House of the Dragon Episode 202, "Rhaenyra the Cruel": Easters eggs and secrets

The second episode of House of the Dragon season 2 is out, and the devastation continues in Westeros. The season premiere, "A Son for a Son," ended with the brutal assassination of King Aegon Targaryen's son, young prince Jaehaerys, at the hands of the vile mercenaries Blood and Cheese. "Rhaenyra the Cruel" is all about the fallout from that horrific act. Spoiler: it's bad for everyone.

HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series is speeding into the thick of the Dance of the Dragons civil war. "Rhaenyra the Cruel" saw Aegon's Green faction set various plans in motion to strike back at Rhaenyra, either by tarnishing her reputation or taking her life with their own assassination plot. Things are getting juicy!

As we did last week, we're going through the episode and pointing out as many easter eggs and secrets as we can. Come along for the ride, and if you notice any we miss, drop them in the comments! Obviously, there will be FULL SPOILERS for the episode.

House of the Dragon Episode 202, "Rhaenyra the Cruel" easter eggs

Out of the gate, I'd be remiss not to note that the opening credits for the new episode haven't changed at all from last week. They evolved throughout season 1, so we'll be keeping an eye on them to see if that happens again in later weeks, but for now our breakdown of the opening credits is still up to date.

"Rhaenyra the Cruel" picks up right where "A Son for a Son" left off, with the castle in an uproar after the murder of Prince Jaehaerys. We start by seeing a maid carrying Jaehaerys' bloody bedsheet out of his bed chamber, before a series of surreal scenes shows the servants of the Red Keep being roused from bed by guards. The room that they're all brought to is the very same one where Cersei Lannister will one day have her map of Westeros painted on the floor in Game of Thrones season 7.

Our first spoken lines of the episode come from King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), who is hard at work smashing his father's model of Old Valyria. This is an immensely metaphorical scene. According to showrunner Ryan Condal in the Inside the Episode featurette, it shows how Aegon is a "new sheriff in town," who will operate very differently than his father. The smashing of the model of Old Valyria is also powerful in relation to the history of House Targaryen. Along with the Velaryons, they are the last of the bloodlines left from the ancient Valyrian Freehold. The Dance of the Dragons will smash their power and signal their decline, and it will be a self-inflicted wound.

Oh, and let's not forget how Aegon's shouting "I'll kill them all!" mirrors the Mad King Aerys Targaryen screaming "Burn them all!" in Bran's vision during Game of Thrones season 6.

Meanwhile, Aegon's brother Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) discovers the secret passage Blood and Cheese used to enter his bed chamber. It's still left wide open, which means Blood (Sam C. Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart) didn't bother to close it on their way out, probably because Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) was already raising the alarm.

Aemond finds a coin on the floor next to the table with his map of Westeros. During the season premiere, we saw Aemond and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) placing those coins on the map as they mulled their battle strategy. Later, we saw Blood scoop them up, but it looks like he dropped one. This helps Aemond realize that Blood and Cheese came to kill him, as opposed to Jaehaerys. The coin has a seven-pointed star on the back, which is a symbol of the Faith of the Seven.

Alicent is also wearing a seven-pointed star necklace during the scene where she's being consoled by her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). Later, we see she has seven-pointed star decor around her room as well. They're visible reminders of Alicent's faith, which manifests in this scene as her thinking she's being punished by the gods for usurping Rhaenyra's throne.

Then we're off into the first Small Council scene of the episode. Let's break out the bullet points:

