House of the Dragon recap: The Dragonseeds take flight

The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 2 begins with Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) facing off on the beach with their dragons scratching and snarling behind them. In case Addam was not aware, Rhaenyra informs him she’s the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and, by the way, that dragon he’s been riding around on is her property. 

Addam bends the knee, which takes Rhaenyra a bit by surprise. “You kneel quickly for a man so suddenly elevated,” she says. He admits he’s been loyally serving House Velaryon as a shipwright, but “if the gods call me to greater things, who am I to refuse them?”

Still hung up on the Blood of the Dragon thing, Rhaenyra wants to know of his parentage, but he leaves out the fact that her former father-in-law and current Hand, Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), is his father. 

As they fly back to Dragonstone, Jace (Harry Collett) watches their arrival. Though the Dragonseed plot was his idea, he’s none too pleased by this turn of events. Neither is Lord Bartimos (Nicholas Jones), who huffs that the lowborn can’t go around seizing dragons. Corlys, with all that dragonblood pumping in his veins, pretends he has nothing to do with this whole incident, giving his son a “well done” and nothing more when he visits him in the very nice digs he now gets as a dragonrider. 

In a meeting with Rhaenyra, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) suggests she’s been looking for dragonriders in the wrong places, and perhaps should be “looking under the sheets and in the workhouse.” Just as Robert Baratheon would later litter King’s Landing with his own bastards – like the rowing extraordinaire and future Lord of Storm’s End, Gendry Rivers – there are loads of silver-haired Targaryen progeny among the smallfolk. She knows many of them. When Rhaenyra tsks that the highborn have sworn ancient fealty to her House and it would be better to find riders among them, Mysaria counters that her half-brothers are both highborn and trying to steal her throne. Good point, Rhaenyra concedes: “Well then, let us raise an army of bastards.”

Being bastard-born, Jace is no fool for what this whole plan means for his claim to the throne and is quite put out. His paternal parentage can be doubted, but he can argue for his legitimacy as heir because he has a dragon. But if a bunch of bastard-born Targaryen are running around with dragons, that throws the whole system by which they rule into chaos. Rhaenyra believes this is the only way they can end the war quickly and without bloodshed, but Jace wants her to put him before the kingdom. It’s a choice she just cannot make. 

 Daemon gets his army — but at a price

House Tully arrives at Harrenhal with Lord Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes) as its new head. If Daemon (Matt Smith) thought he could bully the young lad into doing his bidding because Oscar is a teenager, he soon finds he has not a fish, but a shark, in his midst. Displaying the type of moxie that would make Lyanna Mormont proud, Oscar outmaneuvers Daemon in a meeting with the Riverlords, who hate Daemon and Lord Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) for their crimes against the innocent and demand justice. Proving himself worthy of his new title, Oscar sentences Lord Blackwood to die for his crimes, but makes Daemon dispense his justice. Blackwood claims he only did what he did on Daemon’s orders, but Oscar coolly says, “You did it because you wanted to.” Daemon knows that the only way to get Oscar’s army is to carry out his sentence, so he reluctantly brings Dark Sister down on Willem’s head.

Later, when Daemon has another vision of his brother Viserys (Paddy Considine), he’s decrepit and holding his crown in sorrow. Viserys admits he never wanted to rule and that the crown crushes whoever wears it. He holds it out to Daemon and asks, “Do you want it still?” Daemon doesn’t look so sure. 

Alicent goes swimming

It’s a somewhat quiet week on Team Black as Larys (Matthew Needham) keeps news of Seasmoke’s new rider to himself to spite Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), who is sending members of the Kingsguard to the Wall for their failure in last week’s riot. Full of plots, Larys has demanded that Grandmaester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) get the disfigured Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) up and out of bed to practice walking. Still wracked with pain, Aegon screams as he tries, but when Orwyle tells Larys the king needs to rest, Larys says, “It will be long before he may rest again.”

After Orwyle tends to Alicent’s knife wound, the dowager queen reflects on the fact that she’s spent her whole life sacrificing for the good of the kingdom only to be met with a blade during the riot. Questioning the point of her life, she decides it’s time she had a vacation, and goes camping in the nearby woods. With Criston gone, she brings along only her sworn protector Lord Rickard Thorne (Vincent Regan), who sets up their tents and minds camp while quietly thinking the queen has lost her mind. As Alicent rides and swims alone, she enjoys a freedom she’s never had before… and might not return to her place at court as a result. 

