One of the biggest moments of last Sunday’s finale, “The Queen Who Ever Was”, revolves around a conversation between the two female characters, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and the Queen Mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). Both are ambitious, intelligent women caught under and doomed to be crushed by the wheels of the patriarchy which governs their world.

This is the prevailing theme of this season’s series and the underlying cause of the whole sordid war: the misogyny of men who would rather see their world burn than entertain the idea of being ruled by the fairer sex.

It is against this background that Alicent comes begging to Rhaenyra’s doorstep with a traitorous offer of leaving King’s Landing unguarded and unprotected for Rhaenyra’s army to swoop in with her dragons and end the war.

Alicent appears to have done a complete 180, retreating to old habits of nibbling at her fingertips when nervous. She is no longer imperious and clamoring for blood as she was a few brief episodes ago.

But Rhaenyra is not so easily swayed. She is warming to her Black Queen image and the moral compromises that come with it. After all, Rhaenyra burned scores of smallfolk just to find a few new dragonriders, last week. What then are a few more murders of innocents?

“I must take Aegon’s head, and I must do it for all to see,” Rhaenyra reminds Alicent. “You know this. However you may try to evade it, you know this.”

Alicent appears to agonize and then offers up the already barbecued and perpetually disappointing Aegon in the hope that she can save her daughter, and of course, herself. Great move Mommy Dearest.

Alicent’s season 2 journey from self-righteous confidence to bitter resignation and self-contempt is one of the most fascinating elements of this season of House of the Dragon. At least Alicent redeemed herself as a mother when she defended the gentle but loopy Haelena from Aemond’s mad demands to ride her dragon to war at Harrenhal. Apart from that, it is hard to have any sympathy towards her.

Another pivotal moment of the show is another of those dastardly visions that Daemon (Matt Smith) is experiencing. He finally sees the prophecy from his brother’s dream, the Song of Ice and Fire and the coming winter, which includes snapshots of the Prince That Was Promised, his wife Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne, the eventual defeat of the White Walkers, and even a centuries-later butt-naked Dany and her hatched dragons (but no Jon Snow).

The vision transforms Daemon and illuminates the order of things which have to occur for the prophecy to come to pass. This serves as the catalyst for his bending of the knee to Rhaenyra in front of the River men pledging his fealty and his hard-won army to her cause. Daemon then gives a rousing speech as his armies are ready to meet a sombre, chastened Criston Cole and Gwayne Hightower – both of whom are suffering from Dragon PTSD.

PIRATE QUEEN
One of my favourite scenes this week is the introduction of a whole new power player for the civil war ahead: Shakaro Lohar (Abigail Thorn), the charismatic Admiral of the Triarchy. Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) is attempting to persuade the pirates to help him break the Sea Snake’s blockade. A pirate informs him: “You have to pass HIS test.” Then a female Shakaro — who is admittedly a little bit bonkers — shows up.

How did House of the Dragon get so woke? Newsflash! They’re now doing gender neutral pronouns in Westeros. This season 2 is obviously cheering for women who push against the confines of a patriarchal world’s rules. Therefore, we are not surprised when Sharako challenges Tyland Lannister to a scene of muddy hand-to-hand combat with a flippant: “I will not sail with a man who cannot best me.”

After bashing each other’s faces in for a few rounds, Tyland gains her respect and she invites him to dinner with a quirky: ‘have you ever eaten the flesh of your enemies?’. Then bursts out laughing at the look of righteous indignation on Tyland’s face as he refused to partake, knowing that she was pulling his legs. This Pirate Queen character is going to be a lot of fun in season 3.

Meanwhile, an angry Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) has laid waste to Sharp Point — the seat of House Massey who serves on Rhaenyra’s council — burning the townspeople in dragonfire in a petulant show of fury after being forced to turn tail from Dragonstone last week. We hear the people screaming in agony as Aemond and his dragon leave in a huff.

The crippled Aegon II (Tom Glynn Carney) is still healing at King’s Landing with Larys Strong in his ear beseeching him to scurry way secretly for Braavos and all that money Larys has hidden there in the Iron Bank because the ‘pretender has found three new riders for her dragons’. In this moment, Larys is more of a parent than Alicent could ever hope to be to her wounded son. A forlorn and bedridden Aegon seems all but licked, but still delivers the best lines of the finale.

“My dragon is dead….my c–k is destroyed, did they tell you that? It burst into flames like a sausage on a spit,” Aegon despairs.

Not to be denied, Larys spins tales of the return of the king, Aegon the Victorious, risen from the ashes, Aegon the Rebuilder who will return after all this messy dragon-dancing BS has passed.

In the meantime, Ulf shows his common upbringing with his atrocious table manners and cavalier attitude, first in a confrontation with Jace who upbraids him for putting his feet on the table, and later on, Ulf makes snide comments in Rhaenyra’s presence during a dinner where he licks his fingers in a most abominable manner. We suspect that Ulf will not be long for this world if he keeps this up.

Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) has renamed his ship, The Queen That Never Was in honour of his late wife, and is preparing for a sea battle. He tries to make good with his bastard son, Alyn, who grew up in terrible poverty with a sense of abandonment, rebuffs LC’s weak attempts to make up for all those lost ‘daddy moments’.

The stakes are high and everything is set up deliciously for season 3.

We are treated to a montage of the three new armoured-up dragonriders—Ulf, Hugh and Addam— ready to blot out the sky with dragonfire. As Alicent leaves Dragonostone, gorgeous violins of doom and great import play over this scene. Taking Larys’ advice, Aegon sneaks out of King’s Landing, while a chained Otto Hightower is somebody’s prisoner. We see a massive fleet of Triarchy pirates, led by the Sharako Lohar, scything their ships through the ocean’s rough waves, heading for the Gullet to smash the Sea Snake’s blockade.

Meanwhile, the armies of Starks, Lannisters and Hightowers all march toward their coming annihilation, and Rhaena finally comes face to face with the wild dragon, Sheepstealer, who she has been feeding with hopes to tame it. All we need to see is Caraxes vs Vhagar, and then we can say ‘it’s about bloody time’.

Rhaenyra’s arc throughout this series towards embodying the true nature of the Black Queen is almost complete. She has finally come to the realization that she is going to have to break the will of her enemy. She knows what all conquerors understand, she will have to mount her dragon and ‘dracarys’ some innocent smallfolk and noble families to finally get her royal hands on her birthright, the Iron Throne. Even in Westeros, you have to pay the cost to be the boss. That means that innocents will be sacrificed.

The episode just shows that women can mess up the world with the same bravado, self-serving ambition and stubbornness which most believe is peculiar only to men. So in the end, there will be blood.

And the dragons can finally dance.