While the doings in Dragonstone are epic in scope, events in King’s Landing proceed at a much quieter volume for most of the episode. Fired from the small council by her own son, the dowager Queen Alicent rides off into the nearby kingswood for an indefinite leave of absence. At one point she floats face-up on the still waters of a lake, like a Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia — literally and figuratively a woman adrift.
What happens back in the Red Keep bears close reading. Lord Jasper Wylde, known as Ironrod (Paul Kennedy), the small council’s low-key master of laws, approaches Larys Strong with rumors that Seasmoke has been sighted with a rider. The Clubfoot is quick to dismiss this as nonsense — to Lord Wylde. But he immediately increases the intensity of King Aegon II’s physical therapy, as though he knows Team Green’s control of King’s Landing may be nearing an end.
In the episode’s closing sequence, it almost does. An apparently out-of-control Ulf buzzes the capital on Silverwing, hooting and hollering like Slim Pickens at the end of “Dr. Strangelove.” Aemond gives chase on Vhagar — only to stop her short and turn back for home. (Note that he has more control over his mount than he did last season, when he couldn’t stop her from killing Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys.) Aemond figured out that he was flying into a trap. The final image is a glory shot of Rhaenyra and Syrax, Hugh and Vermithor, and Ulf and Silverwing amid the hills of Dragonstone, in full “we’ll get you next time, Aemond” mode.
Elsewhere in the realm, Rhaenyra’s husband, Daemon, has other matters on his mind. (His daughter Rhaena, coincidentally, is off in the Vale on a dragon hunt of her own.) Oscar Tully (a commanding Archie Barnes), the teenage lord paramount of the pivotal Riverlands region, has come to Harrenhal with all his vassals for an audience with the self-appointed king. Daemon thinks this will be a simple matter of cowing a kid, then getting him to cow all the lords and ladies sworn to follow him.
But Lord Oscar is made of sterner stuff. Risking death by dragonfire, the kid dog-walks Daemon in front of all the Riverlords — proclaiming openly his dislike of the man, calling his conduct reprehensible and generally declaring him an unfit representative for a just cause. Finally, Oscar forces Daemon to execute one of his own loyal lords for war crimes if he wants the others’ help at all. Daemon glowers and fumes and … then does what he is told.
On the very day that he is brought to heel by a green boy who better understands politics than he does, Daemon is visited in a vision once again by his brother, King Viserys, maimed and deformed as he was in his dying days. Viserys holds his golden crown in his hands, telling his brother of its crushing weight, of the endless pain it causes.
“You always wanted it, Daemon,” the dream-king says. “Do you want it still?” For the first time since the show began, it feels as if the answer may be no.
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