Matt Smith Photo Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO
Beware of demons bringing gifts. This is the quintessence of King Of The Narrow Sea, in which the prodigal son returns triumphant to King’s Landing, ready to make peace—and then double the chaos.
Last week, the prince turned down his brother’s offer to help him wage a hopeless war in the Stepstones against invaders from the Free Cities. Instead, Daemon used himself as bait to lure his enemies out; and while he and Lord Corlys’ forces went on the offensive, the Prince split the crabfeeders in half.
Now he’s back in King’s Landing with a fresh title and an even fresher haircut (which looks so much better on Matt Smith than that awful Legolas wig, btw). He was proclaimed King of the Straits, an honor that seems as short-lived as his driftwood crown. But given that the naval power of the Velaryons could create or destroy the Seven Kingdoms, having one’s name written in water may be worth more than meets the eye.
And first gigs are what Daemon counts on. With characteristic theatrics, he saunters into a throne room, drops his battle-axe as if it were a hot microphone (“Add it to the chair”), and bows the knee to King Viserys before the entire court. Trusting as always, the king hugs his brother and the room erupts in applause – Rhaenyra among them.
TO WATER
Paddy Considine
King Viserys Targaryen
Olivia Cook
Alicent Hightower
Emma D’Arcy
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen
MattSmith
Prince Demon Targaryen
Steve Toussaint
Lord Corlys Velaryon
Eva Best
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon
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The princess has just returned from a tour of the kingdom to meet potential suitors, all of whom suck. She also says the same thing to her best friend-turned-stepmom Alicent: For Rhaenyra, marriage is an easy ticket to “getting locked in a castle and being made to squeeze out heirs” — and that’s exactly what Alicent has been doing ever since she the knot is tied with Viserys.
Meanwhile, the princess is overjoyed to see her uncle again. Over wine and apps at the Godswood, Daemon advises her on the subject of the wedding she doesn’t want. According to him, it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t really like her future husband; Marriage is purely a “political arrangement” that frees you for other pursuits. “For men, marriage could be a political arrangement,” she replies. “It’s a death sentence for women.”
Written by Ira Parker and directed by Claire Kilner, both newcomers to the Thrones series, King Of The Narrow Sea has a narrative and emotional dynamic that House Of The Dragon has sorely lacked. It’s tense, sexy, smart and even, dare I say it, funny. It’s like wildfire when Smith and Milly Alcock’s characters come together, and this episode bets on viewers enjoying its dynamic to pull a brilliantly nasty little prank on us.
That night, Rhaenyra finds her very own play hookie gear in her chambers: a farm boy’s clothes and a map to a secret back door of the Red Keep. Daemon is waiting, ready to take you on a street-level tour of King’s Landing. Just a cool uncle and his cool niece!
Kilner’s camera takes us on a dizzying, sensual tour of the city. In stark contrast to the castle’s echoing halls, the streets and alleys are bustling with life: fireworks, tightrope walkers, fortune tellers and lechers. The disguised royals take on a mummified farce – what else? – up their own bullshit. “And now we come to the subject of the great iron chair and whose butt it might carry,” an actor recites as the fake Rhaenyra farts loudly on the Iron Throne, the fake Alicent gives birth to the fake Aegon, and the fake Daemon whips out a rope effigy a penis.
It’s Daemon’s way of showing her that despite living in an absolute monarchy, the opinion of the little folk matters more than she might think – and it’s startlingly obvious how little they want a woman to call the shots. It’s a lesson Rhaenyra won’t learn, but one her descendant, Daenerys, will take to heart – and use to her advantage.
Next, the prince leads his freedom-drunk (and just plain drunk) niece to his favorite brothel and sheds both disguises, like the calculating maniac that he is. The protected princess is alternately fascinated and overwhelmed, and Daemon watches her reactions like a hawk.
Then the episode takes us to where it always went: two Targaryens engaging in incest together. Game of Thrones viewers were already primed to witness this particular taboo while also being disrupted by their enjoyment, and King of the Narrow Sea expertly walks that line.
Emily Carey and Milly Alcock Photo Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO
Kilner confronts Rhaenyra, who is obviously (albeit disturbingly) enjoying Daemon, while Alicent stares dead-eyed at the ceiling while Viserys gets his way with her, his bare back covered with wounds inflicted by the throne. The sequence draws a sharp line between their experiences – one of a woman as the subject of her own sexual desire and another of a woman as the object of someone else.
