House of the Dragon Finale Recap: The Queens’ Gambit — Plus, Grade It!

If you spent House of the Dragon ’s Season 2 waiting to see Rhaenyra’s invasion of King’s Landing… you’ve got a bit more waiting ahead of you.

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The HBO series’ season-ender, which aired Sunday, puts all of the pieces in place for one of the franchise’s huge battle episodes. Tentative alliances are forged. Dragonriders are armored. Mud wrestling is mud-wrestled. And in the finale’s final moments, everyone and their mom gears up for a massive fight. But those dragon’s aren’t dancing again until Season 3.

Which is not to say that nothing major (like, MAJOR major) takes place. Read on for Episode 8’s highlights, then make sure to check out what director Geeta Vasant Patel had to say about helming the season’s final ep.

EVERYONE LOVES A LANNISTER LOOKING DUMB | Tyland Lannister meets with the Triarchy, as Aemond suggested in a previous episode, but the pirates are not into forging an alliance. “It seems you need us more than we need you,” one says. “Give us the Stepstones,” another suggests, and they’ll set up a little toll, no big deal, easy peasy. “You’ll drive up the price off basic goods,” Lannister shoots back. “It is better than starving, surely,” the pirate replies. And eventually, Lannister begrudgingly agrees: The Triarchy’s armada, under the command of #TeamGreen, will break up the Sea Snake’s blockade. Oh, and the pirates’ commander has to accompany the mission, or the sailors won’t follow orders.

When Tyland meets the commander, Lohar, he refuses to sail with “a man who cannot best me.” At what, you wonder? Mud wrestling, it turns out! Tyland takes a beating but winds up winning the match, which impresses Lohar. That night at dinner, Lohar formally agrees to sail at Lannister’s side. And, as a parting gift, he wants Tyland to impregnate his wives. “How… many wives do you have?” Lannister wonders shakily.

IS AEGON THELMA, OR LOUISE? | Larys shows up in Aegon’s room and asks the invalid king to “steel yourself” because he’s got bad news: Rhaeynra has three new dragonriders, and Aemond’s anger over learning of this development caused him to have Vhagar burn an entire town to the ground. Bottom line: They’ve gotta leave King’s Landing ASAP.

“So what was the f—king point in all this, then?” Aegon wonders wearily. Larys spells it out plainly: “The prince regent is going to kill you. You were in danger before, and now, he is thwarted, and he is angry. There is no telling what he will do.”

Aegon sees it differently: He’ll return to the Iron Throne and have Aemond taken prisoner when he comes back. Cool idea, bro, Larys says, but what happens when Rhaenyra arrives with her seven dragons? The Master of Whispers draws closer to the king’s bed as he says that he’s been squirreling away Harrenhal’s gold in the Iron Bank in Braavos: “We can live, well, and remain until what is coming has passed.” Larys paints a picture of a future in which Rhaenyra and Aemond destroy each other, paving the way for Aegon to make a triumphant return, beloved by the people. All Aegon can focus on, though, is his bodily ruin… until Larys hits the royal’s sweet spot by musing about the honorifics that the smallfolk may use when he comes home. Pretty soon, Aegon is dreaming along with him. “Aegon the Realm’s Delight,” the injured king says, awed.

Elsewhere in the Red Keep, Alicent raises an idea to Helaena in a quiet moment: “What would you think about leaving this place?” All the queen can say is “Where would I go?” before Aemond strides into the room and commands that his sister ride Dreamfyre into battle. She doesn’t want to. He doesn’t care. He tries to yank her out the door and to what he perceives as her duty, but Alicent intervenes. They argue, and it ends with him asking whether she truly wants their side to prevail. “Not like this,” she says. Then she beats a path to Grand Maester Orwyle, whom she asks for passage and discretion.

DAEMON STARTS TO SING THE SONG OF ICE AND FIRE | Ser Alfred Broome arrives at Harrenhal as an emissary from Rhaenyra, but he’s also there to hint to Daemon that he should be the one going for the Iron Throne. “Rhaenyra’s intentions are good, but what we need in this moment is a king,” Broome weasels. Daemon chuckles, but says nothing more. Hmm…

That night, Daemon wakes to find Alys sitting on the edge of his bed. “Do you never sleep, witch?” he wonders. “I’m going to the godswood,” she replies. He follows her out, and they talk about how he’s much more open to the world of omens and such than he was when he first arrived at Harrenhal. “Do you wish, then, to learn what is given to you?” she says, suddenly very serious. “All your life, you’ve sought to command your own fate. But today you are ready.” She has him put his hand on the face in the weirwood tree, where blood (or the tree’s red sap) flows over his arm. Instantly, he has a vision that moves through several images familiar to Game of Thrones viewers: the three-eyed crow, the Night King, Daenerys’ dragon eggs, and Daenerys herself, nude and flanked by baby dragons in the aftermath of Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre. (Because the shot is from behind Dany, we don’t see her face.)

