No big time jump, for once, in last night's House of the Dragon. A character died one week and the next we had her funeral. Most of the episode was low key and dreary but paid off with a fantastic confrontation.
I'm talking about the scene that devolved into Rhaenyra squaring off with Alicent, though it was really an ensemble work. It reminded me of the scene in Shakespeare's Henry VI that marked the start of the War of the Roses. You could see the battle lines of the future civil war being drawn.
Alicent was certainly the most interesting character this week and I really felt like Olivia Cooke made the role her own. Her look of horror when Rhaenyra remarks that everyone can see her for how she really is, behind the mask of righteousness, was great. Here's a woman who did everything out of a sense of moral indignation, but somehow, step by step, she's ended up being just as much a hypocrite, if not more of one. Of the two factions, Alicent's seems the less interested in the big picture.
I still wish Milly Alcock were still around but Matt Smith and Emma D'Arcy have a nice chemistry. I kind of wish their sex scene had been a little more extravagant. I'd have set it in a foundry or smithy, some place where they'd get really sweaty with molten steel all over the place. But it's nice to see these two vipers together at last.
House of the Dragon is available on HBOMax.
Twitter Sonnet #1628
Bazooka lights create a monster school.
A model home became the ancient tomb.
In slimy light, the picture wrote a rule.
The worms of ink composed an earthly doom.
The strainer stopped a bag of healthy plums.
Occasion springs a pretty pumpkin snack.
But mark, ye bairns, the speedy pagan drums.
A mammal skin completes the rusty rack.
The crusty tree has crushed the lava cake.
A thoughtless root removes the ochre vein.
The fields were ploughed in haste by rusty rake.
A stony floor betrays a fire stain.
The lizard bed was scales and claws galore.
Successful dates can rarely ask for more.
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