Written by Sara Hess
Directed by Miguel Sapochnik
Alicent (to Larys): "In all of King's Landing, is there no one to take my side?"
The Green Queen laments about sides. Last episode talked about the colour green being a call to war for the Hightower House. Green is also the colour of envy and Alicent's envy towards Rhaenyra has gotten progressively worse as we tale a big time jump in this episode.
We're in the second half of the season now and after a fabulous job from both Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, it's now time to see what both Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke can bring to the roles of Rhaenyra and Alicent. Going by this episode alone, not only are the characters in excellent hands yet again but shit has gone down in a massive way.
Alicent went from wanting to retain her friendship with Rhaenyra (something the latter reminded her of her during a council meeting) to actively trying to snatch away Rhaenyra's inheritance so that her eldest boy, Aegon (Ty Tennant) can have it instead. Except he hadn't quite gotten to the part of hating his oldest sister and nephews but by this episode's end, Alicent had dropped the same toxicity into him that Otto had done to her all those years ago.
I see a lot of people blinded by their like for Alicent as a character trying to downplay her actions against Rhaenyra but the reality is that Alicent is no longer a pawn in her father's machinations. She hasn't been for over a decade. Everything Alicent did in this episode was of her own doing. She knew exactly what she was saying during her conversations with Larys who has become as much an enabler to her as Qyburn was to Cersei.
Alicent maliciously started the episode with summoning both Rhaenyra and Laenor (John Macmillan) following their birth of their third son, Joffrey just so she could make a point to Viserys about the sons not being Laenor's in order to discredit Rhaenyra. Viserys made it clear he was aware of his grandchildren's true parentage but seemingly did not care. Of course that only made Alicent even more determined to be a royal bitch this week with Criston coming in second place.
Not content with murdering Laenor's former lover and getting away with it, Criston also took it upon himself to talk poorly of Rhaenyra and even tried to humiliate her older sons, Jacaerys (Leo Hart) and Lucerys (Harvey Sadler) before Ser Harwin gave Criston a much deserved beating. Unfortunately thanks to Larys being a right creep for Alicent, both Harwin and Lyonel didn't make it out of the episode alive. Damn you, Alicent.
As for Rhaenyra and Laenor, they knew their family was being compromised thanks to Alicent's relentless scheming and took themselves back to Dragonstone. Considering that Rhaenyra's plan to marry Jace off to Alicent's only daughter, Helaena (Evie Allen) backfired, both her and Laenor didn't have much choice but to leave the Red Keep. Sadly for them, Alicent will stop at nothing to get Aegon on the Iron Throne.
Taking this out of King's Landing and also with history repeating itself, Daemon found himself both married and a widower again. Yup, poor Laena (Nanna Blondell). Her time with Daemon resulted in getting Vhagar, having two daughters, Baela (Shani Smethurst) and Rhaena (Eva Ossei-Gerning) but like Aemma back in the opening episode, Laena was unable to give birth to her next child. However unlike Aemma, Laena at least got to decide her fate, something which even Daemon showed some admiration for.
- Both Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke's names are now in the opening credits of the show.
- Aside from Vhagar, we also met/heard of Sunfyre (Aegon's), Dreamfyre (Helaena's) and Vermax (Jacaerys's) while Aemond (Leo Ashton) had no dragons and was a the victim of a prank called The Pink Dread. Helaena also had an impressive bug collection.
- While Rhaenyra was getting pregnant by Ser Harwin, Laenor also found his own lover with Ser Qarl (Arty Froushan) while craving to do battle in the Stepstones again.
- Daemon and his family had ended up in Pentos for their part of the episode with Laena desperately wanting to go back to Driftmark.
- The war between the Blackwood and the Brackens were mentioned again as was House Tully too.
- Chronology: It's been ten years since the events of the previous episode.
The Princess And The Queen kicked off an interesting shift in dynamics as lines have definitely been drawn between Rhaenyra and Alicent. Both Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke have gotten off to an excellent start with these older versions of the characters and it looks like things will only get worse between the pair as the rest of the season will unfold.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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