House of the Dragon Season 2 episode 5 recap: Who's the boss?

Power struggles within the Black and Green councils intensify in House of the Dragon Season 2, episode 5 following the death of Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys, along with the crippling of King Aegon and the death of Sunfyre. The Green names Aemond regent and Aemond orders the gates of King’s Landing to be closed, trapping the starving citizens inside. Daemon has Willem Blackwood take the Brackens’ women and children hostage at Harrenhal to bring the Riverlands to heel, while Jacaerys promises to grant Harrenhal to Sabitha Frey and Lord Forrest Frey in exchange for siding with Rhaenyra and allowing Lord Cregan Stark’s army to pass through the Crossing. And Jacaerys and Rhaenyra decide to seek out dragonriders from the Targaryen bloodline to ride the only two dragons strong enough to take down Vhagar. 

What happened in House of the Dragon Season 2, episode 4

The first great dragon battle broke out in all its horror at Rook’s Rest in House of the Dragon Season 2 episode 4. Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) bypassed the Green Council and King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) to focus their forces on gaining control of the Crownlands. Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) sent Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys to defend Lord Simon Staunton’s (Michael Elwyn) key strategic castle, Rook’s Rest. But King Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) ego wrecked everyone’s plans when he crashed the dragon battle on Sunfyre, and instead of protecting Aegon, Aemond had Vhagar roast both Meleys and Sunfyre. The battle ended with Sunfyre dying, Aegon half burned in the wreckage, and Vhagar killing Meleys, whose fall with Rhaenys smashed the walls of Rook’s Rest, allowing Ser Criston’s forces to take the castle. Meanwhile Caraxes had to sit and twiddle his thumbs while Daemon (Matt Smith) hallucinated his head off at Harrenhal.

Need a refresher? Read the full House of the Dragon Season 2 recaps for: episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, and episode 4. Also read the House of the Dragon Season 1 recap and a House of the Dragon Season 2 Who’s Who

Stream House of the Dragon Season 1-2 on Showmax now. New episodes Mondays, express from the US.

Episode 5: the cooked king

Following Rook’s Rest, Ser Criston parades Meleys’ head through the streets of King’s Landing, to the horror of the small folk. Aegon follows behind the dragon wagon, discreetly, in a closed wooden box that nobody’s talking about. In the Red Keep, Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) and his healers peel Aegon out of Aegon the Conqueror’s armour like they’re shelling a boiled lobster. 

Your boy is cooked, and with Aegon down, the Green council unanimously appoint Aemond regent instead of Alicent (Olivia Cooke). Even Alicent’s staunchest supporter, Larys (Matthew Needham), sides with Aemond, pointing out to Alicent that they can’t very well baulk at Rhaenyra as Queen and then put Alicent on the throne. 

Later, when Alicent confronts Ser Criston, who is reeling with PTSD after seeing what the dragons did to his soldiers, he tells her that he’s sparing her the horror to come: "We have given war to the dragons. A dragonrider should lead us". And he carries out Aemond’s first orders: to close the gates of King’s Landing to stop the starving smallfolk from fleeing the city and spreading dissent about their rule, and to cut down the ratcatchers that Aegon hung from the castle walks. Aemond’s orders arrive just in time to stop Hugh the blacksmith (Kieran Bew) – who still hasn’t been paid, despite Aegon’s promises – and his wife Kat (Ellora Torchia) from escaping to Tumbleton with their sickly daughter. 

Bargaining with the Freys

At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is just as frustrated as Alicent at the pushback she’s getting. But after Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna) tells her that leading a war needs a man, she points out to him and the rest of her council, "There has been peace in our lifetime. You have seen no more battles than I have." 

Fretting at his own forced inaction, without consulting Rhaenyra, Jacaerys (Harry Collett) tells Baela (Bethany Antonia) that he's going to fly off to negotiate with the Freys at The Twins to secure Cregan Stark's (Tom Taylor) army's clear passage through The Crossing to the Riverlands. And while Lord Forrest Frey (Kenneth Collard) just digs his heels in like a donkey because Lord Tully still hasn’t picked a side, Lady Sabitha Frey (Sarah Woodward) announces, "Our hesitance does not lie in Rhaenyra as queen, nor in the ruminations of Lord Tully, the oaf. Our fear lies in Vhagar."

