House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 1 Recap: Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?

House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 1 Recap: "A Son for a Son"

Two years feels like a lot of time between seasons of House of the Dragon. How did you spend the time off? Marrying your uncle? Sleeping with your best friend's father? Dipping your hand into a bowl of maggots? Whatever you did, I think we can all agree that we're bouncing off the walls with excitement now that HBO's Game of Thrones prequel has returned. And what a return it was! Bad things happened to kids. Dragons got some good screen time. Sex was made. It was everything you could want out of TV's biggest spectacle.

But before we get into it, there are a few things you should know about me and what to expect here:

• I have not read Fire & Blood, the book that House of the Dragon is based on, but...
• I lurk in various online forums, so I am aware of some changes from the book and will write about that a little bit
• I have seen the first four episodes of the season, but I am compartmentalizing my brain episode-by-episode for this recap
• I thoroughly enjoyed Game of Thrones (and recapped many seasons for TV.com and TVGuide.com), even the bad seasons
• I lean Team Green, but only sort of; both sides are wrong AND both sides are right! It's complicated, innit?

With that nonsense out of the way, let's begin. Most of "A Son for a Son" takes place in two locations: Dragonstone, where the Blacks are headquartered and scheming to reclaim the Iron Throne, and King's Landing, where the Greens are holding down the fort and, maybe illegitimately, ruling a quickly dividing Westeros. But the episode begins somewhere else, somewhere rather familiar: Dolorous Edd's future stomping grounds, The Wall. "Duty is sacrifice. It eclipses all things, even blood. All men of honor must pay the price," is spoken by an unseen narrator, true to the militaristic rationalizing — read: brainwashing — of the Night's Watch. "This is not a sentence, but an honor." Yeah, right. Whatever gets you through the night, guys. 

That man who says it? Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor, who apparently was trying to channel Ned Stark in his voice but sounded more like an exhausted Jon Snow to me). Jace Velaryon (Harry Collett), Rhaenyra's eldest son (with Harwin Strong and not Laenor Velaryon, and I will remind you of that every time I mention him), was sent up north to lobby for support for his mom at the end of Season 1, and here we see him getting a tour of the Night's Watch clubhouse. Cregan tells him all about unseen horrors beyond The Wall, which is why his ancestors built a 700-foot blockade of ice to keep them out. This sounds very interesting; they should make a show about it! 

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• House of the Dragon Season 2 review
• House of the Dragon Season 2: Everything we know
• A guide to the House of the Dragon characters
• A guide to the House of the Dragon dragons

It's a peek at this next stage of diplomacy: gathering allies in anticipation of all-out war. I know we're all expecting dragons to wrestle each other this season, but I think a large chunk of Season 2 will be the cold war between the Targaryen-Hightowers and the Targaryen-Velaryons, further entrenching House of the Dragon as more of a political drama than dragon battle porn. Get ready for royalty currying the favor of smallfolk and backroom marriage propositions that strengthen house bonds despite the disgusting age gapes between the wedded-to-be! And don't get too excited about spending time with the sullen Starks in the north, or any other place that's "new" to House of the Dragon. This is a story of the Targaryens, and how they screwed everything up by naming a kid after a dead king. 

DRAGONSTONE

The Season 2 premiere really begins in Dragonstone, where the Blacks — or Team Sore Losers, as I call them — are in disarray and disagreement following the news that Luke Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), Rhaenyra's second eldest son (with Harwin Strong and not Laenor Velaryon, and I will remind you of that every time I mention him), was chewed up and spit out by Vhagar at the end of Season 1. Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) is fuming and wants revenge, Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best) wants to think things through before starting war, and Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) is scouring the shores near Storm's End for pieces of Luke so that she can begin the grieving process. These images of Rhaenyra standing solo, fury and sorrow in her eyes, cut deep. This is a queen, sure, but what we see here is a mourning mother, which is far more dangerous than an angry queen.

