House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 2 Recap

Last week, House of the Dragon showed the consequences of revenge and mistakes, with the show adapting the infamous Blood and Cheese arc from George R.R. Martin’s book.

Contents

King Aegon II declares war Rhaenyra’s party takes a step backwards Ser Cristen Cole is a not so helpful Hand Side plots

As both Team Green and Team Black struggle to come to terms with what has happened, many puppet-masters behind the scenes try to turn this horrific event into a political statement. Meanwhile, others seek further revenge, only resulting in more bloodshed.

If you want to catch up on what happened in House of the Dragon season 2 episode 2, we’ve rounded up all the major plot points below. We also have a similar article for the first episode, A Son for a Son.

Spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2, episode 2 below. Want to keep spoiler-free? Read our review of episodes 1 and 2.

King Aegon II declares war

The episode opens with the Red Keep shrouded in darkness, with staff panicking as they learn the horrific fate of the young heir Jaehaerys, who was beheaded in the night by a rat catcher and guard.

Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is distraught, smashing apart his model city with his sword and claiming over and over that he’ll kill the perpetrators – that this is now war.

Elsewhere, other members of Team Green are more somber. Alicent (Olivia Cooke) weeps for the loss, while the Hand of the King, Otto (Rhys Ifans) starts to speculate who might be responsible. Aegon’s brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), finds a loose coin that Blood knocked to the floor.

Ollie Upton/HBO

The crown begins an investigation after one of the perpetrators is caught trying to flee with a severed head. However, gut instinct tells the King that this was the work of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). While not technically true, Aegon isn’t far off the mark.

Otto sees this as a chance to garner support for the crown. He suggests parading the child’s body through the streets in a funeral procession, so the city can witness the horrors first-hand. He suggests that Queen Helaena Targaryen and Alicent ride behind in a wagon, so their sorrow is evident.

Nobody wants their grief to be manipulated this way, but all parties reluctantly agree for the benefit of the realm. The body, crudely stitched together, is wheeled through the streets as King’s Landing watches on and weeps.

Lord Larys Strong (Matthre Needham) learns that Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) hired Blood (Sam C. Wilson), who gives up the information easily. His quick confession means little though, as Aemon enters the cell and bludgeons the assassin.

Rhaenyra’s party takes a step backwards

In Dragonstone, Rhaenyra learns about the decapitation of Jaehaerys. She confronts Daemon and accuses him of weakening her claim to the Iron Throne in a messy ploy for revenge.

He becomes enraged when she also claims he is using her to get closer to power. As such, he leaves for Harrenhal in a huff on Caraxes to help raise an army.

Theo Whitman/HBO

In his absence, the Black Queen scrambles to do damage control. She instructs Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) to fly towards King’s Landing on the dragon Moondancer to watch the city and see what they have planned. Baela later confesses to Jacaerys (Harry Collett) that she may hate her father.

To try and get to the bottom of what happened with Jaehaerys’s murder, Rhaenyra questions captive Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), while also bonding over Daemon’s past behaviour. After a short time, the Queen lets the captive walk free, even though it’s a risk.

It later proves the difference between life and death.

Ser Cristen Cole is a not so helpful Hand

Kingsguard member Cristen (Fabian Frankel) was earlier accused in the episode of neglecting his duties by Aegon. The knight claimed to be asleep when Blood and Cheese infiltrated the castle, but he was, in fact, busy having sex with Alicent Hightower.

This guilt seems to eat away at him, as he sees the bloody bedsheets of the deceased child and claims to Alicent that there’s “no absolution” for what he’d done.

Instead of atoning for his sins, he picks a fight with Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor) by asking him to change to a clean white cloak as it is a symbol of purity and fidelity. He then takes things a step further, by demanding to know where the knight was when the murder took place and accusing him of not preventing it.

Ollie Upton/HBO

When the knight quite rightly snaps back, Cristen loses his temper and demands that Ser Arryk go to Dragonstone to kill Rhaenyra by posing as his twin brother Erryk (Elliott Tittensor), who serves Team Black. Arryk points out that this is a suicide mission, but Cristen threatens to go to the King if there are any complaints.

This act puts the guard in Aegon’s good books, who believes it to be proactive. Otto Hightower, however, is not as impressed with the plan.

He’s equally frustrated with the King’s decision to hang all the rat catchers in the city. Aegon wanted revenge, and the show confirms that they did kill the perpetrator. However, he also murdered innocent husbands, brothers and sons, which may not go down favourably.

After implying to his grandson that the late King Viserys never wanted to crown Aegon, the King dismisses him of his duties, passing on the title of Hand of the King to Ser Cristen Cole, who celebrates his promotion by… yet again sleeping with Alicent.

Ollie Upton/HBO

While the new Hand is enjoying himself across the land, Arryk finally arrives at Dragonstone, and easily passes the guards as he sneaks through the castle.

He makes his way to Rhaenyra’s bed chambers, but is interrupted by the true Team Black loyalist, his brother Erryk, who was warned by Mysaria.

The pair get into a bloody and brutal fight, and it’s hard to tell which is which as they’re both dressed so similarly. In the end, Erryk prevails, but it’s a fruitless victory as he kills himself, wracked with guilt.

Two needless deaths, all because Ser Cristen Cole couldn’t find another way to make up for his mistakes. Are these deaths a sign of what’s to come in the future? Tune in next week to find out.

Side plots

After meeting Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) last week, we meet his brother Addam (Clinton Liberty) in this episode, who looked up curiously at the dragon Seasmoke flying above. Are we going to get a new dragon rider?
In a brothel, Aemond Targaryen confesses that he knows his brother his afraid of him – possibly a signal of a power shift yet to come
Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), who was recently promised economic support from the King, discusses the hardships that he and his family are facing, possibly seeding unrest from the townsfolk

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