The Red Dragon and the Gold Review

“Only weeks ago, my lord husband was alive and the realm was at peace.”

In “The Red Dragon and the Gold”, the Dance of the Dragons has officially begun. In doing so, this week’s episode of “House of the Dragon”, with the character work and sequence at Rook’s Rest, is a strong contender as the best episode of the series thus far and a defining episode for “House of the Dragon”.

Similar to “Game of Thrones” Season 2’s penultimate episode, “Blackwater”, there is a calm before the storm that is Rook’s Rest in which our beloved heroes and villains either develop or reflect as the threat of war hangs in the air.

Daemon battles faces of his past and present while raising a force at Harrenhal. Rhaenys is encouraging Corlys to uplift his bastard, Alyn, while keeping Rhaenyra’s council at bay in her present absence. Alicent is contending with the realization that usurping the throne from Rhaenyra was a mistake. Aegon is emasculated by Aemond, Criston Cole, Alicent, and his small council.

“House of the Dragon” spends much of it’s character runtime having them make actions and reactions ruling over Westeros. This episode pulls back the curtain on our characters to see further intention behind their actions and the personal battles that shape who they are. I believe we may see how Daemon and Alicent continue to change as we progress further through this period of history based on this episode. Will Daemon reconcile with who he has been and how that’s changed those around him or will he embrace this side of himself? Will Alicent confront her mistakes that have lead to open war? It doesn’t necessarily matter how our characters change. What does matter is more is happening beyond a bloody war unfolding.

At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra finally returns from King’s Landing to agree with her small council that they must go to war and attack Cole’s forces as they gather at Rook’s Rest. Rhaeyns, the most outspokenly opposed of the use of dragons and open war, volunteers as a dragon rider to deliver this blow to the Greens on the behalf of the Blacks.

What unfolds above and on the battle field at Rook’s Rest allowed last week’s audience to truly understand why Visery’s questioned whether mankind should have meddled with dragons at all.

This dance of dragons between Aegon, Aemond, and Rhaenys only displayed a glimpse of the possible devastation that this kind of warfare will unleash. Troops and equipment devastated in only a moment with dragonfire. Blood from dragon’s open wounds pour like hot oil to whoever stands below. Crashing and retaking flight kills countless as these creatures don’t even acknowledge us in the act. The victorious can only watch as their opponent falls to the ground to set off an explosion only rivaled by wildfire. Soldiers below only exist to clean up after the victor above. We see this, so does Criston Cole.

Later seasons of “Game of Thrones” gave us dragon action, but it was never portrayed in such a horrific manner. “The Red Dragon and the Gold” needed to deliver on the promise of an excellent on screen battle to kick-off this conflict as it’s been the very promise of “House of the Dragon” since the very first episode. It delivered on this promise and offered excellent character moments in part. As a result, last week’s episode makes one of the strongest arguments for the potential of the series going forward and a reason to continue to return to Westeros.