It’s the kind of scene you almost never saw in Thrones, where sex was used primarily as a vehicle to spice up explanatory scenes or enact brutality; In almost all cases, women were objects of male lust, submission, or both. This trend likely had a lot to do with the lack of women in creative roles on the show. Throughout its eight seasons, Thrones has had only one director and two writers. Whether House Of The Dragon will follow suit remains to be seen.
Though he ends up using her for his own machinations, Daemon gives Rhaenyra valuable wisdom before dropping her: “Fucking is a pleasure, you see, for woman as much as it is man.” The princess takes his words to heart hearts and orchestrates her own seduction of Ser Criston Cole in the palace. It’s a scene that’s both tender and unnerving; The two are both clearly in love with each other, but Criston’s initial reluctance underscores the very real power imbalance between them.
The debauchery of the night explodes in everyone’s face in daylight. A boy who has spotted Rhaenyra and Daemon in public gives Otto the gossip – and he immediately turns and tells Viserys while Alicent listens. (They really need to stop putting up so many curtains and secret doors in the Red Keep if they’re going to keep the intrigue at bay.)
When the queen confronts Rhaenyra with Otto’s allegations, she switches to crisis management mode. Yes, she and Daemon had a Princess Jasmine last night, but she swears by her mother’s memory that nothing ever happened between them but too much alcohol. As Rhaenyra tests the limits of her power, she also attempts perjury at the expense of Alicent and Aemma, the two people she once cared about most.
Then it’s time for Viserys to figure out what to do with this mess – one caused by being overly revealing as brother, father and king. It begins with Daemon lying face down and drunk in front of the Iron Throne. A justly enraged Viserys accuses him of soiling his daughter and betraying his trust, and Daemon plays his hand: in the bigamistic, incestuous tradition of the Targaryen family, he wants to take his niece as a second wife, which the king can grant him as a boon for turning over the stepping stones. But he miscalculated: Viserys is too decent a man ever to agree to this proposal, and he orders Daemon to return to his wife in the valley and never darken his doorstep again.
Next comes Rhaenyra. She denies sleeping with her uncle, but the king says the truth doesn’t matter – only what is perceived. The princess points out that if she were a male heir, she could sire a million bastards and no one would bat an eyelid. She’s right, of course, but it’s a bad sign that she hasn’t yet realized that she’s getting nowhere in this faux-medieval world by being sensible about equality. Viserys tells Rhaenyra that her slow-motion husband search is over; she will marry Corlys’ son Laenor so that the Crown can rebuild its alliance with House Velaryon.
Rhaenyra agrees, but with her own stipulation: Viserys must dump Otto, who she believes is trying to undermine her claim to the throne in favor of his own grandson, Aegon. The king faces his hand, only just realizing what everyone else has probably already figured out – that Otto pushed Alicent to him so that a small Hightower scion could eventually become king. Otto claims he has always worked in the best interests of the crown, but for once in his life Viserys is not backing down. He strips his longtime advisor of his hand badge and the moment clearly costs both men. It remains to be seen how much it will cost the Empire.
And if Rhaenyra still thought she had a say in her life, Grand Maester Mellos arrives with a vial of tea Viserys sent to relieve her of “all undesirable consequences”. Your body, the king’s choice.
Crazy observations
- Rhaenyra’s audience with her suitors plays out like a Parks And Recreation City Council meeting, only with swords. When a teenage Blackwood suitor challenges a heckler on the sidelines to a duel, the princess isn’t done.
- Both a challenge and a flirtation, the way Daemon’s dragon casually bombards the mast of Rhaenyra’s ship sums up exactly what will happen between them.
- The Princess graduated as a cupbearer from the meetings of the Viserys Small Council – she literally has a seat at the table now.
- Ramin Djawadi’s score for this episode, all discordant strings and original drumbeats, is a study in how to increase tension.
- It’s worth noting that while Game Of Thrones didn’t have an intimacy coordinator, House Of The Dragon did – and it shows. (Thrones star Gemma Whelan once said that when it came to filming sex scenes on the show, the directors would simply tell the actors, “If we’re going to scream action, do it!”)
- Otto gets his gossip from an anonymous source he calls the White Worm. Is this person the House Of The Dragon version of the Master of Whisperers?
- Given the content of this episode, the title “King Of The Narrow Sea” is certainly ambiguous.