• Aegon calls Rhaenyra "the bitch queen of bastards." This is a reference to Jace, Luke, and Joffrey, Rhaenyra's three eldest sons who were fathered by Ser Harwin "Breakbones" Strong while she was married to Laenor Velaryon.
• Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) says they caught Blood, a gold cloak who is "known to us" for his "brutal nature" at the Gate of the Gods, and that he had Prince Jaehaerys' head in a sack. Much of this is drawn directly from Fire & Blood, right down to the descriptor of Blood as "brutal."
• Helaena (Phia Saban) is grieving in Jaehaerys and Jaehaera's bed chamber. The blanket she's clutching to her face belonged to the dead prince. We later see his body wrapped in this blanket during the funeral procession.
• When Helaena says "I don't want them closer" about the people of King's Landing, that's foreshadowing. During Jaehaerys' funeral procession, the smallfolk crowd in around her and she gets extremely anxious.
• Helaena also picks up a toy to send off with Jaehaerys, an elephant. That's pretty cool, because it could mean she was teaching him about the animals in Essos, rather than just giving him all dragons to play with all the time.
• Otto presumably ordered little Jaehaerys' head to be sewn back onto his body, but t's sewn back on in kind of a shoddy fashion, leaving a visible gap between his head and torso. Knowing Otto, I would bet more than a few gold dragons the subpar stitching is on purpose to accentuate the horror for the smallfolk.
• The cryer during the funeral coins the name "Rhaenyra the Cruel." This is the episode title. It's also making use of a moniker which already caught on once for a terrible Targaryen ruler, Maegor the Cruel. Quite a few nicknames get tossed around by the funeral cryer; Otto probably wanted to make sure at least one of them will stick.

When the funeral procession gets stalled out and the people close in on Helaena and Alicent, a peasant shouts "A curse! A curse on Rhaenyra the Monstrous!" The camera then pans to a concerned look on Alicent's face, probably because in her heart she's still conflicted about the idea of pinning this crime on Rhaenyra in the first place.

Now, we're off to Dragonstone to finally see Rhaenyra's response to the accusations.

Rhaenyra and Daemon

The fight between Rhaenyra and Daemon is long overdue. There are lots of great looks and details to be parsed out in these scenes. Most play pretty straight if you watch closely, but one particularly important detail is that Daemon says that even now, he's "on [his] way to Harrenhal to raise an army in [her] name." That's one of the only lines in the episode that implies where Daemon is going after leaving Dragonstone; we'll see if he actually heads there in Episode 3.

Rhaenyra also decides to send Daemon's daughter by Laena Velaryon, Baela (Bethany Antonia), to keep watch on King's Landing on her dragon Moondancer. We'll see Moondancer in action next episode! But for now, we get a shot of Caraxes taking off from Dragonstone with Daemon, which is the only close up shot of a dragon in the entire 72-minute episode.

Back in the Red Keep, Criston Cole watches as servants disassemble Prince Jaehaerys' bed. There's a toy riding horse in the corner of the room. On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is playing with her two youngest children, Aegon III and Viserys II. Those are her and Daemon's kids, in case you were having trouble keeping track of them all.

Ser Criston Cole's plan

Our next big scene features Ser Criston Cole and Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor), and it fills in a major plot hole in the premiere: why didn't Helaena Targaryen have a sworn protector?

Criston obviously doesn't answer Ser Arryk's pointed question, but we can draw our own conclusions. Ser Criston Cole only became Lord Commander of the Kingsguard a few days earlier, when the previous Lord Commander, Ser Harrold Westerling (Graham McTavish), resigned rather than support the Green Council coup. In the few days since Criston assumed leadership of the Kingsguard, he failed to properly assign his sworn brothers to protect the entirety of the royal family. Whether that was out of incompetence or because he wanted to lower his chances of getting caught with Alicent, we can only speculate.

Criston also reveals that he knows the assassins came for Aemond, telling Ser Arryk that he will go to Dragonstone and strike down Rhaenyra in her own halls, "the way she sought to do with Aemond." It's unclear if Aemond told Criston this, or if Criston drew his own conclusions from seeing the open passageway in Aemond's room.

On Dragonstone, we get our longest scene yet with Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Baela, where they discuss their respective fathers:

• Baela doesn't call Laenor Velaryon Jace's father, instead she asks him about her uncle. That's a great touch showing how these two understand the weirdly precarious family dynamics of their house.
• She also asks him about Harwin Strong, again, showing she knows Jace's true parentage and doesn't care. Jace reflects on how Harwin's "Breakbones" nickname was at odds with the gentle, fierce man he knew. She even reassures him that Harwin loved him and his brothers.

