Fratricidal twins, Daemon’s lone rider… What to remember from episode 2

After offering an unbearable Sophie’s Choice to her spectators last Monday for her return, House Of The Dragon bets for its second episode, posted online on Max, on a variation of the duel between Cain and Abel. Westeros is no stranger to fratricidal duels (see the Dantesque clash between The Hound and The Mountain in Game Of Thrones). The particularity of this fight to the death is that it pits two twins with opposing political allegiances against each other. This shocking moment concludes a chapter that is much more talkative and tactical than the previous one. A stopgap, even the most impatient will say. Entitled “Rhaenyra the Cruel”, it lets the internal tensions between the two clans come to light.

A mother’s “sweet” tears

In Port-Réal, capital of the Greens, the astonishment of the beheading of the little crown prince gave way to anger and political calculations. Furious at having lost his heir, King Aegon is obsessed with revenge against his rival “queen of the bastards”. His guards return the citadel in pursuit of the assassins. His grandfather and advisor Otto Hightower sees, more cynically, all the capital sympathy to be gained from this tragedy: the support of the people and the rallying to the Greens of vassals repulsed by this attack. No matter, the grief of the child’s mother, Helaena. His “sweet” tears and those of his mother Alicent will conquer the crowds. The two women are exhibited, leading a grueling procession against their will. One of the wheels of the hearse becomes stuck, threatening the toddler’s head to separate from the rest of the body.

His posterity threatened, Aegon on the other hand has no words of tenderness towards his bereaved wife and sister, more than ever a victim of his status as Cassandra. Oppressed by the unhealthy curiosity of her subjects, overwhelmed by anxiety. Initial target of the conspirators, their younger brother Aemond appears more shaken. Filled with regret at having shed the first blood, which he forgets, in the fetal position, in the arms of his assigned prostitute. Substitute mother and psychoanalyst. This mistress warns him: “when the nobles argue, it is the people who suffer” The leitmotif of this season illustrated by vignettes of inhabitants struggling to feed themselves.

Rupture entre Daemon et Rhaenyra

The Black camp can only see the ravages of this propaganda. Rhaenyra is angry with Daemon for having issued a deliberately vague instruction and accuses him of going it alone and letting himself be guided by permanent brilliance. “I can’t trust you. I was never able to do it as much as I wanted and wanted to. Your heart belongs only to you. As a child, I took this as a challenge. I have grown old today and I have to face many other challenges,” says the sovereign to her spouse, suggesting that he has taken advantage of her naivety. Accusing him of having sought through her the crown which was refused to him.

Returning blow for blow, Daemon criticizes his niece and wife for being as cowardly and indecisive as his father Viserys. The break is complete when Rhaenyra asks him if he recognizes her as sovereign. Only silence answers him. Then absence. Daemon rides his dragon towards other skies, to the rhythm of the menacing accents of a variation of Carl Orff’s Carmina burana. Faced with an incredulous and then intractable Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith continues his deliberately silent score. Does Daemon himself understand his motivations as an arsonist? Is he moved by honor, love, provocation, hubris, resentment?

Change of Hand

Dissension is also common among the Greens. Tired of the pragmatism of his Hand and ancestor Otto Hightower, Aegon turns to the commoner and commander of the guard Criston Cole to take more expeditious measures. Like arresting and hanging all the rat catchers in the city to capture and execute the one who participated in the murder of his son. But the horizon of gibbets on the walls of the citadel shocks the population. A loss of popular fervor that Otto Hightower blames him for. “Cursed be dignity, I want my revenge. Enough ink and diplomacy, blood is needed», says the young king. Aegon signs his emancipation by thanking his grandfather and naming Criston Cole his new Hand. Otto’s warnings, who accuse Aegon of unkind epithets – “idiot”, “unconscious” – are echoed by the astonishment of Cole who wonders if his ambition has not led him to have eyes bigger than his stomach.

Privately, Otto enjoined his daughter Alicent to try to bring the young monarch back to reason and obedience. He returns to his stronghold to watch over his last grandson, who will perhaps be kind enough to be more obedient. Alicent is going through another dilemma. If she is convinced that the death of little Jaehaerys is divine punishment for having an affair with Cole, this does not prevent her from falling back into the arms of the Commander, even if she is furious with him, beating him before hug.

Fratricidal twins

One of Cole’s first suggestions to Aegon is to repay the Blacks by sending an assassin to retrieve Rhaenyra’s head. The days when Cole had a crush on the princess who disdained him are long gone. The unfortunate person who picks up the suicide mission is Arryk Cargyll. His twin brother Erryk has indeed chosen the Black camp. Arryk is therefore in the best position to infiltrate the Court of Rhaenyra, and usurp the identity of his brother.

This improbable plan could have gone smoothly except that Arryk is identified by the spy and ex-prostitute Mysaria, now in the service of the blacks. Shortly after Arryk entered the queen’s bedroom, Erryk appeared, sword in hand. The twins exchange words of love. But duty is stronger than anything. Erryk ends up getting the upper hand over his brother. But chooses to kill himself and impales himself to follow him into the afterlife. Their sacrifice symbolizes the futility of this civil war which will divide and eliminate entire lineages. Their gesture also enters into the tragic folklore of Westeros.

Hence the screenwriter’s decision to make this duel the high point of this episode. The fight lasts barely three minutes on screen, but the actors rehearsed the maneuvers for around thirty hours. The fact remains that this epilogue seems a step below and a pale imitation of the confrontation of the Cleagane brothers in Game Of Thrones. Enough to end this episode with a taste of unfinished business.