House of the Dragon' Episode 9

The Queen Who Never Was had the perfect moment to obliterate the chess board and end the Hightowers. But she took the higher road.

Alicent explains she came to Rhaenys to ask for her support. She might have believed Alicent would do her best in guiding her son on the right path. We see her busting out, and being the one that's going to take the news to Dragonstone of the coup and of Rhaenyra's throne being stolen. She informs Rhaenys of King Viserys' passing, and Rhaenys quickly ascertains that Alicent is usurping the throne from Princess Rhaenyra. And it's a complex choice and one that people might dispute or have a problem with, but that's the choice Rhaenys makes in that moment. Seeing Alicent at the coronation ceremony, standing in front of her son, Rhaenys might have decided to have faith in Alicent. Facing down the Hightower clan -- including Queen Alicent, her father Otto and her son Aegon -- Rhaenys has the opportunity to end the Hightowers' reign for good. "And yet you toil still in service to men. All she has to do is say "Dracarys," the High Valyrian (language of the old Valyrian Freehold) word for "Dragonfire" and order Meleys to breath fire. The latest episode -- [episode 9](/culture/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-episode-9-recap-the-hand-the-queen-and-her-feet/) -- saw Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, aka The Queen Who Never Was, take her turn in the spotlight. She and Meleys then burst through the floorboards, sending the ceremony into chaos. After escaping her room with the help of defected knight Erryk Cargyll, Rhaenys finds herself swept up in Prince Aegon's coronation ceremony.

The ninth episode of House of the Dragon will undoubtedly split fans over the changes it makes to George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood.

In the book, it’s Criston Cole who convinces Aegon to want to become king, after telling him that Rhaenyra will have no choice but to kill him should she be crowned. Intead of fleeing swiftly, she goes to the Dragonpit to get her dragon Meleys the Red Queen, bursting through the floor during Aegon’s coronation. In this episode, Alicent finally becomes self-aware and realizes, through circumstances and with the help of Princess Rhaenys, the way her whole life has been lived in service of men rather than for herself. This presents us with a character that seems quite different from the one in the book, but maybe this is just a more complex version. After creating a network of spies, she uses her influence to try and tamp down on the depravity in certain parts of King’s Landing, particularly cruelty against children. House of the Dragon gives us a divisive ninth episode in “The Green Council.” There are a lot of changes to George R.R.

'House of the Dragon' Episode 6 | Did You Love the New Rhaenyra and Alicent? Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke made their first appearances as Rhaenyra and Alicent ...

[read a full recap here](https://tvline.com/2022/10/16/house-of-the-dragon-recap-season-1-episode-9-the-green-council/)). making it easy for a cloaked wannabe-commoner like herself to slip out a side door unnoticed by the gathered throng. If you need to get something done, ask a mother.

The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon managed to capture the energy that was set up in the previous episode and create plenty for next week.

But the showrunners managed to do it so subtly over the course of the season, and then snap the trap shut in Episode 9 that it was still one of those things that caught the audience's attention and likely solicited more than a few "oh wows" out of people despite the fact that they've basically been waiting the whole season for this to happen. And the series absolutely made it clear this was the direction it was heading. This episode of House of the Dragon also manages to ramp up the tension because it's made extremely clear that all the moves that are being made are absolutely being made without one side having any idea that it's happening. [House of the Dragon also did a pretty darn masterful](https://gamerant.com/tag/house-of-the-dragon/) job of showing what goes on in this particular world when there is a change of rulers. There have been other episodes of HoD that did indeed make her look like she was scheming and conniving, but this installment made it clear she simply understood the realities of her situation. That is indeed a sad happening both for the characters in the GoT prequel and the people of Westeros, who probably didn't know just how good they had it until it comes to the next ruler.

Normally, the penultimate 'Game of Thrones' episodes are packed with drama, but last night's 'Dragon' was mostly just packed with confusion.

She's suffered so much loss, and for her own sake and on behalf of so many others, the urge to destroy is so strong. So, we arrive to the point where Rhaenys is riding Meleys, facing Alicent and her family, with all the power in the world to burn them to a crisp and stop this war before it even begins. Aegon has been a (for lack of a better word) tool for the entirety of his existence on screen, and in this episode we learn even more information about the Prince that solidifies his awful character. Over the season, Alicent has turned from a naive girl to a cunning Queen, and if she is in on the lie, that move would fit into her new, Machiavellian persona. The episode came and went without so much of a shot of Rhaenyra and Daemon who, throughout the season, have become the Internet’s favorites, despite their odd incestual relationship. In the beginning of the episode, Alicent seems like a true believer in the fact that Viserys named their son, Aegon, his heir on his deathbed. Is this Otto upholding the end of his deal with Mysaria and burning down the child fighting ring? The latter seems more likely, but then, is that Larys leaving the scene of the crime? A cold open of the Prince drunkenly stumbling through King’s Landing before getting nabbed by one of the Worm’s “little spiders” would have helped, but instead, we’re just supposed to accept that she got him and, for some reason, placed him in the Sept where seemingly anyone going for a nice midday worship could have heard him screaming, right? In the book, this likely wasn’t a problem, as they are spelled differently, but in the show, they are seemingly both pronounced “Eric.” This means there is pretty much no way to tell these two apart. One of the steps they take is locking Rhaenys into her chamber. According to IMDB, the two of them have been in a total of five episodes this season (including next week’s finale), but I must have glanced over these duplicates, because as soon as I saw them in “The Green Council,” I got stressed out.

Much masonry was smashed and many smallfolk flattened, but it was a horribly predictable penultimate episode … aside from the foot fetish.

A marble in the brain, a rope round the neck, a spot of swordplay between two mismatched members of the Kingsguard and a gang of pox-ridden kids going at one another in a scene that even the director, Clare Kilner, clearly felt was too horrible to depict in any great detail. The visual parallels between this public crowning and a certain notorious beheading two centuries later are impossible to ignore, with Rhaenys in place of the terrified Arya Stark, being propelled through the streets and up the steps of the Sept. Turns out she’s a secret activist, using her woke mob of sex workers and palace informants to improve the lot of the little people by banning the practice of kid-fighting that we only just found out about. Still, the moral tug-of-war between the twins is nicely handled, Aemond’s potentially regicidal loathing of his unfit brother gets thrown into sharp relief, and it’s good to finally get a sense of what Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), AKA the White Worm, is up to. As the ancient rituals are carried out, up to the throne ascends the monarch’s first-born son, an heir whose fitness for the role many hold in doubt, and who must win the respect of his people if he is to ensure the survival of his line. Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) was last seen bunking off into King’s Landing to indulge his filthy whims, so it’s up to the man-bun twins Ser Erryk (Elliott Tittensor) and Ser Arryk (Luke Tittensor) to track him down and drag him back to face Ser Otto, who wants to force the boy to issue the order for Rhaenyra’s head.