Game of Thrones’ much-heralded spinoff prequel House of the Dragon premiered on Sunday, bringing us right back to King’s Landing like no time had passed. (Well, it takes place a few centuries before the events of the original series, but you know what we mean.) Want to know what’s going on? Read on for episode 1 highlights (and be sure to check out our interview with Fabien Frankel). PREQUEL IN THE PREQUEL | We entered this new – well, old – world during a gathering held at the end of the first century of the Targaryen dynasty. A female narrator informs us that we are attending a council at Harrenhal, called by King Jehaeris. Although the family’s rule was strong—with 10 full-grown dragons, “no power in the world could stand against it,” the narrator says—the king’s health was not. And since both his sons are dead, he calls a summit to choose a successor. Although more than a thousand lords attend and 14 bids are made, only two potential heirs are actually considered: Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Nurse Jackie’s Eve Best), the king’s oldest descendant. and Prince Viserys Targaryen (The Insider’s Paddy Considine), the eldest male descendant of the king. Both stand with their wives at the king’s side as he announces the person who will sit on the Iron Throne after his death. “The lords have chosen Viserys, my father,” explains the narrator, appearing as Rhaenyra Targaryen, whom we’ll officially meet shortly. He then goes on to note that the council had been called upon to prevent a war over who would be in charge, after Jaehaerys, because “The only thing that could bring down the Dragon’s house was himself.” THERE ARE DRAGONS IN THE SKY | A title card then takes us to the ninth year of King Viserys’ reign, “172 years before the death of the Mad King, Aerys, and the birth of his daughter, Princess Daenerys Targaryen.” Annnnnd, cue dragon! A giant, golden beast soars through the clouds and above King’s Landing, giving us a little aerial tour before landing in a clearing. A teenage Rhaenyra (The Gloaming’s Milly Alcock) jumps down and fondles her horse (named Syrax) before bantering with a nearby knight, Ser Harrold Westerling (Outlander’s Graham McTavish) and meeting up with her maid of honor, Alicent Hightower (Caseyiual ). ). The teenagers are led back to the Red Keep, where they hover by the queen’s room. Rhaenyra’s mom is very pregnant and very uncomfortable, and Rhaenyra thinks it’s a travesty that everyone is focusing more on the baby than the woman who is going to have it. “This suffering is how we serve the realm,” says the queen, though Rhaenyra would rather be a knight. “The children’s bed is our battlefield. We have to learn to face it with a stiff lip,” says her mom, wearily but lovingly. The teenager then runs off for her duties as the king’s cupbearer at his little council meeting. Viserys seems unfazed by the topics at hand, which include a possible threat to the shipping lanes and the absence of his brother Daemon, who is commander of the City Watch but is apparently not a regular attendee at these gatherings. When Lord Corlys Velaryon (Berlin Station’s Steve Toussaint) presses the issue of shipping lanes, he is quickly shut down by the hand of the king, Otto Hightower (Berlin Station’s Rhys Ifans). The conversation turns to a tournament the king is holding to celebrate the impending birth of his next child, which he is sure will be a boy and which will solve the problem of Viserys having no male heirs. The conductor at hand is like, oh wow, we can’t guarantee you’re a dude, but the king is happily adamant that “there’s a boy in the queen’s belly. I know.” ANYTHING FAST COMING THIS WAY? | And now it’s time to meet Daemon (played by Doctor Who’s Matt Smith), who is incredibly wrapped up in the Iron Throne when Ser Harrold leads Rhaenyra to him. They speak High Valyrian to each other, and from their easy movement, it’s clear that they get along well. he is rather sure of his place as heir to Viserys and is back in town for the tournament. They switch to English as he hands her a necklace of Valyrian steel, “like Dark Sister,” he notes, inspecting one of the family’s famous swords. “Now you and I have a little piece of our ancestry,” he says as he puts it on her, but I barely hear it because my inner Targargen inbreeding detector (which, admittedly, is on high alert given what I know about family history) begins to knock softly but persistently during the exchange. When the jewelry is on, she turns to show him. “Beautiful,” he says softly in high Valyrian. Ping! Ping! Ping! THE QUEEN TAKES SEAT | Upstairs, the teachers tend to the king, who has a small wound on his back that won’t heal. He says it’s just a small cut from the Iron Throne — which still has pretty sharp