Episode Six of House of the Dragon may focus on the plights of the titular “Smallfolk”, but it begins with the nobility.
Directed by Andrij Parekh, the episode begins by showing Jason Lannister, who we have not seen since Season One.
He is marching to war, bringing a lion of all things with him, but delaying because he wants Aemond to protect them with Vhagar.
Naturally, this does not please Aemond, who has taken to his new job as Prince Regent with a vindictive stride.
He begins making some bold moves by attempting to set up an alliance with the Triarchy, and even dismisses his mother, Alicent.
“Have the indignities of your childhood not yet sufficiently been avenged?” Alicent asks, showing that, no matter how strong he may act, there is still a part of that scared bullied child inside Aemond.
Unfortunately, the dangerous and vindictive side of him is winning out.
Meanwhile, with the Blacks, Corlys takes his new role as Hand of the Queen, but unfortunately we do not see him really do anything with it this episode.
Maybe he will in the next one, considering what later happens to a certain bastard of his?
As for Rhaenyra, she begins enacting her and Jace’s plan to find those with Valyrian ancestry to ride dragons.
It turns out that one of her Queensguard, Ser Steffon Darklyn, is one of these people, so she asks him to attempt taming Seasmoke, Laenor’s dragon.
Steffon accepts the task but it ends poorly, to say the least.
At first, it seems as if he has succeeded, but he then gets overconfident and Seasmoke burns him and a dragon keeper alive.
The dragon keeper pulls out a knife and slits his own throat, showing just how bad of a job it is.
They have to constantly be ready to kill themselves because that is better than burning to death.
The ending to this scene was horrifying, and it leads to Rhaenyra slapping one of her lords when he questions her.
“It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me,” she says.
To be honest, though, I do not know if the lords ever feared Rhaenyra.
She has not really done anything in the show that would make anyone scared of her, unlike in the book.
Daemon, however, has given plenty of reasons for people to be scared of him.
Simon Strong knows this better than anyone after this episode, as a paranoid Daemon accuses him of poisoning him, holding him at knifepoint the whole time.
Although, it is kind of weird that Daemon would think Simon is the one influencing him instead of, you know, Alys, the creepy witch lady.
Speaking of which, we get even more Daemon hallucinations this episode.
Yay.
Yeah, not going to lie, the constant hallucinations have become a bit tiresome, at this point.
Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see Paddy Considine back as Viserys.
His first scene is meh since he is just repeating lines from the first season, but his second one is great because it shows Daemon comforting Viserys for Aemma’s death like he should have done.
I do at least like how these hallucinations are being used to show Daemon feels guilt for some of his prior actions.
And to be fair to the writers, Daemon spent a long time doing very little at Harrenhal in the book too, so they had to find some way to make his storyline interesting, hence the constant hallucinations.
But Daemon’s story at Harrenhal is definitely about to pick up because he learns that the old Tully lord has died, most likely poisoned by Alys.
I am pretty curious about what Alys’ motives are.
She might be poisoning Daemon or setting a spell on him, and yet she helps him by convincing him to stay at Harrenhal and then likely poisoning the old Tully.
What is her end goal?
While Daemon will soon be making moves at Harrenhal, Rhaenyra and Mysaria put their plan into action this episode.
We see Mysaria’s agents spread tales of the high life those in the Red Keep experience, while the smallfolk suffer.
Rhaenyra then sends loads of supplies to these smallfolk.
It is a brilliant piece of propaganda to turn them to her side and it works wonders.
It honestly works a little too well because it almost ends with Alicent and Helaena being murdered by an angry mob.
In the end, they are saved but the same cannot be said for the frat boy friends of Aegon’s who he let into the Kingsguard.
Aegon really is lucky that he did not have those guys defending him when things went bad.
Unfortunately for him, he is stuck with a vindictive man like Aemond for a brother.
When Aegon awakens, Aemond pays him a visit.
Aegon claims to remember nothing, while Aemond pretty much tortures him by pressing into his burn wounds.
It is clear that he is lying to save himself, though, but who could blame him?
In the end, Aegon’s only friend here might be Larys, of all people.
After being hilariously shot down for Hand of the King by Aemond, Larys turns to Aegon and, in the best scene of the episode, relates to him by explaining the circumstances of his birth.
Through comparing his club foot with Aegon’s horrible wounds, it seems like Larys is able to bring himself to actually sympathize with Aegon’s situation, giving him some advice.
That being said, he is still definitely manipulating him, and his withholding of Milk of the Poppy was cruel, even if it was to keep Aegon level-headed.
As for my second favorite scene of the episode, this sees Alicent saying her goodbye to Gwayne.
