The heir to the throne is dead. In the premiere episode of season two of House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the conflict between the families of friends turned rivals Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) takes a devastating turn when Alicent’s grandson is murdered by assassins in the dead of night.
On a brand-new season of Still Watching, hosts Hillary Busis, Richard Lawson, and Chris Murphy dive headfirst into HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series, as they discuss and debate who will—and, more importantly, who deserves to—sit atop the Iron Throne.
Although it’s been nearly two years since HotD’s first season finale, season two premiere “A Son for a Son” picks up in the immediate aftermath of the death of Rhaenyra’s son, Lucerys, at the hands of Alicent’s one-eyed middle son, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). Rather than exacting revenge quickly, Rhaenyra takes her time to grieve the loss of her son at Dragonstone. But her uncle-slash-husband, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), goes rogue, hiring an assassin named Blood and a rat catcher named Cheese to infiltrate King’s Landing.
Daemon has hired Blood and Cheese to murder Aemond. But after they breach the palace walls, they stumble instead upon Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) and her children: Princess Jaehaera and Prince Jaehaerys, the male heir to father King Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) throne. In a devastating moment, Queen Helaena must choose which of her children to sacrifice to Blood and Cheese. She points to her toddler son, who meets a grisly and untimely end as she escapes with Jaehaerya in her arms. The episode ends with Helaena busting into Alicent’s bedchambers as her mother is in the midst of coital relations with the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel). Once there, she utters a chilling phrase: “They killed the boy.”
In Fire & Blood, Busis notes on the podcast, Prince Jaehaerys’s end is, somehow, even worse than it is in House of the Dragon. “In the book version, Helaena has three children—an older son, a younger son, and a daughter,” says Busis. “They make her choose which of her sons they will kill. She points to the younger one, and then they tell the younger one, ‘Oh, your mom wants you dead.’ Then they kill the older one anyway.”
Saban also drops by Still Watching to discuss the dramatic season premiere. “I didn’t read Fire & Blood,” she admits. “Do you know what? I bought it and I didn’t read it. I took it on holiday and then I left it in the sun and it—and all of the pages fell out of it.” Even so, Saban knew about the impossible decision Helaena was going to have to make. “It’s funny, when you tell people that you play Helaena, they just want to tell you, ‘Oh, did you know, blah, blah, blah,’” she says. “So I’ve heard it many, many times.”
“I wonder what is more heartbreaking,” Saban continues. “That betrayal that happens, or that she tells the truth and then, on her words, that they do it. I guess it depends.”
You could imagine that this would be a difficult scene for an actor to take on. Thankfully, Saban says that the actors playing Blood and Cheese were “just lovely,” which made the process a bit easier: “I was really trying not to overthink, like, okay, How am I going to build this? How is this going to be huge?” Saban would read poems before shooting to help her get into the right headspace. “I would get in a zone to sort of get excited, but then also not isolate myself because that can be very heavy-handed and intense.”
“It’s sort of a balancing act,” Saban adds. “It was probably the most pressure I’ve ever put on myself.”
Who will be the next to fall victim to this senseless bloodshed? Who will be blamed for Prince Jaehaerys’s death? And who will end the season atop the Iron Throne? Send an email to Still Watching at stillwatchingpod@gmail.com with all your thoughts and theories, and stay tuned as House of the Dragon season two takes flight.
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