Every episode of House of the Dragon season 2, ranked worst to best

The curtain has fallen on the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, which means its time to pick it apart with the know-it-all satisfaction only a critic who has no idea how difficult it is to put together a special effects-heavy, multi-million dollar TV show can. I enter into this exercise humbled by the work of the writers, directors, actors and crew members who brought it to life for me. Kudos to all of you.

And yet, as the end consumer, my voice matters too, and I had some problems with this season. There were definitely some high points, but this was a step down from the first season of House of the Dragon. What are my reasons? Let's get to ranking:

8. "Regent," Episode 205

The second season of House of the Dragon was often dinged by fans for feeling "slow." By that, many of them meant that too much time would pass without the plot moving forward. There's no better example of that than "Regent."

The strongest parts of this episode come at the beginning, when Criston Cole parades the severed head of the dragon Meleys through the streets of King's Landing, much to the horror of the shocked smallfolk. King Aegon is returned from the Battle of Rook's Rest near death, and we get some gnarly scenes where maesters and silent sisters peel armor off his burned body. I was afraid for him.

Later, it's decided that Aemond will serve as regent while his brother recovers, and that's about it so far as plot momentum goes. At the castle of Harrenhal, Daemon Targaryen deals with some contrived pushback from local lords over acts of war he kinda-sorta endorsed committed by one noble Riverlands house against another. When he's not blundering his way through what feels like his first brush with leadership, he dreams of eating out his own mom, the nadir of the "why are we watching this?" dream sequences scattered throughout his story. Daemon's subplot was already getting dull, but it starts to become borderline unbearable here.

The episode ends with Queen Rhaenyra and her son Jace mulling the possibility of recruiting distant descenants of Targaryen nobility to mount riderless dragons. It's a very strange choice for an ending: two people in a room get an idea that might develop into something down the line, maybe. There's no way to come out of this episode feeling like very little happened.

7. "The Queen Who Ever Was," Episode 208

The season finale also suffers from a lack of momentum, and at a much more crucial juncture. "The Queen Who Ever Was" is mostly about buildup to big events still to come; it ends with a montage of armies and navies on their way to war, which is stirring, but it's too late in the season to be teasing conflict on the horizon. We needed a cathartic release and this episode didn't provide one.

At least there are several good scenes. Alyn of Hull finally tells his father Corlys Velaryon how he feels, the new dragonriders mix up the social dynamics on Dragonstone, Tyland Lannister mud wrestles a pirate in a low-stakes subplot that provides a nice counterpoint to the dreary conversations that dominate so much of this show, and Criston Cole gives a stirring monologue about the pointlessness of war. Now that a dreary conversation I can get behind!

It's also nice to see Rhaenyra and Daemon reunite after spending most of the season apart, although I didn't like Daemon's vision of the Game of Thrones to come. It feels like House of the Dragon is leaning too hard on its predecessor show for meaning when it should be trying to make the here and now as interesting as possible.

In place of a big action climax, we get a conversation between Rhaenyra and her best frenemy Alicent where Alicent offers to allow Rhaenyra to invade King's Landing and even to sacrifice her son Aegon if it means bringing an end to the war. I simply didn't buy this scene. I felt like the writers wanted Alicent to take a turn and forced it through without asking obvious questions, like why Alicent would want to turn traitor for a woman whose husband took out a hit on her grandson earlier in the season.

And speaking of that...

7. "A Son For A Son," Episode 201

The season 2 premiere is mostly solid, but nothing feels quite as intense as it should considering the first season ended with Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen turning to the camera with furious vengeance in her eyes. That set us up for excitement, but immediately, the second season adopts a more muted tone, with Rhaenyra mourning the loss of her son Luke as Daemon tries and fails to attack King's Landing. It feels like whenever a character wants to do something this season, there's someone telling them no, don't, bad. The pace is halting and frustrated.

The best stuff this episode happens in King's Landing, where King Aegon tries to settle into his new role as sovereign. Aegon is the MVP of the season; he's callow, shallow and inexperienced, but also vulnerable and earnest in his desire to be taken seriously. There's a lot of push and pull within him, and actor Tom Glynn-Carney does a marvelous job bringing it to life.

