After two years of waiting, the dysfunctional Targaryens are back as two rulers stake claims to the Iron Throne.
New showrunner Ryan Condal (Colony, Rampage) eases viewers into this new saga by opening “Blood and Cheese” in a familiar place—the North. Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett) meets with Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) on top of the Wall and accepts the best fighters that Lord Stark can dispense for Team Black. It’s comforting to be back on the Wall and hear a Northern drawl warning that “winter is coming.”
Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), after dragon-watching the blockade of trade routes to King’s Landing, gets into it with a raving Daemon (Matt Smith), who questions her loyalty to Team Black. Daemon continually tries to assert his dominance but is reminded of his low rank. “It is a command,” he yells at Rhaenys. “Would that you were the King,” she tosses back.
In Drismarck, Lord Coryls (Steve Toussaint) assesses the state of the shipping fleet and meets Alyn, the sailor who saved his life. Then the “enduring mystery,” Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) ominously tells King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) about fearing “the rats.”
Of course, rats surround King’s Landing. Lord Larys (Matthew Needham) exterminates Otto Highwater’s spies in another ploy to have Queen Consort Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) owe him. When Alicent isn’t worrying about the impending war or her alliance with her father, she’s finally getting hers with Kings Guard commander Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel). Alicent is no angel, but after years of bedding a pus-filled King Corpse, she deserves a ride or two.
The Team Green council meeting goes awry with too many cooks in the kitchen (one being the 4-year-old heir that Aegon decided to bring to work). Aegon flounders as king. He can’t even resolve a small-time farming dispute, let alone enact his Dragon v Dragon war plan. Naturally, Aegon’s woeful leadership and need to be liked by the masses makes him the perfect puppet for Alicent and Otto to control. But the sneaky Larys starts campaigning to be Aegon’s new Hand.
Queen Rhaenrya (Emma D’Arcy) travels to Storms End to retrieve her son’s slain remains and gives him a proper burial. Her palpable grief turns into a stern call to action as she delivers her only line in the entire episode, “I want Aemond Targaryen.”
Daemon heeds the call and cuts a deal with Miseryia (Sonoya Mizuno) to identify ratcatchers. He hires the disgruntled Blood and Cheese to kill Aemond. But Blood and Cheese throw out their original plan when they stumble upon the King’s heirs and the Oracle Helaena in the nursery. “A son for a son” is just as good in their eyes as they force Helaena to point out the male heir and slaughter him (thankfully off camera). The episode ends with Helaena clutching her daughter and fleeing for help.
Any hesitation from either Alicent or Rhaenerya about going headlong into war is squashed by their need to dole out Hammurabi’s Code: Eye for an Eye. Son for a Son. Heir for an Heir.
