House of the Dragon finally offers us a great episode full of dragons

Like any true Home Box Office viewer, nothing gets me going like some damn Dragon. Sure, I love uncovering all the political intrigue, the careful examination of patriarchal power and class consciousness in House of the Dragon And game of Thronesbut I Also I want to see how well this all fits together with giant fire-breathing lizards. It’s right there in the title: House of DragonAnd in this penultimate episode, the dragons are here to play ball.

This is clear from the opening scene, a tense standoff on the beach where Syrax and Seasmoke stare each other down while Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) faces off against a newly minted dragon rider: Addam Hull (Clinton Liberty). What could be a very violent showdown quickly turns in Rhaenyra’s favor, as Addam has no interest in using his newfound power for his own ends. Instead, he is happy to have found a purpose away from the sea and will join Rhaenyra if she teaches him to be a dragon rider.

One week before the start of the second season, House of the Dragon gives us his version of a “team building” episode, and it rockThe revelation of Addams’s connection to Seasmoke causes Rhaenyra to reconsider her noble family’s long-standing divine claim to dragons and, with some help from Mysaria, begins to consider candidates who would not found in long-forgotten records of descendants with diluted Targaryen blood. Bastards born in the realm’s brothels, and the nobility’s disinterest in what happens when their time in the pleasure house is over.

But while Rhaenyra will find her dragonriders in “wayward offspring” like Addam Hull, that doesn’t mean everyone will be happy about this headwind – even if it means a chance against Aemond. The more religious of her followers are outraged by her attempt to link Vermithor to Ser Steffon Darklyn, and her son Jace, already hurt by his exclusion and the rumors about his parentage, is furious that his family’s salvation might come from the bastards of King’s Landing.

There is a thematic connection here to one of the earliest ideas of game of Throneshow “cripples, bastards and broken things” can become the pivot point on which the whole world changes. George RR Martin’s fantasy world is not the prettiest place, but it is marked by a long series of consequences, as the ripples of decisions big and small never stop radiating outward.

There are also consequences for Daemon this week, as Lord Grover Tully’s death leads to his extremely His young grandson Oscar inherits his title as Lord of the Riverlands. Daemon sees this as the end of the long stalemate over the support of the River Lords and believes he can simply steamroll Oscar and use him to finally force the River Lords into submission.

But in what is probably the best scene of the whole damn show, little Oscar Tully (a incredible Archie Barnes) damn Walking the dog

As Daemon negotiates with the assembled river lords, he is fully aware that his status as a young lord is still very uncertain, but that Daemon’s need for the armies of the riverlands still gives Oscar an advantage. Daemon will get the support he seeks, but on Oscar’s terms.

The penultimate episode of this season is full of satisfying moments like this one, as the players on the edge of season two take dangerous steps toward the spotlight. It’s a turning point in Westeros, as those who want to wield power – namely Rhaenyra – learn that the only way to grab it is to not be so jealous of it. In the process, a fundamental myth of this world is repeatedly exposed for the fiction it is: the ruling class are not the demigods they’ve made themselves out to be.

This all culminates in a long, tense sequence in which Rhaenyra’s assembled outcasts are tested by Vermithor. Things go badly for most of them, but fate finally comes knocking on the door for long-suffering blacksmith Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), as well as hard-drinking troublemaker Ulf White (Tom Bennet), who encounters a big, bad dragon we’ve never seen before, a dragon that accepts the ragged rogue as its rider.

Dominoes are constantly falling in Westeros.