The title refers to a plot by Daemon to hire a pair of assassins to take out Aemond Targaryen in the Red Keep. Unable to find him, they kill Queen Helaena's young son Jaehaerys instead, beheading him in front of his mother. This is horrifying, but the show makes the curious choice to focus on the assassins' experience rather than on Helaena's, leaving the scene feeling weirdly muffled. It doesn't feel anywhere close to as traumatic and terrifying as it should. It doesn't seem to have much affect on Helaena afterwards, either, further minimizing what should have been a moment no one would ever forget.

6. "The Burning Mill," Episode 203

This episode is mostly about setup, but it's entertaining because people are on the move and events are set in motion. Criston Cole leads an army out of King's Landing to ravage the Crownlands, parting with his lover Alicent Hightower. Criston was a hard character to like in season 1, but season 2 does a good job of giving him depth. The episode also gets points for introducing Alicent's smarmy brother Gwaye, a great foil for Criston. I enjoyed the scene where the pair face down Baela Targaryen, who's out scouting for Rhaenyra on her dragon Moondancer.

We also get some solid character drama between Aegon and Aemond Targaryen, brothers who meet awkwardly when they happen to be in the same brothel. The siblings definitely have issues and I wouldn't want to be part of this family, but they're very compelling together onscreen.

The episode is brought down by the final scene, where Rhaenyra dresses up like a septa to sneak into King's Landing and meet with Alicent Hightower in the Great Sept, hoping they that can hammer out a peace agreement before the war gets too bad. This scenario is quite contrived and silly, so the scene needs to be really good to get away with it. It doesn't clear the bar. The idea that Alicent would have the power to effectuate a peace settlement in the first place is a stretch, making the whole trip seem ludicrously unwise on Rhaenyra's part. And the women don't come to an agreement in any case. Mostly this scene sets up their second meeting at season's end, which is also a bust, albeit for different reasons.

The writers seem convinced that Rhaenyra and Alicent's relationship is the emotional hinge on which the story turns, but every attempt to push it to the center feels forced. The refusal to let their relationship take its natural course is one of the things that most holds the season back. The other big problem plot is Daemon's tiresome vision quest in Harrenhal, which officially kicks off in this episode. The first dream, which features the return of Milly Alcock as Young Rhaenyra, is a surprising jolt. Returns diminish very quickly after this.

5. "Smallfolk," Episode 206

Okay, we've officially reached the good half of the season! You could call "Smallfolk" another setup episode, but I think that sells it short. Rhaenyra's hunt for potential new dragonriders gets well underway here, yielding great scenes like Ser Steffon Darklyn trying to mount the dragon Seasmoke only to get a face full of fire for his trouble. And the scene where Seasmoke chases his new chosen rider Addam of Hull around the island of Driftmark is a blast.

Alicent gets some of her best scenes of the season here, first when Aemond callously dismisses her from the Small Council and later when she talks to Gwayne about her son Daeron, who's lived away from the city since he was a boy. On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra shares an unexpected kiss with her spymaster Mysaria, a character who, like Criston, became much more interesting in season 2. The kiss hasn't yet been followed up on, but it was a terrific moment that made me realize how much I'd been enjoying their chemistry all season.

Mysaria and Rhaenyra take advantage of the desperation among the smallfolk in King's Landing and stir them into a riot. The scene is tremendously exciting, both because Alicent and Helaena are caught in the middle of it and because it fronts a lot of characters we've come to know glancingly over the course of the season, like Ulf White, Hugh Hammer and Hugh's wife Kat. A lot of things come together in this episode.

4. "Rhaenyra the Cruel," Episode 202

I wrote above about how the murder of Helaena's son Jaehaerys felt oddly muted considering the horror of the scenario, and I think the failure to follow up on it later on is a demerit on the season. The immediate aftermath, however, is gripping. King Aegon takes center stage. He's a new father and a new king and completely out of his depth in both roles. He rages and makes rash decisions, angering his grandfather Otto Hightower and taking us from one spellbinding scene to the next. I can't say enough nice things about actor Tom Glynn-Carney in this role.

