House of the Dragon just delivered its first Battle of the Bastards-level event episode. What's next?

So far, HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon has largely established itself as a slower, weightier, more introspective show than its predecessor. While Thrones didn't waste too much time before getting into trial-by-combat duels, wight attacks, and strategic battlefield maneuvers, Dragon revels in quiet conversations and discussions of legacy which span generations. Showrunner Ryan Condal once compared House of the Dragon to The Crown, and that comparison has always felt pretty accurate.

All that changed with this past weekend's episode. "The Red Dragon and the Gold" finally saw dragons take to the sky in the Battle of Rook's Rest, with devastating results. As soldiers scrambled to stay alive on the ground, Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her red dragon Meleys clashed with King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his beautiful golden mount Sunfyre. Then, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) swooped in on the hoary old dragon Vhagar, who is basically an enormous flying Godzilla, and torched both Sunfyre and Aegon before chomping through Meleys' neck and leaving her rider Rhaenys to plummet to her death. It was brutal, it was shocking, it was epic, and for the first time in a long time I had the same sorts of feelings I got watching showstopping Game of Thrones episodes like "The Watchers on the Wall" and "Battle of the Bastards."

The question of whether "The Red Dragon and the Gold" could live up to something like "Battle of the Bastards" is one that was floating around the Internet quite a lot in the days leading up to the new episode. It's both difficult to answer, and not. All of the best battle sequences on Thrones were unique in their own way. "Hardhome" stunned viewers with the show's first real onscreen battle between the living and the dead; "Battle of the Bastards" showed the dehumanizing brutality of a pitched medieval battle on open ground; even "Blackwater," the first true battle in the series, was unique in that it spent the entirety of the episode in one location, something Thrones had never done up until that point.

"The Red Dragon and the Gold" may not have had a slow motion cavalry charge or giants stomping about, but it very much belongs in the same conversation. It showed us something we had never seen in a Game of Thrones show before by having three dragons clash in broad daylight over a battlefield outside a besieged castle. That sequence eclipsed anything Game of Thrones ever attempted with its own dragons.

All this is to say, yes, "The Red Dragon and the Gold" lived up to "Battle of the Bastards" and all those other great Game of Thrones episodes. As of this writing, it's rated at 9.7/10 on IMDb, the highest rating of any episode of House of the Dragon so far, and tied as the fifth highest episode of the Thrones universe as a whole. It shares that vaunted spot with "Blackwater," "The Lion and the Rose," "The Mountain and the Viper," "The Laws of Gods and Men," "The Door" and "The Spoils of War." Only "Battle of the Bastards," "The Winds of Winter," "The Rains of Castamere" and "Hardhome" rank higher. That's pretty damn good company.

But aside from the dragons, there is one other major way that "The Red Dragon and the Gold" differentiates itself from most of the huge Game of Thrones battle episodes: it takes place in the middle of the season. Typically, Thrones saved its biggest episodes for near the end, the better to cap things off in spectacular fashion and send viewers into the long night between seasons with their excitement at an all-time high. Instead, "The Red Dragon and the Gold" is a mid-season turning point. With four episodes still ahead of us, you may be wondering where House of the Dragon season 2 will go from here. I know I am!

Let's discuss what lies ahead in the Dance of the Dragons. There will be MASSIVE SPOILERS from Fire & Blood, the book on which House of the Dragon is based.

Aemond, Aegon, and the future of King's Landing

Obviously, after a huge dramatic set piece like the Battle at Rook's Rest, House of the Dragon is probably going to take a beat to reset the playing field. Now that dragons have been used in war and both sides have suffered casualties, everyone will need to reconsider their position. The Blacks have lost their largest dragon and most experienced rider, as well as several loyal castles and their soldiers. The Greens have lost King Aegon and his dragon Sunfyre; neither Aegon or Sunfyre die of the wounds they took at Rook's Rest, but if the show sticks to the book, those wounds will cripple them both for life. We can safely say they won't be taking part in more battles anytime soon.

There are a few major events we can glean from the trailer for Episode 205, as well as the overall flow of the season. The first is that Aemond Targaryen is now poised to become the regent sitting the Iron Throne in his brother's absence. Aemond as regent is a large storyline in the book, and House of the Dragon has paced itself so that it has as much as half a season to explore how Aegon's younger brother deals with the responsibility of the throne he's long coveted. There's no doubt that we'll see Aemond seize control in King's Landing.

