Fire-breathing monsters steal the show in a fun new episode of House of the Dragon

We're nearly at the end of the second season of House of the Dragon, and with only one episode left, I'm starting to doubt that the show is going to be able to end with a bang. If you look at the source material for the show, Fire & Blood, while there are a couple of big events on the horizon, I don't expect the series to have time to get to them. The finale might have some great emotional scenes between characters, but I wouldn't expect an action climax.

We can talk about how that affects the season as a whole when it happens. For now, House of the Dragon is building on the momentum it created in "Smallfolk" with another solid hour. Let's get into the details of the new episode, "The Red Sowing," below:

Review: House of the Dragon season 2, Episode 7, "The Red Sowing"

As someone who's read Fire & Blood, I've known for a while that this storyline was coming. I was looking forward to seeing how House of the Dragon would handle Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) recruiting low-born dragonriders to her side, and was a bit perplexed that the show was taking so long to get a move on. In the book, a character named Mushroom suggests early on that they should seek out Targaryen bastards if they want new dragonriders. Mushroom has been cut from the show, so the spymaster Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) — herself common-born — suggests it instead, which makes sense.

The show has introduced a new dimension: high-born characters like Rhaenyra and Jace (Harry Collett) are uncomfortable with the idea that peasants can ride dragons since it threatens the class system into which they were born. I think this is a cool idea, and explains why it took Rhaenyra so long to get from "Let's check the library for gentle-born people with Targaryen DNA" to "Let's raise an army of bastards." At the top of the episode, Rhaenyra confronts Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), who has claimed the dragon Seasmoke; she is shocked to the point of anger that such a thing is even possible. Her son Jace, himself a bastard even if he's never admitted it publicly, has a full-blown identity crisis, wondering if his mother will have a use for him now that she has other dragonriders in her retinue, some with proper Targaryen silver-white hair. I think that reaction is a bit overblown, but the question of Jace's bastardy has hung over him his whole life, and I felt for the kid.

At the same time, by drawing this story out, House of the Dragon has sacrificed a lot of time and given up a lot of momentum. This late in the season, the show should be barreling down the highway instead of just now reaching cruising speed.

But can I really complain that much when I enjoyed the episode? The dragonseed story is fun. Rhaenyra and Mysaria conspire to recruit would-be dragonriders from King's Landing, where the highborn Targaryens have been dallying in brothels and with peasant sidepieces for generations. Interestingly, in the book, Rhaenyra recruits all the dragonseeds directly from Dragonstone, another Targaryen stronghold. I don't mind that the show expands things to King's Landing — it makes for a fun sequence where word of the conspiracy quietly spreads through the Green-hating population — although it's becoming ridiculous how easy it is to travel between the city and Dragonstone during a time of war. I feel like it's happened at least once per episode.

We've met our main dragonseed characters before. Addam mounted Seasmoke last week. Now it's time for Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) and Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) to shine. Easily the funniest scene of the episode is when Ulf's drinking buddies try to convince him to answer the call and he gets cold feet despite dining out on stories of his Targaryen bastardy for years. Once on Dragonstone, he stumbles upon the dragon Silverwing and lucks out into her choosing him as her new rider. Unable to control her, the pair of them wing over King's Landing, the drunken Ulf whooping and hollering. This show desperately wants for humor and joy sometimes, so god bless Ulf for bringing some.

Hugh's story is more somber. His sick child has died and he wants to try his hand at claiming a dragon so he can free himself and his wife from want, and maybe because he's tired and beaten down and figures he's going to die trying. In a powerful moment, he confronts the riderless dragon Vermithor and screams that he's ready. Instead of burning him to ash, Vermithor calms down, a smile curls the sides of Hugh's lips, and a new dragonrider is born.

In Fire & Blood, hopeful dragonseeds try and mount the dragons on their own, one at a time. The show streamlines things by having Rhaenyra show the lot of them into a huge cave on Dragonstone, summoning Vermithor, and basically saying, "Kay, good luck." I suspect this was mostly done so the show could turn the "Sowing of the Seeds" from the book into a big action sequence, with Vermithor torching most of the applicants until Hugh and Ulf emerge as the survivors. It works, and it's fun, although it's funny that Rhaenyra basically sends these people to their deaths right after giving them a speech about how mounting these dragons will help avoid further bloodshed.

I can't quite tell if the show is trying to portray Rhaenyra as a hypocrite with a god complex or if it's hoping we heed what she says and not what she does. Either way, the episode ends with Rhaenyra smiling as her new dragon air force assembles behind her, a strong moment for her and the best ending to an episode of this show in a minute.

