'House of the Dragon' Season 2, Episode 3 Reactions | Talk the Thrones
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Hello and welcome to Talk the Thrones. We are here to break down the third episode of the second season of House of the Dragon. I am here with Ringer Senior Staff Writer Joanna Robinson. I'm Chris Ryan, by the way. And we are also here with the Harrenhal Mildew Inspector herself.

Mallory Rubin. Guys, before we get into the episode, just a little bit of admin. There's another live show coming up. I will tragically not be taking part. You're invited. Well, maybe I will. But it's going to be at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles. It's the Ringerverse crew. So House of R, Midnight Boys, Mid Edition, etc. And that's going to be at the El Rey on July 17th. Go to theringer.com slash events or the El Rey website for tickets. Yeah.

Come hang. Our last show, the last show we did this week was amazing. It was awesome. What a joy. Incredible. Thanks everybody for coming out. Thank you. Joanna Robinson. Chris Ryan. House of the Dragon, episode three, second season. Yeah. New locations. Yes. New characters. Yes. Dragon patrols. Yes. And a secret meeting in a sept. Yes.

Holy shit. Holy shit. That's my question. I know. We have a lot to talk about today. I took my cue from Agon, as I think we all should, and I've hired my three favorite bros to join the staff here today. Did you guys add that decapitated toddler to the opening credits like I asked you to? Great stuff. Thanks, guys.

Mal, what's like the newspaper comes out on Monday? What's the headline about House of the Dragon? Because there's no other news. I think the headline is how much you loved this episode. Going to focus on that, certainly. I loved it. You loved it. We are so excited to just like, Joe, we're going to lean back today. Oh, yeah. We're kicking up our feet. We're relaxing. Oh, you're letting me cook? Yeah. It's time for CR to kick cooking with Dragonfire. But the theme

of the episode, which we're going to talk about a lot today, is this idea that we heard from Simon Strong. We hear it from Renice to Rhaenyra. We hear it from Rhaenyra and Alicent. Sin begets sin. Is it too late? Can you even remember where this war that is about to embroil everyone and everything even started? I know. Yeah. Let's recap it all, and then we can break it down. So let's get into the recap. Can't wait. Let's do it.

Alrighty, first off, we meet the Brackens in the Blackwoods. Two families standing out in a meadow at what will become the site of the burning mill, which I learned about last week. Genuinely thrilling. These two Riverlands families have squabbles that predate the Greens and the Blacks, but have taken up arms for opposite sides of that cause just the same. At the standing room-only Eric and Eric funeral... That's not nice, Chris.

It's not, but neither is what they did to one another. Rhaenys counsels Rhaenyra and urges her to find a non-nuclear solution to the approaching civil war. In King's Landing, Kristen Cole has lost the locker room. Did he ever have it?

Just as he takes on more responsibility as Aegon's Hand of the King. In his first small council meeting in the new gig, he calls his own number and convinces Aegon a dragon-free raid of Harrenhal will end the war quickly. Is the entire Talk to Thrones episode today about Kristen's new haircut? Because if not, it shouldn't be. But what about the necklace? You haven't talked about the...

It's the necklace that sets the whole outfit. It really is. Westerosi linked in is abuzz with the hottest job in the realm, Master of Whispers. Rhaenyra drafts Mysaria and Aegon nabs Larys, both of whom seem born to do it. Rhaenyra is doing a lot of chess piece moving. She sends Rhaena, her stepdaughter, off to points abroad. And cousin. Off to points abroad with her children and her dragon eggs because if all this goes sideways, someone's got to continue the family business.

Reyna is initially bummed about this since her sister gets to be a one-woman air force for the blacks, but comes to recognize the importance of her role. What this show really needed, apparently, was a dark and stormy night, and that's what Harrenhal provides. Damon arrives on Caraxes.

And finds an incinerated former fortress occupied by Sir Simon Strong, who you mentioned. Basically the de facto landlord super of the whole spot. And Waiting for Damon is a plate of aged venison, some haterade about Lara Strong. No red currents, though. Like,

A travesty. No red rain. I'm devastating. I mean, you're such a Top Chef enthusiast. As must have it, you are. It's a fly chain. It's just getting pushed. The blockade is hurting everyone. There's also a mysterious woman who will later spend some time in Damon's dreams. Back on King's Landing, Kristen got a Westerosi take on the George Clooney Caesar. And he musters what army he can to march on the Riverlands. He is joined by a new cast member, our beloved Freddie Fox from Slow Horses, playing Allison's brother Gawain. He seems like a bit of a prick.

But Baelish dragons scare some straight. Definitely scares them into needing some new small clothes. Rhaenyra has got opinions coming out of her fucking ears in this one, with a bunch of guys telling her to fight and flight. She's starting to take Rhaenys' suggestion of peace talks more seriously. With her lover on the march to war, Alicent is back at King's Landing chatting with her daughter, Helaena, who is...

the murder of her child in a pretty unique way. Big thing to know here is that Helena forgives Allison for boning the head bodyguard. Also has a bunch of crickets in cages. Yes. Playing with bugs. There's a lot of compare and contrast work, as Mal alluded to, being done in this episode. Current and past royalty getting juxtaposed. Rhaenyra and her great-grandfather.

Jaehaerys, the Conciliator. And the old king. Aegon and the first king of the Seven Kingdoms, Aegon the Conqueror, is wearing his armor. Speaking of inheritances, we have a bastard! Or at least someone who claims to be one. We meet Ulf, a guy who likes to tell stories for pints. He claims to be the bastard son of Baelon the Brave.

Brother to Daemon and Viserys' uncle to Rhaenyra and the wettest whistle in the Seven Kingdoms. Seems like an amazing hang. Something tells me this guy is going to be important. You know what else is important? Full frontal male nudity.

Representation matters. We get an absolutely startling view of a resplendent Amon Targaryen after his petting session with his mother figure concubine Sylvie is broken up by his drunk king brother Aegon. You didn't mention the blowjob, Cam. Shame on you. That's true, I'm sorry. And do you think this is why they call him Aemond One-Eye?

Damon has a dream where he is told he will die at Harrenhal's Weirwood Tree by the strange woman who was haunting the dinner table earlier that evening. You love to have that kind of clarity in life. Absolutely. Very chill exchange. A vision board. Knowing she needs to do something before shit literally goes up in flames, Rhaenyra and Mysaria figure out a way for her to meet Alicent and talk turkey to...

She finds the Dowager Queen lighting candles for the dead, and they have a staggering encounter where they realize both of them are right and wrong, and it is tragically too late for peace. And that is the recap. Incredible work, CR. Thank you. As per usual. Does that count as Mallory hitting her requisite...

