House of the Dragon Calls Back to Major Rhaenyra and Alicent Moment in Episode 10

The season finale of House of the Dragon is now available to watch on HBO Max, and it featured a final attempt from Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) to keep the peace between her and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) despite the fact that she helped her son usurp the crown from her step-daughter/former best friend. It’s hard to believe how close Rhaenyra and Alicent were at the beginning of the series, but the finale did bring back an important moment from their friendship. When Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) comes to Rhaenyra on behalf of Alicent in an attempt to get her to accept her Aegon as the king, he shared a page from the book they read together in the first episode. 

“Queen Alicent has not forgotten the love you once had for each other,” Otto tells Rhaenyra. “No blood need be spilled, so the realm can carry on in peace.” While Rhaenyra doesn’t accept the offer, she also doesn’t turn it down, telling Otto she will give King’s Landing her answer the next day. Of course, there’s no way she will accept the offer of peace after the way the episode ended, and it’s likely this was the last time we will see any attempted healing between Rhaenyra and Alicent. Below, you can check out some screenshots of the former friends reading the book in the first episode and the page Otto brought Rhaenyra in the finale: 

Is Queen Alicent a Villain? 

Before Oliva Cooke took over the role of Queen Alicent, she was played by Emily Carey, who defended their character in an interview with Variety.

“Marrying Viserys is a choice. But it was never her choice to make. The choice was made by the men around her. The amount of misogyny that Rhaenyra faces, Alicent gets just as much,” the actor explained. “I read the books. In the future, she does make some questionable choices – let’s put it that way,” she added with a laugh. “But that’s not the adolescent that I play. I’m playing her in the beginning of her life. The ‘villain origin story,’ in quotation marks, because I personally don’t believe the Alicent that I play is a villain.” They continued, “What’s so heartbreaking about this whole situation is these two young women, neither of them are in control at any time. Their lives are basically being dictated by their fathers.” 

“I think she’s got a genuine love for Viserys,” Olivia Cooke added of the character on the official Game of Thrones podcast. “I think a fondness and a love have really grown, but I think that’s also because they have these children,” she explained. “But also, Alicent is almost like a primary caretaker for Viserys now in his various ailments.”

“But I don’t know if she respects him. I don’t know if she thinks that he’s the best ruler,” Cooke continued. “I think she thinks he’s too soft and that’s probably because of the way he handles his relationship with Rhaenyra. And he’s so blinded by his love for his children that he doesn’t see their wrongdoings.”

The first season of House of the Dragon is now streaming on HBO Max.