Somewhere in the sea, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) is found aboard a ship persona non grata, having previously kidnapped Aegon — which the Greens didn't appreciate — and having not killed Aegon or turned him over to Rhaenyra's side — which the Blacks didn't like. It lands her in Dragonstone prison, where Daemon, her ex-lover, blames her for helping put Aegon on the throne. He also blames Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor), one of the twin knights, for not getting to Aegon first, which also led to Aegon's coronation. Daemon is blaming everyone. More like Blaemon Targaryen, amirite? 

After finding Luke, or what's left of him, and his dragon Arrax — wings pulled off like the insectoid victim of a future serial killer — Rhaenyra attends a Black council meeting and delivers a simple message: "I want Aemond Targaryen." Meeting adjourned. First, get in line, Rhaenyra. (Have you seen those cheekbones?) Second, couldn't this have been an email? 

Daemon, eager to please his queen/wife/niece, hatches a plan: Kill Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). Brilliant! That should solve everything! Daemon recognizes an opportunity and offers Mysaria a deal: Find some lowlifes willing to infiltrate the Red Keep and kill Aemond using her vast network of snitches and spies, and she gets freedom. 

KING'S LANDING

Back at the Green House, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) thinks it's Bring Your Kid to Work day, so he goes looking for his eldest son, Jaehaerys. (There's a subtle moment where he has to take a closer look to make sure Jaehaerys' twin sister, Jaehaera, isn't the boy, and it's validating because I can't tell these pasty, platinum-haired weirdos apart either.) Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban), Aegon's sister and *barf* wife, says he's at lessons, but that's not what I care about in this scene. It's Helaena's comment about being scared of rats, which is another premonition from the mouth of this peculiar soothsayer. She may have predicted Aemond's lost eye when she said he'd have to ride a dragon with one eye closed, and she may have foreseen Rhaenys bursting through the floor of Aegon's coronation in the Season 1 finale when she said "Beware the beast beneath the boards." This woman is a well of spoilers; has she seen the screeners, too? Upon hearing what appears to be more nonsense spilling from Helaena's mouth, all Aegon can say is, "The queen is an enduring mystery, is she not?" Everything is going fine in the royal court. Just fine!

In the chambers of Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), the queen regent is, uhhh, intensely having her nether regions inspected by Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), a man who takes his job of protecting the royals very seriously, apparently. These two! What is going on here? After the royal inspection is done, she talks about the weather, and he mentions she has a meeting. What a beautiful relationship we can all aspire to. (Please do not ship them; this is not a healthy union.)

At the small council meeting, it's all about strengthening Team Green's side. The North isn't taking their calls (they've already sided with Rhaenyra), the Stormlands are looking good thanks to a proposed marriage between Aemond and Lady Floris Baratheon, and Otto's nephew Ormund Hightower is set to march on the Riverlands, with Harrenhal and its strategic placement the prime goal. If you're keeping score, it's looking like a tie game early on, with neither side taking a lead. 

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Meanwhile, Jaehaerys is playing with Tyland Lannister's (Jefferson Hall) ball, much to the delight of Aegon, who uses the opportunity to be a dick and tell Tyland to give his son a pony ride. I understand that Aegon was portrayed as a horrible person in Season 1, with multiple felonies under his belt, but in terms of comedy, he's an MVP of the show. His exasperated sigh when Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) dismissed his plan of "I have the big dragons, let them eat" was gold, and Glynn-Carney is so charming it's making it hard for me to not like him. In fact, I would argue that Glynn-Carney's performance is as critical to House of the Dragon as anyone's — as the petulant king whose right to the Iron Throne is disputed, his charisma could be all that separates the show's fans from heavily favoring the Blacks. 

