The poets say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions but a small act of kindness by Rhaenyra may have actually saved her own life in episode 2 of House of the Dragon.

As the episode came to a close, we find that Rhaenyra has freed Mysaria from captivity, and as Mysaria makes her way down to the docks, she spots Ser Arryk Cargyll making his way up to the castle. She does a double take, then realizes something is amiss and alerts the guards. That sets in motion events that lead to the epic Erryk vs Arryk duel in Rhaenyra’s bedroom chambers, which is the high point of this episode.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The episode begins with Kings Landing in a bit of chaos after the night’s grisly events and the death of the King’s son.

King Aegon is furious and destroys a miniature facsimile of the late King Viserys’s Old Valyria, the Targaryen ancestral home. As he is mourning the death of his son and his future heir, he destroys a vestige of the past. A little heavy on the symbolism there, showrunners, don’t ya think?

Later, an enraged Aegon gives the assassin Blood — captured trying to sneak out of Kings Landing with his son’s head — a quick mace-to-the-face before he can even do an identity parade of the rat catchers and name his accomplice.

Meanwhile, Alicent Hightower is beside herself with emotions that are one-part grief and two parts sex-laden guilt. Alicent wails to her father, Otto: “The Gods punish us.” Otto asks for what.

Thankfully, Alicent doesn’t share with her father that she is feeling a bit guilty that she was knocking boots with Ser Cole while her grandson was being decapitated a few rooms away.

Otto, ever the master marketer and puppeteer of kings, always sees the goblet half-full. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head as brilliant deceptive schemes bubble up deliciously in the stem of his brain.

“Some good may yet come of this,” he says. Really Otto? Really?

Otto suggests Aegon seize the opportunity to win public support and wring sympathy for himself while simultaneously turning the people against Rhaenyra and wooing the Great Houses who are still undecided and waiting on the sidelines of the War-To-Come. Otto suggests a funeral procession through the streets of King’s Landing so that people can see the monstrous act up close to turn against “Rhaenyra the Cruel”. They get the opportunity when the procession is forced to pause when the wagon sinks into a crater-sized pothole that one could easily find on Spanish Town Road any day of the week.

Cut to: Rhaenyra, who is legit shocked at the death of the King’s son, Jaehaerys, and has to defend herself at a meeting with her advisors at the Painted Table at Dragonstone. She recognises Daemond’s knowing smirk and challenges him later in private, and accuses him of using her to snatch the throne he has always coveted.

Enraged at the implication, he hurls his goblet across the room and backs Rhaenyra into a corner, but she doesn’t give in this time. Changing tact, Daemon attempts to belittle her by sharing that Viserys chose her because he knew that she could never overshadow his legacy the way that he, Daemon (the superior brother) would. Rhaenyra stands her ground and gives him an unpleasant truth: Viserys didn’t fear him, he distrusted him, just as she now does.

“You struck down a child,” Rhaenyra said

“It was a mistake,” Daemon replied.

“Was it?” she said, almost matter-of-factly. Her voice the equivalent of liquid nitrogen.

Upset, Daemon storms out. It is a hell of a scene, and Emma D’Arcy is in full domination mode.

However, this episode’s honours fall to Rhys Ifans who unleashes Otto Hightower’s stinging disdain on his feckless grandson, as he has grown tired of being surrounded by imbeciles. Good old Otto cracks under the pressure after finding out that King Aegon has killed all the rat catchers in his employ, including the murderous Cheese, hanging the innocent men from the walls of the castle for the small folk to see.

Spittle flies from his mouth as he barks out words like “idiot,” and “fool,” and sprays insults like “worse than a fool” and “feckless” and “self-indulgent” at his grandson, accusing him of squandering the goodwill of his son’s death.

“I wish to spill blood, not ink!” Aegon asserts. Great line.

The high point is Rhys’ hilarious what-fresh-hell is-this expression as he closes his eyes when Aegon informs him of Ser Cole’s plan to send Arryk to murder Rhaenyra. Otto almost vomits in his own mouth and lurches forward with incredulous disdain at the sheer stupidity of the plan. He does a slow burn before he finally goes nuclear. Unable to stomach anymore, Otto blurts out: “he (Viserys) was right about you”.

He lets a revelation slip with an irreverent laugh and a villainous sneer that King Aegon can pretend all he wants but he knows in his heart that Viserys never really named Aegon as his successor. Ouch! Otto for the win!

Aegon then orders Otto to relinquish his status as Hand of the King, and names Criston Cole his successor. Otto throws the Hand’s pin on the ground and walks out. Cole, who will be the new King’s Hand, plays a pivotal role in this episode. Earlier, Ser Cole, racked with sexual frustration and guilt, tasks Arryk with a suicidal mission of infiltrating Dragonstone while posing as his twin brother, Erryk, in order to kill Rhaenyra – or the Bitch Queen of Bastards, as Aegon calls her — setting up the episode’s final scene.

What would a Game of Thrones spinoff be if there were no expected Brothel Scene? In this one, Aemond is visiting his favorite sex worker. He curls up in her lap like a diaperless baby as he confesses to her that he regrets killing Lucerys. We thought that Aemond’s conscience was still-born but apparently not. The whore strokes his hair and we keep expecting her to breastfeed him or do something sexually bizarre, but the moment passes, and nothing happens.

Later on, the show addresses the patriarchal currents that run through the series during a scene between Mysaria and Rhaenyra. Mysaria has been brought before her to explain her role in the dastardly killing of the King’s son. She trots out with her usual laundry list of excuses to explain her money-grubbing past: I profited from an inevitability, I sold my body for coin to eat, money over hos and yaddi-yaddi-ya.

Mysaria, a master manipulator herself, also mentions that the powerful men of the Seven Kingdoms still have their knees on the necks of women. A former lover of Daemon (and technically Rhaenyra’s ‘matey’), Mysaria nevertheless manages to win over Rhaenyra and win her liberty. Say what you want, the girl knows how to read a room.

There are quite a number of non-noble appearances such as Hugh the blacksmith, he was the dude from the last episode who asked King Aegon to pay for the weapons and armour he forged. He’s got a sick kid and a chicken costs three times as much, welcome to the world of hyperinflation boys and girls. Sounds alot like our little island, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile on Driftmark, we see Alyn the sailor, who we learned during the last episode, saved Lord Corlys from a certain death. He greets his brother Addam, a shipwright, and they chit-chat about the war and Addam mentions that Lord Corlys, “owes you. He owes us.” Trouble brewing? Methinks so.

Grief, it seems, is a great aphrodisiac and the episode closes strongly with Ser Cole and Alicent. After seeing Aegon bawling for his dead heir, she retreats to her bedroom, only to find Cole seated on her bed. She slaps him across the face twice in a move that feels oddly like S & M foreplay, a little slap and tickle.

On the third slap, Cole grabs her hands and backs her in a corner, mirroring the scene between Daemon and Rhaenyra, but Ser Cole hits paydirt and there is much mounting in haste.

Episode 2 really delivers when it comes to the story, character realizations, and sets up the next episodes perfectly. Episode grade level: A+. Be sure to come back next week.