After Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) unsuccessfully tried to claim a dragon in last week’s episode, she confronts the new rider in the penultimate House of the Dragon Season 2 episode.
The sixth episode in the eight-episode season – entitled Smallfolk – found the dragon Seasmoke surprisingly choosing her new rider – Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty).
When Rhaenyra has been told that Seasmoke has been spotted with a rider, she finally decides to take action, taking off on her dragon Syrax to find this rider.
The trailer shows her squaring off with Addam, and she will clearly try to get him to fight for her in this war between the Targaryens and the Hightowers.
This episode will be followed by the highly-anticipated Season 2 finale, which airs on HBO Sunday, August 4 at 9 PM ET on HBO.
After Rhaenyra Targaryen ( Emma D’Arcy ) unsuccessfully tried to claim a dragon in last week’s episode, she confronts the new rider in the penultimate House of the Dragon Season 2 episode
The sixth episode in the eight-episode season – entitled Smallfolk – found the dragon Seasmoke surprisingly choosing her new rider – Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty)
The episode begins with Rhaenyra squaring off with Addam and Seasmoke on a beach somewhere.
Addam starts to walk closer but stops as Rhaenyra says, ‘You stand before the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.. with a dragon of House Targaryen!’
Addam insists, ‘I had no design upon it!’ as Rhaenyra asks, ‘What do you want?!’
Addam of Hull says, ‘To learn the ways of dragonriders. And to serve my queen!’ as he kneels before Rhaenyra.
She approaches Addam and says, ‘You kneel quickly… For a man so suddenly elevated.’
He says, ‘This dragon came to me, not I to him. I have sweated blood in service of House Velaryon. I may appear lowborn… But I know much and more of service! And if the gods call me to greater things, who am I to refuse them?’
She asks what his parentage is and he says, ‘My mother was a shipwright. My father is… no one of consequence,’ as Addam refuses to tell her that Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is his real father.
She asks, ‘Your ancestors, any of House Targaryen?’ He says, ‘We’re not the sort of family to keep annals, Your Grace.
He tells her his name is, ‘Addam… Of Hull,’ and she says, ‘You have done something… I feared impossible… Addam of Hull. I am glad of it.’
She asks if he get get the dragon Seasmoke to Dragonstone and he smiles and says, ‘I can try.’
The episode cuts back to King’s Landing where Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) says, ‘All my life… I have endeavored to serve both my house and the realm. And somehow none of it matters. We are cast aside. Or hated.’
She’s told by Ser Rickard Thorne, ‘You’ll have a scar… But… It will be easily hidden.’
Alicent says, ‘Nothing is clean here. I wish to go out, Ser Rickard. To the Kingswood, I think.
Ser Rickard says, ‘Then I’ll have the stewards prepare -a retinue,’ but she says, ‘No retinue. No handmaidens. Just you.’
Outside, Jasper “Ironrod” Wylde approaches Larys Strong, saying, ‘I have received word of a matter of great importance. Rumor of a sighting of the dragon Seasmoke… With a rider.’
Larys says, ‘A fine piece of intelligence, and now you seek favor by delivering it to Prince Aemond.’
Jasper says, ‘Actually, I thought I might seek your advice, Lord Larys. Whispers being your province.’
Larys insists, ‘Oh, but this is your whisper, Lord Jasper, not mine. But if you consider it valuable… Perhaps you could deliver it and find favor with Aemond yourself.’
While Aemond is swearing people in to the Night’s Watch, Larys asks, ‘Who is this rider?’
Ironrod says, ‘That is less clear, but it must surely be the Lady Rhaena. She has wanted for a dragon all her life.’
Larys says, ‘Indeed, but she tried already when she was four and ten. The beast Seasmoke very nearly devoured her. Who else?’ Where did you hear it?’
Jaspers says, ‘My squire. He heard it from a stablehand, who heard it from his father, a fisherman, whose shipmate claims he saw it.’
Larys says, ‘Oh. You are, of course, welcome to bring this news to the prince regent, but, um… Perhaps this is one of those whispers best left to the wind.’
The episode cuts to Dragonstone, where Corlys Velaryon asks, ‘What of the rider? Do we know who he is?’
He’s told, ‘He appears to be a shipwright in your employ, Lord Hand,’ as Bartimos Celtigar says, ‘A commoner? With respect to your workers, Lord Corlys, the lowborn cannot go around seizing dragons. Has the thief been secured?’
He’s told, ‘Her Grace has commanded that he remain here as a guest. She wishes him to be instructed in the art of dragonriding, and that I should teach him some High Valyrian.’
Bartimos says, ‘We know nothing about this man, save that he is lowborn. What say you, Lord Hand?’
