House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 3: The Feud Nobody Remembers Starts Pushing Everyone Toward War

I really enjoyed this episode. I think this season is building to the big war, and the small political conversations and character work here are things a lot of shows skip over these days. I know some people think this season is slow, but I think it is absolutely tactical, and I loved this episode in particular. I saw some people say they didn't mind episodes one and two but that this one bored them, and I disagree completely. I think this episode adds so many layers to what's happening, and that ending scene is something else. So where do we start?

The episode opens by showing that everyone is picking sides now that the peace is gone. The Brackens and the Blackwoods have been feuding for a long time, and right off the bat one house takes Rhaenyra's side and the other takes Aegon's. They argue, and then someone gets a spike through the neck. It doesn't work out well for either side, and it's foreshadowing for what's coming, both in the wider war and in this internal feud that nobody can even explain anymore. When Daemon later raids the castle and asks what started the whole thing, the answer is basically that nobody remembers at this point. That idea, that people forget why they're even fighting, is what the first three episodes have really been about. Some characters just want war and a battle plan, while the cooler heads are trying to find any way to avoid it, and this episode feels like the last real attempt at that.

The Bracken and Blackwood bloodshed becomes Criston Cole's first strike for Aegon

After the feud plays out, everyone stands around giving the dead an honorable send off, and Rhaenyra has to have a conversation with her aunt, telling her she's furious about what's next. Her aunt tells her these people want to fight and that she needs to find Alicent and put an end to this instead. Rhaenyra says Alicent doesn't want to deal with her and she doesn't want to deal with Alicent either, but I like watching the respect between the two of them, the queen that should have been and the queen that is.

Then we get the shot of the dead twin with Criston Cole looking down at him. Cole was a great soldier, a religious man, and now he's burdened by jealousy and shame over what Rhaenyra did to him, and he's basically become a shell of himself trying to be Hand of the King. His men are lounging around until they see him coming and scramble to stand up. Inside, the council explains that the Brackens and Blackwoods killing each other counts as the first strike against Team Black, and Aegon seems pleased about it. Olivia Cooke's reaction as Alicent watching Cole is priceless, that look of "I've been doing this for a lot longer than you have, and I am not pleased with you. You're on my list, buddy."

Aegon wants to ride out and fight, but his own brother talks him down

Aegon wants to prove he's not just a simple king sitting on a throne, that he wants to fight. Everyone tells him he can't, that he'll get himself killed if he tries to be proud about it, and it's ultimately his brother who convinces him to stay put, telling him they need him there. That sets up the lovers' quarrel side of things, with Cole and Alicent arguing over the plan to go recruit forces, Alicent flatly against it, and the two of them essentially competing for the king's approval.

Later, Larys Strong shows up again playing his familiar role as this show's version of Littlefinger, telling Aegon that everyone else is right and he shouldn't go fight, feeding him information and steering him toward staying home, getting drunk, and trying to get his brother laid instead. Aegon spends part of the episode staring at himself in the mirror, clearly wrestling with whether his sister is actually the rightful queen even though he won't say it out loud. I like what they're doing with this character. He isn't a simple maniac. He's arrogant, he's clearly disturbed by a lot of things, and when he's drunk he's even more of a jerk, but as I put it, "he wants to do the right thing, he's not doing it, but he wants to do the right thing." He wants to be different from his father, not to repeat what came before him, even if he keeps failing at it.

Mysaria strikes a new deal with Rhaenyra as the council pushes harder for war

There's a nice scene between Rhaenyra and Mysaria built on mutual respect, Mysaria pointing out she saved Rhaenyra's life and now wants something in return, and eventually convincing Rhaenyra she's shown her loyalty. That relationship pays off later in the episode. Meanwhile, on the council side, Rhaenyra keeps getting pushed to put together an army and go to war, and at one point they even suggest she take a vacation and let them handle it, which she shuts down immediately. She knows what she's doing.

