House Of The Dragon' Episode 6

2022 - 9 - 26

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

'House Of The Dragon' Episode 6 Review: 'The Princess And The ... (Forbes)

When we open on House Of The Dragon this Sunday, ten years have passed. Rhaenyra—now played by the excellent Emma D'Arcy—is in labor, about to give birth to ...

The death of her lover and the father of her children finally spurs Rhaenyra to action. Rhaenyra’s departure to Dragonstone will change a lot of the dynamics at play, leaving Alicent alone with the king and very much the most powerful woman in the land despite her lack of dragons. Aemond is the only one of the children (of Alicent and Rhaenyra’s broods) that doesn’t have a dragon. They have a fine offer of an estate, endless cash and a life of largesse from the Pentos powers that be, who only want in return the dragons as protection from the renewed threat of the Triarchy. It’s a harrowing moment, and one of the darkest in an already very dark show. She’s itching to return home to Driftmark and Westeros, tired of long years spent living in the country away from everything. They agree and he has their tongues chopped out of their mouths, making them mutes to hide the deeds they’re about to commit (surely none of these men can write). Alicent turns to her other shady ally, Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) the crippled and scheming brother of Harwin, for advice. She won’t have her daughter marry a bastard and thinks that Rhaenyra is only proposing the idea because she’s all but been caught red-handed. He confronts Criston (Fabien Frankel) and asks why he doesn’t give the younger boys the same amount of attention. He asks, instead, to take Harwin back to Harrenhal and out of the public eye. Rhaenyra declines to have it sent, determined to make the long trek herself and not give Alicent—now played in much more ruthless fashion by Olivia Cooke—the satisfaction.

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

House of the Dragon recap: episode six – TV deaths don't get more ... (The Guardian)

With a new cast, shock torchings and GoT-level villains, this is brutal, brilliant television that sets the stage for the wars to come.

It is a wonderfully auspicious ending to the most enjoyable episode of Alicent’s shock at this development is telling – she’s a schemer, sure, but she hasn’t gone full Cersei quite yet, and the fact that her closest collaborator has just knocked off his entire family is still a bracing bit of news. That is never going to happen, because not only is Aegon a bully, but his mother is behind him all the way. He has even got a family in tow: the redoubtable Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell) and their two daughters – one, Baela, a dragonrider; the other, Rhaena, hoping to be. This is the episode’s second and far grimmer nativity, as Laena realises that neither she nor her unborn infant are going to survive the birthing process and decides instead to die swiftly, by dragonfire. Alicent has become a mistress of whispers, spreading word around the court that Laenor is not the father of Rhaenyra’s children. And here is the boy in question: young Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Leo Hart) with his little brother Lucerys (Harvey Sadler), escorted by a strapping swordsman with a distinct resemblance to both. It’s another superb scene of character-building, with the King’s presence on the battlements echoing that of Ned Stark in the very first episode of Thrones. After teasing his dragonless younger brother Prince Aemond (Leo Ashton) by fitting wings to a pig, Aegon next appears proudly masturbating from his bedroom window over the rooftops of King’s Landing. Rhaenyra is not about to let him out of her sight, so it’s off through the Red Keep, step by painful step, with the child in her arms and Laenor fussing by her side. Milly Alcock was a terrific young Rhaenyra but D’Arcy is a force of nature, determined and relentless. The producers didn’t exactly advertise the fact that a major time-jump was coming (10 years, as it turns out), or that key young cast members were about to be swapped out for older actors.

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