Dear sweet baby Dracarys, they've done it again. Another episode of House of the Dragon has laboured to move pieces into place and establish character dynamics and deliver some beautifully written dialogue and failed utterly to deliver the hoped-for action alongside it. In terms of story and drama, this eighth episode was a triumph – or would have been had it arrived two or three episodes ago.
But for a season finale to be all cliffhanger and no spectacle is close to unforgivable. Seriously, as we finish this week we have the armies of the Riverlands, the Lannisters, the Starks, and the Hightowers converging on Harrenhal. We have a Tyroshi fleet sailing to challenge the Black blockade of King’s Landing.
We have Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) ready to unleash her dragons on Casterly Rock and Oldtown. And we have important confrontations for Rhaenyra with Daemon (Matt Smith) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke). That's great stuff, a fantastic shift from neutral into forward drive.
The problem is that none of these forces actually meet this episode, and the closest we get to a fight scene is some mud wrestling. We'll have to wait, what, two more years to see the outcome of all this elaborate preparation. Will Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) even have finished hiking by then? The problem is not really with this episode but with the incredibly slow pace earlier in season 2, and the fact that the season is only eight episodes long.
That's what creates the startlingly abrupt turn as Rhaenyra, determi.