I have a feeling Mal's going to keep it rolling. Let's just start here. We usually get right into plot points and stuff like that. This is my favorite episode of the series so far. Of the entire series. Of the entire series so far. Tell us why. It was written by a guy named David Hancock, who has done work on The Crown in the past. And it occurred to me that I need this show to be The Crown with dragons.

That is a really good outcome for this thing. I thought the dialogue was crackling. I thought the staging was more lively and lived in and naturalistic. I thought even things like small council meetings that we've been in over and over and over again, like the one between

the greens where Alicent is kind of like looking out of the corner of her eye at Kristen. And then she's looking down at Aemon and then she's like looking at Aegon. It's like you could feel all the cross currents of electricity going on in that table. We're going to talk about a bunch of different scenes, but I just wanted to say that

Even taking out the incredible last scene, I thought this was an amazing episode, and then it just peaks with something that I don't think we knew was coming. No. Right? Because it's not in the books at all. Okay, so... This big undercover mission. Should we talk about the last sequence? Do you want to talk a little bit about just the overall quality of the episode? Yeah, I mean, I loved this episode. It's my favorite. I'm going to wait before I declare it my favorite of the series, but it's definitely my favorite of the season so far. And I do think it's interesting...

I agree with you. Even taking out that last part, it still would be my favorite. But we've been talking for the last couple weeks about these big book reader moments, blood and cheese, Cargill twins, and these big action pieces that the show was trying to hit at the end of the episode to leave you with this like dun-dun-dun feeling. Yeah.

I love that this ended with this conversation and something that the book readers did not know was coming. I thought it was incredible and compelling and left me more excited and agitated and mesmerized than the big book reader events that I was expecting in one and two. What do you think, Mallory? I think it also is an episode that

You feel the confidence and command of the plan, right? There's like what works so well inside of this episode in a vacuum, but even hearing you talk about how the council scenes were so riveting to you, like we talked last week about how the fissures inside of each faction were just as important, fissures,

as the divide between the greens and the blacks. You feel right away how true that is in an episode like this. You can't have, this is something that the three of us have been talking about a lot since we had the pleasure of watching this wonderful episode together, you can't have a scene like Alicent and Rhaenyra at the Sept ultimately work as well as it did

if we didn't understand their history together, which was like, for a lot of viewers, I think it's fair to say the mileage varied on how successful the structure of season one was in terms of the cash changeover, the time jumps, et cetera. But if you hung with it,

then this is going to be an incredibly rewarding payoff because you understand the history for the families, for the realm, but also for each of those people inside of those moments and those conversations. Everything they're bringing is that candle lighting. Even those other moments, we talked about this in previous weeks, but Blood and Cheese and The Cargo Bowl both, I think, suffered a bit from the way the season one was paced in that we didn't get more time with...

I don't know how much more time we wanted with Jaharis, but we didn't get more time with him. We didn't get more time with the cargo team. I wanted to see him in Thailand. What's your favorite episode of Bluey, man? Just lay it out there for me. Let's get that pony ride. Yeah, are you a baseball enthusiast? This might come in handy later. So I think those, for me, suffered a little bit so that we could get this.

like, masterpiece. It was an incredible scene, so let's just break it down. So, like you said, Joe, a couple of the things that have happened this season, Cargill's, like, we've... You've known it was coming if you were readers of the text, right? What was your reaction when...

When it becomes apparent, like, Rhaenyra's going to get into this sept and she's dressed up as this... I just lost my mind. Rhaenyra and her step in impersonating a septa and septum? Septa Rhaenyra is one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. Honestly, she was making it work. Oh, my God. Emma's face is just carrying everything up all the sleeves. When Mysaria is like, hey, here's the plan, I was like, they're not really going to do this, are they? And then they did it. And I think...

A big piece of this, and this is something that we talked to Ryan Condal about in our series preview podcast on House of R, what a great podcast, was this idea that, you know...

we love watching Emma Darcy and Olivia Cooke together, or we love watching Emma Darcy and Matt Smith together. And when the plot pulls them apart, what do you as a showrunner do, you know, with that chemistry that you found? Like, how do you figure out how to get them back together? And he was basically like, we've got some knives up our sleeves, we'll see. And this is like, yeah, exactly. He didn't say that, but like, this is one of those moments where it's like, there's a version of this story where we don't see Rhaenyra and Alicent together.

in a room together this season, you know, possibly, who's to say? And like the fact that they engineered this moment to make that happen, to give us these two actors who work so well together and these two characters who care about making a connection together,

I don't care at all that this isn't in the book. And in fact, something that Mallory and I have talked about a lot is this idea that in this point in the book, Rhaenyra is a bit off the board in terms of, and like her, the Black Council was certainly like trying to make that official in this episode. They're like, Mallory is,

secrete you away. We'll be a distraction. You go take a break. But there's like a couple passages in the book where they mention her being so broken by what happened with Luke, like who can blame her? But it's all like quite...

the way they talk about it. Like, here's one. The death of her son, Lucerys, had been a crushing blow to a woman already broken by pregnancy, labor, and stillbirth. And they're just basically like, Rhaenyra's not involved. And so a couple things they've done already, Rhaenyra looking for Luke's body is one, and then this

Mission Impossible, you know, to King's Landing is another, is a way to keep Rhaenyra in the plot and active. But from the point of view of her counsel, she's absent. Yes. I love that aspect of it specifically because this episode...

We're gonna talk in a few minutes about the sin begets sin idea more, but all of that falls under the umbrella of point of view and perspective. And so to put Alison and Runeira in this setting that ports us back to when maybe they were able to, if not see the world exactly the same way, at least share in a varnished fashion their perspective with each other. You're my confidant. You're the person I can go to. Alison, I'm gonna bring you, Runeira, here and teach you how to pray, teach you how to find some peace and closeness.

