'House of the Dragon' Season 1 Episode 7 Recap: An Eye for a Dragon
'House of the Dragon' Season 1 Episode 7 Recap: An Eye for a Dragon
A funeral can be many things. Usually, it’s a sad occasion, an event filled with tears and the sounds of sobbing parents, children, relatives, friends. However, a funeral can also be festive when the dearly departed are deemed to have lived a long and joyful life, and to have died at the right time — i.e., in their old age. When the dead is someone no one truly cared for, a funeral can feel like nothing more than paperwork, a mere bureaucratic rite the living have to go through before getting on with their lives. Last, but not least, there are those funerals that are akin to a failed peace negotiation between the leaders of warring countries; those funerals that are so filled with tension that there’s barely any room left for the mourners. The heavy atmosphere can result from financial disputes, bad blood between different branches of the same family tree, or even petty rivalries between children. No matter the case, this is the kind of funeral you want to avoid at any cost, unless the problematic family is your own, or you are deeply invested in other people’s drama.
'House of the Dragon' Season 1 Episode 7 Recap: An Eye for a Dragon
If there’s a silver lining to be found by Lady Laena (Nanna Blondell) in her untimely death by dragon/childbirth, it’s that she didn’t have to go through the ordeal of her own funeral on this week's House of the Dragon. Not in spirit, at least. Held at Driftmark, Laena’s funeral was possibly the most awkward event in the history of Westeros so far, and that is counting Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Laenor’s (John Macmillan) wedding banquet. At least, no one was killed by the time the Velaryons were done with their grieving. Well, no one of consequence, I mean.
“Driftmark” begins peacefully enough, albeit a bit sad. King Viserys (Paddy Considine), Princess Rhaenyra, and their respective entourages have traveled to the seat of House Velaryon to mourn the passing of Lady Laena and offer their support to her family, Targaryen-style. But not even a tragedy of this magnitude can force the members of the upper houses of Westeros to keep their beefs to themselves. While conducting the ceremony, Ser Vaemond (Wil Johnson) squeezes in a backhanded comment about the strength of Velaryon blood, clearly directed at Rhaenyra and her two older boys. This prompts Daemon (Matt Smith) to let out a chuckle right in front of his dead wife’s coffin, and it’s all downhill from there. Even those that manage to keep up appearances aren’t exactly at ease at the reception, and not just because death makes us all a little uncomfortable. Kids and adults alike have a hard time behaving at this moment of grief.
At the grown-ups' table, so to speak, Viserys’ poor health is starting to take a toll on his mind as well as his body. As he leaves the reception for bed, he calls Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) by the name of his late first wife, Aemma (Sian Brooke). This Freudian slip is most likely a result of seeing his younger brother become a widower. The king tries to take the opportunity to make amends with Daemon, offering him a seat at the court, but the prince would rather stay at Pentos as a dragon for hire than accept his help. Meanwhile, Alicent and Rhaenyra exchange pointed looks, and Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) despairs over his son’s self-pity and his grandson’s refusal to become lord of Driftmark. Later, he and Rhaenys (Eve Best) discuss the possibility of leaving the seat of House Velaryon to Laena’s eldest daughter, Baela (Shani Smethturst). After all, as Rhaenys is quick to point out, it is pretty obvious to all that want to see it that Lucerys (Harvey Sadler) and Jacaerys (Leo Hart) are not of Velaryon blood. Rhaenys sees right through her husband’s insistence that he’s merely trying to give her back what was taken from her by setting his eyes on the Iron Throne, and accuses him of using his children to virtually become king by proxy. But the Sea Snake isn't having it, and his ambition becomes even clearer when he tells his wife that history doesn’t remember blood - it remembers names.
However, the real stars of “Driftmark” are not the adults, but the children. Even the reclusive Princess Helaena (Evie Allen) has her chance to shine, chanting creepily to a spider right in the middle of Laena’s post-funeral reception. Flabbergasted, Aegon (Ty Tennant) complains to his younger brother about having to marry such a weird girl and sets off to find himself a drink and, with some luck, a woman to bed. He’s found later in the evening, all but passed out on the sands beneath the castle, by a very pissed Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who has reclaimed his position as Hand after the demise of Lord Lyonel (Gavin Spokes). Lord Otto drags his drunk grandson back into the castle, and the party is over for all but a handful of Targaryens who are still looking to get lucky.
