This week’s episode, The Red Sowing is not only about the sowing of the Dragon Seeds, but is an episode that examines heredity, destiny, bloodlines and the role of bastards who bear the harsh consequences of bad daddies throwing their seed all over the place.

The episode begins with Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) facing each other on a windswept beach with khaki sand beneath grey skies. She looks at him incredulously, scarcely able to believe that a mere commoner without silvery white hair is Seasmoke’s new rider. Addam immediately bends the knee and joins her cause.

“If the gods call me to greater things, who am I to refuse them,” Addam says earnestly. He tells an elated Rhaenyra that his “father is of no consequence”. Bad Daddy #1.

Rhaenyra and Addam return to Dragonstone together.

This new revelation sets off a lightbulb in the ever-plotting mind of Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). She gets the clever idea that Rhaenyra should issue a call to the many Targaryen bastards in King’s Landing to see if any of them has the chutzpah enough to be a dragon-rider.

The call results in dozens of silver-haired bastards starving in Kings Landing, who leave in boats in the dead of night to shoot their shot. The look stamped on their faces as they board the boats mirrors the strange species of the joy and trepidation of a typical Jamaican about to step into the US embassy: hope of elevation to a new life.

But alas, only dragonfire and blood await many of these royal bastards who perish as barbecued hors d’oeuvres for Vermithor who must have believed that Rhaenrya had presented a fabulous new buffet for his gastronomic pleasure.

Interestingly, Hugh the Hammer (Kieran Bew) who we saw beating up a man for his groceries last week, claims the Bronze Fury, Vermithor with a show of great bravado and courage.

Hugh the Hammer admits with absolute certainty to his wife Kat (Ellora Torchia) that his mother was a Targaryen. The books says she was a Targaryen princess who chose to live her life as a prostitute.
Hugh reveals that there is a good reason why he’s kept his lineage a secret for so long.

“I never knew my father. That much is true,” he says to his wife.

“But I did know my mother. I hid it from you. And I’m sorry for that. She worked…in a pleasure house. She was granted more freedom than most because of who she was. And because rich men paid more to f—- a woman with silver hair.” Bad mommy this time.

In the meantime, the other misbegotten Targaryen Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) is at first reluctant to join the Sowing, but his friends ‘boost him up like Supligen’ and he heads to Dragonstone. After escaping fiery death at the hands of Vermithor, he falls into the underground caverns and wanders around. Eventually, he manages to tame Silverwing through sheer serendipity.

Later, we see Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) failing once again to acknowledge Adam of Hull as his son, who asks for leave from his sailor duties to become a dragonlord. Corlys grants him leave and approaches him as if to say something and changes his mind.

An icy “well done,” is all Lord Corlys can manage. Bad Daddy again.

Speaking about bad daddies, Daemon is trying to whip up his own army, now that his witchy Alys Rivers has greased the ascension of Lord Oscar Tully to being Lord Paramount of the Riverland with the death of his grandsire, Grover Tully.

However, there appears to be a spoke in the wheel as the wily Oscar questions Daemon about certain “barbarities committed in the Queen’s name”.

“They hate you,” Oscar reminds him in private.

“I don’t need their love, I need their swords,” Daemon hits back. Great line.

Then in a meeting in front of the River men, Lord Oscar ambushes Daemon who he says has dishonoured himself with comportment. Daemon quickly betrays Willem Blackwood, the man who ‘desecrated the innocent’ in the service of Daemon’s desperate push to bring the Riverlands to heel. With a slight hesitation, Daemon swings his sword at Willem’s head but we don’t see the end result.

In the meantime, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) is lending credence to the belief that the “crown crushes whoever wears it”. Even though he is forcing himself to walk, his burnt and rotting flesh is wasting away like his father, Viserys.

The Red Sowing also creates a division between Rhaenyra and her son, Jacaerys. He talks about the jackets that his mother has given his so-called father, Laenor Velaryon. Bad (gay) daddy #2.

“Did you think I would have dark hair? When you took Strong to your bed, did you not think I would favour him? Or did it not cross your mind?” Jacaerys asked accusingly of his mother. Bad mommy.

Rhaenyra’s sons with Laenor Velaryon are of suspect parentage because of their brown hair, which differs from the signature silvery locks of the Targaryen and Velaryon bloodline. Jackets, jackets everywhere.

Daemon’s daughter, Rhaena, appears that she is likely to end up claiming Sheepstealer for Team Black, and finally ascend to be the dragonrider she’s always dreamed of becoming. That appears to be that character’s arc this season.

In the meantime, Corlys’ other bastard son, Alyn (Abubakar Salim), doesn’t seem to be interested in being a dragonlord. Lord Corlys is trying to convince him to answer the Queen’s dragonrider call because their ‘blood is of Old Valyria’.

“I yearn for nothing but salt and sea,” Alyn explains to his father. We’ll see how that story arc turns out soon.

The episode ends with Aemond pursuing Seasmoke to Dragonstone when he suddenly ‘sights the rake’ and commands: ‘flee Vhagar’. He turns tail and returns to the safety of Kings Landing.

It appears that Rhaenyra’s desperate measures of matching her riderless dragons with Targaryen bastards has paid off. By my count, Rhaenyra appears to have six dragons ready for battle… and one more could be on the way.

Bring on the finale!