And this, for Rhaenyra, is what action looks like in a way that nobody else would really understand, to Jo's point. And that fits the character so well because think of how she received the news that they had usurped the throne at the end of season one and that harrowing fight with Daemon who wanted to go to war, who just like her counselors who were still present at Dragonstone was advocating the dragon math in the action and Rhaenyra was talking about the Song of Ice and Fire, which will come up again momentarily here. And

the fact that she had a different pledge that she had to carry. So there are these aspects of the burden, and we think of Alicent in particular as a character who speaks often of duty. And so for them to be sitting there together, each carrying this mission inside of them, Rhaenyra not having given up yet,

not actually having accepted that this terrible fate has to befall all of them. I'm making my points here. Like, not giving up on peace and everything, but also being like, by the way, you're a usurper and you stole my inheritance. I've begun that. It's a good note. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a good note. I think the line that... Even holding the knife, right? Yeah, it was so awesome because it was like they were basically like... Allison slashed her with the dagger. Yeah. Like everything ports us back. Everything in that scene takes us back to a memory. We were talking about this earlier, but I don't think it's a coincidence that Millie Alcott, who played young Rhaenyra, is in this episode, even though she's in Daemon's storyline. That's just reminding of...

us of Rhaenyra as a girl. But then also that line that she says in this exchange, my dragons are restless, they smell battle. Like we've seen Seasmoke like cooing and cawing off the coast of Dragonstone. Lonely. But also she

she's talking about the men around her. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Damon's off conquering a castle as we speak. He's trying to get that thing insulated. It's going to be tough. Once the mold gets in, it's really tough. It's tough. Let me ask you about the Song of Ice and Fire, which is basically the,

The thing that comes up at the end of their scene, I thought that was amazingly well played because there are certain times in shows, but specifically in Thrones where you think a prophecy is going to make this huge difference or people understanding the mythology that they're living in would make this huge difference to their actual actions and it turns out it doesn't. It turns out Alison's kind of like,

yeah, but it's too late. The ball's rolling downhill. Or does she? My reading of that was that Allison...

believes Rhaenyra and believes that she may have gotten the Aegon part wrong, but is also like, too much blood's been spilled since that moment for us to just be like, hey guys, actually misread that dream. Let's run it back. The way that Olivia Cooke choked out the Conqueror. The Conqueror. I never, I don't know about you, I never thought we would get this moment. Oh no. Ever. Not just them being together in this exact point of the story like this, but the...

Acknowledgement that this great misunderstanding is at the heart of this. And we've been talking about this a lot on House of R, and I think we share the same perspective on this. Because I think some fans of House of the Dragon were unhappy with the end of episode eight of season one and the idea that the dance would, well, I think part of what this episode is trying to tell us is it doesn't hinge on any one thing, which again, we'll talk about more, but that the dance hinged in part at least on a misunderstanding of something that an adult and decrepit woman

wilting, dying Viserys said as he... Viserys continues to catch strays from you. Lofted off in a sort of coil. The man is well dead. Keep your house in order, Viserys, and we don't have to dance. That's all. But to make it active text, to make it something that the characters then have to confront is incredibly dramatically compelling. And this, much like Aang,

Amen and Veigar, like the lack of control. It feels all of a piece with the theme, the hubris of control, which we're going to keep coming back to because it is a central thesis of the show. And this idea that mistakes aren't just dramatic conveniences when you're scripting an episode of TV. They're human. And the characters who are positioned as closer to gods than all of the other figures in the world make mistakes just like everybody else. And that heightens the tragedy. We've been talking about this about

The people who are upset that these have been like crazy, wacky misunderstandings, you know, we prefer to start our characters in this very human place. It's very human for Alicent to have had this misunderstanding and then watch her sort of scrabble herself back in the corner of just sort of doubling down. Right. Does it matter that I made that mistake? Like, it's too late, Rhaenyra. Well, okay. You know? And like, I don't think that Alicent is done processing this.

But I think the vibe from this conversation is like, whether or not I made a mistake, these mistakes compound and compound and compound. Yes. And so it can start as a mistake, but, you know, Eamon might have mistakenly lost control of Vhagar at the end of last season, but what will he do on Vhagar next? Can you tell people that? Yeah. Other than Sylvie? The idea that she's going back and is going to write it at all.

at all at King's Landing, even though it's highly unlikely. - Did you have a favorite part of that interaction? - Actually I did, which was the almost childlike fun that Emma was having as that character

When they were like, I guess I'd kill you first, though. I started badly. I started poorly. That was great. I started badly. That was like kind of a funny teenager thing to say in that circumstance. And in contrast with, I think Olivia Cooke kind of lets out a laugh.

Where she's just like, what are you doing? Like, she's almost like, I can't believe this. She's astonished by what happened. And that's what I was kind of talking about with this episode as a whole. It's like, there's weird stuff happening in this episode where it's like, these people are actually acting a little bit more like people and a little less like...

archetypes and like, here we are and I'm in my corset and the dragon. It's like, no, it's like, this is really weird. You got a knife to me but I actually like you and we're trying to figure this out. And they're both actively in mourning and so that makes it such a fitting setting too because what are you doing there? You're lighting the candles for the dead and they're mourning their relationship and their friendship and everything that was shattered. Of being mothers. Yeah, of being mothers. And it's so funny because, not funny, it's kind of sad. Hilarious episode. That's the only place she can find

and that Rhaenyra knows that Alicent will be alone is giving a shit about anybody who's died because no one else is going to go light candles with her. Well, and that was the other, I think, really palpable theme in this episode is the loneliness and the isolation. That's what made that sea smoke moment. Like, I was like on the verge of tears when it's like, maybe he's lonely because remember Laena and Viserys? Oh, yeah. Even dragons get lonely. And it's just like, you would... And Rhaenyra, like...

Damon's gone. Yeah, exactly. And the kids are heading to the Vale. Like, Jace is still there. Bail is still there. Rhaenyra's there. Mysaria, come on in. We have people around us, but, like, do you have comfort and understanding? Yeah.

Do you have companionship that you can rely on? And so, yeah, it's an episode about solitude. And the idea that dragons can get lonely has always struck me as like, I don't know, so deeply profound. Because again, it connects to their idea of power. And these characters are all striving to attain power, to hold on to it. I just have to tell you, I cannot get the image of Seasmoke doom-scrolling and Blood wearing pajamas and being like, oh...

I'm going to get delivery. Stroking his goatee. I definitely think, yeah, Sea Smoke is more of a TikTok guy. Watching cat videos. An IG Reels guy. Probably more because they want to eat the cat, not because they think it's cute. Sorry about that. Why would you do that? Why would you say that? At a table of cat lovers. Why? Well, I just want to say, I think one thing that you're responding to, or certainly something I responded to, like Mal just said, like, oh yeah, real funny episode. But like, it is. Because Freddie Fox is here. Yeah. Tom Bell.

Tom Bennett is here. Simon Russell Beal is here. These are all incredible, iconic. It's a very witty episode. But like it's,

And this is something, again, Condal talked to us about, about intentionally casting those kinds of actors who can inject humor into something that's getting darker and kids are losing their heads. Things are getting worse and worse and worse. It had like Dinklage and Charles Dance vibes. Yeah, exactly. I can read this stuff backwards. Let's actually make it sing a little bit. Okay, so you've mentioned a couple times, Mal, the Simba gets Sim thing. Yes. That was a

Sir Simon Strong quote. Yes. Everyone forgets or differs on who struck first. All that matters is who strikes hardest.

