Finally! The showrunners finally let slip the bloody dragons of war and boy, was it great!

Episode 4, ‘The Red Dragon and the Gold’ emphatically returns the franchise to its glory days, and true to Game of Thrones form, the carnage involves killing off major characters. This time, two major characters are shuffled off this mortal coil via a bloody dragon-on-dragon battle which sends both King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and the excellent Rhaenys (Eve Best) crashing to their possible deaths. Side note: Why haven’t the grand maesters invented parachutes yet?

The scene of the battle is Rook’s Rest, a poorly defended coastal keep, but key to cutting off Dragonstone from the mainland. Ser Christon Cole (Fabian Frankel) attacks by day, a suicidal move if not for the clever ruse crafted by both he and Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). The carefully laid trap involved luring one of Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) dragons to the location, for Vhagar to do dragon-killing thing, thus removing a major player from the board, and winning a major battle in one fell swoop.

However, King Aegon II spoils the party. He flies in on Sunfyre in a kamikaze mission. When a hidden Aemond sees him, swooping in overhead he curses “idiot” in High Valyrian. During the ensuing battle, Rhaenys and her dragon Melys seem to be getting the better of Aegon/Sunfyre, with Melys ripping Sunfyre’s breast with its claws when suddenly, Aemond appears with the monstrous Vhagar.

It is here that one pauses to remember how Aegon mercilessly taunted Aemond at the brothel last week, and how he engineered the dragon-pig taunt when they were youngsters. So when Aegon pops up and shouts ‘dracarys’ – a High Valyrian word that means “dragonfire”, you know that he’s going for an ‘and-1’, torching the entangled mess of Rhaenys and Aegon II’s dragons.

After his brother nukes him, Aegon II plummets to the ground on the back of Sunfyre, Melys survives, but Rhaenys inexplicably turns around to attack once again. In a surprise attack, Melys drives Vhagar to the ground with a frenzied attack of sharp claws and deadly dragonfire, and it is here we see the true horrors of dragon conflicts as a grounded Vhagar crushes soldiers beneath its giant claws. In the end, the “Queen Who Never Was” perishes at Rook’s Rest along with one of Rhaenyra’s most formidable dragons. Chalk up a big win for Team Green.

According to the book, Aegon II miraculously survives the battle, and returns to King’s Landing as a crippled, incinerated mess while Aemond ascends as Protector of the Realm and Prince Regent. We can’t wait to see what the showrunners do.

Another eventuality we can’t wait to see is Ser Criston getting his just desserts. In this episode, Ser Cole (Fabien Frankel) covers himself in glory as he conquers minor lords north of King’s Landing and turns them into loyal soldiers for Team Green. The people call him the “Kingmaker” and as Ser Cole beheads Lord Gunthar Darklyn (Steven Pacey) following the Battle of Duskendale, Lord Darklyn spits and curses him: “Kingmaker (spit) you’re not fit for a white cloak…yours will come in kind”.
His harsh words don’t matter much to Ser Cole who lops off his head and the other Darlyn men promptly declare for Team Green by bending the knee.

Speaking of beheadings, Daemon is currently going bonkers in gloomy, cursed Harrenhal. As the episode begins, he cleaves the head of a young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) at the foot of the Iron Throne. Then Daemon wakes up with blood on his hands, stains which soon disappear in the cold cursed morning light of Harrenhal, a place which Larys Strong claims is “more crippled than I am”. So what the hell is Dameon doing there?

Daemon is trying to cobble together an alliance. First, he converses with House Tully, but the current head of the family is a young boy. Lord Grover Tully is frail and Daemon suggests to Grover’s inexperienced grandson, Oscar (Archie Barnes) that he should “place a pillow over Lord Grover’s head” and speed along his grandfather’s death. “House Tully is a fish without a head,” Daemon spits. Who are these awful people?

Later, Daemon has another vision, that of himself wearing Aemond’s eyepatch and then he encounters the mysterious Alys Rivers. She attempts to ‘shrink’ him: why no ravens to the wife? Are you going for the Iron Throne yourself and blah-de-blah-blah, and then she says: ‘here, drink this’. And he gulps down her concoction without a second thought. He must be thinking of getting her in the sack. Why else?

After drinking the concoction, Daemon has a meeting with Lord Blackwood who promptly tells Daemon that they won’t join his side in the war until he helps them defeat the Brackens. Daemon cares zero. He is having visions of his dead wife, Laena, pouring drinks and he is perhaps planning to bed Alys Rivers and drink some more of the psychedelic shrooms and gunk the sexy witch has cooked up in her kitchen.

The scene then cuts to King’s Landing with Aegon II playing with his big marble. He soon dismisses the Small Council and runs complaining to his mommy, Alicent.

“They don’t care what I think,” Aegon II complains like a five year old.

“What thoughts would you have?” Alicent says snarkily.

Mommy Dearest is apparently not in a good mood. She just scarfed down a goblet of moon tea — the Westerosi equivalent of birth control that can both prevent and abort unwanted pregnancies. After ‘nyaming her own belly’ as Jamaicans like to say, she is definitely in no mood to suffer fools, even those from her womb.

“What am I to do?” Aegon II wails.

“Do simply what is needed of you….nothing,” Alicent sneers.

Ouch!

Later, a melancholy Alicent carries on in this tone as Larys Strong comes to visit. They chat about Viserys’ intentions when he allegedly name-dropped Aegon on his deathbed. Alicent dismisses the second guessing.

“War will be fought, many will die, the victor will eventually ascend the throne. The significance of Viserys’ intentions died with him,” she says. Alicent is a real beacon of light this week, isn’t she?

All these scenes are just the preamble to the real action of the last 10 minutes of this excellent episode. The characters are mere pawns, minor chess pieces moving towards the eventual conflict at Rook’s Rest and spectacular dragon vs dragon violence.

After killing Rhaenys, Aemond lands his dragon and stomps through the forest with his sword drawn to where Aegon and his dragon lie in a smoldering mess on the ground. Sunfyre’s wing is broken, he will never fly again.

Aemond raises his sword, implying either that he plans to finish the job, or return it to its scabbard.

But Cole, the newly appointed Hand of the King and Alicent’s excellent afternoon lover, arrives in just the nick of time so we shall never know.

We say goodbye to the brilliant Eve Best who played Rhaenys, the Queen That Never Was, and Rhaenyra’s most valuable ally, whose piercing eyes and wise counsel served as the only source of reason and restraint in the Queen’s often-squabbling advisors at the Painted Table. Why did Rhaenys turn back after surviving the first two attacks? Vhagar is the largest and the oldest dragon on House of the Dragon, dwarfing all others on the show. His sheer size means he is likely to win any one-on-one battle in the skies. Why why why?

Rhaenys was also the wife of Corlys (Steve Touissant), another important ally who controls the ships — so how will his wife’s death affect him? Will it cripple his resolve? Will he acknowledge his bastard child in honour of his wife’s wishes?

We can’t wait for episode 5. Will the Blacks strike back? Will Aegon II survive? Will Daemon ever get his stuff together? Is season 2 is in danger of peaking early and not matching the highs of the Battle at Rook’s Rest?

We will soon find out. More anon.