House Of The Dragon Episode 9 was like a slow death, beautiful. We saw in the previous episode that Alicent had misunderstood Viserys the Peaceful’s farewell words entirely. Now, a sense of obligation drove the Queen’s behavior. She was unstoppable, and nothing could stop her. Alicent believed that if she forced Aegon II Targaryen to sit slightly on the Iron Throne, she would be fulfilling her late husband’s final desire.
Even though she was still adamant that she had no hate in her heart, she felt compelled to take the appropriate measures. So let’s find out if the Greens were able to pull off their coup and how far they were willing to go to seize power.
House Of The Dragon Episode 9 Recap
We pick up in the wake of last week’s episode, literally just hours later the next morning. Rhaenyra, Daemon, and team black have all gone. Only Rhaenys is still in King’s Landing. If you remember, she stayed to stand a sort of Honor Guard over Vaemond Velaryon in the last episode.
We open with what is often dubbed the Green Council, the moment when the Hightower and their allies decided to launch their coup against the rightful named Heir. At least, that’s how most people interpreted it in the book. On the show, we have another twist because, at the end of the last episode, Alicent seemingly mishears Viserys’s dying wish to be that her son Aegon be Heir instead.
She, in all apparent sincerity, somebody informs her father of this, knowing it might lead to Civil War. Otto summons the Small Council to tell them, but another twist, Tyland Lannister, always with the lack of subtlety, reacts by saying, “we may proceed now in the full Assurance of this blessing with our long-laid plans.
So it turns out that, actually, Viserys’s deathbed confusion didn’t matter, Otto and Co were going to launch the coup regardless, and they’d been planning it for a while. Otto swiftly issues the first set of Orders, the first stage of his plan arresting City Watch captains who might not be loyal, dividing the gold in the treasury for safekeeping, and rounding up servants who heard about the King’s death to stop word getting out before they were ready. It’s very clearly not what Alicent was expecting, and she also clearly hasn’t been made aware of the long-held plans, so who was?
Who Is On Team Green?
Well, there are eight people in that room, Alicent herself, Otto, two members of the King’s guard, Criston Cole and Harold Westerling, Lyman Beesbury (the master of Coin), Grand Maester Orwell, Tyland Lannister (the master of ships) and Jasper Wilde (iron rod, the master of laws). In the book, Larys Strong is there as well, but here he is, just hiding in the shadows, keeping an eye on all that’s going on in the red keep in his usual creepy way.
We can rule some out of this plot immediately. Lord Beesberry launches an impassioned defense of Rhaenyra and starts to accuse them of even killing Viserys. To make it happen, Criston Cole shuts him up. It doesn’t look like he was trying to kill him right then, though that’s the favorite theory in the book. He does, nonetheless. Criston Cole really is a thug.
He may or may not have been involved in the plot before, but it doesn’t matter much. His hatred of Rhaenyra is such that he is now all in. Harold Westerling also absents himself when Otto orders him to go to Dragonstone and murder Rhaenyra and her family, claiming that as Lord Commander of the King’s guard, he recognizes No Authority but the Kings, so until there is one.
It’s interesting incidentally that the show has included Harold Westerling because by this point in the book, he is long dead, and Criston Cole is already Lord Commander. I do wonder whether they might merge his story with that of Stefan Darklin and have him defect to Team Black. It’s noticeable that he isn’t at Aegon II’s coronation later in the episode. That leaves four Otto, Tyland, and Iron Rod, who were clearly in on it.
But what about Grand Maester? It’s not clear though he was certainly quick to try to persuade Alicent of the need for Rhaenyra to die. Three quick things to note before we move on. First, although it doesn’t get much attention here, the decision to move much of the treasury out of King’s Landing will be very important later, perhaps around season three, if they stick to the books.
Second, the emphasis on gaining support from allies, particularly powerful ones like the Baratheons, will also be a big theme going forward for both sides. And third, I’ll admit that I always thought it’s strange in the book that The Greens seemingly never even thought about a preemptive strike to try to kill the Rival claimant. I’m glad they’ve set that straight here.
Searching For Aegon
But for all the plans, there is a big problem, Aegon, the person they want to install as King is not where he should be. We get another couple of instances of Helaena, the prophet, where she talks to her maid about people taking what others have before she learns of the coup and then a repetition of what she said in the last episode. There’s a beast under the boards. I think the fulfillment of that one will happen at the start of next season as well as rather dramatically at the end of this episode.
Otto commissions the Cargyll twins to hunt for Aegon down in flea bottom in secret and to bring Aegon to him personally, not the Queen. She sends another team to look at Criston Cole and Aemond, and they are to bring Aegon to her. She clearly has qualms about her father’s approach to all of this.
Let’s start with Erryk and Arryk, and they make their way to a fighting pit where children as young as ten are forced to fight each other. Erryk uses the opportunity to try to tutor his brother in what Aegon is really like. He loves the child fighting pit and has at least one bastard child down there. This may well be the first sight of Gaemon’s pale hair which will appear again much later.
