House of the Dragon – Season 2 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Smallfolk

Episode 6 of House of the Dragon season 2 starts with a tenuous agreement as the vast armies of Kings Landing – specifically those of the Lannisters – march on the Riverlands. However, they’re not going to proceed forward to Harrenhal until Aemond joins them… on Vhagar.

A raven is sent to Kings Landing and the new King is not happy when he receives these demands. He ignores Alicent as he barks out orders, including a refusal to join the troops and an alliance with the Triarchy to try and break the blockade that’s stifling resources into Kings Landing. The meeting is tenuous, and after the council adjourns, Alicent speaks to Aemond in confidence. She tries to encourage him no to be rash but he butts in and decides to push her out the council completely, with her seat now gone.

The thing is, the smallfolk in Kings Landing are not happy as the divide between the rich and poor grows. Those common men are down to scraps while they speak about how the royals are living in luxury. They also bring up Viserys and how rule was better under him than Aemond or Aegon. Is a revolt on the horizon here?

Elsewhere, Rhaenyea gathers her council as Ser Steffon Darklyn is brought before them. She talks about their current seemingly hopeless position. Standing alone, she needs more dragon-riders and calls on him to help. It’s certainly a risky move but Steffon’s face lights up with the opportunity. There’s obviously peril involved but if he could claim the dragon for himself, that would be a massive plus for their army.

Ser Staffon Darklyn heads down to see the new dragon, Seasmoke, and it seems to works. He slowly approaches the dragon… but unfortunately it burns him to a cinder. Back to the drawing board I guess.

In her chamber, Mysaria arrives as Rhaenyra curses her luck over what’s happened. She wonders if there may be others out there but Rhaenyra starts to despair. A small glimmer of hope though comes from the disdain felt from the common folk surrounding Kings Landing. Mysaria has received word of this and believes it may be enough to turn the war in their favour.

Over in Kings Landing, anger boils over when food runs out at the nearby market. However, a cart full of sheep are brought for Vhagar. They’re not happy. Larys warns Ameond at the council that the enemy within is more insidious, given what’s currently transpiring. He warns Aemond that they need to deal with this now. As a result, Aemond decides to bring Otto Hightower back to the council and make him the Hand. However, news reaches them that Aegon has awoken. Aemond heads in to see him alone, challenging the former king. Aegon simply tells him he doesn’t remember anything.

Meanwhile, Daemon continues to see ghosts in Harrenhal. This time, he sees Viserys and he snaps, threatening Ser Simon, believing he’s playing games with him. Daemon finally leaves Harrenhal and heads down to see Alys, who happens to be in the courtyard by the red tree. She tells him that Daemon is but a piece on the chessboard rather than the full game. He listens to her and then asks her for counsel, specifically over dealing with the Riverlands.

Alys suggests that he focus on doing nothing right now but in three days time, the “winds will shift”. As we later find out, this is actually in reference to Grover Tully, the old man, passing away. This means that the young Oscar Tully is now Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. Apparently Alys showed up to “help” and it would appear that she’s done the deed and killed him.

Rhaena is up at the Vale and finds herself shocked at the devastation caused by dragons when she finds the land burned to the ground. It’s not one of hers and it turns out there’s already a large dragon in the vale and this seems to explain why Jeyne and those in the Vale wanted dragons in the first place – and why she was annoyed that the current dragons were so small.

Down on the shore of Kings Landing, boats full of food and material for the people, all carrying the banner of Rhaenyra and the Targaryens, appears. As a result of this, things don’t look good for Alicent. She stays by Aegon’s side as the Grand Maester points out how Aegon’s recovery is going to be long and slow. He also brings up how they’ve received no word from Otto just yet, despite sending ravens to all the Great Houses. Outside, she speaks to Gwayne about their father before seeing him off. She doesn’t, tellingly, speak to Criston Cole, although the pair do exchange knowing glances.

With Cole and the other soldiers gone, chaos breaks out in the streets when word spreads like wildfire of the food sent by Rhaenyra. Over at the Sept, Alicent and Helaena are taken out by the Kings Guards, who find the mood in the street has changed. It’s hostile. Food is thrown at them both and unfortunately, this untrained Kings Guard lash out and slice the hand off one of the men. It’s pandemonium but the queens do manage to get away, despite being chased by the smallfolk through the city.

When Rhaenyra receives word of this, she questions the ability to win this war. Given Jace believes they need Daemon to help, Mysaria gives her some words of encouragement to help dispel her doubts. After opening up, Mysaria talks about her dark secrets, including how her father abused her sexually and as a result, she can no longer bear children. She was left for dead and since then, vowed never to trust anyone ever again. She knows there are few who are steadfast.. and believes Rhaenyra is one of those, given she sees Mysaria as an equal. In a rare moment of weakness, she hugs Mysaria which eventually leads to kissing.

With Alicent gone, Larys shows up to Aegon in his chambers. He speaks about Aegon’s fate and likens it to his own, including how he’ll always be pitied. However, he also brings up how people will underestimate him… but he can use that to his advantage. Larys senses an opportunity here, especially as Aegon asks him for help.

They’re interrupted though when they find out Seasmoke has been flying over Spice Town and has now taken on a new rider. They immediately believe it’s a Green, so Rhaenyra makes her choice and decides to fly out to meet them head on. As we know, this happens to be Addam of Hull, the bastard son of Corlys Velaryon.

The Episode Review

Another slow episode crawls by and despite the extended runtime of 1 hour 10 minutes, there’s actually not a whole lot going on here. However, it’s worth remembering that even GOT at its height was a political show first and not an action thriller like so many people seem to be expecting so slow and methodical are the name of the game here.

We do see Rhaenyra and Mysaria together in a rare golden moment of weakness between them, while the drama involving Larys and Aegon actually a nice touch too. Finally, the revolt outside in Kings Landing is a welcome inclusion of action in what’s otherwise a pretty pondering chapter.

Daemon has been tripping in Harrenhal pretty much all season long and while the flashbacks are welcome to flesh out more of his past, they’ve become rather tedious and stretched out beyond their need to the narrative. It’s also clear now that Alys not only poisoned Grover but has also been doing the same thing to Daemon, given his constant hallucinations. This is arguably the worst part of the whole episode and really doesn’t serve much purpose beyond showing that Daemon has a lot of unresolved skeletons in his closet.

It would appear that everything here is gearing up for a dramatic finale to this season but this is a patient slow burn and if we get another episode this slow, it may well undo the good work done moving the chess pieces around the board.