TV Review: ‘House Of The Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Stalls For A Third Season

Fans that were hoping for dramatic dragon action to close out this season of House of the Dragon will be sorely disappointed. The only real instance of it this season came about halfway through. Fans get to see plenty of dragons, but they have yet to truly meet on the battlefield. The majority of the year was spent simply putting pieces in the right places for the inevitable war. The final episode of this shorter run continues that trend and is heavy with politics. The truth: these new dragon riders simply came too late to bring  any new action. Their inclusion should have been several episodes earlier, and audiences will just have to wait even longer for what’s to come.

Now that she has three dragon riders, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) needs them to be ready for fighting Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). She visits Daemon (Mitt Smith), whom she’s not quite sure is still loyal to her. But the psychosis finally gets to Daemon, causing him to swear loyalty in front of an audience, thus solidifying her power. Meanwhile, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) continues to be bedridden and fearful that his life is in danger. Afraid for her son, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) sees Rhaenyra, but she does not get the reception she was hoping for as the latter sets the stage for war.

Compared to the Season 1 finale — which had some dragon action and a main character’s death — this wasn’t really a season finale at all. There weren’t any big surprises and a lot was left unfinished. In fact, this felt like it was just in the middle of the season and not something special. The plot line with the new dragon riders is interesting and should be the backbone of Season 3. But this finale proved that the show simply has too many characters and runs too long, even when it runs short. Daemon’s plotline spent several episodes to ultimately go nowhere. It’s indicative of the fact that the quality of this season was just all over the place.

House of the Dragon is now streaming on Max.