House of the Dragon Recap With Spoilers: "The Rogue Prince"

By Charlie Ridgely

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for House of the Dragon! Continue reading at your own risk... The second episode of HBO's House of the Dragon, "The Rogue Prince," starts off with a haunting scene on the beach, showing a slew of dead sailors being eaten by a wave of crabs. There's no immediate context to the scene, but it looms large over the rest of the episode's events and sets up a pretty satisfying payoff at the end.

At the King's Table, we learn that a commander in the Kingsguard has died, and King Viserys will need to go about choosing a replacement. Harrold has already lined up some candidates for him to choose from, but the job of deciding who gets hired ultimately falls on Rhaenyra, after she speaks out of turn during a meeting of her father's council. More on that later.

Corlys enters the meeting in frustration, bringing to the council's attention another attack on the seas (a reference to that first scene). He mentions a group of pirates being led by someone called the "Crab-Feeder," and that he wishes to use his ships to take the Stepping Stones by force. He wants to rid the world of this Crab-Feeder, but the king shuts it down. Viserys argues that the ships the pirates use come from the Free Cities, and an attack would invoke a war. In Corlys' retort, he makes a comment about how Daemon has been holed up in Dragonstone with his army, confirming a six-month time jump since the first episode. This is where Rhaenyra enters the conversation, telling the King to use his Dragon Riders to solve the problem in the Stepping Stones.

Rhaenyra joins Harrold to choose the next member of the Kingsguard. She's frustrated by their lack of actual battle experience, which leads her to choose Ser Criston Cole, the only candidate who has actually been in combat. If you recall, she shared a moment with Criston at the tournament in the premiere. Otto tries to convince her to choose someone else, but her mind is made up. Rhaenys takes notice.

Alicent has proven herself an important voice to both Rhaenyra and Viserys, as she works to get them to speak more openly with one another. Her actions, while understated during the scenes she's in, prove to be the most important of the episode by the time it comes to a close. 

Viserys needs to take another wife. While it's clearly not something he wants to do, it's seen as the best thing to preserve his reign and his lineage. Rhaenys and Corlys offer their daughter, who isn't yet a teenager, to become his wife when she comes of age, providing another link between the Targaryens and Velaryons. Viserys doesn't like the plan at all, but he sees why everyone agrees it could be best for him and potentially for Westeros. Otto seems to be the only one who has other thoughts, likely because he has his own plan in play. Rhaenys gets into the ear of Rhaenyra while on the subject, speaking as someone who already lost out on the Iron Throne. A new wife means a new heir.

It is brought to Viserys' attention that Daemon has done more than just run off to Dragonstone. He has taken on a new bride, Mysaria, and he claims she is carrying his child. Since Targaryen's are supposed to be born with a dragon egg in their crib, he took one of the dragon eggs with him back home. The one he took was the one chosen for Baelon prior to his death.

Otto leads a group out to Dragonstone to confront Daemon, in the hopes of bringing the egg back to King's Landing. The encounter doesn't go well, especially after Daemon shows his hand and a dragon perches on the mountain behind him, ready to strike. Fortunately, Rhaenerya had other plans. Without telling her father, she rides to Dragonstone on the back of her dragon, challenging Daemon and proving her power. In addition to taking the egg without bloodshed, she reveals Daemon's lie. Mysaria isn't pregnant, as he claimed. She eventually tells Daemon that she is with him because she wants freedom from fear, not to be a pawn in his power schemes.

After Rhaenyra tells her father she understands his position in choosing a new wife, essentially offering her blessing (though it isn't required), he convenes the council to inform of his plans. However, he shocks them all by not choosing Corlys' daughter. He announces that he will take Alicent Hightower as his wife.

This proves to be the straw breaking the camel's back, as the final scene of the episode shows Corlys going behind the king's back and working with Daemon. He tells Daemon to take his men and attack the Crab-Feeder at the Stepping Stones, proving his might to the entire realm and setting Daemon up to take power. The episode ends with a look at the chilling man known as the Crab-Feeder, who looks like one of the scariest villains we've seen in the franchise.

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