Off to the Street of Silk in King's Landing, where Aemond Targaryen is spending time with the brothel madam played by Michelle Bonnard, who we last saw during the Green Council coup episode of season 1:

• One of the prostitutes dancing at the beginning is wearing a faux Targaryen wig, presumably for patrons who fancy roleplaying a toss with the blood of the dragon. We saw this trend resurface during Game of Thrones, with prostitutes in Essos dressing up as Daenerys.
• The brothel madam confirms that Aemond was with her when Blood and Cheese infiltrated the Red Keep.
• When the madam tries to kiss Aemond and tells him "the boy is grown into a man," he turns away from her and curls up into the fetal position against her lap like a child. Great staging.
• Aemond also reveals he actually regrets killing Luke, and the madam uses her scant bit of influence with him to try to remind Aemond that when princes lose their temper, smallfolk often suffer. That smells like foreshadowing to me.

Hugh Hammer, Alyn of Hull, and Addam of Hull

Speaking of smallfolk, we spend time with an important one in the next scene: Hugh Hammer, played by Kieran Bew. Hugh and his wife reflect on how the Velaryon blockade of King's Landing has raised tensions in the city. Food stores aren't truly running low yet, but prices are rising and people are scared. We also get a key detail about Hugh: he has a sick daughter, which is a big part of his motivation for trying to get an advance payment for his blacksmith work from King Aegon in the season premiere. I'm betting Aegon will be a lot less forthcoming now that he's bending all the resources of the Crown towards war.

On Driftmark, we catch up with another couple of new characters: Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), who we met in the season premiere, and his younger brother, a shipwright named Addam (Clinton Liberty). As with Hugh, these are two very important new characters; we'll be seeing a lot more of them later this season, when an event known as the "sowing of the seeds" happens.

Alyn and Addam discuss Lord Corlys Velaryon's (Steve Toussaint) battle plans, which leads us right into a scene of the Sea Snake and his wife Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) lying in bed. Rhaenys reminds us that she lost her chance to sit the Iron Throne at the Great Council of 101 AC, when the lords of Westeros chose her cousin Viserys as their next ruler instead. This scene ends with a lingering shot of Rhaenys' face; she says that so long as she and her dragon Meleys are around, they won't let the queen falter. Once more, the foreshadowing is strong and that's all I'll say about that.

Rhaenyra and the White Worm

On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra Targaryen and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) have their first meeting. Like last episode, Mysaria is wearing a white dress, befitting her nickname of the White Worm. They're meeting in the library of Dragonstone — note all the scrolls on the walls. A few key details:

• Rhaenyra remembers who Mysaria is halfway through the conversation. These two haven't seen each other since the second episode of season 1, when young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) landed her dragon Syrax on the bridge of Dragonstone to confront her uncle Daemon. At the time, Daemon was pretending Mysaria was pregnant as a way of incensing his brother Viserys.
• Rhaenyra asks Mysaria where she got the scar across her throat. We haven't heard the story of that scar yet, but we presumably will at some point. It calls to mind the eunuch spymaster Varys from Thrones, who kept the story of how he was cut from Tyrion Lannister until they had established enough of a rapport that he felt like sharing.

On the beach of Driftmark, we see Addam of Hull picking crabs out of the sand. A dragon's roar catches his attention, and he pauses to watch Seasmoke, previously Laenor Velaryon's dragon, flying overhead. Laenor faked his own death so that he could go into hiding with his lover Ser Qarl Correy during the seventh episode of the first season, "Driftmark." I don't want to go too deep into spoilers for what's to come, but Seasmoke will hold a special significance for Addam as the season goes on.

Ulf White

Back in King's Landing, we meet another smallfolk character whose importance will only grow as the season goes on: Ulf White, played by Tom Bennett. In his very first seconds onscreen, Ulf casually steals a potato from an unsuspecting merchant's basket. That's indicative of some of Ulf's particular moral failings; I imagine we'll see a lot more of that sort of thing as we get to know him better.

Ulf is part of a crowd gathering to see a bunch of people who've been hanged in the streets: ratcatchers in the king's employ. Aegon didn't know which ratcatcher Cheese was, so he had the whole lot of them executed. And lo, our assassin is among them. In the book Fire & Blood, we never find out whether Aegon caught Cheese; he's just never heard about again after the ratcatchers are all hanged. In House of the Dragon, the sly ratcatcher doesn't escape the noose. But hey, at least his dog is okay!

