House of the Dragon recap: Episode four
A sudden flurry of sex scenes surprised viewers in HOTD’s latest episode, and one in particular was unsettling. WARNING: Spoilers.
SPOILER WARNING: We will be discussing House of the Dragon’s fourth episode here, so if you have yet to catch up, come back later!
As always, before we dive into the recap, let’s run over the situation as it stood after the previous episode.
After a night of very heavy drinking, during which his commitment to keep Rhaenyra as heir to the Irone Throne wavered, King Viserys rediscovered his resolve and promised his daughter she would “not be supplanted”.
But the Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, remains determined to see his young grandson Aegon – Rhaenyra’s half-brother – inherit the throne instead.
Viserys told Rhaenyra she needed to get married to strengthen her line, though he at least gave her the chance to choose her own husband.
Over in the Stepstones, Daemon decided to launch a suicidal attack on the Crabfeeder rather than suffer the indignity of accepting help from his brother. Incredibly, he survived, ending the years-long war with an unlikely victory.
Read on for our recap of episode four.
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We begin at the seat of House Baratheon, Storm’s End, where Rhaenyra is being presented with a selection of suitors. In a less than ideal portent, the very first shot shows her fondling the necklace her uncle Daemon gave her back in episode one.
Look, I’m no apologist for incest, but in fairness to Rhaenyra, Daemon is better to look at and listen to than any of the men on display here.
Of the two we witness before a fed-up Rhaenyra cuts the farce short and stalks off, one is ancient enough to have met her great-grandmother Alysanne when she was a young woman, and the other is a child.
The little boy, bless his heart, assures the dragon-riding princess that she would be “safe” under his “protection”.
It is clear this is going nowhere. Rhaenyra decides to end her romance tour months early and return to King’s Landing, her handsome knight Ser Criston in tow.
What about him, you may wonder? Why isn’t Criston one of the suitors? Sadly, Kingsguard knights vow to remain celibate, take no wives and father no children, so he’s off the table.
As Rhaenyra’s ship approaches the capital it’s buzzed by Daemon, who is hooning around on his dragon Caraxes like he’s Tom Cruise flying an F-14.
This is the first time Daemon has returned to King’s Landing since Viserys ordered him to leave the city in episode one. The king greets him in the throne room, with an audience of nobles. Rhaenyra, conspicuously, places herself in a position where her uncle will spot her.
Daemon, who is wearing a makeshift crown (atop a new, short haircut that suits him better than the previous wig), reveals that he was named “King of the Narrow Sea” after winning the war in the Stepstones. But he acknowledges Viserys as the “one true king”, and his brother welcomes him back to the city.
Cut to an awkward social event in the gardens of the Red Keep. Rhaenyra inserts herself into a conversation between Viserys, Daemon and Alicent to congratulate her uncle on his victory. It is rather obvious that she just wants to be noticed by him.
This scene is noteworthy for the beginnings of a reconciliation between Rhaenyra and Alicent.
When the latter suggests Daemon might want to see some new tapestries in the gallery – a dreadfully dull idea, it must be said – her husband Viserys laughs at her.
“I’d like to see them,” Rhaenyra interjects, sticking up for Alicent. Viserys, visibly irritated with his daughter for cutting her diligently planned tour short, tells her to buzz off.
Alicent catches up with her, and each woman admits she has missed the other’s company.
The conversation gives us a rare window into exactly what Alicent is thinking.
“How romantic it must be to get imprisoned in a castle and made to squeeze out heirs,” Rhaenyra says at one point while venting about the idea of getting married. With that line she is, in essence, describing Alicent’s life. You see a flash of deep sadness play out on Alicent’s face. (It’s a particularly fabulous, subtle piece of acting from Emily Carey.)
“I am glad you are home. I find I have few friends lately. I like to believe I’m still the lady Alicent, but all anyone sees when they look at me now is the Queen,” she says a few moments later.
Two takeaways here: Like most of the main characters in this show, Alicent is struggling with loneliness. And all those expectations Rhaenyra is chafing against, the gender roles she refuses to accept? Alicent is conforming to them. She is doing her duty, as she sees it, even when it brings her little joy.
When the social event has ended and all the pesky witnesses are gone, Rhaenyra again approaches Daemon.
“Why did you come back? There is surely more to your return than simply taunting my father,” she asks him. She’s fishing, hoping he’ll say he wanted to see her.
In the course of their conversation, Daemon dispenses some questionable advice, telling her marriage is “only a political arrangement” and you can still “do what you like”. She replies that, for women, it is “like to be a death sentence”, alluding to her mother Aemma, who of course died in childbirth.
Daemon says he wishes marriage were a death sentence, because then he’d be rid of his wife, whom he goes on to insult some more for good measure. Charming.
I have only one note from the episode’s obligatory Small Council meeting: Rhaenyra is now sitting at the table with the others, rather than serving as a cupbearer. This is a step up for her since we last saw the council sit in episode two.
