Watch episode 7 of House of the Dragon: Three Funerals and a Scary Wedding

Laena Velaryonshe Laenor’s brother, and a man whose name we never know. While Dragon’s HouseIts seventh episode does a lot to see Westeros slide uncontrollably toward what is sure to prove a disastrous bloody war, its body count being relatively modest. series‘ standard.

Its only on-screen death, of an unknown man who broke his neck as part of a complicated game to Ser Laenor’s fake death (John Macmillan), is a case study of the episode’s preoccupation with social rituals as a means of concealing and revealing the truth. Laena’s funeral gives her uncle a chance to unleash a villain who hides Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) about her sons’ bloodline. Rhaenyra’s secret marriage to her Uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) serves to inflate her reputation as a ruthless power player, and Sir Laenor’s duel with his lover Qarl (Arty Froushan) provides cover for a bittersweet escape. their own from the bloody power games of the court. Wherever we turn, the rituals and ceremonies that bind the people of Westeros into a society are being subverted by individual agendas.

The fact that the episode holds so many discs at once while managing to slow down after last week’s breakneck pace is a minor miracle, but the director Miguel Sapochnik and writer Sara Hess ended it gently. From the bleak but political opening funeral scene to the majestic and unsettling statement about Dragon Vhagar by young prince Aemond (Leo Ashton), “Driftmark” moves in an effortless clip. Its setting, maritime seat of the House of Commons of Velaryon where the royal family gathers to mourn, giving the whole thing a Gothic feel, as well as the return of skinny, undead Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, the king’s arm. It’s more than a little reminiscent The mask of death is redThese hybrid aristocrats plot, test, and duel in their secluded palace as the kingdom stands on the brink of the abyss.

Photo: Ollie Upton / HBO

Photo: Ollie Upton / HBO

At no time does the future seem a more bleak prospect than in the episode’s central action scene, a brawl between royal children that goes from bad to worse in – ahem – blink. When Prince Aemond returned victorious from his battle with Vhagar, Rhaenyra’s sons and Daemon’s daughter killed him in the dungeons of Driftmark. The scene is illuminated and shot like something out of Neil Marshall’s People going down, torchlight flashed across the faces of the young Targaryen heirs as their childish quarrel quickly turned bloody, fists and feet giving way to stones and knives. It’s enough to do Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) a referee is trying to stop World War II with a whistle. Ashton performed strongly as Aemond, his every look and gesture conveying sullen indignation at his status as a second son without a dragon, and he was as annoyed as a victor as well. like a loser, brutal and insulting his cousins ​​with lofty contempt.

It’s easy, watching Olivia Cookie as Alicent, to see where Aemond gets both his temperament and attitude. The fragile, dysfunctional woman Rhaenyra’s childhood friend became as an adult finds time to shine after a child’s argument, dissolving into a hysterical and demanding rage. one of the eyes of Rhaenyra’s son in exchange for Aemond’s. Once again, the episode chooses a ritual — the most basic, literal thing of the biblical tradition of an eye for an eye — as the centerpiece of its conflict.

Through ceremonial need, we get a glimpse of the real Alicent, a confused and frightened woman left in a state of perpetual panic by her father’s abuse. The ultimate parent-child conversation is a direct parallel to the candid moment between Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her husband Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint) after their daughter’s funeral, with Rhaenys rejecting her husband’s ambition to leave his descendants on the throne. Otto instead encouraged his daughter’s unbalanced behavior, saying it showed fighting spirit. His rejoicing at her apparent state of health is perhaps the most startling scene of the episode, yet another deception concealed behind his sombre appearance and secret traditions. hidden from the palace.