House of the Dragon episode 8 review: "The calm before the storm"

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon episode 8! Turn back now if you're not up to date! 

Six years have gone by since last week's episode of House of the Dragon, and yet more dramatic changes have occurred in Westeros. 'The Lord of the Tides' is focused solely on succession and blood ties, brought together by the question of who will take the Driftmark throne. Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is badly injured in the Stepstones (yes, there's still fighting going on there), which means his position will soon be open. On paper, it's very simple: Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), son of Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy), will take over, but Corlys' brother Vaemond (Wil Johnson) disagrees on account of that pesky open secret – Lucerys isn't a true Velaryon. 

At first, the question of who will become Lord of the Tides isn't that interesting compared to the all-important Iron Throne. But the episode neatly ties together the two seats of power: if Lucerys doesn't take his place on Driftmark, then he's essentially been declared a bastard, which means Rhaenyra's own claim to the Iron Throne is seriously weakened. This back and forth about the Velaryon kids is starting to get tiring, though: yes, everyone knows they're bastards, but when is that actually going to pay off?  

When a pregnant Rhaenyra and her uncle/husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) arrive at King's Landing, things finally get juicy. For one thing, Rhaenys (Eve Best) believes that Rhaenyra and Daemon had her son Laenor (John Macmillan) killed so they could marry (of course, Laenor is still alive). That makes Rhaenys a grieving wild card, and not even Rhaenyra's desperate offer of marriage between their children seems to sway her. 

Even worse for Rhaenyra, her father Viserys (Paddy Considine) has seriously sickened in the time she's been away. It's a terrifying and tragic sight when the skeletal king is revealed. He's emaciated, rasping, and half his face is bandaged. Even his Valyria statue has cobwebs. Daemon and Rhaenyra discover the king has been receiving a steady diet of milk of the poppy, which isn't helping his deteriorating mental acuity. Daemon has no time for the justifications of Alicent (Olivia Cooke), either, in a welcome reminder that the Rogue Prince doesn't play by the polite rules of courtly etiquette. 

Everything is riding on a council that will determine who takes the Driftmark throne, in an echo of the Great Council of the premiere that declared Viserys heir. This time, though, Otto (Rhys Ifans) is seated on the Iron Throne, and he looks a little too comfortable up there. It seems a foregone conclusion that Otto will side against Rhaenyra, considering his own voracious ambitions, but then, in a chills-inducing surprise, the doors to the hall are thrown open and Viserys staggers inside as the score swells behind him. His ruined face is covered by a golden mask and he has trouble walking – in a very poignant moment, Viserys accepts his brother Daemon's help to sit on the throne, and Daemon places the dropped crown on the king's head. 

Viserys, as is his way, outright ignores the delicate situation he's walked into to declare the succession settled: of course, Lucerys is next in line. In another surprise, Rhaenys backs Lucerys' claim and agrees to the marriage pact. This ignites the simmering tensions, though, and Vaemond loses his head (literally). While raging that the children are bastards and Rhaenyra is a "whore," Vaemond is shockingly, gruesomely decapitated by Daemon. The Rogue Prince is on top form this week, smirking, sinister, and unpredictable as ever – his casual "no need," when Otto demands him disarmed is laugh-out-loud amusing, as is his theatrical expression when the murder is brought up later at Viserys' family dinner.  

The dinner itself is a moving display of all of House of the Dragon's fractured political and familial tensions. Viserys plaintively, heartbreakingly begs his family, the people he loves most, to just get along. Rhaenyra makes the first move, extending an olive branch to Alicent, who responds in kind, acknowledging that Rhaenyra will make a great queen someday, which is clearly a huge admission – and one Otto greets with raised eyebrows. There's laughter and dancing; Otto even looks genuinely happy, which is a first. But it's the kids who are the problem, particularly Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) Targaryen. Aegon won't stop needling his nephew Jacaerys (Harry Collett), while Aemond – now terrifyingly all grown up, with Mitchell proving a new standout as the chillingly opaque prince – makes a pointed speech about how "Strong" the kids are when Lucerys laughs at the pig placed before his uncle. It's clear that peace isn't really a possibility, even if Alicent and Rhaenyra seem to have mended fences. 

Unfortunately, though, it seems a painfully frustrating moment at the end of the episode is going to bring it all down for good. When Rhaenyra asks Viserys if the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy is real, Viserys is in no state to answer, but, when Alicent puts him to bed, he finally starts to reply, believing he's still speaking to his daughter. He talks about Aegon, meaning Aegon the Conqueror, but Alicent thinks he means their firstborn son of the same name. Viserys speaks of uniting the realm, still believing he's talking to Rhaenyra, and Alicent says she understands. It's not spelled out just yet, but it looks like Alicent is going to take this confused conversation as proof that Viserys wants Aegon to be king, disinheriting Rhaenyra. 

This isn't the first time a major plot point has revolved around miscommunication – it's how the truth of Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Rhaenyra's tryst was revealed in the fifth episode. It's still just as annoying, though. It completely strips Alicent of any agency: instead of having her own reasons for wanting her awful, abusive son on the throne, she's going to follow what she believes are Viserys' wishes. Alicent making nice with Rhaenyra is already strange enough, considering she drew blood from the princess last week – and, way back in episode 5, her big green dress moment was a clear declaration of war. Flattening her complex motives and moral ambiguity even further is just disappointing. 

When the episode ends, Viserys seems to be taking his last breath. Whether the king survives the night or not will be revealed next week, but the groundwork for an almighty civil war between the greens and the blacks has been firmly established. That last, happy meal the family shared together is nothing but the calm before the storm as the kingdom hangs on a knife edge. 

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