Laena Velaryon, her brother Laenor, and a person whose title we by no means be taught. Whereas Home of the Dragon’s seventh episode does an important deal to point out Westeros sliding uncontrollably towards what is going to absolutely show a calamitously bloody struggle, its personal physique depend is relatively modest by the collection’ requirements.
Its single on-screen loss of life, that of the anonymous man whose neck is damaged as a part of an advanced gambit to pretend Ser Laenor’s (John Macmillan) loss of life, is a case research within the episode’s preoccupation with social rituals as a method of concealing and revealing fact. Laena’s funeral supplies her uncle with an opportunity to launch a veiled barb at Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) over the parentage of her sons. Rhaenyra’s secret marriage to her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) serves to inflate her status as a ruthless energy participant, and sir Laenor’s duel together with his lover Qarl (Arty Froushan) supplies cowl for his or her bittersweet escape from the bloody energy video games of the royal court docket. In all places we flip, the rituals and ceremonies which bind the individuals of Westeros right into a society are being subverted by private agendas.
That the episode retains so many plates within the air without delay whereas additionally managing to decelerate after the breakneck tempo of final week’s installment is one thing of a minor miracle, however director Miguel Sapochnik and author Sara Hess pull it off with aplomb. From the somber however politically charged opening funeral scene to the darkly majestic and disturbing claiming of the dragon Vhagar by the younger prince Aemond (Leo Ashton), “Driftmark” strikes at an easy clip. Its setting, the maritime seat of Home Velaryon the place the royal household has gathered to mourn, offers the entire affair a way of the Gothic, as does the return of gaunt, cadaverous Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, hand of the king. It’s greater than somewhat paying homage to The Masque of the Pink Dying, these inbred nobles scheming, trysting, and dueling of their distant palace because the realm teeters on the point of the abyss.
Photograph: Ollie Upton/HBO
Photograph: Ollie Upton/HBO
At no level does the longer term appear a bleaker prospect than throughout the episode’s centerpiece motion scene, a scuffle between the royal youngsters that goes from dangerous to worse in — ahem — the blink of a watch. When Prince Aemond returns victorious from mounting Vhagar, Rhaenyra’s sons and Daemon’s daughters waylay him within the dungeons of Driftmark. The scene is lit and shot like one thing out of Neil Marshall’s The Descent, torchlight flickering over the faces of the younger heirs to the Targaryen dynasty as their infantile squabble quickly turns bloody, fists and toes giving approach to rocks and knives. It’s sufficient to make Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) plea for a return to the household’s established order appear virtually comically out of contact, a referee making an attempt to cease World Conflict II with a whistle. Ashton makes a robust exhibiting as Aemond, his each look and gesture freighted with the sullen resentment of his standing as a dragonless second son, and he’s as disagreeable a winner as he’s a sore loser, brutalizing and insulting his youthful cousins with towering contempt.
It’s straightforward sufficient, watching Olivia Cookie as Alicent, to see the place Aemond will get each his mood and his angle. The brittle, dysfunctional lady Rhaenyra’s one-time childhood pal has change into as an grownup finds her time to shine within the aftermath of the childrens’ squabble, dissolving right into a hysterical rage and demanding considered one of Rhaenyra’s son’s eyes in alternate for Aemond’s. Once more the episode chooses a ritual — probably the most elementally fundamental, the actually Biblical custom of a watch for a watch — as the main focus of its battle.
By means of the ritualistic demand we get a glimpse of the true Alicent, a confused and frightened lady left in a everlasting state of panic by her father’s abuse. The ultimate dialog between dad or mum and little one is a direct parallel to the second of honesty between the princess Rhaenys (Eve Finest) and her husband Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) after their daughter’s funeral, with Rhaenys repudiating her husband’s ambition to seat his personal descendants on the throne. Otto as a substitute encourages his daughter’s unbalanced habits, saying it exhibits preventing spirit. His delight at her evident unwellness is maybe the episode’s most sickening sight, an additional deception hid behind his somber façade and the arcane traditions of the royal court docket.
