Ryan Shoots First: House of the Dragon (S2 Ep2) “Rhaenyra the Cruel”
After last week’s banger of a season two premiere, House of the Dragon is back with Episode 2 and the fallout of Blood and Cheese dominates the discourse. Plenty of book readers took some issue with how Blood and Cheese played out but I mean, they were not gonna show a toddler getting beheaded on TV, congrats we finally found the line!
Beyond that, almost every scene is the fallout of the murder of the young prince. Aegon’s disgust Alicent and Cole’s guilt. Rhaneyra putting the pieces together. If Luce’s death was the match this was the gasoline. Each scene was so well acted, I mentioned it last week but there is confidence in the performances of the cast and especially of Rhaenyra and Daemon, Otto had some stand-out moments but I think the MVP for this episode goes to Aegon. Tom Glynn-Carney was in his bag and really showed all of the emotions. Remorse, disgust, anger, vengeance, add to that the comedy and buffoonery he showed last week and he really has shown that Aegon is a truly dynamic psychopath. I would have liked to see more of Aemond as I think he is one of my favorite characters but even in the time he does have he manages to show just a little bit more of who he is as a character. Then there is Criston Cole…F that guy, he may be the biggest heel on the show. In Westeros even the vilest, baby-killing, philandering men are kinda cool and have a fan base… except for Criston, he has no stans.
Next week looks to really accelerate things as the stand-out line from the “scenes from the next” focused heavily on the fact that once dragons start fighting dragons terrible things tend to follow.
Observations
- Skip intro… seriously Max?
- This is chaos.
- Criston, you schmuck
- Ahhh the coins are gone.
- Aegon acting his ass off this season
- Sycophants the lot of you!
- Rhaenyra is gonna be so pissed at Daemon.
- Not now Alicent
- All this in this funeral procession is practical for like a 15 second shot. Amazing.
- Blood just spilled all the beans.
- Oh wow, they stitched the head back on. That’s wild
- Aegon gonna get his hands dirty.
- Man that’s a hell of a shot of Helaena
- I’ll say it. I thought that head was gonna roll off there when they hit that pothole.
- I still can’t believe all those years everyone else in Dragonstone didn’t know how to turn the table on.
- Hahahahaha, that look
- Rhaneyra sees right through him.
- Man, what a scene.
- That slithery guy. I missed Caraxes
- Yep all on you Cole
- Weird edit there to jump from a scene with a character to another scene with the same character. Rare.
- Haha all the Kings Guard were all like “not my table”
- Woah well that’s a heck of a command
- Aemond needs a burger man
- I mean that’s all any of us want most times.
- Didn’t think we would be revisiting this guy.
- The only happy couple in Westeros
- White Worm is just like “Lady I’m just doing my job”
- Meanwhile in Kings landing
- Oh dang… I mean he did get the guy eventually
- Good Boi got justice.
- Otto bout to lose his job
- Hahaha you know how many grandfathers have had that face.
- Oh snap
- Oh Otto’s got time today
- She’s a good queen
- Being a good queen is about to pay off
- This dude doesn’t stand a chance
- Ok I’ve officially lost track
- Throw paint on one of them! They’re gonna spin around and we’re not gonna know who’s who!
- Ok, one’s got a scar now that’ll work.
- They really just made the cup ball trick a crucial part of the episode
- Well uhhh problem solved.
- The fall of House Hightower begins
- Haha spoken like a true Dad
- Oh damn, Mother of the year
- Oh damn, Mother of the Year X2
