This episode jumps three years into the future. Viserys and Alicent are married. She is pregnant with their second child and the episode revolves around the second birthday of their first child, Aegon II. Rhaenyra is not happy, and everyone seems to think the king will name his son as the heir at any moment. Corlys and Daemon’s war in the Stepstones is not going so well. The Crabfeeder and his men hide in caves when the dragons are attacking.
-As any GOT fan knows, never have an important conversation without a third party present. Viserys tells Rhaenyra that she is still his heir and that he wants her to find a husband that will help strengthen her claim to the throne. Unfortunately, he also told Alicent that he wonders if his vision was about his son, Aegon. So naturally they are both going to believe his wish was for themselves to be in charge when he dies. See, this could all be easily solved by sitting down in a small group and discussing things.
-Was Jason Lannister the least smooth potential suitor ever? “Uh, Casterly Rock is really big, and you would be a great lady wife. I would build you a Dragon Pit, please be my wife???” Nice try dude.
-Lyonel Strong surprised Viserys by giving him solid advice about who Rhaenyra should marry. Viserys snarkily suggests Strong’s son, but Lyonel says she should marry Laenor Velaryon for the same reasons he gave years ago for the king marrying Corlys’ daughter. I like Lyonel Strong and I hope we see more of him.
-Criston Cole and Rhaenyra have a nice little adventure where they are attacked by a boar. Ser Criston kills the boar and Rhaenyra takes her frustration out on it with her knife. As they head back to the camp, they come across the White Stag that is supposed to be the most kingly of animals and was a sign of kings before dragons came to Westeros.
-The hunt itself is such a joke. The huntsmen capture a stag and the king comes over and stabs it with a spear. He even realizes how idiotic this all is, plus it is not even the great White Stag they have all been babbling about to him. At least Viserys finds the time to get really drunk (my favorite part of the episode was him the next day complaining about a hangover).
-The Battle of Bloodstone was cool. A bit of a silly plan, having Daemon just go over there and drawing out the entire army to kill him. Do they not realize there are other dragons? Do they not think Caraxes could fly down on his own to attack the army? Whatever. It was still cool when Ser Laenor shows up on Seasmoke.
-It looks like next week jumps another year and Daemon has declared himself the King of the Narrow Sea. That does not seem like it will problematic at all. Plus it looks like someone has accused Rhaenyra of something…perhaps sleeping with Ser Criston?