So we've got the Blackwoods and the Brackens, which almost immediately starts getting conflated as like, well, actually they were beefing before that. This goes back years, whatever. Rhaenyra and Rhaenys' synopsis of the fight so far, where Rhaenys is doing this really effective thing of being like, was it, or was it this, or was it that? It was a good recap of the series so far. And is it going to matter? They will not even remember what it was that began the war in the first place. Yeah, and then Alyson...

Alyson and Rhaenyra basically do the same thing. Yeah, it's too late. Rhaenyra talked Rhaenyra into the idea of peace, but as soon as they sit down, the only thing it is is airing of grievances. I loved this. Like, I feel like a broken record for returning to that Viserys quote from the series premiere so often, but...

Watching this episode, this was not just the theme of this episode, it's like, this is the theme of the series. This is the theme of the dance. This is what the creators are interested in interrogating. When Viserys told Rhaenyra that he was making her heir and brought her, where were they standing? In front of the skull of Balerion the Black Dread. And he said the idea that we control dragons is an illusion.

Their empowerment should never have trifled with one that brought Valyria its doom. If we don't mind our histories, it will do the same to us. Are any of these characters minding their histories? Their ancient history? Their recent history? The reason that Burning Mill is so wonderful not only as a starting point for this episode. That's the first scene where the Brackens. Yes, the Brackens and the Blackwoods. It hits on a lot of what we've been talking about the prior two weeks. The map is wider. We're going to meet new houses. We're going to be elsewhere in the world. We're going to talk more about the Riverlands later today.

But it hits that theme by taking us outside of just the royal bed chambers or the halls of power in Dragonstone and King's Landing. And it reminds us how true this is for human beings, right? Like the Blackwoods and the Brackens who are standing in front of that mill on that field by those boundary stones don't remember why the first members of their respective houses started feuding centuries ago. They just know. No one remembers.

They just know that they're supposed to hate each other. And that's actually more scary. The cattle grazing thing is, you know. Yeah, you got to put those bellies. Do it on your own grass. Don't move those battery stones. Do it on your own grass. I don't know if you've seen Yellowstone, but that doesn't come up with a lot of times. First of all, how dare you? You do know that I've seen Yellowstone, and that I'm happy to head to the Dutton Ranch with you whenever you'd like. But I love this idea when we think of control, because there's the hubris of control, but the allicent moment saying it's too late is almost the opposite.

It's almost like conceding when you don't need to. That it's too late to try to control or fix anything. And if like, well, she and Otto have had that moment several times where it's just like, it's going to come to war. It's going to come to violence. I know, but what flavor? And remember Otto back in episode five of season one saying basically like, if you don't prep Aegon's rule, then you're going to have to cleave to Rhaenyra's mercy. And here is Rhaenyra in front of her giving her that chance. And she can't allow herself to take it, which is just devastating.

And like if the characters don't, it's not even a question of remembering so much as agreeing, right? For every person, the answer to when did the dance start, to when did the feuding between the Brackens and the Blackwoods start is going to be different. And so if you can't agree and you don't think you have to say sorry,

And you can't concede to yourself or to other people that maybe you're not in control of your dragon. Maybe you're not in control of the people that you would claim to like rule or lead. At a certain point, the only thing you really understand is that you're afraid to lose the power that you gained or that you think you should be able to.

And there's no way to move forward from that. I think such a telling moment in that exchange between Alicent and Rhaenyra is when Alicent says her father has left the castle. And this is the second time we've heard her say it because Otto has been fired twice from the castle. And so this idea, Alicent feels so vulnerable, right? Like...

Otto getting fired, Kristen going off to war, like that idea of the ephemeral nature of power for her and how she really feels like she needs to cloak herself in it or else what? Otto has been whispering in her ears for years like they're going to kill your kids. They're going to kill you. You're a threat. It's curtains for you. Whereas we know Rhaenyra would not do that to Alicent. But she's

operating with all of these other voices in her head. And it's just, it's a tragedy to watch her scrabble back into this position when she knows she's wrong and it's too late. Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things I thought this episode really hammered, which I really appreciated, was this sort of, the unwritten nuclear arms treaty that I didn't really kind of grasp, I think. Because I think, you know, you have Game of Thrones,

When the dragons are born, it's this hugely significant moment because they've been extinct for a long time, right? And the dragons, like, when they get brought out on Game of Thrones, it's a big deal. House of the Dragon kind of flips that, and it's like, dragons are around, dragons are a reality, these people control, quote-unquote, dragons, or these people don't, or whatever. But this was an episode where I thought they actually reckoned with, like, everybody thinks that this is just going to be dragon-on-dragon warfare, and perhaps it will come to that. Yep. But...

We haven't gotten there yet. We have to do everything we can to stop that. So you've got all these people in small council meetings urging their kings or queens to say, hey, just send the dragon. Let's wrap this up tomorrow. And they're like, as soon as we pull that trigger, they're going to pull their trigger too, and we get into fail safe. So, Jo, what did you think of the sort of

the Oppenheimer aspects of this. I love that. I mean, there's a couple things that I was thinking of. I was thinking of, well, like season one, Rhaenyra and how far she's come from who she was when she was a kid. And, you know, they're asking Viserys, like, why don't you just send your dragons here or there? Why don't you send us to the Stepstones? Like, you've got dragon riders, use us. You know, and Viserys is counseling like,

no, we can't do that, right? It isn't that simple, Rhaenyra. It would be a show of force. Like, once you do that, it's over. And the fact that Rhaenyra has absorbed that lesson, but Daemon certainly hasn't, is like an interesting case study in the two of them. But then you think further back...

forgive me as I invoke season seven of Game of Thrones, but you have to think about Daenerys when she comes, you know, when she's there in Dragonstone and she has her council with her and it's like, Olenna and Ellaria and Tyrion's there. And Tyrion does not want to take the dragons to King's Landing because he's like, my sister's there. I've got family there. I care about that. Let's not do that. Daenerys blows a huge advantage there.

that she has, opting not to take the dragons immediately to King's Landing. So that was not the move there. She would have done well to listen to Olenna to tell her to be a dragon, right? Everyone should have listened to Olenna. But that fear of, I do not want to be the Queen of Ashes, is what Daenerys says in that scene. Right? And Rhaenyra has...

Even better cause than Daenerys to not want to torch King's Landing. Right, because she has a possession of the knowledge of the prophecy. She has knowledge of the prophecy, but also, I think, crucially...

I mean, she cares about Helena, I would say. She cares about Alicent. Like, she does not want to destroy... Aegon, she doesn't give a shit about. Aemon, she's already asked for his head, I'm sure. But there are people in King's Landing that she does not want to destroy. Well, there's also, like, Game of Thrones started in such far-flung places, like north across the sea, south with King's Landing. Yeah. This is much more compressed. Yeah.