That's not to say we won't see Aegon II anymore. His painful road to recovery is well documented in Fire & Blood, and I'd be shocked if we don't see it play out in the back half of the season. That goes for his dragon Sunfyre, too. While Aegon is carted back to King's Landing for bed rest, Sunfyre is too large to move. Instead, the Greens leave him behind in the forest near Rook's Rest under guard while he recuperates.

This eventually leads to another bit of dragon action when one of Rhaenyra's supporters takes it upon themself to try and kill the wounded dragon. Needless to say, Sunfyre doesn't look kindly on the effort, and it spurs the great beast and Aegon toward the next leg of their journey. We don't know for sure if House of the Dragon will adapt that ill-fated dragon assassination attempt this season, but I would bet that either way we'll see more of Sunfyre as he recovers from his ordeal at Rook's Rest.

Daemon Targaryen rallies the Riverlands

Another series of events that seems likely to take place in Episode 205 is Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) finally getting a grip and securing the Riverlands for Rhaenyra. The trailer shows scenes of Daemon threatening Blackwoods, as well as Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) heading to the Twins to treat with House Frey.

Daemon's vision quest at Harrenhal is new material created by the show; in the book, he pretty swiftly assembles a host of Rivermen and goes around harrying the Greens and their allies. The very first blow he strikes on that front is that he and House Blackwood raze the castle of the Brackens in response to the Battle of the Burning Mill. House of the Dragon has already set this plotline up by having Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) promise his forces to Daemon, so long as he and his dragon deal with their Bracken enemies. I imagine there won't be an onscreen battle, but I'm still betting on seeing the fallout from that discussion sooner rather than later.

Eventually, the rising strength of Rhaenyra's host in the Riverlands demands an answer from King's Landing. Aemond and Ser Criston Cole once more set out to war, intending to capture Harrenhal and flush out Daemon before he causes any more problems. That plan backfires in spectacular fashion. But before we can talk about that, we need to touch on one other major event we know for sure is coming this season: the sowing of the Dragonseeds.

Team Black is about to get a bunch of new dragonriders

In the book, Rhaenyra descends into a haze of grief and frustration following the death of Rhaenys at the Battle of Rook's Rest. Team Black has a serious problem: they don't have many dragons large enough to contend with Vhagar. There are plenty of riderless dragons kicking around Dragonstone though, from wild beasts like Sheepstealer or the Cannibal, to older Targaryen dragons whose riders died, like Vermithor, Silverwing, and Seasmoke. Seeing this for the potential advantage it is, Prince Jacaerys puts out a call to the masses: anyone who can mount and ride a dragon will be "granted lands and riches and dubbed a knight," so long as they serve Queen Rhaenyra in the war.

Many people answer this call for new dragonriders, and many of them perish. But a few do succeed. House of the Dragon has already set up three of the characters who will eventually mount dragons, and in an older trailer we saw a scene of Rhaenyra sitting at a dinner with the lot of them. The Sowing of the Seeds is coming this season, and it will bolster Rhaenyra's dragon airforce.

Given that the trailer for Episode 205 didn't show anything about the Dragonseeds, I'm going to guess that we probably won't see that play out until Episode 206 or even 207. There's still a bit more groundwork that needs to be laid for it, but we're getting close.

The big question is what House of the Dragon will use as its big finisher for the season. And unlike the Sowing of the Seeds or Daemon's campaign in the Riverlands, the show has played its cards close enough to the chest that we really have no idea for certain which event will cap off season 2. But if we refer to the book, there are only three real options.

It sounds like another battle is coming in House of the Dragon season 2...but which one?

Prior to the release of season 2, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal alluded to there being two major battle scenes coming this season. “The battles are episodes unto themselves,” he told Den of Geek. “We have two of the largest sequences that we’ve ever filmed on House of the Dragon. Both of them outstrip anything that we did in season one. They are episodes within episodes.”

The majority of the events covered in House of the Dragon season 2 all come from a single chapter of Fire & Blood, titled "The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold." That of course is where this latest barnburner of an episode gets its title, and the dramatic Battle at Rook's Rest serves as a centerpiece for this part of the story in the book just as it does in the show. To my eye, there are three other major events which could feel like "episodes within episodes" when adapted to TV.

