Chris Connor reviews the ninth episode of House of the Dragon…
After the death of King Viserys at the end of ‘Lord of the Tides’, the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon’s first season focuses on the line of succession and attempts by Queen Alicent to install her eldest son Aegon on the Iron Throne against the King’s wishes to be succeeded by daughter Princess Rhaenyra.
This forms the core narrative of ‘The Green Council’ and it is perhaps being the most politically focused episode of the series to date, almost like Succession in Westeros with clear fault lines now drawn between supporters of The Queen and Princess and signs of the imminent Civil War becoming clearer.
Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans are especially impressive in this episode, manoeuvring their pieces on the chess board that is King’s Landing to be able to remain atop the Iron Throne. It shows the ruthless nature of all involved, something of course that should come as no surprise given George R.R. Martin’s penchant for twists and back stabbing. This is a far cry from the Alicent we first encountered as a young girl early on in the series, and he is clearly torn on what the right course is, guided by her father and looking to ensure her line remains.
For an episode short on battle sequences, it is nevertheless constantly gripping and the shift in focus to solely on Alicent and her family gives it a narrower focus it benefits immensely, giving a real sense of what the King’s passing means for all involved and the in-fighting within the Royal court about what the proper course of action should be. This also allows these characters to be further fleshed out with the audience given more of an opportunity to understand the side of the Greens as it has seemed that the past few episodes have sympathised more with Rhaenyra and Daemon than Alicent.
‘The Green Council’ cements the strong work of the previous few episodes and splitting the focus on the two warring camps is a clever way to round off their arcs in this first season and build towards the ultimate conflict. The sequence of crowning King Aegon II ranks amongst the most visually impressive of the series so far and shows this show is more than capable of rivalling the scale of Game of Thrones despite its fewer locations.
With just one episode to go, House of the Dragon further cements itself as a series in its own right with ‘The Green Council’. The performances of Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans are some of their best to date showing the Hightower desperation to cling to power and win support of the masses and the Royal court, while laying clear foundations for the coming conflict. The final sequence is a fine way to cap a sterling episode, contextualising the alliances forged and broken here and setting up next week’s season finale which looks set to focus on Daemon and Rhaenyra.
Chris Connor
