HOTD: The Red Sowing

Picking up almost exactly after the last episode left off, Rhaenyra and Syrax stare down Addam of Hull and Seasmoke on a beach. The shot, appearing almost like a Western standoff in this high fantasy world is gorgeous. Two dragons, positioned parallel to each other in the middle of the daylight on such a natural environment is a very difficult visual task, and they look fantastic. This episode is full of exquisite cinematic shots, and it starts off with a great one.

Addam is most certainly freaked out a little, but as he stares down an enraged and fearful Rhaenyra, he assures her, he did not pick this dragon, and he wants to serve her. And as this sinks into Rhaenyra, she gets a childlike gleeful expression and tells him, “You have done something I feared impossible.” This moment is the beginning of something for Rhaenyra, a spark that will light a full blown fire as the episode goes on.

Meanwhile, Alicent is becoming a literary parallel to Ophelia. She takes her guard with her to the Godswood. Interestingly enough, the rumors of Seasmoke and his new rider are beginning to make their way to Kings Landing. Larys and Lord Jasper are talking about it, and Larys, deciding that maybe that’s not the type of news he would want to deliver to Aemond passes on the whisper. It seems to have an almost double meaning here, Larys doesn’t necessarily trust Jasper’s intel, and if it is correct, why would he help the prince that made such a fool of him last episode. Meanwhile, Aemond is making a swift adjustment to his Kingsguard, sending Aegon’s best buds to the wall for breaking their vows. It was fun with them while it lasted. I’m not sure if we’l ever find out if that squire ever fucked a woman.

Back in Dragonstone Corlys is keeping Rhaenyra’s council in line in a way Rhaenys would’ve been proud. Jace meanwhile, remains impatient, which is investigated further as the episode goes on. Hearing a random lowborn is now riding his ‘father’s’ dragon, is beginning to get some gears turning in his brain he will confront his mother about. Rhaenyra meanwhile is leaning on Mysaria, but for actual counsel not *other things.* As they discuss where to find more Targaryan offsprings, Rhaenyra goes to her scrolls, now emblazoned with the fact that Addam can ride a dragon. Mysaria stops her though, she does not need to search through scrolls, the scores of Targaryan offsprings can be found in King’s Landing, her relatives have been making bastards for years. And as she thinks about the way she was cast out of the Red Keep because of the insinuations that her sons were bastards, she finds a righteousness within her, let them fear bastards, let her make an entire army out of bastards people have forgotten.

A small, but really impactful moment with Corlys and Addam follows. Corlys walks in and looks his boy up and down, and before leaving he tells him, “Well done.” It’s to note that Addam has not revealed Corlys as his father, even though he’s been given the opportunity to. And that there is a distinguished smile he gets after Corlys says this. He’s gotten the attention and respect of his father, and Corlys sees in him maybe something he saw in himself. Addam is a self made man, much of which Corlys was.

Daemon is now beginning to return to his old self and speaking with Oscar Tully the new Lord of the Riverlands. While Oscar respects the allegiance to Rhaenyra his grandsire made, he does call Daemon out. “It seems you’ve made quite a mess here,” he tells him. And the two go out to face the other houses, to which young Tully holds himself well against them. It also helps that he calls Daemon a prince and not a king, that surely the Brackens appreciated. And in a brutal moment, Oscar confronts Willem Blackwood. He was instructed to attack the Brackens, but not to the extent he had done. And if Daemon truly wants the respect of the Riverlands, he must take responsibility for his actions. And as the Weirwood tree whispers to him, we see the sudden realization cross both him and Simon Strong’s face. Daemon grabs his sword, and against the cry of Willem, swings it. In what is maybe his final ghost therapy moment, Daemon confronts Viserys, now full with his decaying and dying makeup, something Paddy Considine wanted for the character. Viserys shows him the crown and tells him, “it crushes whoever wears it. Do you still want it?” Next episode will surely show us his response, but something tells me that Daemon has finally come back to his senses, and realizes that maybe it’s not something he wants truly anymore.

Meanwhile, Larys is trying to convince Aegon to practice walking, which the grand maester doesn’t agree with. But Larys is convicted into turning Aegon into something even stronger than what he was before. Back on Driftmark, Alyn and Corlys are discussing Addam. Corlys drops a bit of lore saying that his family is not dragon lords, so we are still left with a confusion as to what created the bond between Addam and Seasmoke. But more importantly, Alyn tells him that he is, “of salt and sea,” which reminds us of the exact line Baela said a few episodes ago. And while I appreciate the sentiment, this might have been a little too on the nose from the writers of what is most likely to come in the season finale. In Rhaena’s only scene of the entire episode, she leaves with the young boys and some men from the Eyrie, only to chase after that dragon we heard about last episode. Alicent is still in the Godswood, uncertain of when she will return. She’s going full Ophelia now, wading out into the water in her undergarments, it’s a beautiful shot, but it also begs the question of what is going on with her right now? Why is she even in this episode really? This is a really interesting character, but now that she’s been stripped of all her power and doesn’t have Otto, Rhaenyra or Criston Cole to verbally spar with, her scenes lack almost all purpose other than to check in on what hairstyle Olivia Cooke is currently sporting.

