House of the Dragon episode 5 is the next chess move, not a slow episode

I loved House of the Dragon episode five and thought it was great, and I'm going to push back on anyone who calls it a slow episode where nothing happened. This is the next chess piece in this game. These are my immediate, spoiler-free thoughts.

After the episode four battle, one side thinks it won

The last thing that happened in episode four was absolutely crazy. The battle that followed leaves you trying to work out who actually won it. Did the Greens win it, or did the Blacks? Clearly there's a side that thinks it won, and in this episode that side is parading around and doing certain things that are very questionable, to say the least.

There are other changes happening too, and they're for the worse. There are loyalties that are no longer loyalties, and there are betrayals, to say the very least. Some of the stuff in this episode is just brutal and hard to watch.

Daemon is losing his marbles as both sides change strategy

Daemon is clearly losing his marbles, and you see it. It's affecting him in general and in how he makes decisions. Then there's the side of what Alicent needs to do and the side of what Rhaenyra needs to do. New things are being added into the strategies from both sides, and they leave you thinking, okay, let's see how this pans out.

It's like two teams battling it out for the championship, and you're wondering who's going to do it. It's classic Game of Thrones stuff.

Why I thought episode five's groundwork would pay off later in the season

For people who say this was a slow episode, I'm going to have to disagree with you. I think that reaction comes from how much is going on here. These are crucial moments in the show. When I first saw it, my view was that when the big moments that were clearly going to happen that season finally occurred, people would realize they came from the stuff that happened in episode five.

There's so much strategic stuff going down in this one. I expected people to remember when something was introduced and the crucial role it would play, or when the characters decided to do one thing when they should have done another, and how different it all would have been.

The Sea Snake scene with his granddaughter stands out

There are some great scenes in this episode. A great scene with the Sea Snake and his granddaughter was, I thought, one of the best scenes as far as overall dialogue and the evolution of character.

So I loved this episode and thought it was great. I got a chance to see it early, and these were my initial thoughts on it.

How did episode five land for you?