House of the Dragon season 1 episode 1 recap: We need to talk about the Targaryens

Table Of Content

• A few thoughts while warm up our singing voice
• "House of the Dragon" Episode 8
• Larys Kills Harwin and Lyonel
• Season 1, Episode 6: ‘The Princess and the Queen’
• UAB Players Joining Athletes.org Means Time for Labor Law Refresher
• House of the Dragon Features Matt Smith As You’ve Never Seen Him
• George R.R. Martin Is On Board

(Last hand pun, I promise.) The Targaryen Brothers don’t take bad news well, as we were reminded when Daemon bludgeoned the messenger in the Stepstones. It all culminated in seeing a physically rotting ruler kick his hung over brother in the ribs for sleeping with his daughter in front of everybody in a brothel — and seeing said brother respond by asking to marry his niece in the name of family tradition. That was Alicent on Sunday night, winning the Understatement of the Week award. The abiding weirdness of the Targaryens, on TV, dates back to the early days of “Game of Thrones,” when we heard chatter about a Mad King and saw a different Viserys pawing his nude sister before marrying her off to a barbaric horse lord. Whenever a new one was born, we heard more than once, the gods flip a coin. Princess Rhaenys arrives on Dragonstone to announce that King Viserys is dead and Aegon has been crowned the new King in front of all of King's Landing.

A few thoughts while warm up our singing voice

But once the dragons got the scent of combat in their scaly nostrils, both riders briefly lost control and that was that. The unintended consequence called back to Rhaenyra’s sage response to Daemon’s bragging about their superior firepower. Catch exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew breaking down the series' biggest moments and the process behind creating its memorable sets.

"House of the Dragon" Episode 8

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Meanwhile, Daemon and Corlys are fighting their war in the Stepstones, and it's not going well. When Daemon receives word that the king has finally agreed to send aid, he decides to end it alone and pretends to surrender in order to draw the Crabfeeder out. Soon the Strongs and Rhaenyra were on their way out of town, leaving Alicent to plot how to get her ousted father, Otto, back in to even the playing field. The additional heirs exacerbated Alicent’s intense resentment of Rhaenyra’s position — born partly of Alicent’s legitimate fear about her family’s future safety — leading her to lash out at everyone and make alliances with dubious characters. She’s almost convinced herself that she is motivated by a hope that “honor and decency will prevail,” even though she’s teamed with the dishonorable likes of Ser Criston and Larys Strong to make it happen. This week’s episode kicks off the next phase of the story as a long-simmering status quo finally becomes untenable.

Larys Kills Harwin and Lyonel

Laena (Nanna Blondell) marries Daemon off-screen shortly after Rhaenyra's wedding, and the pair — and their twin daughters — have been living in the Free Cities. Laena goes into labor with her third child, but the baby is in breach. Yearning to die a dragonrider's death, she orders her dragon Vhagar to kill her. He tells his brother he's now king of the Stepstones, but he gives the crown to Viserys. Rhaenyra, meanwhile, has returned after a very unsuccessful tour to find a husband.

Season 1, Episode 6: ‘The Princess and the Queen’

Episode three takes place a full three years later and centers around Prince Aegon's second birthday. The toddler is the first son of Viserys and Alicent, and they throw him a huge birthday party, complete with a royal hunt. Various lords assume this means Aegon will be named heir, but Viserys doesn't consider how his actions are perceived. Instead, he berates Rhaenyra in front of the whole court about her unwillingness to find a husband.

Yet the show’s writers and directors continually fixate on it, feebly offering it as restitution for the frequent sexual assault suffered by women in Game of Thrones. All that remained was for the king to remove the pin and send his father-in-law on his way. (The next family nameday party should be fun.) Which meant that for all her ill-advised sneaking, drinking and fornicating, Rhaenyra survived another week as heir to the Iron Throne.

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Daemon convinces Rhaenyra to sneak out into King's Landing with him. Their night of debauchery leads them to a brothel where they kiss, but Daemon leaves his niece there. She sneaks back into the Red Keep and convinces Ser Criston to sleep with her instead.