Something actually happens at Harrenhal

I mentioned above that House of the Dragon has a momentum problem. It's dragged its feet on the dragonseed storyline a bit, but that's nothing compared to what it's done with Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), who has been stuck in a tiresome, dream sequence-ridden plot in the crumbling castle of Harrenhal for most of the season.

Maybe this plays differently for people who haven't read the book, but I've found this story mountingly boring. In Fire & Blood, Daemon rolls into the Riverlands and quickly whips the local houses into shape, raising a sizable army at Harrenhal on behalf of his wife Queen Rhaenyra. On the show, everything he's tried has failed, and he's haunted by specters from his past who dispense painfully obvious advice (this time it's old dying King Viserys, who holds up a crown and asks if Daemon still wants it; just make the subtext text, I guess). I am beyond ready to move on from this.

Happily, we do get some movement. Young Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), the new Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, turns up and puts on a good show for the Riverlords, making Daemon execute Willem Blackwood for committing war crimes against the neighboring Brackens; this demonstrates that Daemon cares about their particular brand of river-justice, which hopefully means Daemon can take a more active role in his own story.

House of the Dragon has ground to a halt whenever it visits Harrenhal this season, and I think it's close enough to the end that we can start picking apart what went wrong. I think the show figured it had to make use of Matt Smith, the highest-profile actor on the series, and gave Daemon this storyline even though he didn't need it. I think the show would have been better off simply leaving Daemon out of a few episodes rather than dragging him through this slog.

Looking at this season, I suspect that the show has a rule that it can't go too long without checking on Rhaenyra, Daemon or Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), even if they have nothing in particular to do. This episode, Alicent is still feeling out of sorts now that her son Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) has fired her from the Small Council. She orders a member of the kingsgaurd to take her to the kingswood, where she wanders through the rushes and goes for a swim in a lake. I get that she's feeling adrift and I like how she looks like Ophelia floating there on the water, but I think there are better things on which to spend screentime.

For instance, I'm surprised that the show has spent so little time on Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). How is she faring after watching her son murdered and seeing her brother-husband laid up? How about checking in with the long-absent and much-missed Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans)? Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) has had precious little of substance to do this season. What's the relationship like between Jace and his fiancee Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia)? On Game of Thrones, lead characters like Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen would sit out episodes all the time. I hope House of the Dragon is more open to this in future seasons.

Alicent's son Aegon gets one scene this episode, and there's no danger of boredom here. I haven't mentioned the actors much in this review, but Tom Glynn-Carney deserves all the praise I can give him. In the first half of the season he played Aegon as a callow, impulsive brat king. Aegon was badly injured after the Battle of Rook's Rest, and now can't take a step without experiencing extreme pain. Glynn-Carney brings this to life in a way that makes it impossible to avert your eyes.

Aegon even makes characters around him more interesting. The spymaster Larys Strong, himself disabled, has gained a new level of depth after choosing to help King Aegon with the healing process, dispensing tough love in advance of an inevitable confrontation with Aegon's older brother Aemond, who is still ruling King's Landing with an Iron Fist.

Or maybe Larys is training Aegon up for an inevitable confrontation with Rhaenyra? But will any of these confrontations happen in the finale? I'm afraid that House of the Dragon season 2 will conclude with a "tune in next season for the good part" kind of ending when what it really needs is a climax. But for now, I'm happy to ride this dragon up and up and away.

House of the Bullet Points

• For the lore hounds out there, it's implied that Hugh's mother was Saera Targaryen, a scandal-prone princess who fled courtly life and worked as a courtesan.
• There's no meaningful follow-up to the Rhaenyra-Mysaria kiss from last episode, although they continue their close working relationship. Just FYI for the romantics out there.
• Rhaena Targaryen is supposed to go to Essos with her little step-brothers, but leaves to seek out a dragon living in the Vale. We'll see how that turns out in the finale, I imagine. RIP Nettles.
• In Fire & Blood, Aemond Targaryen leaves King's Landing on Vhagar to assist with the war effort in the Riverlands, and in his absence Rhaenyra attacks King's Landing with the dragonseeds. But on the show, Aemond finds out about the dragonseeds when he chases Ulf and Silverwing back to Dragonstone. Why would he and Vhagar leave the city now that he knows Rhaenrya is packing all this firepower? We'll see how they handle things in the finale.

Episode Grade: B+

Episode Reviews:

• Episode 201, "A Son for a Son"
• Episode 202, "Rhaenyra the Cruel"
• Episode 203, "The Burning Mill"
• Episode 204, "The Red Dragon and the Gold"
• Episode 205, "Regent"
• Episode 206, "Smallfolk"
• Episode 207, "The Red Sowing"
• Episode 208, "The Queen Who Ever Was"

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