Everyone recovered from their emotions after the cast change in episode 6? So here we go again for a new episode of House of the Dragon!
Please note, the following details the plot of episode 5 of the House of the Dragon series, available on OCS on demand. If you haven’t seen it yet, and don’t want to know anything about its content, then you are strongly recommended to stop reading this article now.
The music of Game of Thrones on images of rivers of blood. We’re in the credits of House of the Dragon and let’s go for episode 7.
It is the funeral of Laena who chose to perish by the fire of her dragon. The whole Velaryon family is understandably upset. On the Targaryen side, it’s much more mixed. Viserys puts on an air of circumstance, his youngest children are clearly bored. Rhaenyra marks the gravity of the situation. But Daemon finds a way to snicker as his late wife’s uncle delivers his eulogy. It’s elegant.
This is obviously not the time for joy. Everyone looks at each other like a faience dog. Rhaenyra and her sons are also mourning the death of Harwin Strong, and her father Lyonel Strong, but cannot show it. And while it’s a time to gather, everyone is already starting to advance their pawns for their little personal interests.
And Rhaenyra and Daemon are making sweet eyes at each other from a distance because why not. Laenor has suicidal thoughts. Viserys attempts a rapprochement with Daemon but fails miserably.
When evening comes, the faces are crestfallen. By grief or drunkenness or both. The Velaryon try to soothe their pain together but the discussion quickly turns sour. Rhaenys reproaches her husband Lord Corlys for his ambition and the fact that he never accepted that Rhaenys does not ascend the throne.
He is obsessed with his estate and the idea of leaving a trace in history, when Rhaenys wants to honor the memory of his late daughter. This is why Rhaenys wants to bequeath their domain of Lamarck to the eldest of Laena because Velaryon blood runs in her veins unlike the children of Laenor and Rhaenyra who are in fact the sons of Harwin Strong.
Chabadabada
On the beach, Rhaenyra and Daemon walk their spleen side by side. Rhaenyra blames Daemon for abandoning her when she was just a child. He replies that he abandoned her precisely because she was only a child. And what had to happen for ages, happened. The uncle and the niece, both widowed for less than a week, engage in the hot hand-to-hand fight that has been tickling them for years.
© 2022 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. Daemon and Rhaenyra together. We can’t see anything but it’s done on purpose
Aemond Targaryen, the second son of Alicent and Viserys, takes advantage of the night to satisfy his curiosity and even his fascination with dragons. He spots where Vhagar – Laena’s dragon – has decided to camp for the night and approaches the huge creature still sleeping.
Waking up to face Aemond, Vhagar nearly burns him to ashes but as he is a Targaryen, he is saved. In a few words, the kid manages to coax the dragon and ride it for a rollercoaster ride that even Tom Cruise can’t afford in Top Gun.
Laena’s daughters see their mother’s dragon splitting the sky and go to warn their cousin Jacaerys. Rhaenyra’s two eldest sons, Jacaerys and Lucerys, along with Laena’s two eldest daughters, Baela and Rhaena, form a welcoming committee in Aemond after her nightly getaway.
The confrontation quickly turns into a fight, but nothing to do with child fights. This is His Majesty of the Flies medieval version. Blows rain down, blood flows. Aemond fights back like hell but ends up getting a stab in the face that will probably cost him his left eye.
Alicent or the Green Witch
Everyone is gathered in Lamarck’s large foyer. Aemond’s mutilation is impressive, he is sewn up alive by the Grand Maester and has a scar that deforms a whole half of his face. The adults try to figure things out. Rhaenyra’s sons tell their mother that they have been called bastards by Aemond.
This is the perfect opportunity to talk about the open secret but which is worth an atomic bomb. Viserys orders these rumors to end, but Alicent cannot be satisfied with so little. She wants in return the eye of Lucerys who dealt the blow, she foams with rage. But Viserys orders the case buried and his grandsons’ reputation spared. Anyone who continues to peddle such gossip will have their tongue cut out!
It looks like the case is closed but Alicent seizes the famous dagger at the waist of Viserys to throw himself on the poor child. Rhaenyra intervenes. The two women face each other, one brandishing her enraged point at the other. Ser Criston Cole is about to intervene, interrupted by Daemon.
Alicent and Rhaenyra, once best friends, pour out all the hatred and resentment each feels for the other. Alicent essentially blaming Rhaenyra for sitting on her obligations when she was always a model of virtue. And in one move, Alicent manages to wound Rhaenyra in the arm.
General amazement. But Aemond ends the drama feeling satisfied to have lost an eye but gained a dragon.
Married at first sight
Back in her apartments, Alicent is visited by the Hand of the King, her father Otto Hightower. Alicent is mortified by her behavior and the image it sends back of her to the court with all the gossip it already generates.
But instead of giving her a welcome little moral lesson by going back to the basics of the type: “we don’t attack people with a knife”, Otto congratulates her! Papounet is happy to have finally seen his daughter, the Queen, belch with rage. And he continues his little plots concerning Rhaenyra that he has in his sights. (The war dagger is far from buried)
In her chambers, Rhaenyra has her arm stitched up raw as is customary in Westeros. Laenor arrives after the battle to realize that he was not present to protect his wife and sons, as he was not present for his sister. Rhaenyra tells him the origin of the drama: their sons who were called bastards by Aemond.
Laenor then regrets not having been able to fulfill her marital duty and blames herself for being such that “the gods [l’ont] do“, homosexual. Rhaenyra then has the prettiest of reactions, telling him that he is an honorable man. Laenor then undertakes to be more invested in this marriage, to be a better father for the princes and a better husband for the future queen.
On the way back, by boat, the treacherous Lord Larys approaches Alicent, already thrusting the knife into the wound. “Poor disfigured Aemond, trampled justice, etc.” And he offers to avenge the child, an eye for an eye… Alicent refuses but assures him that he will need his services one day soon. He looks delighted.
As they watch the King’s ship sail away, Daemon and Rhaenyra share a moment together. Rhaenyra wastes no time. She proposes to her uncle that they marry. Their union would strengthen her position and status as heiress against the Hightowers. But as Daemon points out, for them to get married, Laenor would have to die… “I know”, she replies without flinching.
Neither one nor two, Daemon goes to bribe Ser Qarl, Laenor’s lover, to kill him in front of witnesses. As a reward, he will have the fortune and will be able to bask in the pill on the other side of the world.
It was enough for Ser Qarl who goes to the Velaryon castle and faces Laenor in a duel. If we do not attend the fight, we are not spared the melted face of Laenor that her parents found in the fireplace.
On this, we find Daemon and Rhaenyra who unite their blood and therefore marry! But their union is not as macabre as it seems. We witness the departure by boat in the middle of the night from Ser Qarl, but he is quickly joined by Laenor, his head shaved, gone for a new life!
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