House of the Dragon episode 5 has everything you need to know about the show

It’s an understatement to say that weddings not often go nicely in George R.R. Martin’s world, and the Game of Thrones prequel sequence House of the Dragon isn’t any exception. The first season of House of the Dragon strikes rather more shortly than Game of Thrones: Five episodes in, and we’ve already coated a half a decade in the lives of King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and his backstabbing royal household. And episode 6 will see one other time bounce, this one taking viewers ahead one other 10 years.

Alliances are shifting, factions are forming, and animosities are deepening. Book readers, as normal, know the place that is all heading. But “We Light the Way” provides its viewers an elegantly constructed recap anyway, to assist preserve everything straight as we transfer ahead — whether or not they notice that’s what they’re seeing or not.

One space the place House of the Dragon excels is in laying a visible groundwork that clues observant viewers into what’s coming subsequent. Queen Alicent’s (Emily Carey) inexperienced gown on this week’s episode is a superb instance of this visible storytelling, as are the rats slurping up the blood on the dance flooring at the finish of the episode. (Look up “Blood and Cheese, Dance of the Dragons” if you’re curious.) These hints level towards the place the story goes. But episode director Clare Kilner’s most elaborately constructed gadget reminds us the place it’s been, establishing the throne room at King’s Landing, outfitted for a weeklong marriage ceremony celebration, to have a number of sight traces, every of them wanting down and/or throughout the room towards the middle aisle the place the “Dance of the Dragons” is about to happen.

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Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Kilner alternates between these views, slicing between medium pictures of totally different characters — Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), the groom’s dad and mom; the bride’s father, King Viserys, and his second spouse, Alicent; Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), the bride’s uncle and jealous suitor; and the bride’s and groom’s paramours and sworn protectors — who all have a stake in the final result of this marriage. The blissful (or not less than content material, with an understanding that their marriage is a political association) couple stays at the middle of the body as the assembled lords and girls stand up to be part of the dance.

Here, Kilner cuts away to Alicent’s uncle, Lord Hobert Hightower, who will get up from his seat to inform a departing Alicent, “Know that Old Town stands with you.” As the dance continues, the digicam cuts again once more to Rhaenyra’s bodyguard and lover, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — a bit of foreshadowing of his remaining moments in the episode — then cuts to Ser Gerold Royce of the Vale, who has developed his personal causes for opposing Targaryen rule. More gamers have joined the dance, each actually and figuratively.

Although, for the time being, these figuring out glances and unstated slights stay inside the rarified realm of courtly manners, these tensions will inevitably spin out into greater conflicts that may imply life and dying for 1000’s of folks in Westeros, noble and customary alike. The characters perceive the significance of such small, symbolic gestures. Alicent strolling in late to Rhaenyra’s marriage ceremony banquet is not only the finish of their friendship; it’s a declaration of battle between them. And by blocking and enhancing this scene to permit for such a detailed studying of posture, gesture, and sight traces, the show acknowledges their significance as nicely.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Even Viserys, who typically prefers to ignore the tensions in his court docket, can’t assist however discover the ensuing confrontation between Ser Gerold and his boastful brother Daemon. But then he appears to be like again out over the dance, concentrating on his daughter at the middle of the swirling materials and outstretched limbs. This is Viserys’ deadly flaw: He solely has eyes for Rhaenyra and his dream of retaining Targaryens on the throne for the subsequent hundred years, failing to see the rats scurrying round the edges of his grand plan. Laenor and his bodyguard/lover, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, are extra observant, nevertheless, noticing Ser Criston’s forlorn expression and appropriately surmising that he’s the motive why Rhaenyra is content material with an “arrangement” along with her betrothed. Daemon, who’s used to (and good at) sneaking below his brother’s nostril, manages to slip right into a spot as his niece’s dance companion as nicely.

From right here, the slicing will get sooner and the huge pictures of a full dance flooring extra frequent, and Kilner brings the digicam’s focus again on the Targaryens and Velaryons, by now absolutely distracted by their very own inside dramas. We don’t see how the struggle on the dance flooring begins; all we hear is a scream, which lastly attracts the royal households’ consideration again towards their visitors. The view of the motion is obscured from the excessive desk — a potent visible metaphor for the Targaryens’ myopia — and Rhaenyra will get shoved apart amid the jockeying of the crowd. The struggle is glimpsed in fragments, and we lose observe of Rhaenyra and Laenor amidst the chaos.

As quickly as the physique is dragged away, somebody (presumably Viserys) decides that it will be finest to get this marriage ceremony out of the approach as quickly as attainable, earlier than anybody else dies. The secret ceremony that follows is held amid the scraps of an deserted feast, decaying and nibbled on by rats. For now, it’s a symbolic loss and a short lived humiliation. But as private grudges proceed to escalate, the “Dance of the Dragons” will rework from a literal dance right into a symbolic one: The dance of swords and knights on the battlefield. Game of Thrones, and now House of the Dragon, have a tendency to get loads of consideration and credit score for his or her meticulously deliberate battle scenes; “We Light the Way” approaches the show’s political side with the same filmmaking sensibility, brilliantly underlining the connection between the two. Today, a ruined celebration; tomorrow, a ruined home.