Like these people are not that far away from where they're doing patrols. Kings Landing and Dragonstone are... To your point, it's like if you burn Kings Landing or burn Dragonstone, you're burning like the second city over basically. It's not like you're like, oh, we can just go back up north and like we've taken care of this. It's like, no, you're talking about like your neighbors essentially. Yeah. I thought maybe we could keep on the military tip here. Sure. I love military talk. I know. Thank you. Well, or strategic. Strategic.

talk because I think casual viewers will have heard the word Harrenhal. They remember maybe it pops up in Game of Thrones and it pops up heavy. But I've never seen it look like this, I don't think. Have I?

I mean, we've seen it. We were there in season one. But we haven't seen it in the rain, in the dark. We haven't dined on that aged venison. Yeah, all the nooks and crannies. The not-poisoned peas. I love a haunted mansion. I hope they never shoot this place in daylight again. This was just fantastic. It was an awesome sequence, and I thought it was one of those things in a show where you're like, I didn't know I needed this until it happened. I didn't know I needed, like, a...

is this place kind of like maybe beyond reality a little bit or like the land that time forgot kind of? Yes. But Harrenhal and specifically the Riverlands, which is where the Bracken and Blackwood fight happens, I thought maybe for our viewers who are not super well-versed in the text, giving us an understanding of where this is and why this is such a crucial place

the whole of Game of Thrones, but specifically for House of the Dragon. - You wanna zoom out and then in? - Yeah, let's do that. Okay, so let's zoom out, which is that at the top of the map is the North, that we know, right?

Below that is the veil. And Jace came back to Rhaenyra and says, guess what? I got the north. I got the veil. We got both of those things. We're done. Lady Jeyne Arryn, quickly, in case she doesn't come up again today. Lady Jeyne Arryn, when we talk about negotiators and master negotiators saying, yeah, sure, I'll agree. Bring me a dragon. Give me a dragon. Un-

But Rhaenyra's like, here's two baby dragons. Tyraxes and Stormclaw. Stormclaw. But do you think Jyn Errand was like, send me two infant dragons and a clutch of eggs? No. Hatching, I think, was used a little liberally here because there were at least five dudes carrying Tyraxes' crate. At least. Only two for Stormclaw. The North Vale. Yeah.

The Riverlands and then the Crownlands. And the Crownlands, as you mentioned, this is where King's Landing and Dragonstone are super close to each other. And Casterly is down there too? Casterly's down lower. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the idea that Jace has secured armies in the north and the Vale, but you got to get through the Riverlands to get down to King's Landing. And the Riverlands is full of what? Rivers. And there are castles perched on those rivers and you can't just...

through the Riverlands without getting the consent of all the people who live in the Riverlands. So strategically, and this is true in Game of Thrones, and it is true now, strategically it's very important to make nice with, like, let's say, the Freys. I don't want to marry the Freys, girl. The Freys who live with the twins. You can't cross the Green Fork without making nice with them, so you have to figure it all out. A lot of taxes being paid here.

paid here. Exactly. And why it's so complicated, we'll talk about Harrenhal. Why it's so complicated, we'll talk about Harrenhal in a second, but like the Tullys who get a mention here and we know very well from Game of Thrones, the Tullys, give me a second, the Tullys are the like the lords of the Riverlands, even though Harrenhal is the biggest castle. Okay. They're in charge, but they're

Lord is ancient. Was ancient at the Council of 101, which is what we saw in the prologue. And they're like, this guy is barely animated. He needs some image rehab assistance.

Because Iron Rod is like, he couldn't control his cock in a cunny. That's right. And then Simon is like, he can't seal his bowels. He can't seal his bowels. These are the first things that people think to say about Grover Dalton. This guy Grover and his kin, Elmo and Kermit, and that's all real that George R.R. Martin wrote in a book. Yes, it's true. It is correct.

Grover, Elmo, and Kermit Tully. Did he not think that this book was going to be a big deal or anything? Or is he just like, I just, Elmo and Kermit. He's like, I like to have a little fun. I like to have a little fun. I like to have little jokes. The Tullys should have control of the Riverlands and tell everyone, it should be as easy as going to Craig Stark or Jane Aaron and say, do I get the whole region? But instead it's,

It's fractured. It's fractured, as we saw with the Blackwoods and the Brackens. So it is like, it's a region where you've got houses that have been fighting like the Hatfields and McCoys since the dawn of time. You've got a lord who's not really in charge of the whole region. And then you've got a big, spooky, haunted castle that's largely...

Empty. What was the city that Daenerys goes to where stuff happens, magic stuff happens? Qarth? Yeah. It kind of has some Qarth vibes. A little bit, right? Well, House of the Undying, in terms of how surreal it is.

Yeah. That's all I, yeah. The reality is, I know it's not like the same thing, but I thought for the show's purposes, like all of a sudden now it's like, there's nobody here and it's raining inside and now there's this woman who is Damon dreaming or is he having a vision? Yeah. Because he's not asleep.

And we can get to Damon's vision, but is there more I need to know about Harrenhal itself? Because obviously it's been burned to the ground. Yeah. Sort of. Well, yeah. It's still there. It's melted. It's a ruin. It's ruined. One more standing reminder of the history and whether we can heed it. It's ruined, but it does still have this massive curtain wall that makes it impenetrable. Impenetrable. Sort of from the ground.

But very vulnerable to the Air Force. Anyone who's at Harrenhal and sees Daemon flying in on Caraxie, seeing a dragon coming down on Harrenhal from above, it's going to take them back to Aegon's conquest when Aegon flew Balerion the Black Dread and melted the pyres. We get to hear, actually, there are plenty of great quotes from Fire and Blood, but we actually got to hear Larys talk about this in season one in episode six when he's basically like,

Yeah, I burned my dad and my brother. Yeah. Don't worry, I'll be able to blame it on the curse. You've heard the stories of Harrenhal, Your Grace. It was built in hubris, there's that idea again, by Harren the Black as a monument to his own greatness, blood mixed into the mortar. It is said to be a cursed place, that it passes judgment on the people.

on all who pass beneath its gates. So Harrenhal has this reputation across the realm as being a cursed, doomed, spooky, eerie fortress, and I think they captured that

quite well. It is a crucial location in the history of the conquest, not only because that's what leads the Tullys taking control of the region. Joining the Targaryens and aligning with them and ultimately like Harren's line ending during the conquest. You know in the opening credits when we see the crowned Arryns, the crowned Starks bending the knee, there's no crown on Edmund Tully's head because that's when the Tullys rose to power.