George RR Martin loves having Royal bastards as plot points. The two brothers are clearly in disagreement about what to do about Aegon. Neither thinks he would make a worthy King but is it really for them to decide that? They are interrupted by someone working for Lady Misery. Remember her.
She wants to cut a deal with Otto, she will hand over Aegon, and in return, he will stop those child fighting pits. He promises to look into it, and she ominously tells him that there is no power but what the people allow you to take. I have a feeling this will come back to bite Otto.
Aegon Is Found
Nevertheless, she tells Otto where Aegon is, and the Cargyll twins find him, then lose him to Criston Colin and Aemond. They also didn’t make much progress themselves but witnessed the meeting between Otto and Miseria by chance and followed them.
You get the impression that Aemond’s heart wasn’t ever in it, though. He uses the opportunity to impress on Ser Criston how unlike his brother he is and how perhaps he would make a better King.
And when they do get Aegon and Aegon starts shouting about how he isn’t suited for the job and doesn’t want it anyway, so maybe he should just get on a boat for Essos. Aemond is clearly tempted by the thought, but that’s not to be. Alicent’s team gets Aegon, and she now gets to dictate terms to her father. There are to be no assassination attempts on Rhaenyra.
Instead, she is to be sent generous terms for her surrender Criston Cole is to be the new Lord Commander of the King’s guard, and Aegon will be crowned the next day in the sight of the people, so it is. Otto’s long-laid plans to seize control are now being tempered by Alicent’s care for her childhood friend and respect for her dead husband.
Alicent, whom we have to observe, is the only one in all this who seems to actually be mourning Viserys’s death and seems to be trying to chart a course that doesn’t lead to Rhaenyra’s murder or Civil War. She seeks out Rhaenys. She got knocked in her Chambers to prevent her from leaving. Alicent offers Rhaenys a deal, if she joins Team Green, then she can keep Driftmark as the ruling lady, and hopefully, the balance of power would then be such that Rhaenyra would be forced to negotiate for peace rather than launch war.
The Network Of Spies
Then connected to this, Larys tells Alicent about lady Misery’s spy network that Otto turns a blind eye to and how her servant Talia is a part of it. You may remember right at the start of the episode that Talia lit some candles in the window of Alicent’s room in the red keep.
It was a signal. That was how Syria knew so quickly that the King had died. Now Laris suggests taking out that spy Network. It looks like we will have a battle of the Spy networks here, the White Worm against the Firefly.
All in all, this is a bold counter-coup by Alicent. She still wants Aegon on the throne, but for it to happen in a way she can live with. A bold move, but with so many people willing to murder on both sides, it’s hard to see that it has much chance of success.
Before we move on to the coronation, though, let’s just spare a word for Lord Caswell. I highlighted him last week, the Rhaenyra supporter who was left in King’s Landing. He tries to escape to warn Rhaenyra but is caught by Larys and hanged. Even those most loyal to Alicent are killing people without a thought of whether that might be a part of her plan.
House Of The Dragon Episode 9 Ending Explained
It’s time for the coronation, and a mass of witnesses are rounded up into the dragon pit. The Great and the good are there, too, and Aegon wordlessly and a bit sullenly is crowned. On the way there, he even laughs in his mother’s face when she tells him that Viserys had wanted him to be King.
But once the crown is on his head and the people are cheering, and he holds a loft to the sword Blackfyre, the ancient symbol of Targaryen kingship, he does seem to nearly smile. Maybe he’ll grow to like it after all. But enter the Dragon Meleys and Rhaenys. Erryk Cargyll, the member of the King’s guard with concerns about Aegon, rescues her from captivity in the red keep and tries to get her to safety.
He wants to get her onto a boat, but as luck would have it, they get caught up in the throng being pushed into the dragon pit. From there, it’s a quick nip down to the basement to pick up her dragon and make the grand entrance.
But why didn’t she just Dracarys Aegon and Otto and the rest of them there and then? It would have stopped a lot of Bloodshed later. All this is a change from the book where the coronation proceeded without a dragon bursting up through the floor, and I think Rhaenys held back because the person who stands up to her protecting Aegon is Alicent, and Alicent is trying for peace.
Rhaenys happily admitted when they had their little talk that she had misjudged Alicent. Perhaps she’s giving her a chance, or perhaps she’s just a good person and would rather not murder her own family like that. In any event, it’s all set up for team Black’s response next episode.
House Of The Dragon Episode 9 Review
There are a lot of discussions online about this episode being the poorest of the season, but I would have to disagree. Given the tremendous stakes and drama we’ve witnessed over the past two weeks, it’s undoubtedly not the best, but there is plenty here to lay the groundwork for an explosive conclusion.
Ramin Djawadi’s music for this episode, especially the opening 15 minutes, is beautifully crafted and perfectly sets the stage for what comes next. There is a lot of symbolism present in this episode, and the show does a really good job of creating huge stakes out of brief dialogue segments.
After this week’s two horrible season finales (looking at you, Rings of Power and She-Hulk), House of the Dragon emerges from the burning wreckage to give a great penultimate episode, opening up the door for a really good finale to follow.
Also Read: Why Aemond Will Be Important In House Of The Dragon’s Storyline?
