‘House of the Dragon’ Kicks Off Season 2 with a Gruesome Kill

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere.

It’s been nearly two years since House of the Dragon flew onto HBO and introduced us to dozens of blond characters with identical names, and now, it’s back with a fiery vengeance. But did anyone have “child murder” on their bingo cards for this episode? Oh—everyone did? Yeah, I guess, in a way, it was kind of predictable.

If you have any memory of the Game of Thrones prequel’s debut season, you might recall that in the penultimate episode, Aemond (the blond guy with one eye played by Ewan Mitchell) accidentally killed one of the show’s few brunettes—the ousted queen Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) second-born son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault). Well, technically, Vhagar, Aemond’s dragon was the one responsible, but something tells me that the distinction matters little to Rhaenyra.

Now, Rhaenyra’s uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith in a terrible blond wig) is hellbent on getting back at the royal usurpers. As he puts it, he wants to “make it a son for a son.”

Because assassins are a dime a dozen in this world, Daemon has no trouble finding both the muscle and a guy who just happens to know his way around all the palace tunnels. So helpful! Now all they have to do is find Aemond like Daemon asks. (Seriously, though, could we not get slightly less confusing names?!)

And if these two hitmen can’t find Aemond? They can just kill his nephew Jaehaerys—heir to his brother King Aegon II’s throne and not to be confused with his twin sister Jaehaera—instead. In a rare act of restraint, the show does not show us the little tyke’s death (which invites speculation as to whether he really is dead) but his mother, Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), does confirm he’s been killed, so his chances of survival seem scant at best.

But what else happens in this episode? Honestly, not that much! Rhaenyra flies to the site of her son’s death, where scavengers are picking over his dragon’s wing, and grieves. Her ex-best friend, King Aegon’s mother Alicent (Olivia Cooke), is trying to smooth things over and talk some sense into all of these deeply unserious blonde boys at the Small Council, but her son pays her basically no mind. Aegon takes pleadings from the common folk and is about as terrible at it as one might expect, and he hates that he’s been given the name Aegon the Magnanimous and instead wants to be named Aegon the Dragoncock, which, charming!

Also, it seems like Alicent’s father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans)—Aegon’s Hand and former Hand to his grandfather, the late King Viserys (Paddy Considine)—might soon be out of a job. Then again, the thing about Hands is that they’re usually pretty dextrous when it comes to getting themselves out of a bind, so we’ll see!

All in all, things do not seem to be going great in Alicent’s world. The one silver lining is that she’s hooking up all over the castle with the extremely gorgeous Kingsguardman Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel). So much for that chastity oath he made! And what do we think Rhaenyra would think of Alicent sleeping with the childhood crush she once seduced herself? I guess we’re decades past that now.

Moving forward, Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship remains a question to be answered. Alicent clearly feels some regret over the treasonous history between them—or at least, she cares enough to light a candle in honor of Rhaenyra’s murdered son, Lucerys. But is there any world in which these two mend fences? Given how reprehensible most of the men around them are, I’ve got my fingers crossed.