Aemond Targaryen, in the wall of his room, has a mural of the dragons torching Harrenhal. And he's like, sick, bro. This is so sick. We've been talking about that, how for Daemon and Aemond, they were both really focused on this idea of not just the Riverlands, but Harrenhal specifically as a toehold. And we hear literally one of the reasons why in this exchange between Daemon and Simon, just like, we got 40,000...

folks in the Riverlands that were trying to lock in here and we need a place to garrison them. Now, season one viewers will remember that there's a similar reason behind Harrenhal's location for the Great Council. So it was really quick, but one of the moments I loved most in this episode, it gave me a chill when Damon is on his solo little like, I'm checking around corners, I'm looking, okay, that's a raindrop, not a person. Here's a dude, I'm knocking him out. I have claimed Harrenhal.

Simon's like, "Alright, no problem." There's no poison in the peace, sit down. Happy to chat. Happy to talk about how Grover can't seal his bowels. Welcome. You're not hungry? No? No appetite? You sure?

When Daemon looks down at the Great Hall, where the Great Council took place, you know he's thinking about that moment. Jaehaerys, the Conciliator, gets multiple mentions in this episode. And that is the opening of the entire series for a reason. Plot reasons, but also thematic reasons, right? The only thing that can tear down the House of the Dragon is itself. And that is where Viserys was chosen first.

over Renice. Like the themes that drive the series, the divisions and fractures that drive the series began in that room, in that place here inside of Harrenhal. It was a drier day that day that they did that. Can I shout out to you, Chris? Yes. Some of the towers in Harrenhal, just their names to set the mood for you. Okay. We've got the Tower of Dread. Okay. The Tower of Ghosts. Great branding, honestly. The Wailing Tower. The Wailing Tower.

The Widow's Tower? Now, is that what the guy, was that what Bobby Heron was like? Let's name it The Tower of Ghosts. Let's talk about The Wailing Tower. Why don't we call it Seaside Fun Time? Yeah. Just over time. That's not the vibe we're going for. No. That's not the vibe we're going for at all. We're going for haunted. Okay. This is going to be handed to Lorde after, remember? Remember?

in a little television program called Game of Thrones. Jan of Slint briefly gets Harrenhal. Littlefinger gets Harrenhal. Like, Harrenhal is this hot potato. And so to be here with the Strongs and see how that's true even, again, inside of a family, because Daemon thinks he's going to have to make this big pitch to Simon, and Simon's like, fuck Larys Plumfoot. Have you noticed that the fire was super suspicious? Are there, like, seven people there, though? Like, where is everyone? No, I think it's, like, ten. Okay. No. No.

Simon and his grandson and a new character. Let's talk about Damon's little reverie there. I would love to. Um...

Watching it, I was like, this is awesome. Like, we're getting back into brand vision territory. I didn't go frame by frame or anything like that. But I was confused as to whether and, like, delighted by the confusion of, like, he didn't wake up, right? Like, did I miss... He doesn't wake up and, like, was like, oh, that was a crazy dream, right? I think it's like...

I think it's, like, a little unclear if he's sleeping that entire time or if he's actually... It seems to me like he's actually standing there in front of the werewood and, like, kind of doesn't know how he got there. Exactly. That's pretty cool. Yeah, this is great. Yeah. This was amazing. Do you think Bran was in the werewood tree watching this? I'm going to go. Wow.

We mentioned a bunch of other new cast members. We should shout out Gail Rankin who plays Alice Rivers. She's amazing. I'm so happy she's here. She's lurking behind the dinner table and then she's the one who's out there in the garden and is like, you're gonna die here. You will die in this place. We're not gonna get into how legitimate or likely her predictions are, but I thought that that moment and the moment within this vision where he sees young Rhaenyra sewing Jaehaerys' head back on. Yeah.

And tears in Damon's eyes as he's watching that. Yeah, but also fear. Of course. That's the thing I thought was cool. It wasn't like, oh, I feel so bad about who I've become. It was like, fuck. Always coming and going, aren't you? And I have to clean up now. But like both. It was like a real scared straight moment. Yeah. But like, not that that's... But it's not going to scare him straight. Not that that's all it's going to take for Damon, but it was a moment. Um...

Let's talk a little bit about this thing. Like, the Weirwood Tree is not in Harrenhal in Game of Thrones, right? Is it? They have a godswood. They have a godswood, okay. Yeah, so he's, right, he comes to, he's by the Weirwood Tree, we kind of get, we get this nice cool shot that really positions us, the god's eye, the castle, the Weirwood Tree where Daemon is.

And this figure who is there saying this thing to Damon, and that is Alice Rivers, just reads you the introductory line from the book, which I think captures this thing that you're kind of alluding to, which is, wait, this person and what's going on? The castle's small folk became his captives as well. Amongst them, a wet nurse named Alice Rivers. Who was this woman? A serving wench who dabbled in potions and spells, says Munkin.

A woods witch, claims Septon Eustace. A malign enchantress who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth. So cool. Sign me up. Mushroom would have us believe. So, mysterious figure, age unknown, serving as a wet nurse, bastard, right? And for people who are like, what is Mal saying? These are all the different accounts. All the different accounts. It's right there when we meet Alice. It's like, who is she? Well, that's the point.

Right. Is that she's this figure who is shrouded in mystery. In terms of what Damon sees, the thing that I was most struck by was what it means for Damon, a character who spends the, I would say, darkest moment for him of season one with apologies to everything, to his first wife and everything that happened in the Vale.

The choking of Rhaenyra, the fight in the finale, and the thing that he says to her, my brother was a slave to his omens and portents. Anything to make his feckless reign appear to have purpose. Dreams didn't make us kings. Dragons didn't. That was in the very first vision. That was the very first trailer line. It was like, Daemon doesn't believe in dreams.

Damon doesn't believe in your mumbo-jumbo hocus-pocus. This is a huge thing now for us to know that he has an experience with this. Okay. Will this change the way he thinks back on his relationship with Viserys? Will this change the way that he assesses the decisions that Viserys made and what drove him? Okay, so...

I feel like we have to kind of put a pin in that because this is where like, you know, reading the text ahead of the show, it's like also as we just saw in this episode, the show might take some liberties and the show might do some different things. Absolutely. Just to kind of tie a bow on everything that we were just talking about. We've got Kristen marching towards...