Corlys says, ‘We will await the queen’s accounting… Before passing judgment.’
Rhaenyra meets with Mysaria, who says, ‘So he serves you and not himself. That is lucky.’
Rhaenyra says, ‘Lucky? Or somehow ordained? Seasmoke chose him. He surely has Targaryen blood in him somewhere. The dragon must sense it. There will be others. We will find riders for Vermithor and Silverwing.’
Mysaria says, ‘You trust this man?’ But Rhaenyra says, ‘What choice do I have? He has a dragon. Without him, I have only Syrax who may give Aemond a second thought. The question is where to look. Targaryen blood was perhaps too thin in Ser Steffon Darklyn. If I can find others with a more direct line of breeding.’
Mysaria says, ‘Forgive me, Your Grace… But you are better served looking under the sheets and in the woodpiles. I once worked in a pleasure house where generations of Targaryen princelings had their revels. There are four score of their bastard progeny at least, that are known to me. There are sure to be more. Perhaps some here, on Dragonstone, the misbegotten offspring of your house.’
Rhaenyra says, ‘You speak of the lowborn,’ but Mysaria says, ‘They are as like to serve you as highborn lords or ladies, perhaps more.’
Rhaenyra says, ‘But in the highborn houses there is… An ancient fealty. There is honor.’
Mysaria says, ‘Your royal half-brothers, Aegon and Aemond, whose blood is pure, who wage war against you for your throne, are they bound by honor? A common shipwright vows to serve you while your brothers seek to destroy you. The order of things has changed, Your Grace. Why not embrace it?’
Rhaenyra says, ‘For 20 years, the lords of this realm levied… Insults at my sons behind my back. Well then. Let us raise an army of bastards.’
Addam goes to Corlys and asks to take his leave as a shipwright in his service, adding, ‘There are good men and strong who can take my place.’
Corlys says, ‘Your leave is granted.’
Back in the Riverlands, Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale) tells Daemon (Matt Smith), ‘Lord Tully has answered your summons and brought the Riverlords, my king.’
Daemon goes to meet with them, saying first, ‘My condolences on the passing of your grandsire but the crown congratulates you on your ascension to the head of your house and Lord Paramount in the Riverlands. Truly glorious. Well done.’
Lord Tully’s grandson Oscar, the new Lord Paramount (Archie Barnes), insists, ‘I did nothing.’
But Daemon says, ‘Nevertheless, you are here, which is the important thing,’ as Oscar says, ‘You were quick enough to dismiss me before,’ but Daemon says, ‘You were of no significance to me then.’
The first season of House of the Dragon featured an animated opening that incorporated Old Valyria in a stone model
The series is set 200 years before the events that unfolded in HBO’s flagship series Game of Thrones, and 100 years into the rule of House Targaryen over Westeros.
By the end of Season 1, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) had died, with his only son, Aegon II, taking claim to the Iron Throne.
Rhaenyra felt that she had a right to the throne, as House Targaryen became divided between factions led by Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), Rhaenyra’s former best friend and wife of King Viserys.
The Season 2 premiere suffered a bit of a ratings hit, with 7.8 million viewers tuning in last week through all platforms.
That number was a 22% drop from the 10 million viewers that tuned in for the series premiere back in August 2022.
The drop was attributed to linear viewing, those who watched the episode live on HBO, which was 1 million fewer than the series premiere.
The second episode of Season 1 actually increased to 10.2 million, representing a series peak, with 9.3 million viewers watching the Season 1 finale.
The show’s season two debut was penned by showrunner Ryan Condal and directed by Alan Taylor, who previously directed episodes of Game of Thrones, as well as HBO staples such as Boardwalk Empire, Sex and the City, The Sopranos and its prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.
The series is set 200 years before the events that unfolded in HBO ‘s flagship series Game of Thrones , and 100 years into the rule of House Targaryen over Westeros
The series is set 200 years before the events that unfolded in HBO ‘s flagship series Game of Thrones , and 100 years into the rule of House Targaryen over Westeros
The show’s second season kicked off with a revised opening titles sequence that was noticeably different than the one broadcast in the show’s first season
The second episode of Season 1 actually increased to 10.2 million, representing a series peak, with 9.3 million viewers watching the Season 1 finale
The show’s second season kicked off with a revised opening titles sequence that was noticeably different than the one broadcast in the show’s first season.
The first season of House of the Dragon featured an animated opening that incorporated Old Valyria in a stone model.
It had been presided over by the late King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine). It included red blood streaming through Valyria’s streets, with symbolism alluding to the Targaryen leaders.
House of the Dragon returns for the Season 2 finale on Sunday, August 4 at 9 PM ET on HBO.
