The race is on towards the end of the first seasons of House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power, but Galadriel and company hit the wire first, with only one episode remaining. With that in mind, you might expect the penultimate episode, “The Eye,” to move quickly, but it takes its time. It works. As for House of the Dragon, King Viserys Targaryen’s house of cards continues to collapse in “Driftmark.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Episode 7, “The Eye”
Was anybody worried that Galadriel might not survive the un-survivable pyroclastic flow of the volcano that swallowed her up at the end of Episode 6? Galadriel awakens in a fiery hellscape of corpses and horses on fire. We learn that every character the show cares about also made it, including Theo, Queen Regent Miriel (albeit blinded), Captain Elendil and Isildur (just MIA).
With the Southlands now turned into Mordor, the survivors work their way back to the ridge encampment. Galadriel and Theo have a nice, quiet chat. Always willing to milk itself for drama, The Rings of Power teases the survival of Bronwyn, Arondir (now Theo’s unofficial Stepdad?) and the wounded Halbrand. Defeated, the Númenoreans depart, but Miriel promises to return, much to the bitter Elendil’s chagrin.
Arriving at the Grove, Nori and her family discover that the Harfoot sanctuary has been destroyed by the volcanic eruption. Sadoc Burrows (played with elegant and humorous gravitas by Lenny Henry) tries to approach the Stranger for help, but his attempts to regrow the forget endanger the harfoots. The Stranger departs but is followed by the weird White Cloaks from the east, called The Dweller (Bridie Sisson), The Ascetic (Kali Kope) and The Nomad (Edith Poor).
The Harfoot storyline often verges on being too treacly. Nori, Marigold, Poppy and Sadoc head out on a journey to warn the Stranger about the White Cloaks pursuing him. Those dang proto-Hobbits preach cautious neutrality but always end up in the thick of the conflict, just as their descendants Bilbo and Frodo will.
With King Durin rejecting Elrond’s plea to help the Elven people, Prince Durin and his blacksmithing wife Princess Disa look for alternatives. Disa is always fun to watch, plus she’s vastly more decisive than her sometimes waffling husband.
“The Eye” scores points with the heartfelt scene between Durin, Disa and Elrond. The moment where the mithril cleans the polluted leaf, corny as it is, is surprisingly exhilarating. The Elrond/Durin bromance keeps the story rolling straight into a mithril motherlode until King Durin rains on everybody’s parade. Balrog sighting!
One has to applaud how earnestly The Rings of Power attacks its story. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad and it’s a high fantasy Tolkien feast all around. Though it overburdens itself with epic gloriousness at times, the characters grow on you. For those who weathered the early criticisms of The Rings of Power and stuck with it, the show is well on its way to delivering satisfying rewards.
House of the Dragon, Episode 7: “Driftmark”
Opening with a beautiful funeral seems fitting for “Driftmark,” considering the darkness House of the Dragon embraces almost without pause. As poor Laena’s coffin sinks into the sea, Viserys vainly attempts to reconcile with Daemon while the factions in his family look on.
Despite being the only functional married couple on the show, Corlys and Rheanys disagree on the way forward when it comes to their grandchildren. Not even they can avoid the sectarian divisions that are tearing this family apart.
Daemon and Rheanyra consummate their long-simmering attraction, and it’ll be fun to watch whatever plot this Targaryen power couple comes up with. They’ve always had a special connection, but there’s also a sad inevitability to their pairing, as if the audience can feel how their moment of happiness truly signals the beginning of the end for the Targaryen dynasty.
The exhilarating scene where Prince Aemond commandeers the she-dragon Vhagar (formerly Laena’s mount) marks him as a worthy Targaryen heir, as does his warrior’s response to Lucerys Velaryon’s slicing of his right eye (an eye for a dragon being a “fair exchange,” essentially). After the kids fight, the adults sort through the aftermath in a way that Viserys cannot wholly control.
The meeting climaxes with another accusation of bastardy. Unable to accept Viserys’ resolution, Alicent snatches the king’s dagger and attacks Rhaenyra. It’s an incredibly dramatic moment. Rhaenyra escapes with a light wound, and the two sides literally line up across from one another.
The Alicent-Rhaenyra standoff illuminates how Viserys has lost control of the future of his court. The sniveling Ser Criston shows a little backbone by refusing Alicent’s order to assault Lucerys. Viserys will never know how HUGE a mistake he made bringing the devious Otto back as his Hand.
“Driftmark” is an episode packed with essential turns of the plotting screw: the death of Leana, the pairing of Daemon and Rheanyra, the knifing of new dragon-rider Aemond’s eyeball and Alicent’s attack on Rhaenyra. Plus the traditional Targaryen wedding ceremony (with plenty of bloodletting, of course) between Daemon and Rhaenyra is fascinating to watch.
Although the drama rumbles forward like a high-powered locomotive, House of the Dragon is perhaps beginning to slump under the weight of its own grimness. The grimdarkness is wild and fun, but the audience also wants someone worthwhile to root for.
Game of Thrones had good characters like Jon Snow (and pretty much all the Starks), Lyanna Mormont, Ygritte, Tyrion Lannister and Samwell Tarly to balance out the terrible one, plus a raft of deeply flawed players doing their best to be good, such as Jorah Mormont, Theon Greyjoy and even Jaime Lannister.
But where are the good guys in House of the Dragon? As Rheanyra and Alicent plunge deeper into the cloak and dagger conspiracies surrounding their children and the succession, both characters (especially Alicent, thus far) are revealing their ruthless sides. The ineffective King Viserys is likable but nearly toast. Lord Corlys and Rhaenys Velaryon might prove honorable, so there is hope there.
The children are too underdeveloped to garner much audience empathy, and forget self-centered scumbags like Otto Hightower, the viper-like Larys Strong and the forever whining Ser Criston Cole. Most of the decent people are already dead, including Lyonel and Harwin Strong and Laena Velaryon. The stouthearted Ser Harrold Westerling is probably not going to remain breathing for much longer.
Thus far, characters like Daemon Targaryen seem attractive because at least they’re honest about how brutal they are. Though treacherous, Daemon has his code, not unlike the Hound did in Game of Thrones: he refuses to consummate his attraction with Rheanyra when he feels she is too young, and despite his poor judgement, he’s always been protective of his older brother Viserys, accurately identifying those who do not have the King’s best interests at heart.
Who Won the Week?
Along with the show’s trademark lush palette and epic landscapes, “The Eye” gives us the glowing reds and swirling yellow cinders of Mordor, complete with ash-coated characters and daywalking orcs. Characters take time to reflect, and a lot of big questions are posed for the season finale, including a glimpse of Balrog-under-the-Mithril.
Despite the somberness of its characters and the darkness of its cinematography, “Driftmark” fires on all plot cylinders, hurling the story forward into its next time jump. Hopefully, this fast-forward will land more smoothly. Both episodes soar, but “Driftmark” eclipses the somewhat quiet “The Eye.”
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