We see even more from Aegon in a later scene as he's taking petitions from regular people in the throne room. And shockingly, Aegon is super generous? When a shepherd asks Aegon to replace the sheep the crown took to feed the dragons, Aegon is ready to march them over himself. When a smith asks for money up front to help craft defenses for Aegon's army instead of getting paid after (or not getting paid at all), Aegon says, "Our victory depends on the efforts of the smallfolk," and opts for the un-Trumpian move of actually paying his contractors. Aegon for the people! This smallfolk-friendly attitude shows Aegon in a new light, which is a game plan for the show's writers as the directive appears to be "balance out the Greens and the Blacks because we spent a ton of money on marketing this whole 'All Must Choose' campaign," with the goal being to divide the fan base equally into taking sides. I get that idea, and if done correctly, it could be fun, but there are times this season when the writing seems to be too focused on that instead of letting the characters just be. Just get ready for it, and know that's what the writers are trying to do. 

In the next scene, Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) makes his first move of the season, bluntly stating that Aegon should can Otto as Hand of the King. I appreciate how Larys understands the various efforts needed to manipulate his targets; Aegon almost gets a direct order that takes all of 30 seconds, while the more intelligent Alicent required weeks of effort, the murder of Larys' own father and brother, and cutting the tongues out of prisoners. Larys is good at his job.

The last chunk of the episode is devoted to Daemon's plot to kill Aemond, and it's a doozy. Daemon weasels his way to King's Landing (all you have to do is wear a hood and no one will recognize you!), where he meets Mysaria's contact, a Hightower-hating guard who is quick to agree to Daemon's proposal. He introduces Daemon to one of the Red Keep's Masters of Rats, a filthy rodent snatcher who knows the ins and outs of the royal abode and can move around unnoticed. Important to note is that when one of them asks what to do if they can't find Aemond, Daemon says nothing, very intentionally. Did the scene cut away before he could answer? Did he mean something more with his blank stare? Was the deal strictly "Aemond or nothing"? Or does the episode's title, "A Son for a Son," a phrase that Daemon himself mentioned earlier in the episode, mean any of the royal sons will do? If you ask me, he meant Aemond, and Aemond only, since that's what he said. Knocking out Aemond also means grounding Vhagar, which would be a huge win for Team Black. But it's something that will be debated painfully and bemoaned unnecessarily for years, since this is not how it went down in the books (link contains some spoilers at the bottom, but is mostly safe to read). 

The duo — who I don't believe are named in the show but are known as Blood (the guard) and Cheese (the ratcatcher) in the book — make their way into the Red Keep, and the tension builds as they slink through underground tunnels and little-used passageways, inching closer and closer to the pay dirt that is Aemond Targaryen's throat. But you get what you pay for when you don't hire a pro, and when these two boneheads reach the bedroom of Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, all plans go flying out the window like Tommen Baratheon. Cheese puts a knife to Helaena's neck and asks her which one of the two toddler twins is the son, and she points to Jaehaerys. Blood gets to work, and even though we don't see it, the sound of Blood's blade hacking and sawing is horrific enough. This is how wars get escalated. 

Helaena escapes the room with Jaehaera, running to her mother's chambers. Alicent is once again having her royal naughty parts inspected by Cole, who, one could argue, should be watching the kids so they, I don't know, don't get their heads cut off by assassins. Unlike Larys, Cole is NOT good at his job.

Helaena crumbles to the ground and says, "They killed the boy." Season 1 ended with one kid getting killed, and Season 2 begins with another kid getting killed. People are going to be mad.

Notes from the ravens:

• It appears that the smith who spoke with Aegon is Hugh Hammer. Book readers, you know.
• Aegon is not a fan of his title "Aegon the Magnanimous," but least he got a title. Rhaenyra got nothin'.
• How about those new opening credits? They're gorgeous! I wasn't a huge fan of the Season 1 credits and the blood flowing from spot to spot, but I do love the living tapestry in Season 2. It feels so rich with history. Props to design house yU + co for creating it.

House of the Dragon airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on HBO and Max.