The luckiest of them all, at least for a split second, is Prince Aemond (Leo Ashton). Taking advantage of the fact that no one really seems to care about him, he ventures off to the beach to find a sleeping dragon without a master. In last week’s episode, we learned that Aemond’s dragon egg never hatched, and, thus, the young prince never bonded with a scaled pet. This makes him a constant target of bullying by both his older brother and his nephews. It is no wonder, then, that upon finding an abandoned dragon at the beach, the princeling would try to command and ride it. Surprisingly, he succeeds.
But Aemond’s small victory is bittersweet, for the dragon he managed to tame wasn’t a stray, but Laena’s Vhagar. The prince is received back in the castle not by a cheering crowd impressed with his feat, but by Lucerys, Jacaerys, and both of Laena’s daughters, who are enraged with him for stealing their mother’s dragon. Rhaena (Eva Ossei-Gerning), in particular, is seeing red, and not without reason: having grown up without a dragon, just like Aemond, she was planning on claiming Vhagar as her own. The kids trade insults and things get physical when Aemond suggests that Rhaena should ride a pig with wings like the one Aegon, Jacaerys, and Lucerys gave him in Episode 6. The four cousins join forces to give the prince a beating, and he fights them off with a level of strength and dexterity that only a boy bullied by his older brother is capable of displaying. But then Jacaerys pulls out a knife, and there’s little Aemond can do to stop the blade from coming his way. After being called a bastard by his uncle, Lucerys takes his brother’s knife and stabs Aemond right in the eye, rendering him forever scarred and partially blind.
Now, if you’ve ever seen a group of rich, spoiled kids get into a particularly ugly fight, you know it isn’t over until the parents get a taste of blood. Inside the castle, everyone is screaming at everyone while the poor maester tries to work on Aemond’s face. King Viserys is angry with his men for leaving the children unguarded and allowing such a thing to happen. Alicent is mad at Aegon, who was too pass-out drunk to keep an eye on his baby brother. But it’s when Rhaenyra comes in that shit truly hits the fan. Demanding to know what happened, King Viserys learns that Aemond questioned the parentage of his grandsons. He asks Aemond who told him such terrible (ahem) lies, and Aegon takes the fall for his mother, claiming that everyone in the court knows that the boys are bastards. This leads to Viserys declaring that anyone that dares put his grandsons' lineage into question from now on shall have their tongue cut off. He then demands the children put an end to their petty squabbles and apologize to one another.
Everyone seems ready to do as they were told and call it a day, but, for Queen Alicent, saying sorry is not enough. Rightfully enraged by the fact that her son has just lost an eye, she demands that her husband do something about it. When he refuses, she decides to take matters into her own hands — and by “matters,” I mean the Catspaw dagger. Alicent pulls the blade right out of her husband’s belt and jumps at Lucerys, ready to take out one of the boy’s eyes as payback. Rhaenyra places herself in front of her son, trying to fend off her former friend, but Alicent seems to have lost her ability to think clearly. Even Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) sounds reasonable in comparison as he refuses to obey Alicent’s orders to severely maim one of Rhaenyra’s children. The queen comes to her senses only after drawing some of Rhaenyra’s blood, leaving the princess with a nasty scar on her arm. She steps back in shock, and Aemond tries to comfort her by saying that he at least got a dragon out of the whole thing. Still, the fight seems to have awakened something in Alicent, who is now ready to gather a group of allies not just to screw over Rhaenyra, but also to strengthen her son’s claim to the throne.
What Alicent doesn’t know is that Rhaenyra also has something up her sleeve. Remember that there was more than just one Targaryen getting lucky after Laena’s funeral? Well, Rhaenyra and Daemon finally had their moment together after that ill-fated trip to King’s Landing’s red-light district. It was a delicate, beautifully shot sex scene, very different from the violence Game of Thrones became known for during its time on the air. But this romantic escapade initially seems to be leading to something a lot uglier when Rhaenyra asks Daemon to marry her and give her legitimate children so that her claim to the throne won’t be as easily challenged. This, of course, can only happen if Laenor dies. And, for a while, it sure looks like that’s what’s going to happen, with Daemon paying Laenor’s lover, Qarl (Arty Froushan), to stage a duel with the Velaryon heir and off him. But — surprise, surprise — it isn’t Laenor’s body that Corlys and Rhaenys find burning in their fireplace, but some other poor lad’s. While his parents mourn him and his wife marries her uncle, Laenor is on a boat with Qarl, traveling somewhere way beyond the Narrow Sea, where he will hopefully live a long and happy life far away from all this Targaryen nonsense.
House of the Dragon airs on Sundays on HBO. Episodes are also available to stream on HBO Max.
Post a Comment