edges — and he thinks it’s no big deal. the teachers and Otto Hightower seem to think otherwise. After the wound is cauterized (and thankfully, we don’t have to watch it), Viserys visits Queen Aemma while she soaks in a tub and tries to get comfortable. They are affectionate. However, he will not let go of the certainty that their unborn child is a son, thanks to a dream he had of placing his son on the Iron Throne. Things get more serious when she tells him this is their last shot. in the last 10 years, she had one child who died in infancy, two stillbirths and two miscarriages. (Ugh.) “I’ve mourned all the dead kids I can,” she says softly but firmly. DEFUND THE CITY WATCH | That night, the Daemon addresses the men of the City Watch, reinforcing them before setting them free in King’s Landing to mete out “justice” as they see fit. In case any of you were worried that the Game of Thrones prequel wasn’t going to go all-in on the violence of the original series, this series features the removal of an accused rapist’s penis, among other dismemberment. By the end, the brute police force has separated so many body parts from their owners, it takes a two-horse cart to remove the parts. Otto is in the middle of lamenting the Demon’s violent actions to the king when the two men enter the small council chamber… and see the Demon sitting there with a smile on his face. He calmly explains that he was just cleaning up King’s Landing in anticipation of the influx of visitors for the tournament, and his brother agrees, though he warns him to be a little less heavy-handed. (For the record, Daemon makes no promises.) Otto then examines how Daemon neglects his wife, who is at their home in the Vale, and Daemon responds by reminding Hightower that his own wife is dead recently, and you’re starting to think these two hate each other, guys. Viserys comes in and tells them both to give it up, and Daemon says he understands and then leaves. The Demon heads to a brothel, where the thought of losing the Iron Throne to a baby weighs him down so much that he can’t, uh, set fire to the fire? Land the dragon? Valar morghuli of? (Look, it’s been a while, so you’ll need to give me an episode or so to sort out my Thrones doubles.) The woman he’s with, named Mysaria (Dev’s Sonoya Mizuno), seems to he is used to stroking the prince’s ego. “The king cannot replace you,” she cries, hugging him to her chest. HUZZAH! | Time for the tournament, which will be a bloody affair in more ways than one. The crowd cheers when Viserys opens the proceedings by announcing that Queen Aemma is in labor. Early runs reveal that Ser Criston Cole (The Serpent’s Fabien Frankel), an unknown quantity in the field, is quite good at jousting. When Rhaenyra asks, Ser Harrold provides that the young man is common born, but that is all he knows. Daemon is next and chooses Otto Hightower’s eldest son as his first opponent. When Hightower takes a good hit on the first pass, an angry Daemon trips Hightower’s horse on the second pass, causing the horse to throw its rider as it falls. Apparently this is kosher? Anyway, when the Demon approaches the king’s box in victory, he asks for Alicent’s favor — another slap in the face to Otto. She gives it to him, much to her father’s surprise. As the day progresses, some trials turn into terrifying hand-to-hand battles, with the crowd cheering the entire time. Raines muses to her husband that young fighting men have never known war, and therefore fight—as Anita so aptly put it in West Side Story—”like they have to get rid of something, fast.” Meanwhile, on the courts in front of them, a contestant has literally punched his face in, and a nearby soldier vomits as he watches. Eventually, Daemon confronts Ser Criston, and the latter overpowers the former, causing him to fall midway through and into the rail like a happy hour beer at Cheers. Daemon then calls for the contest to continue, man to man, so it goes. But Criston is as good off the horse as he is on, and Daemon finally gives way. And the mysterious knight then approaches Rainyra and asks for her favor, which she throws at him, wishing him good luck. RIP, QUEEN AEMMA | The king is called away by a teacher who informs him that the baby is breech – aka legs-down position, which, in an age where caesarean sections without anesthesia rarely end well, is decidedly not great. Finally, the king is forced to make a decision: Cut Aemma to try to save the baby, or lose both. OF COURSE the king orders it sliced and diced, and of course his dazed and delirious wife has no say in what happens. To his (very slight) credit, Viserys looks sad as he tells Aemma that he loves her, moments before he starts crying that he’s afraid of what’s happening. When they cut it starts to scream…