The first is the Sowing of the Seeds itself. That portion of the story features a slew of new dragons, and contains a number of contained, compelling stories about various aspiring dragonriders' attempts at claiming them. It's easy to imagine House of the Dragon wanting to make a proper event of it.

But now that the Battle of Rook's Rest has happened, I think blood is on the water. It's hard to imagine House of the Dragon closing out its second season without at least one more major clash between the Blacks and the Greens. And there are two highly dramatic ones just around the corner in the book: the Battle of the Gullet and the capture of King's Landing.

The Battle of the Gullet

The Battle of the Gullet has already been foreshadowed quite a bit in House of the Dragon; the Gullet is the bay outside of King's Landing, which Corlys Velaryon has had blockaded for the entirety of the season so far. In the book, Otto Hightower contracts the Triarchy — the alliance of the Free Cities of Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh which was raiding the Stepstones in season 1 — to bring their fleet back to Westeros to break the blockade. There are signs that, if we don't get the Battle of the Gullet, we'll at least see more set up for it. For example, we know the Triarchy captain Sharako Lohar has been cast for this season.

The Battle of the Gullet is a devastating affair which sees Jace and the Dragonseeds fight to break the Triarchy's strength at sea. Also in the mix are Rhaenyra's two youngest sons, Prince Aegon and Viserys, whose ship bound for Pentos is captured and serves as the instigating event which kicks off the battle. Jace and his fellow dragonriders break the Triarchy fleet, but at great cost: Jace and Vermax are killed in one of the more tragic moments of the Dance of the Dragons.

We've already had quite a bit of set up for the Gullet this season; the Gullet itself has been mentioned in almost every episode at least once. Game of Thrones stuck to filming most of its naval battles on soundstages instead of on the actual ocean, which could account for why no set photos for the Gullet have leaked, unlike with the Battle of Rook's Rest which was filmed at the public park of Bourne Woods in Surrey, England.

Ending the season with Jace's death would give House of the Dragon season 2 one more big gut punch. He's really the only other big death after Rhaenys before things get really wild and heads start rolling everywhere. There's no doubt that the drama of the Battle of the Gullet would make for a fine finale to the season.

The capture of King's Landing

But the Gullet is just one option. The other big one is that, following Jace's death, Rhaenyra decides she's had enough and finally takes wing for King's Landing on her dragon. She brings along a few Dragonseeds and manages to capture the city while Aemond and Criston are afield hunting for Daemon. Rhaenyra claiming the Iron Throne is a major turning point in the war, and her vengeance over what she's endured is bloody. There would be a beautiful symmetry to Rhaenyra ending season 1 as a queen in exile and season 2 as a queen who has just claimed the Iron Throne.

Rhaenyra capturing King's Landing feels like a natural break point in the story, and in the book, it does serve as the end of the long chapter which contains Rook's Rest, the Sowing of the Seeds, the Gullet, and a number of other events. But considering that there are only four episodes left in House of the Dragon season 2, I don't know how feasible it is for the show to make it that far. There are a few other small battles which happen in the book before Rhaenyra takes King's Landing, like the battle by the Honeywine where Daeron Targaryen earns his nickname "Daeron the Daring," and the battle at the Red Fork where the Lannister army falls on hard times at the hands of the Riverfolk fighting for Daemon. It's not clear how the show might arrange some of these events, but we know Daeron isn't being introduced until season 3.

The more we see of season 2, the more I think the show will hold Rhaenyra's capture of King's Landing back for next season. There's a lot of setup to get from where we are now to that point. And while the Battle of the Gullet similarly has a lot of setup—we need to meet Sharako Lohar, Otto Hightower has to return, the Sowing of the Seeds needs to happen, and Rhaenyra's young children Aegon and Viserys need to set sail for Pentos—it still feels within arm's reach. As of this writing, I'm betting we may see the Battle of the Gullet cap off the season, so that season 3 can properly focus on Rhaenyra's wrath as she takes King's Landing and starts meting out justice to those she deems enemies.

What do you think? Will we see the Battle of the Gullet this season? Or do you foresee some other ending for House of the Dragon season 2 in your own weirwood dreams?

Either way, we won't have long to wait to find out. House of the Dragon season 2 continues apace, with new episodes airing Sunday nights on HBO and Max.

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