Riverlands, towards Harrenhal. Through the Crownlands. Through the Crownlands. Yeah. And he is being patrolled by Bela, who has a... Moon dancer. No engagement clause in her... She went a little lower than Rhaenyra told her to go. Much like young Rhaenyra when she flew to Dragonstone against Viserys's orders. I don't think Bela is heeding the exact letter of the law there, which is fine. But through the non-aggression pact that we've kind of talked about, Bela's just...

watching and Kristen didn't bring a dragon because Aegon wanted to go

Oh, man. They stop him. He's so good. I'm as fearsome as any of them. The way that Aegon said, I'm as fearsome as any of them. After what played to me as Aemon goading him. Oh, yeah. Right? Baiting him, like, incredibly. That is precisely why you must remain, brother. But also, it's a brave thought, but we cannot risk your loss. Everyone trying to work Aegon, who is the most fun to watch? It's Larys. Larys.

Laris manipulating Aegon is just a masterclass. It's incredible. Also, just from that small council meeting, really love Aemon doing the Val Kilmer Doc Holliday coin. But what's he doing it with? He's doing it with the coin that he found when he returned to his bedchambers and realized they had come in through the Secret Passage and that Daemon wanted to kill him. He's holding in his hand a reminder that Daemon thinks he's a worthy foe. I wonder if that'll wind up battery. I don't know.

say. So to your point, like yeah, Moonbeam sort of like buzzes the tower but doesn't like actually engage. Caraxes lands but doesn't like on the top of Harrenhal. But then they're just sort of like, sure, come on in. So we're not like, dragons are not fighting dragons.

Yet. Okay. But we're using dragons as a sort of menace, which is what Rhaenyra said. Like, the threat of them will be as good as using them. And in some cases, that might be true. And Criston is on a bit of a heat check with a quickly assembled fighting force walking and riding towards this castle with no dragon.

and not really knowing what he's writing into. But he has Freddie Fox there to talk shit to him. Yeah, Gwaine Hunter is there. And that's honestly all you need. Just an amazing temperature changer. I love that guy so much. This could not have been a better debut. This could not have been a better debut. Here's the real tragedy of this episode. Kristen Cole gets to be right about something.

Yeah. Yeah. When he's like, no fucking ins. I was like, no! Yeah. He was right. Yeah. The imposter syndrome, before they head out, that like moment of real imposter syndrome that we get to glimpse with Kristen when he's like in his chambers alone. Yeah. Like, all right. And the sound. I'm not sure if I am ready to go in the

go in the game and it's like you're also looking at Saracen. But also because he basically sent the corbel to his, Arik, to his death. Yes, and Alicent is very unhappy about it. All of his boys are just like, we're not, like, first of all, Aegon hired us. Second of all. Oh my god. Dude. I've been calling them the pussy posse on House of R. And so to watch them just sort of like laying around. Nobody

before that when they're just like sitting on the stairs and they're like oh the Lord Commander's here or leaning inside the chamber and they're just like who cares. Mister the purity and fidelity of our white cloak having to look at the fact that his king put three of his bros into the Kingsguard without a conversation. That's incredible. You guys support Valor Chastity.

Yeah, definitely. Great stuff. 100%. Genuinely great. So that's kind of where all the royal and royal adjacent people are. Are we not going to talk about Aegon finding Aemond in the brothel? Hit me. Are we not? Let's do it. This was just riveting television, and obviously in a number of respects. The last, it feels now very important that when we saw Aemond and Sylvie last episode...

Aemond was not just vulnerable, not just like telling her these things that he wouldn't say to anybody else, right? I feel good that Daemon thinks I'm a worthy foe. I feel bad that I accidentally killed Luke. And then he stands up to try to be tough and brave and strong and say like one whore is as good as any other. To like about the one person that he actually is willing to tell the truth to. That broke my heart. That was like...

It's really upsetting to have to confront. Because this gets to what you were saying earlier. Who do these characters think they have to be in front of other people? Sure. Right? Heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking. He has one safe harbor. Awful. Also, we do have to note, because we talked about the mother's milk thing last time, it did appear. Breast was out. Was he suckling? I believe that he was suckling. I think we could just say that that's canon. I think that there are still some people out there who may think that he was a bit high.

I mean, like... There's one person, definitely, who thinks that. Everybody else thinks he's suckling from the teeth. If I can see that he drinks breast milk, will you never do the lips thing again? Don't ever do it? Don't do it. Don't do what? Why did you tempt that? But then, like, the other thing we heard last week from... This is a video podcast. From Emmett, they used to tease me. They used to tease me, you know, because I was different. Yeah, my heart keeps bouncing. And his own... But, like...

It's upsetting because his own brother comes in and is just like a complete piece of shit to him. Aegon's had a few pops. He can't really handle it. Yes, the king of the realm on the brink of a civil war is just out getting hammered at the pub with his buns. But buying drinks for everyone on the crown. What a good guy. Would you want to have a beer with this guy is criteria for king as well, you know? Yeah.

Great question. These are the important questions. But, like, we know what Aemond did because he was upset at how Luke treated him. Yes. Because of the pink dread and the laugh at the pig and the table. It just feels like they're sequencing these things this way for a reason, right? Do you think there was any symbolism to him just dropping trowel and showing Snake out there or what? Like, do you want to talk? Well, you tell me. I mean, like, he, I think, is...

I think he's like weirdly like, I know what I can do. And he's just like, you know, like a lean, mean fighting machine. Like this guy is just like muscle. And what was Aegon doing before? Hiding in a family member's armor and being told what a tough guy he was. Not just a family member, the conqueror. And standing on a box. Right. And he's like, look how tall and threatening I am. And Aemond's just like, I don't need armor. Yeah.

I don't need her and I don't need you. So that was what that meant to me. So those are all the royals, royal adjacents, hands of kings, et cetera, et cetera. Now we know where they all are.

Yeah. There was another crucial scene, so before we go, I thought we could talk a little bit about Ulf. Yes. My guy. Great. It's all starting to come together a little bit. I think if you were just like, I've dropped myself into this world just through this show, and you're watching, and then the second season starts, and there's Adam and Alan, and Ulf, and we're spending time with this blacksmith for some reason, and some of the small folk, but I

I don't think this show has enough time or interest in being like, oh, here's a random character, but they have nothing to do with anything. So as we go along, these minor characters are being introduced, but they are not minor. So we get, at least by Ulf's own account, he's like, I'm actually, I'm Jon Snow up in this piece, right? Like, maybe not that important, but like, I'm a Targaryen. Maybe Gendry, maybe Gendry level. But this is hugely important for this show because if that's true...

Like, he could ride a dragon, right? Let's talk about the dragon seeds. Okay. This is the word he used. He says, a dragon seed must watch his neck when he has no white-clothed guardsmen to do it for him. Right. This is a slight... The dragon seed, as it's considered at least a little earlier in the history, is an honor. There is the idea of the prima nocta, which I learned from Braveheart. Yeah.

