House of the Dragon Season 2 Premiere Ends With a Gruesome Death Heralded in Game of Thrones Lore — Read Recap
Mel Brooks was wrong: It’s not that good to be the king — particularly in House of the Dragon‘s Season 2 premiere.
The Game of Thrones prequel’s long-awaited sophomore run kicks off in harrowing fashion, ending with a sequence in which one of newly minted King Aegon II and Queen Helaena’s young sons is murdered in his bed — a gruesome storyline known in Thrones lore as “Blood & Cheese.” (For a lot more on that, go here.)
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The killing is yet another salvo in the opening of the war between the Greens (Aegon, Alicent, Otto, etc.) and the Blacks (Rhaenyra, Daemon, Rhaenys, Corlys & Co.) There’s a lot to get to, so let’s jump right in and review the highlights of “A Son for a Son.”
THE AFTERMATH OF LUCERYS’ DEATH | Rhaenyra’s son, Jacaerys, is touring The Wall with Cregan Stark, one of Ned’s ancestors. Jace wants Cregan to commit some men to Rhaenyra’s army, and Cregan ultimately says he can spare some of the north’s older soldiers. Just then, there’s a raven with urgent news from Dragonstone: We’re at the exact moment that Jace learns about his brother, Lucerys’, death.
Back at Dragonstone, a grieving Rhaeynra is MIA, and Daemon is frustrated that she’s left him behind to “wage her war.” He’s also irritated with Rhaenys, whom he thinks should have torched Aegon when she and Meleys Kool-Aid Man’d their way into the coronation ceremony last season. “Fly with me,” he says, ordering her to return to her dragon even though she’s just come back from a shift monitoring the blockade cutting off supplies from reaching King’s Landing. She turns him down. “It is a command,” he insists. “Would that you were the king,” she tosses back without a care. (Side note: I love her.)
ALL AT SEA | What of Lord Corlys, you might ask? He’s doing better after his near-death injury last season, though walking with a cane and a limp as he approaches his busted-up boat at the seaport. “They tell me that you’re the one that dragged my body out of the sea,” he tells a strapping man, and the man says it was his duty. “I am indebted to you, Allan,” the Sea Snake replies, looking shaky indeed.
House of the Dragon’s Greens Vs. Blacks: Which Faction Has the Edge? Our Handy Head-to-Head Breakdown
AEGON’S RULE | In King’s Landing, we find out that Alicent and Ser Criston Cole are now engaged in an affair — the first shot of them is of him praying at her weirwood, so to speak — though afterward she immediately reminds him that they can’t indulge again. When they both arrive at the small council meeting a short time later, Otto takes one look at both his daughter and the lord commander of the Kingsguard and definitely knows something is going on.
Lucky for them, Aegon then enters with his young son, Jaehaerys, whom he wants to learn the royal ropes. Jaehaerys bores of the meeting a few seconds before his father does; the gist is that Otto is cautioning restraint and patience before unleashing the dragons on the Blacks, and Aegon thinks that’s stupid. He also thinks it’s stupid that he can’t just do whatever he wants when the smallfolk petition the throne for assistance, but Otto points out that the crown has financial obligations that supersede individual need. Afterward, the always cunning and crafty Larys gets a private word with Aegon and points out that Otto controlled Viserys for years. “Otto Hightower was your father’s Hand, your grace,” he says, planting a seed.
BLOOD & CHEESE IS HERE | While Rhaenyra is sobbing over Luke’s cloak, which fisherman have snagged in a net along with his dragon’s wing, Daemon gets word that Mysaria has been found as a stowaway on a ship to Dragonstone. He accuses her of colluding with the Hightowers. She counters that they merely paid her, and “you only blame me because your true enemies are out of reach.” He orders her held in the dungeon and “treated as a traitor to the crown.” He returns to the black council meeting to see Rhaenyra, red-eyed, announce, “I want Aemond Targaryen.” And while Rhaenyra and Jace hug each other and sob in her quarters, Daemon sets his next plan into action. He goes to Mysaria’s cell with a bargain: “Your knowledge in exchange for your freedom.”
Next thing we know, a hooded Daemon is being rowed ashore in King’s Landing. Using Mysaria’s intel, he connects with a castle guard who hates the Hightowers and lets him in. Together, they find a rat catcher who often works in the Red Keep and knows the tunnels beneath it very well. Daemon wants them to kill Aemond while he sleeps that night; they both agree. (In Fire & Blood, the guard is known as Blood and the ratcatcher is known as Cheese.)
Thing is, when they get to Aemond’s room, he’s not there. And so they skulk around the living quarters as rain pours down outside; the entire sequence is incredibly tense and very creepy. Eventually, Cheese bumps into Queen Helaena and holds a knife to her throat in the room where her children Jaeherys and Jaehaera — who look nearly identical — sleep. Blood finds them, the queen paralyzed with fear, as Cheese makes her tell them which of the sleeping kids is the boy. She points, and the men hop into action, beheading one little one while Helaena scoops up the other child and runs.
Helaena makes it to her mother’s room, where Alicent and Ser Criston are very naked in the queen dowager’s bed. Alicent quickly pulls on a robe and, worried, asks her daughter what’s happened.
“They killed the boy,” Helaena says, dazed.
Now it’s your turn. Grade the episode via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!
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