The royals in House of the Dragon understand, in theory, that smallfolk have some importance in the grand scheme of things. As Sister Sage tells Homelander in this season of Prime Video’s The Boys: “If you crush the masses, who build your monuments? Who tongues your taint?” But when faced with even the slightest bit of inconvenience from the little people, the Targaryens crush them anyway, taint-tonguing be damned.
Following Jaehaerys’ death, Otto has the solid political idea (Otto is full of good ideas in this episode, which is probably why Aegon fires him as Hand of the King) to have a public funeral procession for the wee lad. Alicent (Olivia Cooke) sees the wisdom of it, telling Helaena (Phia Saban), “A blow to the king is a blow to the realm and the people share our grief. They draw closer to us.”
But Alicent doesn’t really believe that, nor does Helaena. The subsequent funeral procession through the cobblestone streets of King’s Landing is nearly as horrifying as the Blood and Cheese sequence itself. As the unwashed masses reach their grubby little hands to the two queens passing through, the women’s fear is palpable. When the crate holding little Jaehaerys’ body begins to precariously rock back and forth, the most horrific thing imaginable is the cart tipping over and these creatures…these people throwing themselves upon the hastily sewn together boy. Thankfully they do not. As with Blood and Cheese itself, however, the image in viewers’ minds still stands tall.
Just one episode ago, King Aegon II positioned himself as an unlikely working class hero by uttering from the Iron Throne that “our victory depends on the efforts of the smallfolk.” A day later, Aegon has publicly hanged all of the city’s innocent ratcatchers. A certain ignorance of the smallfok isn’t a Green-only trait either. Before Ser Arryk arrives on Dragonstone to attempt to slay Rhaenyra, she absent-mindedly wanders around her chambers, as a servant stumbles after her to tend to her hair.
Rhaenyra has a right to be distracted though. Putting aside only the Cargyll battle and maybe the funeral procession, the episode’s most explosive scene sees Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) endure a tongue-lashing a long time in the making. “You think of me some kind of monster,” Daemon tells Rhaenyra about his ordered killing of a child, to which she responds, “I don’t know what to think of you. I don’t know what you are.”
Truer words have never been spoken about The Rogue Prince and D’Arcy imbues them with real hurt and confusion. If House of the Dragon season 2 has a flaw in the early-goings, it’s the lack of movement – both literal and metaphorical – for the Black Queen. Perhaps that’s why she has paced around so restlessly. Still, D’Arcy remains one of the show’s most elite performers, capturing both Rhaenyra’s belated understanding of what Daemon really is and her political blindspots in equal measure.