The first night, right? Like your Targaryen lord, your Targaryen king can have sex with your wife before you do. And that's, what an honor. Yes. Right? And the issue of that coupling is, could be a Targaryen bastard and they're called the Dragon Seeds. Okay. And the fire of the, the blood of the dragon flows in their veins and that's a big deal. And so they are treated, at least in like Jaehaerys' reign, with respect.

because the Targaryens are considered closer to God. So if you've got godly blood in your veins, even if you are a bastard, you are above... Even if you're just hunting for pints. Yeah, you're above everyone. Horus Baratheon, the founder of House Baratheon and Aegon's main dude, earlier Aegon, the Conqueror, Dragonseed. Okay. So...

What can they do? Like, how Targaryen are they? That's a question. Okay. Right? Yeah. That's a question that we don't know the answer to. And like, you know, this character Ulf is known as Ulf the Sot, but also Ulf the White because of his hair. But what I love in this is like... It's not that white. But it's ironic.

They're making fun of his hair. They're like, oh, sure, your hair is so silver. You're so Targaryen. So is he actually a Targaryen? How Targaryen is he? That's a real question. But I just love meeting him here because we know so little about Ulf in the book.

And so something that they're doing with a lot of these side characters, and we've mentioned this before, is just like really investing in them. Yeah. And really like giving us a portrait. Tom Bennett is so funny when he walks into the tavern and they're like, what? It's like cheers. Yeah. Everyone's just like. Everyone's dude. Yeah. Everyone's like, oh, it's actually her.

sister? Yeah. Probably should have told me. You know, like, all that sort of stuff. Like, that's wonderful. And then he's, like, pro-Rhaenyra. And he's, like, pro-Jace. Yes. And he seems to, like, have an actual... No, no, no. He seems to have an actual spine. And then as soon as Aegon walks in, he's like, all hail the king. So, like, this is my guy. This is my guy. This was a great scene. I thought the specificity of his, like,

drunken boast was really notable. Like, he's not just there gathered around the table excited to try to convince people that he's a Targaryen bastard. He's like, I am the bastard of Balon the Brave. That was like

He could have picked anyone, but he didn't. He picked a beloved figure from Targaryen history. A Hand of the King, the Spring Prince. That's, I mean, he says, like, right, because he mentions Viserys and Daemon. That's their dad. That's Viserys and Daemon's dad. He used to, he was Vhagar's rider. Like, this is a consequence. We actually heard Viserys and Otto talk about him in season one in the first firing, right?

Because that's who Otto had to come in and replace. He died in the first belly on the hunt. And so he's like trying to invoke a more particular lineage. Like I am the offspring of somebody who people adore. That struck me as like very notable. The last thing I want to say on the Ulf front, and then we can roll along for my guy Ulf, who will be my favorite character going forward. Take a seat, Laris. I think we both know what's going to be Gawain. Gawain can be yours. Ulf can be mine. There's something for everyone. I love...

I love how quickly he was able to find a way into this. He's like, oh, you're Dornish? Hmm, my people never settled there. Like, you could say anything to this guy. And he's like, guess how I can make this about me and how I'm actually a target. I hear they mourned my grandson. I love that. Is there anything else from this episode? I mean, there's so much, obviously. We'll have House of R. Yeah. Longest episode ever, possibly? I wouldn't totally rule it out. Oh!

We hit a lot of it. I think we should very quickly talk about that lovely Rainice and Corliss picnic lunch. The warm bread and the hot broth. If anybody's like, what was Chris talking about earlier? That is my example, which is... It's the choice of where to put it. Yeah, every other one of their scenes is not bad, and the bed scene was fun or whatever, but a lot of, I have walked into this room

It's a lot of throwing stuff. And I'm talking to you. And we're talking and now, okay, goodbye. That looked like a married couple. Absolutely. That looked like a couple who had actually spent some time together. A little feeding of the crumb. She's got the box so her shoes don't get muddy. He's like, I'm like 75% engaged in this conversation because what I really want to do is get back to my masculinity. I got barnacles to scrape. Yeah. And she's just like, you need to think about

Inheritance, you need to think about... Which was all he used to think about, right? And he's like, no, no, no. Like, it's not going to be... Like, Joff, no. Reyna, no. No.

And so he's probably also in the back of his head maybe thinking about other people. We don't know yet. But, like, I just thought that was, like, a really lovely scene. It was great. Beautifully staged. It was great. On the Joff front, I thought the goodbye to the kids. Love it. Like, the way that they shot that where, like, Joff's little hand comes around. And, like, you, like, see her. I mean, it was just. Gotta admit, I didn't really know who those. Like, I was just like, is that, like. Joff. Yeah. Yeah. Egon. Yeah. Yeah.

Viserys. Yes, I regret to tell you, another Aegon. Another person who's been there. The blonde babies are her babies with Daemon, and then Joff is like the third, the youngest that she had with Harwin. So those are all her children. Allegedly. And she's like... No, Harwin is the actual father. Laenor was alleged. And she's like...

I love when she's like, Reyna, I need you to do this. Be the mother that I can't be. It's going to really bum me out to send my sons away. I would have loved for her to say, and I'll miss you too, Reyna, my stepdaughter. Reyna was, when Reyna said, wait, sorry, the veil, and then, what, you want me to write to Prince Reggio? Pentos, where my mother died? Yeah. That's what you want me to do? That was, because it's an episode where we are praising Rhaenyra a lot for doing things that people are unwilling to do, and having like a,

A level of mercy, and that was interesting too, because Misaria invokes her mercy, and Rhaenyra almost was like, but that doesn't mean you can get one over on me. That makes me playable. Yeah, that was really interesting. I think on the kids' front, I was struck. Jace does not have a lot of screen time in this episode, but he was pissed. And that felt really notable. When they're standing over...

Aric and Eric. Let's just say their names once more. Oh, and he's like, these guys are scumbags. Well, he's like Aric. Rhaenyra says, I cannot fault him for keeping his oath. And he's like, what about the people who sent him? Like when we talk about this kind of like hot blood, which was another big talking point across the episode and has been a theme, Jace is now a part of that. So that was really, that was interesting as well.

Let's wrap it up there. This was an amazing episode of TV. I'm really glad we got to talk about it. You can listen to House of R on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Wednesday-ish? Hopefully Tuesday. Late Tuesday. Late Tuesday, breaking down the episode in fine detail. It depends if we're potting in past midnight. We'll see. We'll probably talk about it on The Watch a little bit. Make sure you're subscribed to House of R on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and The Watch, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can obviously check us out here on the Ringerverse YouTube channel. Please hit like and subscribe. It helps. Thanks to everybody for joining us. We'll be back next Sunday with another episode.

Thank you.