House of the Dragon: S2, E8 The Queen Who Ever Was Review

The Queen Who Ever Was has been a lot cooler of an online reaction compared to the very hot reaction of The Red Sowing. Season finales in the Game of Thrones-TV-Universe often feel like wrap-up episodes to the season, so I can’t fault it for being “anticlimactic”. I’d still hesitate to call this a great conclusion to season two, though. As it stands, I think this season finale was the perfect example of the highs and lows of this season.

Larys convincing Aegon they must leave King’s Landing by talking through all of his suggestions was a highpoint. Aemond’s positioned himself as being more powerful than the King as Prince Regent. Even with this revelation, it can’t helped but be wondered what Larys’ aim is with the King.

Unfortunately, Aemond’s scenes were a low point for the episode. The burning of Sharp Point is a tragedy that would’ve been far more effective if we understood who they were. His next number of scenes involve him demanding the Helaena rides Dreamfyre into battle. That ends up being a wrap on Aemond for the season.

Everything that happens at Harrenhal with Daemon is excellent. Ser Alfred Broome tries to convince Daemon to proclaim himself king, while Alys Rivers leads him to weirwood that shows him visions of what’s to come. He proceeds to reaffirm his loyalty to Rhaeynra as she arrives at Harrenhal.

Daemon has been battling these demons all season. While they’ve been a bit drawn out at times, it’s been nice to see some character growth and allow us the ability to understand who he is. He’s even given a moment to go “turncoat”, but when Queen Rhaeynra arrives he bends the knee.

Alicent is the only other character to experience a similar level of growth this season. Since her meeting with Rhaenyra in The Burning Mill, the weight of the world has been crashing down on Alicent. From understanding that having Aegon ascend was a mistake to seeing her sons for what they are and being left alone in King’s Landing with no role or anyone to confide in, Alicent has fallen apart. It’s rather unfortunate that The Queen Who Ever Was decides that Rhaeynra and Alicent need to have second secret meeting to talk.

Obviously, House of the Dragon is based on a source material that is more textbook than anything else but pulling this trick twice in a single season is pushing my own suspension of disbelief. This episode’s case isn’t made any stronger when much of the conversation between these two is retreading well trodden ground. I honestly can’t tell if it’s supposed to be a handicap to those who missed Alicent’s arc or made to stretch the runtime. I mean this earnestly, as it’s obvious that some decisions came down the production team struggled with. It’s very similar to episode six, where Rhaenyra is restating events that unfolded in season 1 that weren’t directly told to the audience but shown. And here we are yet again with that same thing happening with Alicent doing it.

House of the Dragon had an excellent first season. The format for the Game of Thrones-TV-Universe was shaken up in season one through the use of narration, flashbacks, and time skips that made the effort to communicate how much time had passed between episodes. It was also centralized around a single location as opposed to Game of Thrones, which had taken the approach of jumping between different points of view across Westeros. It’s unfortunate that the series had to stumble so much in it’s sophomore season.

The episode form has regressed to try and replicate what came before. As a result, character points of view need to be jumped to while they’re essentially waiting for something to happen. The dialogue reeks as hollow in these scenes as it’s not being used to further what we know and instead reinstates what is already known.

Why this is so frustrating is due to how effective this is done with the bastards at King’s Landing. Hugh and Ulf are introduced early in the season for a relevance that only arrives in The Red Sowing, yet their time on screen never felt like it was wasted. Not only were these characters experiencing micro-subplots that the audience could follow along with, their points of view gave us the perspective of the smallfolk in Westeros during this civil war.

Unfortunately, this is the state of season two of “House of the Dragon”. It was good, yet a step down from season one. It could execute “check-in” scenes with the smallfolk that drove their own stories and plot forward while fumbling with the nobleborn.