“Fire cannot kill a dragon,” a Targaryen once said. But that same Targaryen lived her entire life with few other fellow dragons in sight. If Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys came of age during the time of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke), she would know the truth: not only can fire kill a dragon, the mere scent of dragon smoke could threaten the entire species altogether.
Indeed, it’s dragon-fire that brings the cast of House of the Dragon all together under the same proverbial roof in this week’s episode, “Driftmark,” and it’s dragon-fire that threatens to bring the roof down on all their heads. Set entirely on the titular island House Velaryon calls home, the extended Targaryen royal family comes together in “Driftmark” for the funeral of one of their own: Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), killed during last week’s episode, having selected a fiery demise at the maw of her dragon Vhagar over dying in childbirth. Sometime later, the men, women, and children from various corners of her life gather together at Driftmark, none of them happy to be there, but some more miserable than others.
In the immediate circle, there’s the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), Laena’s mourning parents. While she wouldn’t say it aloud to his face, Rhaenys at least partly blames her daughter’s death on Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), whose refusal to leave Pentos for Driftmark as Laena wanted left her without proper medical treatment. The Sea Snake balks at such a suggestion, believing the maesters of Pentos to be as capable as those in Driftmark (as in, not terribly capable at all), though he has no such defense against Rhaenys’ other insinuation: the vainglorious Corlys cannot let go of the realm’s decision to reject Rhaenys as their queen, despite the fact she let go of that hurt long ago. Now, the Sea Snake’s pursuit of the crown has left their surviving child Laenor (John Macmillan) in great danger, even more imminent than they realize.
The next layer of the circle: Daemon himself, as well as his niece, Rhaenyra. Widowed once more though this time not by his own hand, Daemon struggles with how to conduct himself as a father, not to mention being back on Westeros soil. Despite urging from his brother the king, ready to put their troubled past behind them, Daemon blisters at the prospect of returning to the Seven Kingdoms. That notion only changes when Daemon finds himself alone for the first time in years with Rhaenyra, herself quietly grieving the fiery death of her children’s father Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr). Sight unseen from the rest of their family, Rhaenyra and Daemon sleep together on the beach, drawing comfort from one another in ways only Targaryens (and a certain pair of Lannister twins) know.
Zooming out further, there’s Viserys (Paddy Considine) and “the greens,” the nickname given to Queen Alicent and those loyal to her family. Enough time has passed since the fires at Harrenhal that Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) has claimed the ruined castle as his own, buying his way closer to the king’s inner circle. What’s more, in killing his own father, Larys Clubfoot paved the way for an old Hand of the King to return to his post: Otto (Rhys Ifans), Alicent’s father, proudly wearing the king’s pin once again. Even as old friends and new generations of old friends emerge in his corner, Viserys cannot escape his own past. At one point, the sickly king refers to Alicent as “Aemma,” his deceased wife, dead for 14 years but still as traumatically present in his heart as ever. “The king is not meant to be old,” Otto once said of Viserys. Well, the old king still stands, but for how much longer? “Driftmark” keeps that question front of mind, as Viserys continues free-falling toward his inevitable conclusion.
While all the adults sit in their slow-boiling drama, their children set about creating a new generation of trauma. With the “Pink Dread” prank still fresh on his mind, King Viserys’s second son Aemond Targaryen endeavors to trade his fake pig dragon for a real one. And not just any real one, but the realest one: Vhagar, the biggest and oldest living dragon in all of the known world, the last survivor of Aegon’s Conquest, and the only creature still alive who was around to see Valyria at its height. With Laena dead, Vhagar is without a rider—until Aemond, brave or foolish or both, comes along, risking life and limb in a bid to claim the dragon as his mount. Against the odds, he succeeds, flying Vhagar high above Driftmark like Bastion on Falcor ripping through Fantasia.
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