House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6 Review: The show threatens to stumble into a rut in weakest episode

Odd narrative stasis creeps in, despite a troubled King’s Landing, a new dragon-rider and another prophecy

As has been the case with the second season so far and carrying on into the new episode written by Eileen Shim, Rhaenyra ( Emma D’Arcy) chafes at being almost ubiquitously perceived as someone to be protected. It is ironic that she, who had been urging restraint in her council and men, is being strongly cautioned against her willingness to go out on her own. Even her relationship with her son, Jace ( Harry Collett) is starting to strain because she finds in him the same impulse to look on her solely as a mother/woman and not the ruler she is. She finds her patience snapping, as a decision to entrust Ser Steffon Darklyn ( Anthony Flanagan) with dragon-riding horribly backfires. The sequence is tensely paced, intensely charting the bated wait for Seasmoke to first appear out of the dark, showing alluring promise of obeying until the situation entirely flips. Albeit huge risk was always in the unconventional pursuit, the shock still stings. The loss of yet another noble, good man while she herself is constantly told to sit still has been taking a toll on Rhaenyra.

It is only in Mysaria ( a steely Sonoyo Mizuno) that she feels she can be most intimate with and share her private confidences without being dismissed or have her suggestions instantly ruled out. In her, Rhaenyra finds a warm, kindred understanding, grounded in strategies that try to deepen her hold on the capital with imaginativeness and unusual smarts. No matter the sincerity of the intentions of the men who surround her, most ultimately are entitled to think they can patronise her as if she were their daughter/mother/wife. Rhaenyra yearns to be projected as formidable, capable of exerting fear and not just be viewed as a paragon of fair ideals. Perhaps in Mysaria she also sees the resilience she should have.

As Mysaria reminded her in the last episode that there is more than one way to fight a war, in this one we witness the former’s carefully laid plans come to fruition. The two have struck a knowing, close alliance, with Rhaenyra empowering Mysaria to use her best tactics. Thus, they start dispatching a fleet of boats to the crisis-stricken King’s Landing, stacked with food. These obviously have significant repercussions on the small folk in the capital. The food paucity and delayed payments for service rendered keeps fuelling their restlessness against the king/regent, exacerbated furthermore by rumours, fanned by Mysaria’s chain of solid connections, of daily feasts and revelries continuing inside the Red Keep with little or no regard for the distress that ails whoever lies outside their walls. As the food sent from Rhaenyra trickles into King’s Landing, entire riots break out, stemming from the desperation to snatch the last remaining morsel and spreading to erupt against the dowager queen, Alicent ( Olivia Cooke) and Helaena ( Phia Saban). What lies in store for Team Green as they might have to reckon with the abundantly displayed rejection by those over whom they seek absolute power?

There are more disappointments for Alicent, with her being ejected from the small council by her own son and Regent, Aemond ( Ewan Mitchell) who advises him to return to “domestic matters”. She asks him, “ have the indignities of your childhood not yet sufficiently been avenged?” In one pointed line, she pares down to him frontally the root of the violence and rage he feels so justified in subjecting everyone and everything that’s under his control. While Aegon ( Tom Glynn-Carney) seems to be healing slowly, he insists to Aemond he remembers nothing of the battle. Larys ( a terrific Matthew Needham), visiting him, bares his most vulnerable side yet, flashing his past humiliations, as well as encouraging him to treat his weakness to his advantage.

Elsewhere in Harrenhal, Daemon’s ( Matt Smith) stay remains mired in panic and terror. Since the primary source of his tussle with his desire for the throne had been his brother, Viserys’ ( Paddy Considine) ascension, it is fitting the latter finally turns up in Daemon’s seemingly interminable hallucinations that Harrenhal buries him under. Though there are whiffs in this episode that Daemon’s Harrenhal track might be wrapping up, this track has totally run its course, bordering on exasperating the viewer than hitting any new level of unsettlement. Episode director Andrij Parekh is faced with interweaving multiple jostling strands but visibly struggles to marshal them together with force and satisfaction. It’s a pity to watch Rhaena Targaryen ( a fiercely compelling Phoebe Campbell) trapped in a feeble, dispirited track, wasted to an impact-free presence in the Vale of Arryn. Though there are exhilarating moments in the episode as when Seasmoke might have claimed a new dragon-rider and powerful expressions of trauma and resistance, by Larys and Mysaria, it is frequently bogged down by an air of deliberate postponement for major sequences down the road. This design of purposefully making us wait is beginning to feel more stretched out than craft an enticing, lingering edge.

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