House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3 Proves the Long Game Is Paying Off

House of the Dragon season 2 episode 3 delivers on what has made this season work from the start: the long game. My verdict on this one is straightforward. I really liked it, and I think the season overall has been a great continuation of everything set up in the first run.

Some viewers have complained the season is too lengthy, too boring, or lacking action. I do not agree with that read at all. "I don't know what the hell these people are talking about," because to me this is a great setup to something catastrophic coming between the greens and the blacks, and this episode pushes that closer. There is a war coming and the pieces are being put into play, the same way the earliest seasons of Game of Thrones operated. "This whole show from here to the first couple of seasons of Game of Thrones, the long game, that's what makes this show, when this show is cooking it's playing the long game, and this episode is clearly doing just that."

The episode spends real time on Rhaenyra being pushed by those around her, who argue the greens are already assembling armies and that she needs to take her dragons and strike now. Her answer is to hold back, essentially saying not yet, she has to figure some things out first. That tension pays off in what I'd call an incredible scene at the end, with real weight behind the conversation, the reveals, and at least one beat I had been waiting on that finally comes up.

Daemon gets a strong showcase too. There is a great sequence built around him and the castle in a particular moment that makes clear how much is going on in his head right now, and it is shown off really well. Meanwhile Criston Cole has become one of the biggest villains in the series so far, and several characters are getting elevated in ways that either make you hate them more or like them more, which is exactly the kind of layering I love about this show.

I am loving this season because I trust the long game is going to deliver. I am invested enough at this point to be asking where the story goes next, knowing someone is going to die and that it will land as hard as it did last season. So what did you think of episode three?