brave, strong but also evil, who doesn't really care about others. Of course, Matt Smith is doing a terrific job of portraying his grey shades and evil intentions, but that doesn't change the fact that Daemon is not a very likeable man.
14. I guess there are no redeemable characters in this show, since all of them are grey and have done something wrong. Rhaenyra was easily the best character before this episode, but now she too has turned grey taking lessons from her Uncle Daemon. I know there are talks that there are no issues if a man has sex with random women and has children everywhere, but a women becomes characterless if she does so; well the simple answer to that is that it's wrong to have extra marital affairs regardless of gender. If a man does it, he's wrong and if a woman does it, she is wrong as well. In Game of Thrones, we found the Starks, who were honourable and never indulged in such activities; but in House of the Dragon, we have no one.
15. From now on, we won't see Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, which is extremely sad. We have been following their stories so far, and both actresses have done a phenomenal job in portraying their respective characters; but now we will see new faces and it feels as if the show will start afresh. The actors who laid the groundwork won't be around anymore. Even if the new actresses turn out to be brilliant, there is absolutely no doubt that House of the Dragon won't be the same without Milly and Emily.
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