House of the Dragon recap, episode eight: Give Paddy Considine an Emmy already
A lead actor in one of the world’s biggest TV shows completed an astonishing physical transformation in an award-worthy role.
SPOILER WARNING: We shall be discussing episode eight of House of the Dragon in copious detail. If you have yet to catch up, stop reading!
Before we begin, here’s a brief reminder of where things stood after episode seven.
Rhaenyra married her uncle Daemon, having conspired to fake the death of her previous husband, Laenor Velaryon.
One of Alicent’s sons, Aemond, claimed the oldest and most battle-tested dragon alive, Vhagar, before losing an eye in a fight with Rhaenyra’s children. Alicent lost her composure in the subsequent confrontation and pulled a knife on Rhaenyra before being talked down.
In the aftermath of that incident, Alicent’s father Otto went to her and assured her they would prevail in the long term.
King Viserys is, somehow, still alive, even though bits of him keep falling off.
There is a time jump of about six years between episodes seven and eight, which means we once again have some new cast members. Read on for the recap.
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Episode eight
We begin on Driftmark. Corlys Velaryon has been off fighting in the Stepstones again, and after being injured in an ambush has fallen gravely ill, putting the matter of who will succeed him as lord front and centre.
Corlys himself wants Rhaenyra’s second son, Lucerys, to inherit Driftmark (her eldest son Jacaerys, who’s second in line for the Iron Throne, has greater responsibilities). But the Sea Snake’s perpetually furious brother, Vaemond, believes the seat should pass to him. He tells Rhaenys as much, arguing he has Velaryon blood, and by implication, Lucerys does not.
Keep in mind that, after King Viserys’ proclamation in the previous episode, any man who questions the parentage of Rhaenyra’s sons could lose his tongue.
On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and Daemon receive the news that Vaemond and Rhaenys have both gone to King’s Landing to settle Driftmark’s line of succession. Vaemond is petitioning the Crown to name him heir.
Rhaenyra recognises the move as a threat not only to Luke’s legitimacy, but that of Jace as well. It’s therefore a challenge to her own status as the future queen. The pair have no choice but to join the party in the capital.
They arrive to find that the Red Keep has been transformed since they last visited. Queen Alicent has apparently taken to interior decoration, removing all the dragon iconography and replacing it with the Seven-Pointed Star. This is the symbol of Westeros’s dominant religion, the Seven, which is based in Oldtown and has longstanding ties to House Hightower.
The Targaryens have a complicated history with the faith – it previously rebelled against their rule, before King Jaehaerys (Viserys’s grandfather) established a fragile peace.
Essentially, the Targaryens now pay lip service to the faith without truly believing in it, and in return the religion gives them a bit of leeway when it comes to the whole incest thing.
When Rhaenyra and Alicent were children, we saw that the former didn’t even know how to pray. Alicent, on the other hand, has always been pious.
Speaking of the Queen, she is busy presiding over a Small Council meeting. Viserys is absent, for reasons that will become plain in a few moments.
Alicent leaves the meeting to greet Vaemond, who’s arriving at the Red Keep, but is pulled aside to deal with the news that her lecherous son Aegon has sexually assaulted a servant. It seems this is not the first time.
She meets privately with the girl, showing a degree of sympathy, but ultimately convinces her to stay silent for fear of being publicly shamed. And she also makes Aegon’s victim drink the same morning after tea that was delivered to Rhaenyra after her escapades in episode four.
Alicent then confronts her son, who shows no remorse whatsoever. In a moment of frustration, the Queen tells him he’s “no son of mine”.
Side note: in a throwaway line, we learn that Aegon and his sister/wife Helaena now have multiple children together.
While this is happening, Rhaenyra and Daemon quietly enter the King’s chamber to find his beloved Lego model sitting dusty and neglected, and Viserys himself barely conscious in bed. He’s clearly in a lot of pain, and half of his face appears to have melted off, and on top of all that he can barely construct a coherent sentence.
(Seriously, shoutout to actor Paddy Considine and the show’s make-up department for making this handsome 49-year-old plausibly look like a decaying puddle of flesh.)
Rhaenyra introduces him to two new grandchildren – this is where we learn she’s had two children with Daemon, with a third on the way. They’re named Aegon – yes, the same name as Alicent’s eldest son – and Viserys.
Daemon notes that Viserys is being given milk of the poppy, a Westerosi painkiller. In high doses it can induce unconsciousness – the obvious implication here is that it’s leaving the King in no fit condition to rule.
Alicent, who’s done berating Aegon now, enters the chamber to find Daemon lounging in the only chair while his pregnant wife stands next to him. Very much a Daemon thing, that.
The couple accuse the Queen of keeping Viserys addled so she and her father, Otto, can “warm” his throne. Alicent protests that he is in too much agony without the painkiller.
“Rhaenyra if you would see him without it, almost blind with suffering,” she says.
“Oh Alicent, I have no doubt it was an act of the purest mercy,” Daemon quips.
My read on this, for what it’s worth, is that Alicent is actually being sincere, though the fact that Viserys’s condition benefits her is undoubtedly a factor as well.
Rhaenyra and Daemon ask who will decide the future of Driftmark. The answer: Alicent and Otto. Oh noooo.
Outside in the yard, Jace and Luke watch Aemond, who appears to have aged two decades in the space of six years, stomp Criston Cole.
“Well done my Prince. You’ll be winning tourneys in no time,” Criston tells him.
“I don’t give a s*** about tourneys,” Aemond responds, before shooting his nephews a deeply unsettling look.