And that brings us to the core of this episode – an extended sequence, covering a single night, which illustrates a key character difference between Rhaenyra and Alicent.
Rhaenyra starts the night by sneaking out of the Red Keep, leaving an oblivious Ser Criston guarding her bedchamber door, and meeting Daemon, who takes her into the seedy streets of King’s Landing.
They end up in a brothel. The pair, who I remind you are uncle and niece, have a pash, and a grope, and Daemon partially undresses Rhaenyra before being struck by one of his moods. He abruptly leaves her, alone and unprotected, in the brothel.
Rhaenyra returns to the Red Keep, but she’s spotted by a spy along the way. (We later piece together that the informant reported back to Daemon’s former flame Mysaria, now known as “the White Worm”, who then sent word to Otto Hightower.)
Upon reaching her bedchamber, Rhaenyra seduces Ser Criston and scandalous, forbidden sex ensues. Remember, he has sworn an oath of celibacy. Breaking it is punishable by death.
While all that is happening, Alicent is having a much less exciting time. She starts her evening by looking after her screaming child, and then bathes Viserys, who is sore from the growing number of wounds he’s suffering from sitting on the throne. Also from being old.
She eventually retires to her bedchamber with a cup of tea, only to be interrupted as she’s trying to get to sleep. A servant says the King has requested her presence. Apparently being bathed like a child got him all randy.
As Rhaenyra is frolicking in the brothel with her uncle, Alicent is on her back in bed, enduring sex with a man to whom she is clearly not attracted.
“Marriage is a duty, yes. But that doesn’t stop us from doing what we want, f***ing who we want,” Daemon says as the two scenes are intercut. Alicent would not agree.
This sequence shows us, in the starkest terms yet, a contrast between the two young women that has been simmering away since the beginning of the series.
Rhaenyra does what she wants. She breaks rules with impunity. And she almost always does so without incurring consequences. It began with her ripping a page out of their history book – hardly an egregious offence – and has continued to escalate since.
Alicent, by contrast, is a pious rule follower who has always sought to do her duty, often at the expense of her own happiness. She obeyed her father and married for social advancement, bearing children for a man decades older than her. She has remained faithful to Viserys, and continues to lay with him, repulsive a prospect as that may be for her.
Rhaenyra has rebelled against the patriarchal system around her. Alicent has resigned herself to operating within it. The pair clearly have affection for each other, but their world views are almost incompatible.
As mentioned earlier, Rhaenyra was spotted during her time gallivanting in the streets of King’s Landing, and that information got back to Otto. The Hand now goes to Viserys with the allegation that Rhaenyra hooked up with her uncle.
Viserys calls it a “lie” and tells Otto to get out, though he seems shaken.
Alicent, who overheard their conversation, summons Rhaenyra to the garden where they once spent so much time as friends and demands the truth from her.
Rhaenyra, feigning indignance, lies to the Queen.
“Daemon never touched me. I swear this to you, upon the memory of my mother,” she says.
She leads Alicent to believe her “virtue”, as they call it, is still intact. This is also a lie, given her little roll in the hay with Ser Criston.
Alicent believes Rhaenyra, and tells Viserys as much, vouching for her.
But it’s apparent from multiple scenes towards the end of the episode that Viserys, whatever he might say to someone like Otto, suspects the accusation against his daughter is true.
He confronts a badly hungover Daemon in the throne room. Instead of denying the allegation, Daemon asks for Rhaenyra’s hand in marriage. Viserys concludes he wants to use her to gain the throne – a far cry from his insistence in episode one that Daemon had no interest in it – and exiles his brother from the city again.
Next the King confronts his daughter, berating her for putting her “desires” above her responsibilities. He tells her she will marry Corlys Verlaryon’s son, Laenor, “without protest” – so much for seeking out her own match.
Rhaenyra is unapologetic, and though she admits to nothing, she does note (correctly) that if she were a man she could screw around and even father multiple b**tards without the men of the realm lifting an eyebrow.
She agrees to marry Laenor, but extracts something from her father in return: She gets him to fire Otto as Hand of the King.
Otto seems genuinely devastated about this. For a brief moment, you almost feel sympathy for him. Then you remember that time he pimped out his own daughter to her best friend’s father, and the sympathy recedes.
The episode ends with Rhaenyra reading in her chambers. The Grand Maester shows up, delivering a “tea” from the king which will rid her of any “unwanted consequences”. And in that moment, she surely realises that her father doesn’t believe her.
MVP of the episode
Alicent is pretty much the only person who doesn’t do something objectionable in this episode, so she wins the title almost by default.
She has been hard to read throughout the series so far, but this time the poker face slipped, revealing a fascinating character underneath.
Villain of the episode
Where to begin with Daemon? Fantasising wistfully about the death of his wife. Taking his niece to a brothel. Groping her in public. Abandoning her, alone and half-naked, in the middle of a dangerous city. Not good!
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