After Daemon sees Rhaenyra wearing her crown while sitting the Iron Throne, everything goes black except for Helaena, who suddenly appears behind him. “It’s all a story, and you are but one part in it,” she says. “You know your part. You know what you must do.”

YASS, QUEEN | Then, suddenly, the action shifts to King’s Landing. It appears that Helaena was an active participant in the vision we just witnessed; when we see her on a balcony at the Red Keep, she’s clearly just said her piece to Daemon.

Aemond advances, ready to use the soft sell this time. He says Alicent doesn’t understand their “truer call” as dragonriders and tells her to join him at Harrenhal, where “we will lay waste to Daemon and his army.” She looks at him like he’s a caterpillar she can’t quite classify. “And if I refuse, will you burn me as you did Ageon?” she asks. He’s very agitated, saying that her lies are treason, but she doesn’t budge. “Aegon will be king again,” she says, clearly and calmly. “He’s yet to see victory. He sits on a wooden throne. And you? You’ll be dead. You are swallowed up in a god’s eye, and you are never seen again.” When he threatens to have her killed, her demeanor stays the same. “It wouldn’t change anything,” she says, matter-of-fact, and walks away.

DRAGON FAMILY DINNER | At Dragonstone, Ulf runs afoul of Jace by a) putting his feet up on the painted table, b) ruffling the prince’s hair, c) acting like there’s no difference between them. Hugh intervenes, making apologies for his fellow dragonseed, but Jace still threatens to have the barfly hanged if his “sloth” gets in the way of #TeamBlack’s victory.

Balea finds Jace pouting and lovingly tells him to stop sulking. “Do you believe you are the first noble heir who was not sired by his noble father?” she wonders. “Such is the way of the world.” Claim your greatness, dude, she advises.

At dinner, Rhaenyra salutes Hugh, Addam and Ulf and makes it clear that what they’re doing is a big deal — and comes with a certain level of fealty and responsibility. “Serve me well, and I will make you knights of the realm,” she promises. Ulf, of course, acts a fool. But the queen ignores it in order to make clear that they’re all flying out in two days’ time to “subdue” Oldtown and Lannisport in order to force Aemond to surrender.

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“You wish for us to kill innocents?” Baela asks, scandalized, and Hugh looks like he’s right there with her. Jace says it can’t be helped. “We must break the will of our enemy,” Rhaenyra adds. Soon after, Rhaenyra gets word that Ser Simon Strong is letting her know that Daemon’s raised his army, but treachery may be afoot. “I will not allow it,” she says.

COLE KEEPS IT REAL | Let’s take a little break from silver-haired drama… for some brunette drama. Somewhere on the road to probable death — aka on the march to fight — Gwayne finds out about Alicent and Ser Criston and holds a sword to his head. All Criston can do is confess that the former queen has been his “beacon” for a large part of his life and lament that “desire for women has brought me grief after grief.” See, he’s feeling some kind of way after witnessing mythical beasts lay waste to the world. “Dragons dance, and men are like dust under their feet,” he says, despondent. “We march now toward our annihilation. To die will be a kind of relief, don ‘t you think?” Quite the rallying speech, no?

DRAGON MOM AND DRAGON DAD REUNITE | OK, back to Rhaenyra and Daemon. She flies Syrax to Harrenhal, where Ser Simon is very concerned that treachery is afoot. They enter the great hall, where a huge number of men are gathered; all of them eye her, then look up at Syrax, perched on the open ruins of the ceiling. Daemon’s entry, however, causes a different reaction. The men fall in line as he passes, immediately standing at attention. He winds up standing directly in front of his wife. (Slash niece. #NeverForget)

They make small talk, and he preens that the men are “sworn to me, and not a moment too soon.” She steps back a bit and raises her voice: “And to whom are you sworn?” The rubber has hit the road, Daemon, my friend! He switches to High Valyrian as he whispers to her about what his vision showed him. “The war is just the beginning. Winter is coming, with darkness and doom,” he says. The realm’s only hope is a leader to unite it… “and my brother chose you,” he says in English, kneeling before her and bowing his head.

As she looks kinda shocked, he goes on. “You are the true queen, Rhaenyra, first of her name, protector of the realm. I am meant to serve you, and all of these with me, until death or the end of our story.” Well, that is NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. The queen’s face says something similar, only in a more dignified, royal, high cheekboned way. Anyway, all of the men, including the treasonous Ser Alfred, kneel behind Daemon. Rhaenyra grabs his hand and, in High Valyrian, says, “Leave me again at your peril.” It’s not said jokingly. “I could not. I have tried,” he replies in High Valyrian. Then, in English, he adds, “my queen.”