Jacaerys asks why they're afraid of a dragon in King's Landing while his own dragon, Vermax, is perched on their walls. He has a point. And in exchange for permission to cross between The Twins, Jacaerys offers his protection and throws in Daemon and Caraxes, insisting that Daemon will do as Rhaenyra commands. He’s even willing to throw in “Daemon’s” castle, Harrenha … the prize Lady Sabitha truly covets. 

Daemon’s dragon diplomacy flop

Daemon is far less successful at winning over the Brackens. He’s taken aback when Lord Amos Bracken (Tim Faraday) calmly turns his back on Caraxes and tells Daemon to go ahead and torch him because he’d rather be a smear of ash than fight beside Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) and his lot. Cornered Daemon leans on Willem to find another way to bring the Brackens to heel, hinting, "There are things the crown itself must not be seen to do. Show them your worst." 

With that in mind, the Blackwood men start kidnapping the Brackens’ wives and children and taking them hostage at Harrenhal (and worse, it’s hinted), while Daemon puts his back into repairing Harrenhal, even chopping wood. He refuses to call on Rhaenyra to fund his war, explaining to Harrenhal’s witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) that, “Rhaenyra cannot succeed, even if I willed it to be so. The people who support her will not be led by her. They look to a man for strength … When I take King's Landing, Rhaenyra is welcome to join me there and take her place by my side. King and Queen, ruling together." 

Daemon is hallucinating night and day thanks to the ghosts of both the castle and his conscience (and Alys), so it could be a dream when a delegation of River Lords arrives at Harrenhal to tell Daemon they’ll never fight for a tyrant like him, revealing that the Brackens have been carrying out the kidnappings while dressed in Targaryen colours. 

It wouldn’t be the strangest thing Daemon has dreamt by a long shot. This episode he also beds his own mother, Alyssa Targaryen (Emeline Lambert), who tells him, "If only you had been born first, my favourite son." Apparently this is where Daemon draws the line: nieces are yummy, but mummy gives him the ick.

The Queen makes her move

Alone, Rhaenyra complains to Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) about her small council's contempt. She’s aware that two of her council members’ lands – Ser Steffon Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan) and Lord Simon Staunton’s (Michael Elwyn) – have fallen to Cristen Cole’s army while she and Daemon seemingly did nothing. Unlike Ser Criston, though, Mysaria knows without being told that the people of King's Landing will see the dragon’s head parade as an ill omen. She advises Rhaenyra that wars aren’t only won on battlefields, but through the people. And right now at King’s Landing, "They are afraid. Bread is scarce. The king is fallen. They whisper to each other that when Viserys lived, there was peace. Do not underestimate your subjects.”

With that in mind, Rhaenyra sends her lady in waiting (and one of Mysaria’s spies) Elinda Massey (Jordon Stevens) to King’s Landing on a secret mission. 

And when Jacaerys returns, the two realise that the only way they can counter Vhagar is by finding riders for the huge elder dragons at Dragonstone, Vermithor and Silverwing, and they turn to the archives to find possible riders in their bloodline. Plans in motion, Rhaenyra sends the thorn in her side, Alfred Broome, to go find out what Daemon’s up to, with the message, "Tell him I would much like to finish our last conversation". 

The Hand of the Queen

Meanwhile Baela visits a mourning Corlys (Steve Toussaint) at Driftmark to bring him the Hand of the King (Queen) from Rhaenyra. When Corlys claims that his house has already lost everything supporting Rhaenyra, Baela tells him that Rhaenys was not taken from him like an object, she went to battle and died by fire as she would have wanted, as Baela's mother chose, and as Baela would want for herself. She tells Corlys she will see Rhaenyra  take the Iron Throne or die trying, as Rhaenys wished. Impressed, Corlys tells Baela that he wants her to be his heir but she tells him, "I am blood and fire. Driftmark must pass to salt and sea." Could Rhaenys get her last wish that Corlys make his illegitimate son, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), his heir?

Stream House of the Dragon Season 1-2 on Showmax now. New episodes Mondays, express from the US.