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Get ready for House of the Dragon with brand new music from composer Ramin Djawadi along with your favorites from past seasons of Game of Thrones. After Rhaenyra cuts short her tour of Westeros, Daemon introduces the princess to the Street of Silk after dark. As for where that intensity came from, I guess we’re supposed to take it on faith that the 10 years we didn’t see instilled a murderous rage within her.

George R.R. Martin Is On Board

She leaves him, and he dies soon after, calling out for his first wife, Aemma. Daemon convinces Rhaenyra that she needs him as an ally in the coming war. She agrees, but there's the problem of her husband, who she does love, even though he could never give her children. Daemon schemes with Ser Qarl Correy (Arty Froushan), and he appears to kill Laenor.

The cast and crew break down everything you need to know before you dive into Season 1. Otto gathers the great houses of Westeros to affirm their allegiance.

The seventh episode of "House of the Dragon"'s first season takes place at Laena's funeral at Driftmark, with the whole court pulled together. Rhaenyra's children and Laena's children are all bereft about the loss of Ser Harwin and Laena, respectively. He's caught by Jace, Luke, Baela (Shani Smethurst), and Rhaena (Eva Ossei-Gerning). The girls are furious that he "stole" their mother's dragon, and they get into a fight. The adults confront each other, and Alicent demands Luke's eye in exchange for Aemond's lost one.

By the time Rhaenyra told Lucerys, “I expect you will receive a very warm welcome” at Storm’s End, things were starting to look pretty grim. Then when the camera lingered on his departure from Dragonstone, until the little boy on his little dragon faded into the night, I was sure he was a goner. It all began with a truly terrible day for Rhaenyra, who early on learned that her father had died and that her former best friend had connived to steal the throne from her.

The second season is set to premiere on June 16, 2024, consisting of 8 episodes. That said, gore, blood and lots of exposition don’t bother everyone. We should point out none of those scenes involve sexual assault, something the original series came under fire for during its run. Although some early news out of Comic-Con confirmed House of the Dragon would showcase sexual assault if the storyline warranted it, the producers later confirmed that is not the case — there will be no “onscreen” sexual assault in the first season at all.

What’s remarkable about House of the Dragon’s first season is ultimately its restraint. It’s a show that was free to include all the bombast of dragons and was bold enough to have its biggest moments happen at bedsides and dinner parties, where a misunderstanding or failure to communicate is more devastating than any amount of dragonfire. It’s a show that, despite its stumbles, knows that while endings are memorable, it’s the episodes before them that make them hurt. Vaemond, Rhaenys, Rhaenyra, Daemon, and their children head to King's Landing.

As with Daenerys’s incineration of King’s Landing in “Game of Thrones,” it’s an odd turn that doesn’t really jibe with what we or anyone else have observed in the character. Such exhortations, at this point in the show, would seem inane coming from a less talented or less committed actor. Paddy Considine has always had a remarkable ability to telegraph multiple emotions and motivations simultaneously. And yet, even hearing it spoken plainly by his own son was not enough for the king to abandon his daughter. This week’s episode wove an enormous amount of objectively bonkers goings-on into a mostly credible hour of drama, with one big exception. After a long wait, House of the Dragon episode 1 is finally landing on HBO Max.

Heinous Act of the Week honors go to Larys, who freed a few condemned men in exchange for 1.) their torching his family home, along with his father and brother, and 2.) their tongues. The simmering status quo finally becomes untenable when the royal cousins square off during their combat training, in the process becoming pawns within the larger drama. Because when a sparring exercise results in their trainer, Ser Criston, goading Harwin into giving him the beating he’s long deserved, the incident throws a harsh spotlight on the ongoing scandal. Daemon, the former rogue prince, settled down and even managed to have a couple of kids of his own with Laena. Laenor, the former sensitive young warrior, is now a dissipated playboy looking to get unsettled any way he can. Elsewhere in the Red Keep, the next generation of Targaryen men are gallivanting about, looking just as ill-suited for leadership as their predecessors.