They discuss Daeron and Gwayne begins a series of flatteries to describe him, before ending simply with, “He’s kind.”
I really liked the delivery of this line, and it made me even more excited for when Daeron eventually shows up.
This scene also did a great job of highlighting Alicent and Gwayne’s relationship, and the tension that exists between them due to their father’s attention.
What is way more intense than that, though, is what Seasmoke does after roasting Ser Steffon.
The dragon chases down and corners Addam in a moment that had the man understandably scared for his life.
However, while this scene was undoubtedly terrifying for Addam, it was hilarious for me.
Seasmoke really wanted Addam to be his rider and he was not taking no for an answer.
As for why he chose Addam, I wonder if it was because he reminded him of Laenor?
News of Addam riding Seasmoke eventually reaches Rhaenyra but, before that, we get the most controversial scene of the episode.
It begins with Mysaria reporting to Rhaenyra about the success of their plan, but Rhaenyra is still unsure, having doubts.
Mysaria then pays off the question about the scar on her neck, which Rhaenyra asked about a few episodes ago.
She reveals a horrifying story about the abuse she suffered from her father, and how she survived it, before relating it to meeting Rhaenyra, who is the first person to treat her like an equal.
Rhaenyra embraces her, and the two end up kissing.
I heard leaks about this scene and, when I did, I wondered if it was a troll because it sounded out of nowhere.
No prior scene in any episode seemed to hint at a Rhaenyra and Mysaria pairing.
Having seen the scene now, I still hold true to that belief.
I get the reason for it happening, but it still feels a little fast.
Not only that, but it feels pretty tone death, as well.
The scene goes from Mysaria telling the horrifying truth of the abuse she suffered to the two of them making out.
Maybe future episodes will improve my opinion of this pairing but, for now, this is one I don’t really like.
In the end, the two are interrupted with the news of someone being seen riding Seasmoke, and Rhaenyra goes to confront them, ending the episode.
Overall, “Smallfolk” is a good House of the Dragon episode.
It has plenty of great scenes, like Larys giving Aegon advice, Gwayne talking about Daeron, and Seasmoke claiming Addam.
On the other hand, there are some things which hold it back, most notably the odd pairing between Rhaenyra and Mysaria.
Only two episodes left before the season ends now.

Book Spoilers Section: 
Going into this episode, I was excited to see the Dragonseeds plotline play out, but they seem to be saving that for next episode.
Addam has now claimed Seasmoke, and this will serve as motivation for Rhaenyra to call for more Dragonseeds, eventually resulting in Hugh and Ulf joining the Blacks.
Rhaenyra may also slowly become more like her book counterpart, if her telling the lord “It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me,” is accurate.
As for Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s make out session, I was wondering why the writers decided to pair them up from a story perspective.
Their sudden make out feels like something Mushroom would write about, rather than something that actually happened.
So, what purpose will this serve in the plot?
Well, I think it could be used to drive a further wedge between Daemon and Rhaenyra.
We know Nettles has been cut, so instead of Rhaenyra being jealous of her, Daemon might be jealous of Mysaria?
Speaking of, this episode officially killed any hope I may have had of Nettles not being replaced by Rhaena.
Rhaena finds a bunch of burned sheep in the Vale and Jeyne Arryn confirms there is a wild dragon there.
I said in an earlier review that I thought it made sense for a sheep eating dragon to turn up in the Vale.
While I stand by this claim, it still kills me that one of my favorite characters from Fire and Blood is going to be replaced by a character who is so at odds with what her entire story was about.
I mean, not including Nettles felt like a major missed opportunity this episode.
The episode is literally called “Smallfolk.”
It focuses on their plight, and it would have been perfect to see Nettles begin the difficult process of claiming Sheepstealer this episode.
Instead, we get Rhaena who is a noble and thus completely ignorant to the struggles of the smallfolk.
Again, though, I am going to save the rest of my complaints for the episode where Rhaena actually claims Sheepstealer.
So, if you like rants, you have that to look forward to.
I want to end this review on a more positive note, so I will end it by talking about more positive directions for future storylines.
One such direction is that of the Shepard.
We see a man get his hand cut off by the incompetent Kingsguard this episode, and that man could be the Shepard, the one who leads the smallfolk to kill all the dragons.
Otto is also hinted to be returning.
Aemond sends for him this episode, and it would be great to see him again.
That being said, I hope he does not return to King’s Landing because, if he does, that means he will most likely meet his book fate and die in the season finale.
Rhys Ifans is one of the best actors in this show and I would like him to stick around longer than his book counterpart.
I theorized in an earlier review that he could take part in Daeron’s storyline next season, so I hope that is the case.
We will just have to wait and see what Otto’s fate will be in the final two episodes of the season.