Ser Criston Cole, the steel fist of the king

The smallfolk aren't the only ones upset by Aegon's decision to execute a bunch of innocents. The scene where Otto confronts him is another banger with a ton of important secrets:

• The very first thing we see in this scene is servants carrying the pieces of King Viserys' model of Old Valyria out of the room in wheelbarrows.
• When Criston warns Otto to be careful how he speaks to the king, Otto shouts "The king is my grandson, and my grandson is a fool!" This calls to mind Tyrion's moment in the second season of Game of Thrones where he saves Sansa from being publicly humiliated by Joffrey, and upon being reprimanded by Ser Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard replies, "I'm not threatening the king, I'm educated my nephew."
• As with many other scenes, Aegon is wearing the dagger of King Aegon the Conqueror in this scene. He fiddles with it during one key moment, where Otto asks him if he thinks of his father's dignity and Aegon snaps back, "Fuck dignity, I want revenge." House Targaryen is on the decline.
• The fact that Aegon names Ser Criston Cole his Hand of the King is an insane consolidation of power; in Westeros' history, the Kingsguard Lord Commander also being the Hand of the King has only happened a handful of times. Probably for a reason.
• Aegon saying his new Hand will be "a steel fist" is a line lifted directly from Fire & Blood.
• Otto comes as close as he likely ever will to admitting to Aegon that he doesn't believe King Viserys changed his mind and named him king.

Ser Arryk Cargyll vs Ser Erryk Cargyll

Back on Dragonstone, we're speeding toward the episode's conclusion. When Rhaenyra displays the honorable side of House Targaryen tells Mysaria that she will keep the word of her husband's word to release Mysaria, elements of Daenerys Targaryen's theme from Game of Thrones plays in the background.

Mysaria never makes it off the island because she sees Ser Arryk Cargyll walking up from the beach. His twin, Ser Erryk, was in the room with Rhaenyra when she freed Mysaria in the previous scene, which is why seeing Ser Arryk causes Mysaria to do a double take. We don't see it confirmed in this episode, but Mysaria is presumably the one warns Ser Erryk that his brother is on Dragonstone, which allows him to save Rhaenyra's life.

This swiftly leads into the climactic fight between Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk. We broke that down at length elsewhere, so I won't go through all the gory details again here. When the dust settles, both brothers are dead, and Rhaenyra is witness to yet another tragedy on the road to the Dance of the Dragons.

House Hightower, lords and ladies of emotional repression

"Rhaenyra the Cruel" ends by returning the focus to the Hightowers in the Red Keep. One last run of bullet points for the road!

• Otto blames Criston for the fact that war is now about to start, saying he's "ensured it" by sending Arryk Cargyll to Dragonstone. That seems a little unfair considering Otto was the prime mover in usurping Rhaenyra's throne, but hey, accountability doesn't sit well with House Hightower.
• Otto calls Criston "young and unschooled," then proceeds to commiserate with Alicent about how the "young are peacocks." But Alicent is presumably a few years younger than Criston, since she was played by a different actor during the first half of House of the Dragon season 1 and Criston wasn't. Ser Criston Cole is as inexplicably ageless as Uhtred of Bebbanburg on The Last Kingdom!
• Otto reminds Alicent that she has another son in Oldtown, Daeron Targaryen. He's the youngest son of Alicent and King Viserys, who's around the same age as Jacaerys Velaryon in the book. And he's a dragonrider, just like his brothers. We still don't know who's playing him, but it's great to get confirmation that he's in the series.
• The final sequence of events in this scene is all about generational trauma. Otto tells Alicent he does not wish to hear of her sins when she tries to confess to sleeping with Criston; then, Alicent sees Aegon grieving and in tears, and rather than comfort him she dips out. She then proceeds to slap Criston Cole around before they have hate sex on the very same night that Criston took over Ser Otto's position as Hand. At first, I thought Alicent had gone to Criston's room, but on the rewatch it looks like Criston was waiting for Alicent in her room, which isn't creepy at all. The dysfunction in Red Keep is off the charts.

When the dust settles on "Rhaenyra the Cruel," war is no longer a possibility but a certainty. We'll see who draws next blood when House of the Dragon season 2's third episode premieres this coming Sunday on HBO and Max.

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