Elsewhere in the keep, Rhaenyra meets with Rhaenys and deduces that she intends to put herself forward as heir to Driftmark. Rhaenyra tries to convince her that she did not have her son Laenor killed, and when that fails, offers to marry Rhaenys’s granddaughters to her sons.
The conversation ends with Rhaenys saying she must stand “alone”.
Rhaenyra, despairing, visits Viserys in the middle of the night. He initially mistakes her for Alicent. Having been set right, he then calls her his “only child” – bit of a slap in the face for all the kids he had with Alicent, though it reflects his treatment of them.
This is actually an important point: Viserys has always doted on Rhaenyra, who was the only surviving child from his marriage to his first wife (and obvious true love) Aemma. He’s never shown any real interest in the rest of his kids, at least not on screen. That’s been a sore point for Alicent, and it fed into her outburst in the previous episode.
Anyway. Rhaenyra asks her father whether he truly believes Aegon the Conquerer’s prophecy, saying the burden is “too heavy” for her.
“If you wish me to bear it then defend me. And my children,” she says. He does not respond.
Come morning, however, Viserys refuses to take his usual dose of milk of the poppy.
Fast forward to a pivotal scene in the throne room, where Otto is presiding over the petitions from Vaemond and Rhaenyra. The Hightowers clearly intend to name Corlys’s brother heir to Driftmark, which would leave him in their debt, bring the realm’s most powerful fleet onto their side, and disinherit Luke.
Their plans are foiled by the sudden appearance of Viserys.
The King looks and sounds like death, with a mask covering one side of his face, but he fights through his pain and practically drags himself to the throne to defend Rhaenyra and her children. At one point his crown slips from his head – Daemon is the one who retrieves it before helping his brother the rest of the way.
The subtitles describe the score here as “dark, triumphant music”, which is pretty accurate. There are few familiar themes mixed in, including a track from Game of Thrones called The Throne is Mine, which came to be used as the royal theme in that show. It’s fitting.
Viserys calls on his cousin, Rhaenys, who surprises Rhaenyra by taking her side and accepting her marriage proposals. The King reaffirms Luke as heir to Driftmark.
Vaemond, even more furious than usual, blows up in front of everyone and calls Rhaenyra’s children bastards. Before Viserys can punish him, Daemon lops off his head.
Viserys is really struggling at this point, and is taken from the room, but still he refuses to take anything for the pain.
“I will not cloud my mind. I must put things right,” he says.
In the interests of putting things right, he organises a dinner with both sides of the family, where he makes one last appeal for his wife, children and grandchildren to put aside their “grievances” and unite.
Incredibly, it seems to work. Rhaenyra and Alicent toast each other, the latter saying Rhaenyra will “make a fine queen”. Jace raises a glass to Aegon and Aemond. Helaena toasts Baela and Rhaena. Music starts to play, and Jace dances with Helaena.
And so the last image Viserys has of his family before he’s carried from the room in agony is a hopeful one. He dies (spoiler alert) believing Alicent, Rhaenyra and their respective children might actually reconcile.
The whole sequence is essentially showing us what could have been, if the characters had made different choices and the battle lines had never been drawn. Which makes it even more disheartening when Aemond shatters the peace.
It happens after Viserys has left. A pig is served in front of Aemond, which reminds Luke of the prank he once helped play on his uncle. The foolish child chuckles, prompting Aemond to rise and give the last toast of the evening.
He calls out Jace, Luke and their younger brother Joffrey, calling them “handsome, wise ... strong”. “Come, let us raise our cups to these three strong boys,” he says.
This is an obvious allusion to their true father, and Jace responds by punching Aemond (who absorbs the blow without even flinching).
Rhaenyra’s boys are restrained, and Daemon steps between the two sides. He and Aemond exchange a look – it feels like mutual respect to me – before the children are all sent away.
An apologetic Alicent walks over to Rhaenyra and grabs her hand. The hostility between the pair appears to have melted away, much like Viserys’s face.
Rhaenyra says she will take her kids back to Dragonstone and then “return on dragonback”.
“The King and I would both like that,” Alicent responds.
Two more scenes close out the episode. In the first, one of Alicent’s servants (who has been conspicuously present in a bunch of scenes throughout the season) reports to Daemon’s former lover Mysaria, who is now a Littlefingeresque mistress of whisperers.
Then we see the last moments of Viserys’s life. Alicent visits him in the middle of the night – just as he mistook Rhaenyra for his wife earlier, now he mistakes Alicent for his daughter.
Delirious on milk of the poppy, he tries to continue his earlier conversation with Rhaenyra, rambling incoherently about the prophecy.
Alicent manages to pick out some key words – “Aegon”, “the prince that was promised”, “unite the realm”, “you are the one, you must do this” – without crucial context.
Viserys thinks he is telling Rhaenyra she must accept the burden of the prophecy and unite the realm under her rule. Alicent interprets it as a dying wish that her son, Aegon, take the throne.
After she leaves, Viserys takes his final breaths, reaching a hand out in front of him. It’s open to interpretation, but I think he can see Aemma in this moment. The screen cuts to black with his last words: “My love.”
MVP of the episode
Viserys! He’s been crapped on all season for being a weak ruler, but the strength of will he showed to come through for his daughter here was genuinely inspiring. Give Paddy Considine an Emmy already.
Villain of the episode
Aemond is a creepy, creepy lad, and he’s the one who shattered the tentative peace between the two branches of the family after all of five minutes.
Twitter: @SamClench
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