TV Review: ‘House Of The Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 4 — Action Arrives With A Price
by Frank Martin
House of the Dragon has been relatively tame in terms of its action production this season. The latest episode demonstrates the the probably reason for that. Action scenes are costly to produce — even more so if they involve dragons fighting each other. Nevertheless, this week’s installment finally delivered on that promise in glorious fashion, which is probably why there’s been so little of it thus far. There are still problems with the story, though, and the aftermath of the battle left a lot of open questions that will complicate things as the season begins to wrap up.
The general progression picks up where the previous episode left off. Both sides continue to rally their forces for the conflict ahead. All this is happening while Daemon (Matt Smith) is being haunted at a castle in disrepair. Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) is having more success building an army, and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) sends Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon to halt his progress. However, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is waiting there as a trap. Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) unexpectedly takes off for the battle and appears to fall in the conflict. But he isn’t alone as Rhaenys also perishes.
House of the Dragon has a major handicap in contrast to Game of Thrones. Both shows have many characters, but it seems as if the latter has a lot more. This is a benefit as the universe is filled with reprehensible individuals, but GoT has more redeeming characters than HotD. Even though the Starks die at a surprising rate, there are still plenty of people to root for. The same can’t be said for House of the Dragon. There are very few endearing characters — Rhaenys being one of them. Killing her off is a very bold decision that might hurt the show in the long run, even though fans finally got the dragon action they’ve been craving.
House of the Dragon streams on Sundays on Max.
