‘House of the Dragon’ Star Eve Best Breaks Down Rhaenys’ Episode 4 Fate: ‘Ultimately, She Is Expendable’

“House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 4 ended in bloodshed with Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Meleys being killed by Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Vhagar – a huge blow to Team Black.

Despite the loss of a major dragon and a rider with more combat experience than any other Targaryen aside from Daemon (Matt Smith), Best said this was the best outcome. Rhaenys volunteers for the Rook’s Rest mission because she can sense that Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) was on the verge of going herself.

“Rhaenys chooses to step in having said for the whole season that ‘we musn’t use dragons. Anything but using dragons.’ If this has to be done, if this action has to be taken, then it’s better if she does it than anybody else,'” she said on “Inside the Episode” following Sunday’s installment. “Ultimately, she is expendable, where Rhaenyra is not.”

Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys – known throughout Westeros as The Red Queen – were both killed during The Battle of Rook’s Rest after facing both Aemond and Vhagar and Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Sunfyre. Had it been just one or the other, it seemed plausible that Rhaenys could have pulled out a victory. Although Aegon and Sunfyre’s ultimate fate seems up in the air, the battle was really a much larger loss for Team Black than Team Green. Best expanded on that while on the official “House of the Dragon” podcast following Episode 4’s reveal.

“Objectively, they’re just losing their best guy, their best chess piece,” Best said.

She added that Rhaenys – who was the only real voice supporting Rhaenyra on her own council – has big shoes to fill. Not only because she was a veteran dragon rider, but because of her character.

“I mean, she’s an enlightened badass,” Best said. “That’s the thing that I love about her, that in spite of the fact that she sort of, you know, rises above everything with such incredible grace and style, she’s also just no-holds-barred cool as f–k.”

New episodes of “House of the Dragon” air Sundays on HBO and stream on Max.

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