I also liked the quieter scene between Rhaenys and Corlys, this "war is coming" conversation between two characters we've followed since the beginning. I feel like it's going to go badly for them, even though I don't want it to, because they're one of the only genuinely solid couples left in this story. Rhaenys ultimately agrees with the reasoning and leaves to help.

Daemon goes hunting for a fight at Harrenhal and instead finds Simon Strong

Daemon heads to a castle clearly looking for chaos, and when his dragon lands and he sees people already waiting for him, it's almost anticlimactic. Inside, he sits down with Ser Simon Strong, who has his grandchildren there, and Daemon starts interrogating him about Larys Strong. Simon doesn't hold back, saying flatly that Larys is a creep who killed his own brother and father, which lines up with what we already saw happen in the previous season. When Daemon jokes about being poisoned, Simon tells him he's safe there, and it plays as this old man being completely legitimate while Daemon works on recruiting an army for Team Black.

Back at Harrenhal later, Daemon has what plays out almost like a horror sequence, a vision involving Milly Alcock's version of Rhaenyra sewing the head back onto the body of the young dead king. It's an unsettling scene, and it captures the creepiness hanging over that whole castle while Daemon is clearly going through something.

Helaena's grief and the dragonseed stranger's claim about his Targaryen blood

There's a touching scene between Helaena and Alicent where Helaena says she doesn't want to grieve because of what's happening to the commoners, and Alicent tells her she has every right to grieve since she lost a child. It's a small scene, but it gives a better sense of who Helaena is.

Separately, a man appears claiming to be a half brother to Viserys and to Prince Daemon, and an uncle to Rhaenyra, describing himself with the term "dragonseed." What exactly that means isn't fully explained yet in this episode.

Baela spots Criston Cole's men from dragonback, forcing the council's hand

Cole and Gwayne's group are moving into the forest when Baela, out on a dragon patrol, spots them. The dragon comes in low and it looks for a moment like she might set them on fire, but instead they escape into the tree line. That sighting is what convinces the council that Cole is mounting an attack, and they push Rhaenyra again to put together an army and go to war. Her response is simply that she's heard everything they're saying and will take it into consideration, holding the line rather than being pushed into an immediate decision.

Rhaenyra disguises herself as a nun to confront Alicent, and the truth about the succession comes out

This is the scene that ties the whole episode together for me. Rhaenyra asks Mysaria to get her in to see Alicent, and despite the risk, she dresses as a nun and is smuggled in. Once face to face, she pulls a knife on Alicent and tells her she can call for guards, but they'll kill Rhaenyra only after Rhaenyra gets to Alicent first. That sets up the real conversation.

Alicent tells her that her father, Viserys, actually told her before he died that he wanted Aegon on the throne, not Rhaenyra. But when Alicent recounts the story about "the Song of Ice and Fire," Rhaenyra stops her and makes her repeat it, and it becomes clear that Alicent misunderstood what Viserys was actually telling her. Alicent realizes in that moment that Rhaenyra was right all along and that everyone has gone too far down the road to war to stop now, telling her she won't say anything and to get home safely because Rhaenyra is the rightful queen.

I'll admit there's an argument to be made about why the queen would take this kind of risk to sneak into King's Landing when getting recognized means instant death and the end of the war effort, and it's a bit like how dragons or ships in this world can cover huge distances in no time when the story needs them to. Sometimes you just accept it. But "I liked the risk behind it," and I liked that Rhaenyra and Alicent got another scene together, because Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke are doing such great work in these moments.

Where the performances and the season stand after this episode

I didn't know much about Emma D'Arcy before this show, and this performance has made them one of my favorites, building Rhaenyra's transition from Milly Alcock's version in a way I never question, even though each actor plays her differently. I want to see Matt Smith's Daemon get pulled back into the center of things a bit more, but it feels like everyone is unraveling in the best way possible right now.

Do you feel like you're locked in for where this season is headed, or is this one starting to lose you?