‘House of The Dragon’ Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: The Rise of One-Eye

Harrenhal might be a drippy wreck of a place, but with his axe and his crazy, Daemon will rebuild it. The castle, which he now calls his command as we open House Of The Dragon Season 2 Episode 5, at least has stores enough to serve platters of duck and goose to the prince/king consort – “that last bit seems unnecessary,” he’s grown fond of saying – who is of course also being served strange visions of his first wife and frantic sex dreams, where his desires are gassed up by what seems to be a version of his dead mother Alyssa Targaryen. “Viseyrs wasn’t suited for the crown. But you, Daemon, you were made to wear it.” He touches her in the dream, but his hands come away bloody, and the reverie is broken by another Ser Simon Strong interruption. (“Is the duck not to your liking?” Simon Russell Beale is a treasure in these scenes.) It’s definitely doable to anticipate whatever weird and wild move Daemon makes next while still enjoying where he’s at, as his management of Harrenhal in real time intersects with these episodes of madness, because they really seem to be informing his decision-making. He has finally put some meat on that big season-long bone of contention. “The realm will suffer if Aemond One-Eye rules. When I take King’s Landing, Rhaenyra’s welcome to join me there and take her place by my side .”

Yes, in King’s Landing, Aemond will rule as regent in Aegon II’s stead. What a malicious blast of dragonfire from Vhagar didn’t quite accomplish, a power grab in the immediate vacuum will, buoyed by a set of massage facts about what went down at Rook’s Rest. “Behold! The traitor dragon Meleys! Slain by your king!” The smallfolk won’t learn of Aemond’s rule for some time. For now, they’re appalled by the sight of Meleys’s remains, and call it a black omen. They’re already starving, with everyday resources in King’s Landing growing more scarce. But as Aemond tucks that legend-revealing king’s dagger into his belt, and Alicent’s play for the top spot is rejected by the small council, he starts issuing executive orders like he had them on a prepared list.

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Aegon II does live. Barely. A maester surgical team cut him out of Aegon the Conqueror’s armor, stabilized his cracked limbs, placed many hot lettuce poultices on his roasted flesh, cleaned what’s left of one side of his face. But Aemond is not waiting. He’s making moves to shut down any gossip in the streets that might hurt Team Green, not by responding to the plight of the smallfolk, but by installing a new set of uncaring restrictions. Shut the gates of King’s Landing. Nobody in or out without Red Keep authorization. Alicent is horrified at her son, at what he’s somehow become. With his brother on his deathbed, Aemond’s taking the torch to every edict of Aegon’s brief time in the big sword chair. “Somebody cut down the fucking ratcatchers.”

Heavy is the heart that becomes Hand of the Queen. A grieving, drinking Lord Corlys will accept the position Rhaenyra has offered in the wake of his wife’s death, though it requires a pragmatic pep talk from his granddaughter. He’s not the only one who lost Rhaenys. The Queen Who Never Was died in battle and fire, an end befitting a heroic dragonrider, and one Baela is determined to follow. She will fight for the queen who did make it to the throne, and who is currently mustering every resource she can in the fight to keep it. We need you buddy, is Baela’s message to a brooding Corlys. But she herself will not be his heir. Super cool line alert, incoming: “I am blood and fire. Driftmark must pass to salt and sea.”

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Rhaenyra remains in reactive mode. She and the blacks must respond to the tactical loss and personal tragedy of Rook’s Rest. But she’s frustrated that as sovereign, she can’t take any direct action herself. The council still bickers, and would even wish to maneuver around her, though Rhaenyra shuts down their sexist assumptions about “the gentler flesh” not knowing of war. As people raised in peacetime, the men on her small council have seen as much war as she has. Still, Team Black’s inaction is concerning, especially with the cold and calculating Aemond now ruling Team Green. She does not yet know that Daemon’s come right out and stated his desire to be king. But Rhaenyra sends Ser Alfred to Harrenhal to treat with him. Is he raising her much-needed land army? Or is he in this for himself? The queen gives Alfred a message for her absentee husband. She’d very much like to finish their last conversation .

“If I must be supplicant to my own husband, what does that make me?” Rhaenyra is frustrated and feeling a little cornered, but at least with Daemon missing from Dragonstone, she has unfettered access to Mysaria’s insight. Pay attention to the mob, the whisperer urges the Black Queen. King’s Landing’s silent majority, forgotten for too long, and now completely ignored by Aemond and Team Green. There are still forces at work in this dance that are not as visible, but still as great as dragons. In other words, Mysaria says, “there is more than one way to fight a war.” And Rhaenyra sends her lady’s maid on a secret mission to King’s Landing – love a secret mission! – to make contact with a woman inside the locked down city. There are no dragon battle cataclysms in this episode of House of the Dragon . But the battle still rages. And you know One-Eye isn’t going to sleep on his next moves for war, even as his broken brother still draws short breaths.

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• Whoever rules in the Red Keep, Vhagar is still everybody in the realm’s biggest problem. While smallfolk and great house alike worry about incineration from above, Rhaenyra’s challenge is strategic. Her status as sovereign essentially removes her dragon from the field. And with Rhaenys dead, she’s running out of experienced dragonriders. Which is how a new idea is born. “We have no dearth of dragons,” Prince Jace observes. Vermithor. Silverwing. These beasts slumber at Dragonstone. So what if the blacks tapped into some Targaryen blood that also slumbers? People chemically available to be dragon-bonded, hidden in houses married into, or otherwise living away from direct Targaryen rule. Perhaps someone who introduced himself as Daemon’s bastard brother, with the blood of dragons running through his veins. Is the time of Ulf upon us?

• “Over the centuries, many and more armies have broken themselves against my bloody gate.” Amanda Collin, star of the gone-too-soon Raised by Wolves , is the picture of quietly assured power as Lady Jeyne Arryn greets Rhaena Targaryen at the Eyrie. Armies are powerless against the steep walls and protected approaches of House Arryn’s steep mountain stronghold. But like everybody else in Westeros, Lady Jeyne is concerned about the Vhagar Problem. She needs air support, and while Rhaena stands up for her queen, Jeyne Arryn does not seem happy with the baby dragons sent over by Rhaenyra.

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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