Then, probably the most interesting discussion of the episode lies between Jace and Rhaenyra. And we see Rhaenyra, who has always been so motherly and so protective of her children, have to embrace being a queen. She needs dragon riders. And as Jace pleads with her, that his authenticity as a Targaryan, as her heir, has already been questioned, this will only make it worse. He can claim he is blood of the dragon by riding his dragon, now what can he claim in a lowborn, “mongrel,” from Fleabottom is riding one? It’s both an intense and emotional conflict that has sympathies on both side between him and Rhaenyra as well as an introspection into Jace’s character. The last time we saw a conversation about this was when he was much younger, asking his mother if he was a bastard, to which she reminded him that he was a Targaryan and that was all that mattered. It’s tough to see us come back to this moment, and Rhaenyra does not have the response that will comfort him again this time. The moments between these two are always exciting, because Jace seems to bring out Rhaenyra’s most honest self.

Meanwhile, King’s Landing begins to spread the rumor of looking for dragonseed, and we learn that Hugh’s mother was none other than Saera Targaryan, the cast aside daughter of Jaehaerys Targaryan, who was the last to ride Vermithor. We also learn that his daughter has sadly died due to the King’s Landing blockade. When all of these bastards arrive at Dragonstone, the Dragonkeepers won’t comply with this. They worship the dragons as the last living magic of Old Valyria, and despise what Rhaenyra is doing. Despite this, Rhaenyra dawns an almost cultlike appearance to them. Dressed exquisitely from head to toe, she walks amongst these people, telling them that what will happen next will surely change them, but she’s doing this because wants to win a war without violence. Baela is here to witness this, but not Jace. And as she takes them to the dragon pit, and calls upon Vermithor, the second largest dragon alive. Within seconds she calms the beast. This sequence is shot exquisitely, with low lighting and incredible VFX, the silhouette of Vermithor shows the intense scale the dragon is compared to Rhaenyra. It’s awe inspiring to watch on a tv, so when she calls for someone to come forward it’s not hard to believe that she could also inspire awe amongst these people.

Of course, it does not go as planned. While Rhaenyra is watching from her balcony seat, Vermithor lights half of the people on fire. Small folk are running everywhere, and it’s just pure chaos. He is burning them alive, eating them, stomping on them, just massive destruction in this ritualistic sacrifice Rhaenyra is making. A shot of her face shows that it’s hitting her once again, she’s failed. That is, until Hugh finally stands up to the dragon, screaming in its face and Vermithor bows to him. Now, when we see Rhaenyra, her expression is not of glee, but of pride. She was right. This was the way to go. Look, how she has now turned a lowborn into a dragon rider. Meanwhile, Ulf has made his way to the other side of the dragon pit where Silverwing is. And after stepping on what looks like an egg cluster, she awakens, and instead of eating him, she plays with him. Ulf is incredulous, and we have our second dragon rider of the group.

Back in King’s Landing the green small council is discussing when the cries of ‘dragon’ overwhelm the streets. Larys and Jasper share a look, presuming of course that it is Seasmoke and that maybe they should have told Aemond earlier. Aemond rushes out of the Keep, throwing himself onto his horse, and riding down to where Vhaegar is. We see Ulf, having the time of his life riding Silverwing, leading his pursuers back to Dragonstone where for the first time since he rode Vhaegar, Aemond seems afraid. He backs off, and returns to King’s Landing, and Rhaenyra is left with Syrax, Vermithor, and Silverwing behind her. The expression on her face resembling that of how the first season ended before the scene cuts to the credits.

The most compelling part about this episode for me, was the trajectory of Rhaenyra’s story finally taking off. Slowly over the season she has begun to cast aside parts of herself we saw in the first season. She sent her kids away so she could focus on being a queen, she went to King’s landing and back so that she could ensure there was no other way for peace, and now finally she is beginning to reject Jace’s pleads, and begin to believe in herself. Inside of Rhaenyra is someone who, might not believe she is the ancestor of the prince who was promised, but the prince who was promised herself. And this newfound righteousness is only bolstered over the fact she brought two lowborns to be dragon riders for her side. What will this new confidence bring out in her? How will the Greens respond? Maybe we’ll get a glimpse of that next week in the season finale.