Things are pretty tense on Dragonstone, too, where Rhaenyra and Daemon have a monster argument after word gets out about Daemon hiring the assassins who killed Jaehaerys. Actors Emma D'Arcy and Matt Smith both roast this scene alive.

The episode loses a little bit of energy after that, but there is an entertaining plot about a Kingsguard knight who infiltrates Dragonstone posing as his own twin, who's already on the island. His mission is to kill Rhaenyra, but his brother's is to protect her. Obviously, the brothers cross swords and die. It's a nice sequence, although I wish the show had familiarized us more with these characters — Arryk and Erryk Cargyll — before pitting them against each other in mortal combat. That could have bumped this episode up from good to great.

3. "The Red Sowing," Episode 207

This very fun episode is the highlight of the back half of the season. Rhaenyra's plan to find new riders for her untethered dragons finally bears fruit as she summons a flock of Targaryen bastards to Dragonstone and then basically locks them in a room with a fire-breathing monster. It's insane, but also an eye-popping joy to watch. And it allows supporting characters like Hugh Hammer and Ulf White to come fully into their own. Ah, so that's why we've been spending time with them this season.

The episode might also have the best ending of any this season, as Aemond Targaryen flees from Rhaenyra and her new dragon air force. It's a pivot the season needed. If only the finale had kept this momentum going, general opinion on the season as a whole might be much improved, but no use dwelling on that.

"The Red Sowing" also marks what is far and away the high watermark of Daemon's adventures in incompetence, because this is the point where they finally end. I didn't like the time-wasting drama involving all the Riverlords in episodes past, but things come together nicely here as newcomer Oscar Tully untangles the political knot Daemon had tied. The show throws in one more eye-rollingly superficial dream sequence in at the end, but I can let it slide.

1. "The Red Dragon and the Gold," Episode 204

I don't think anybody would deny that this was the best episode of the season. But for a couple of Daemon dream sequences peppered throughout, already growing cringey even at this early stage, it might be a perfect episode.

House of the Dragon is about a war between two camps, one led by Rhaenyra and another by Aegon. The reason this season feels slow is because we don't really see these two sides clash, not on the field nor one-on-one; when Alicent comes to see Rhaenyra at the end, it's to switch sides, not to provide us with the conflict we've been staved for. The one big shining exception is "The Red Dragon and the Gold," which climaxes with a dragon-vs-dragon battle in the skies above Rook's Rest castle.

This battle succeeds on two fronts: first, it looks splendid. This might be the most impressive dragon-vs-dragon battle in the history or film or TV. You feel the weight and the speed and the blood and the dirt. All my love to the actors, crew members and technicians who made this possible.

But we also know and like all the characters involved, and the battle unfolds in a way that we can follow it. Criston Cole and Gwayne Hightower are our eyes on the ground, while Aegon, Aemond and Rhaenys Targaryen take to the skies. Aemond makes a move against his brother in the heat of battle, a thrilling example of how to execute a plot twist in an exciting way. Aemond, astride his dragon Vhagar, kills his cousin Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys. Our heart breaks for both of them.

This episode even justifies some of the hand-wringing done by characters like Rhaenyra and Rhaenys in the first three episodes, because when we finally see the dragons fight each other, we understand why they wouldn't want to escalate things to this apocalyptic level. And yet, that's where the drama is, and I'm glad we got here.

If I could presume to give the House of the Dragon producers any advice for next couple of seasons — season 3 is coming in 2026 and season 4 will wrap the story up — it would be to let their characters engage in negative emotions. It sometimes feels like the writing wants to protect characters like Rhaenyra and Alicent in particular from looking bloodthirsty or power-hungry, but this is a story about a pyrrhic war where both sides destroy themselves, and we're not going to get there by making sure everyone plays nice. We should feel the tragic undertow sucking everyone to hell. There is no right or wrong, there are no heroes, there are just people trying to do their best, and finding in the end that they're doomed.

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