The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon.

Quite a few literal fireworks shaped the Battle of Rook’s Rest, arguably the first significant conflict of the Dance of Dragons. However, in true Thrones fashion, there were also plenty of cracking embers when two characters did their own dance with words alone. In those conversations, it was Olivia Cooke’s Alicent who shined. Ever since realizing that she willfully misunderstood Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) final words, she is trying to find answers to confirm whether or not she truly did make a mistake. She knows, in spite of many forgetting, that the coup was going to occur regardless of Viserys’s final words. She also knows, as she perceptively informs Larys (Matthew Needham), that the truth of Viserys’s intentions no longer matter.

But it still matters to Alicent on a personal level – and the full possible gravity of that error crystallizes when Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) informs her that he had all of Viserys’ books removed from what are now his chambers. Alicent has been driving herself to the edge of the abyss in trying to find information about the Song of Ice and Fire, about the Prince Who Was Promised, information that could provide her with some closure of Viserys’ intentions. To Aegon, all of that history and the lessons contained within mean nothing.

It strikes Alicent, as she powers herself through a glass of much-needed wine (similar to me on a late Tuesday afternoon), just how pathetic Aegon truly is. He takes everything for granted and the ease with which he does so is galling to her. Alicent was sold off by her father as a teenager. She carried and raised children in what ought to have been her youth while enduring sex with and care for Viserys. She acquiesced to what Westeros society informed her was a woman’s place. All of that suffering and sacrifice, and for what? For this entitled rapist whose ineptitude is so glaring it dwarfs out the Dornish sun?

Speaking of Dornish sons, Ser Criston Cole’s (Fabien Frankel) riding high and mighty after a series of successful campaigns through the Crownlands. The idea is sound enough – crush any base of Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) support near the capital, kill any who refuse to bend the knee to Aegon, and conscript everyone else to become cannon fodder on their march to Harrenhal. But this string of victories is marred by the camera’s pivot to the burning skyline of Duskendale, a major port close to King’s Landing. The cost of that aforementioned success is suddenly realized as the audience is told just how high that cost was, and frankly, how unnecessary. Did Criston need to set Duskendale on fire to win? No. But the brutality he’s always been capable of, which has been shown in bursts before, now has free reign.

Not that he doesn’t have some tactical capabilities. It makes for a more interesting character than if he was simply hateble and incompetent. His and Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) plan to collapse one of Team Black’s dragons would have resulted in victory unmarred but for the tricky, unpredictable element of toxic male egos. Aegon, desperate to prove to others and himself that he is worth something, arrives into the fray on his great golden dragon, Sunfyre, and the episode effectively evokes the feeling that something is about to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Drunk, quite literally, on his perception of what power the role of King imbues within him, Aegon is almost destroyed by Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys. It’s no contest, really, for within the first couple of seconds Meleys claws her way into Sunfyre’s belly, unleashing the boiling, acidic dragon’s blood onto the unfortunate soldiers below. And the trap, sprung, sees Aemond and Vhagar enter the battlefield, a trap that Aegon at first is thankful for but soon realizes, though far too late, that it will allow Aemond to murder him. Vhagar’s wrath engulfs him and Sunfyre, sending both of them plummeting down into the forest below.

Rhaenys has been the most staunch advocate for avoiding war at all costs. A learned woman who ought to have been Queen all along, she recognizes the cost of what a dragon civil war would entail but, after Rhaenyra exhausted all possible options, volunteers to be the first one to represent Team Black on the battlefield. There is a part of her, on that battlefield, that recognizes she has the opportunity to escape. But that part of her also recognizes that she simply can’t abandon a battle to protect someone who had been sworn to her side – if she ran way, what message would that send? If she can take out Vhagar, then she has to give it her all.

In Fire & Blood, George R. R. Martin writes “The storm broke…and then the dragons danced.” Meleys and Vhagar dance in a tumult of fire, smoke, and talons through the sky and it is awe-inspiring and horrifying in equal measure. It’s apparent that Meleys won’t win, that this is her last voyage with her rider, but Meleys does manage to at least injure Vhagar and drive her to the ground – a crucial moment, as Aemond should recognize that his indestructible monster isn’t indestructible. And if it wasn’t for Rhaenys, would Aemond have the cover to target Aegon in turn? No, but nevertheless, when Vhagar’s teeth snap around Meleys’s neck, it’s horrifying, made all the more tragic by her sharing one last look with her rider as the life leaves her eyes. Rhaenys releases herself into the sky and, in a catastrophic crash, she and Meleys’ bodies crash into Rook’s Rest itself and the castle explodes. 

The Queen Who Never Was. And now will never be.

Notes:

• RIP Rhaenys. We’ll miss you.
• Criston referring to Rhaenyra as “the whore of Dragonstone” had my blood boiling. Sir, get over it, it’s been like, what, twenty years?
• So, if Criston hadn’t stopped him, Aemond would have just made sure Aegon was dead and then knocked off Sunfyre in turn? What does Criston do with this information – does he step away from Aemond or, more likely, recognize his bloodthirst as something he can work with?
• Props to sound wizard Paula Fairfield, whose audio work made the dragon’s battling genuinely moving and tragic.
• Ramin Djawadi continues to crush it with the score, this is some of his best work ever.

Catch up on previous House of the Dragon recaps and reviews.