“A Son for a Son” was a really good start to Season Two of House of the Dragon, but Episode Two, “Rhaenyra the Cruel” is even better.
Directed by Claire Kilner, the episode has the best acting across the board out of any episode in the series so far.
Beginning immediately after the horrifying events of “A Son for a Son”, we see the impact the loss of Aegon’s heir has had on the Greens.
Aegon is, of course, distraught over the loss of his son, destroying the model of Valyria Viserys spent all of last season building.
Otto, on the other hand, is already looking for a way to play this tragedy to their advantage, proposing that they have a funeral procession to show the small folk what Rhaenyra has done.
Aegon is spared from having to go through the spectacle, but Helaena gets no such consideration.
She is paraded through the streets, her sorrow used as a political tool, while Aegon takes his revenge on Blood in the cells.
Her situation gets even worse when the cart they are riding gets stuck in the mud.
I’m pretty sure we were all scared that Jaehaerys’ body would fall off the cart in the attempt to get it moving again but thankfully the showrunners were merciful enough to keep that from happening.
Following this gruesome scene, the episode cuts to the Blacks, who are learning of the murder.
Rhaenyra is understandably shocked when she learns she is being blamed for it, and offended when some of her lords suggest it may have been her vengeance for Lucerys.
However, all it takes is one look at Daemon for her to know the truth.
The following scene between the two is expertly acted by both Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith, as we see the complete breakdown of any trust Rhaenyra could have had in Daemon.
Matt Smith is especially threatening, as we see the Rogue Prince has to physically restrain himself from grabbing Rhaenyra’s throat, like he did in the Season One Finale.
Their argument ends with Daemon leaving on Caraxes, and Rhaenyra deciding sending Baela (Bethany Antonia) on her dragon Moondancer to keep an eye on King’s Landing.
Back with the Greens, we see the impact Jaehaerys’ murder has had on Criston Cole.
He watches the young boy’s room being cleared out and, based on his expression, he seems to feel quite a bit of guilt for what happened.
He was supposed to be on watch, but instead was sleeping with Alicent and, because of that, Jaehaerys died.
Watching this scene made me wonder if it was possible for me to feel some sympathy for Cole… then the next scene happened, and it made me hate him even more.
Rather than decide to change for the better, Cole instead doubles down and projects his guilt onto Arryk Cargyll, someone who holds no blame for the murder.
Watching Cole bully Arryk into going to assassinate Rhanerya at Dragonstone by posing as his own brother made my hatred for him increase tenfold.
One character I definitely do not hate, though, is Addam (Clinton Liberty), the brother of Alyn, who is introduced this episode.
I will not get into his role in the story, I will save that for the book spoilers section, but I will say that he is one of my favorite characters in the Dance of the Dragons, so it is good to see him.
What is also good to see is how much better Sonoya Mizuno’s performance as Mysaria is now that her accent is much more subdued.
It really allowed her acting ability to shine through in her scene with Rhanerya.
But by far the best acting in this episode is hands down done by Rhys Ifans.
The scene where Otto berates Aegon for killing all of the Rat Catchers is excellent.
Otto’s rage and exasperation is both engaging and hilarious.
It is even emotional when he brings up Viserys, and we see that he really did care deeply about the old king, even if he did manipulate him constantly.
Otto ends his beratement of Aegon by revealing to him that Viserys really did not want his son to be king.
This appears to be the final straw for Aegon, who fires Otto as his Hand and gives the job to Cole.
The guy just keeps failing upward, doesn’t he?
To be fair to Cole though, his crazy plan of sending Arryk to kill Rhaenyra would have probably worked had it not been for Mysaria spotting him.
She alerts Erryk just in time for him to intervene and what results is a tragic fight to the death between twin brothers.
Elliot and Luke Tittensor do excellent jobs as Erryk and Arryk, both in their fight choreography and in their grief at having to fight, despite still loving one another.
The brutal duel ends with one twin killing the other, only for the remaining twin to kill themselves out of grief.
As foe which twin was which, it feels kind of ambiguous.
Either Erryk apologizes to Rhanerya before committing suicide, or Arryk acknowledges her as the true queen before killing himself.
Either way, it is one of the most tragic scenes in the show thus far.
Following the duel of the brothers, the episode cuts to the Greens for the final time.
We see Otto talking with Alicent about his firing, and he brings up Daeron, Alicent and Viserys’ youngest child.
Daeron was not seen or mentioned in Season One so many of us book readers were afraid that he had been cut.
It is good to hear that he exists, even if his introduction in this scene comes out of nowhere.
The conversation between Otto and Alicent ends with Alicent trying to admit to her affair with Criston, only for Otto to say he does not wish to hear of it.
This perfectly highlights the generational family neglect going on within the Green side.
Otto neglects Alicent, who then neglects Aegon when she refuses to comfort him.
Instead of mourning with him, Alicent instead chooses to sleep with Cole again, showing that neither of them has learned their lesson.
In my review of Episode One, I said I had mixed feelings about the two of them hooking up because it felt like it went against both characters.
However, I did say that the hypocrisy of it may be the point.
After watching Episode Two, I can say with absolute certainty that it was.
Both characters are very hypocritical, and their hypocrisy will probably only grow as the season progresses.
Overall, “Rhaenyra the Cruel” is a great episode, with the best acting of the series, so far.
Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Rhys Ifans, Elliot and Luke Tittensor, Tom Glynn-Carney, Phia Saban, and Sonoya Mitsuno all give their best this episode, and I cannot wait to see how their performances continue to improve as the season progresses.

Book Spoilers Section:
Once again, the main topic of discussion for the spoilers section is the Dragonseeds.
First there is Addam of Hull.
As I said, he is one of my favorite characters in the Dance of the Dragons.
We get foreshadowing for him eventually claiming the dragon Seasmoke, when he sees him flying overhead.
I am curious to see what the explanation for this will be, since Laenor is not dead in the show, at least as far as we know.
I am also curious to see how Rhaenys will react to Addam and Alyn’s existence.
Does she already know that Corlys fathered bastards, or will it be a shock?
It would be pretty tragic for it to cause a rift between the two, only for them to never reconcile because Rhaenys dies at Rook’s Rest.
Then there is the other Dragonseed, Hugh.
We see this episode that he has a family, which is struggling due to the conditions caused by the coming war.
His story is already very different from the books, where he was pretty much just a scumbag with no family, so I am interested to see how he will get to that point, if at all.
In any case, we should get our first dragon action in the next episode, as Daemon will be capturing Harrenhal, and the trailer makes it look like Baela will run into some trouble while watching Kings’ Landing.
We are getting ever closer to the actual dragon fights, and I could not be more excited for that.