Then he addresses the men, getting them all riled up. “We fight for our queen!” Daemon shouts, and there’s a lot of testosteroney yelling from the crow. Rhaenyra’s face, as she watches it all, is hard to read.

‘I WILL CONTINUE AS I BEGAN: ALONE’ | Alyn answers Corlys’ summons in the shipyard for what turns into the world’s worst father-son convo. Papa Velaryon gives the younger man some advice about how to be a better first mate, but it lands badly. “You want to help me? Is this the help you offer after all these years? A reminder to be grateful?” Alyn wonders. Corlys tries to end the conversation there, but the band-aid has been ripped asunder, buddy boy, and Alyn says his pops is going to LISTEN. “Do you know what it was like for us, to grow up fatherless?” he asks. “Do you know what hunger does to a boy? What grief does, or shame?” He’s angry that Corlys ignored him for as long as his heirs lived, and is only paying attention to his other two sons now because everyone else is gone. “I am an honorable man, and I will serve you because I must. But if it is all the same, I will decline any offers of help,” Alyn spits. “If I survive this war, I will continue as I began: alone.” Ouch . And, deserved .

QUEEN CHAT, TAKE TWO | That night, there’s a knock at the doors to Rhaenyra’s bedroom. She’s led to her outer chambers, where she’s shocked to see Alicent standing there. “I had to see you,” Alicent says, quickly adding that only the guard who accompanied her knows she is there. Rhaenyra dismisses her guards but is wary as her former best friend starts talking about how she’s resented Rhaenyra for knowing what she wanted from a young age, while Alicent “didn’t know what I wanted, only what was expected of me.” As she monologues, she mentions having a lover — causing Rhaenyra to scoff about how the high and mighty have fallen — and Alicent quickly reminds her that she’s had lovers, too. “Yes, but you alone make virtue your banner,” the black queen responds.

Moving on! Alicent’s time in the woods has given her clarity, she continues, and now she knows what she wants: To live, not to rule, and “to be free of all of this endless plotting and striving.” Specifically, she wants to take Helaena and little Jaehaera and live the rest of their lives, incognito and in peace. Rhaenyra laughs, because NOW Alicent wants to get out of the game that she basically set in motion? “I did only what I thought your father wanted,” Alicent says, but Rhaenyra’s not inclined for softness or forgiveness: “Did you come here thinking you’d be absolved?” she asks incredulously.

There’s more talk about how Viserys never stopped loving Aemma, but then they get down to the details of Alicent’s plan. When Aemond flies to meet Cole in the Riverlands, she says, Helaena will be the ruling authority in King’s Landing. Alicent will have her have the guards put down their weapons and open the gates. “We will shed no blood,” she says. “You will enter as a conqueror” and then end the fighting. But she’s barely finished when Rhaenyra laughs even harder… but do I detect a little bit of consideration under her mocking tone?

“What of Aegon?” Rhaenrya asks, growing incensed as Alicent explains that, given his maiming, she thinks she can get him to bend the knee. This is a bridge too far, and Rhaenyra is tearful but resolute as she points out that this is a fantasy scenario: “If I am to take the throne, I must put an end to the opposition. I must take Aegon’s head, and I must do it for all to see. You know this. However you may try to evade it, you know this.” Eventually, it comes down to Rhaeynra demanding to know whether Alicent is willing to send Aegon to his death in order to end the war. “Will you shrink from what you set out to do, or will you see it through and make your sacrifice? A son for a son,” Rhaenyra says. Alicent thinks deeply, cries, and then gives a tiny nod: She’s in.

The plan: Rhaenyra lets Alicent go, to set things in motion, then Rhaenyra will fly to the Red Keep in three days’ time. “History will paint you a villain,” Rhaenyra warns her. “Let them think what they must,” Alicent replies. She waxes a bit about living and dying free, then throws up a hail mary: Will Rhaenyra come with her? The black queen says her path was “decided for me long ago,” so that’s a no. Then Rhaenyra bids her go, and Alicent does.

JACKPOT! | Remember how Rhaena is on her own little dragon walkabout? Well, she’s not doing well, roaming the moors and nearly dying of hunger and thirst. But then she sees what she’s been seeking: a dragon circling in the distance. And eventually, she comes face to face with it. It screams at her.

READY FOR BATTLE | And then all that’s left is to watch everyone get ready for even more war. Hugh, Ulf and Addam don their dragonriding leathers and prepare to fly. Corlys and Alyn ride in a boat. Daemon surveys his troops. Alicent walks. Rhaenyra mulls. Otto — oh hey, Otto! — appears for the first time since he left King’s Landing, and he appears to be a prisoner held in some kind of cell or cage. Finally, Larys and Aegon ride in the back of a poultry cart, making their clandestine escape from the capital.

Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Grade it, as well as Season 2 as a whole, via the polls below. Then hit the comments with all of your thoughts, feelings and Season 3 predictions!

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