The Bronze Fury finds a new master 

Rhaenyra might have one new dragonrider in Addam, but she still has dragons to spare. With Mysaria’s knowledge of the lowborn Targaryens of Flea Bottom, they send Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) — who, unlike his brother, wants to remain of salt and sea — to King’s Landing with the message that Rhaenyra seeks dragonriders of Targaryen blood, lowborn or not. The message makes it to both Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) and Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), who admits to his wife that his mother was a Targaryen-born prostitute (more on his mother in the notes below).

Along with many silver-haired men and women, Hugh and Ulf board the boat to Dragonstone. Rhaenyra watches as they enter the castle. Though the Dragonkeepers helped with Ser Darklyn’s attempt to ride Seasmoke, this collection of lowborn Targaryens is too much for them. They tell Rhaenyra in Valryian that they will take no part in this folly. Dressed in one of the most impressive red gowns she owns, Rhaenyra comes before her little-known relatives and warns them of the dangers that they face. She tells them of the mighty Vermithor, known as the Bronze Fury, second only to Vhagar in size and the most fierce dragon that lives. With a new dragonrider, “Peace will be restored. Suffering will end.”

While Jace is notably absent, the ever-loyal Baela (Bethany Antonia) is by Rhaenyra's side as they enter the Dragonmont with all the potential dragonseeds. Rhaenyra calls to Vermithor and the great beast eventually emerges from the darkness. He allows her to stroke her nose as she urges him “Be calm” in Valyrian.

A rather misbegotten dragonseed steps forward, and Rhaenyra takes her leave to watch from the balcony above, saying, “It must be the dragon who speaks.” But when Vermithor speaks, he decides it’s dinner time and roasted dragonseeds are on the menu. 

The Bronze Fury attacks with flame and teeth, incinerating and eating all who aren’t quick enough to escape him. Ulf gets knocked off the platform but survives by running off into the dragon caverns. Rhaenyra watches, transfixed from above, as Vermithor unleashes terror upon his potential riders. But she doesn’t urge any of them to safety. She knows if Vermithor is to be claimed, one of these dragonseeds will have to prove themselves worthy of it.

Once the fiery chaos is unleashed, Hugh runs for his life, hiding behind a rock with another terrified woman. When the woman tries to make a run for it and comes face-to-face with the raging dragon, Hugh bravely distracts Vermithor so she can escape. Before the dragon decides to attack, he sizes Hugh up. As the man bellows “COME ON!” at him, he must sense a true Targaryen warrior standing before him. As Rhaenyra watches from above, Vermithor kneels and Hugh smiles. The Bronze Fury is riderless no more. 

With a torch in hand, Ulf runs through the muck of the caverns, stumbling as he searches for an exit. As he crushes what looks like a dragon egg beneath his feet, he realizes he has stumbled into a dragon’s lair. Silverwing emerges from the shadows, pushing a terrorized Ulf down. He surrenders to her, hands up as he waits to be incinerated with his eyes closed. When no dragonfire comes, he opens his eyes to see the mighty dragon kneeling to him. He laughs in relief and at his good fortune.  

Back in King’s Landing, Aemond is reigning over the Small Council as a commotion grows outside, with the shouts of “Dragon” growing louder in his ears. A dragon has taken flight over the Red Keep. As Aemond rushes to mount Vhagar, we see Ulf is taking Silverwing out for a spin.  

Aemond follows a laughing Ulf all the way to Dragonstone before pulling back once he gets sight of the castle. “Flee, Vhagar!” Aemond commands as he yanks frantically on his dragon’s bridle. As the camera draws closer, we see what panicked Aemond. It’s Rhaenyra standing with Syrax, Vermithor, and Silverwing roaring at her command. Game on!

Notes from the Archmaester

• Hugh’s mother might be the infamous Targaryen princess Saera Targaryen, who was the child of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne. Jaehaerys was famously loyal to Alysanne, so it doesn’t fit that he would have had a bastard. However, Saera was a wild child who escaped King’s Landing to become the proprietor of a famous pleasure house and had three bastard sons, according to Fire & Blood. The book never explained Hugh’s Targaryen parentage, but what he said to his wife could fit into Saera’s story. 
• Rhaenyra might soon have a fourth dragonrider, since Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) has abandoned her duty of seeing her brothers safely to Pentos in favor of finding the wild dragon Sheepstealer in the Vale. We’ll see if Rhaenyra's gratefulness overcomes her anger at having her boys a little less protected.  
• Daeron’s dragon Tessarion has taken to wing, so Team Green has gained an additional dragonrider of its own. Will Daeron make his first appearance in the finale? 
• Ewan Mitchell displays an impressive ability to leap on a horse while looking almost like Legolas in Lord of the Rings.