House of the Dragon season 2 continued tonight with its fifth episode, and while it might not be as action-packed as the last, it sets up the back half of the season well. After the Battle at Rook's Rest, both the blacks and the greens are kind of at a standstill: Rhaenyra is still without Daemon and continues to be shut down by her council, while Aegon is near-dead and his council scrambles to figure out what to do. In a not-so-surprising move, Aemond is voted in as the king's regent, which is bound to be chaotic (I hope).
Throughout tonight's episode, we see Rhaenyra struggle with her place as the queen. She doesn't doubt her claim, but she's starting to doubt what she can bring to the table amid the war. She's never been trained to fight and her council doesn't want her to leave Dragonstone. She seeks advice from Mysaria, but it's not until she sits down with Jacaerys that she realizes what they must do. They need more dragons on their side, meaning they need more dragonriders.
The House of the Dragon 206 trailer gives us more of the same
If you've read Fire & Blood, the book that House of the Dragon is based on, you'll know we're getting to the dragonseeds storyline — though it doesn't look like we'll be seeing Jace recruit them just yet in Episode 6. Watch the trailer below to see for yourself:
Rhaenyra and Jace make the realization at the end of Episode 5 that they need to find more dragonriders, but it doesn't look like they've made much progress on that idea in Episode 6. Instead, the trailer shows us more of the same. If Daemon isn't going to come back to Dragonstone, the blacks are going to need more dragons. That's the only way they can fight this war. Rhaenyra knows she's acting alone at this point while Daemon remains in the Riverlands, and we see a shot of her in the trailer with a sword.
Elsewhere in the preview, Criston admits that if Daemon wins over the Riverlands, he won't have an army big enough to take his. To that, a very confident Aemond says the memorable line we've heard in previous trailers: "My uncle is a challenge I welcome if he dares face me." We know the Battle Above the Gods Eye is far, far away, but it's still really fun to see the tension between Aemond and Daemon increasing. It's all building up to something!
Alicent confronts Aemond in the preview with another great line, as she asks her son: "Have the indignities of your childhood not yet sufficiently been avenged?" It's a good question. Aemond tells Sylvi earlier in the season that he regrets killing Lucerys, but how does he feel about Aegon? Has Aegon's bullying gone so far that all of Aemond's actions are still motivated by vengeance? It sure seems that way. Also in King's Landing, chaos breaks out in the streets which results in Alicent and Helaena being chased. Yikes.
The end of the Episode 6 preview shows Rhaenyra calling on a dragon, who looks to be either Seasmoke or Silverwing? Of course, Rhaenyra has her own dragon, and, as she and Jace talk about in Episode 5, their biggest issue is not having dragonriders. Unfortunately, this preview gets me a little bit nervous for the rest of the season. I know trailers aren't supposed to give everything away, but what it's teasing is pretty repetitive. Let's get to the next part of the war already! We don't need another slow-paced episode this far into the season.
Whatever the case may be with Episode 6, I'll be seated next week! Be sure to watch new episodes of House of the Dragon season 2 every Sunday night on HBO and Max. The season 2 finale is scheduled for August 4.
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