House of the Dragon Episode 4 Review: Serves As A Prelude To An Unprecedented Turmoil
Cast: Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Steve Toussaint
Director: Clare Kilner
Streaming Platform: HBO Max
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and half a star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
After putting the Stepstones on fire and surprising audiences with great action sequences, House of the Dragon reaches its turning point with a tight and enveloping fourth episode. The HBO spin-off, which airs on Sky and NOW, aims to shock the viewer by leading to an unexpected drift in many of the links presented so far on screen. As mentioned in our House of the Dragon Episode 3 review, Condal and Martin got it right by staging a big conflict. Between obvious wars and other much more subtle wars, the focus now shifts to King’s Landing without ever straying for an instant from the characters and their actions. The alleys of the streets and the corridors of the castles create an intoxicating labyrinth that leads the viewer into a whirlwind of passions, desires and betrayals in rapid succession, tracing the most classic dynamics of Game of Thrones but elevating its rhythms and atmospheres beyond all measure. Let’s analyze together what is shown.
House of the Dragon Episode 4 Review: The Story
Picking up the narrative shortly after the events that occurred in the third episode, House of the Dragon shows the long-awaited return of Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) to King’s Landing. After defeating the Nutrigranchi and ensuring the respect of the triarchy of Free Islands, the Dragon Prince has been appointed King of the Narrow Sea and returns to his brother to try to be readmitted to court. While Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) finds herself having to choose her future husband in the shortest possible time, her uncle will reveal his interests and concoct a very original plan to be able to reconnect to the throne. The rapid succession of events that see the princess as the protagonist will lead to a real scandal, capable of undermining the established order and casting much more than a shadow on different characters.
With chaos beginning to take over, King Viserys (Paddy Considine) is completely overwhelmed by events and must brace himself to make very uncomfortable decisions in the name of his lineage. In doing this, however, it seems that even his soul and his body let show more than a few signs of letting up. Stubborn and resilient, the ruler will be the protagonist of several face to face that will mark the entire unfolding of the plot for the episodes to come. Leaving therefore more space to the frenzied density and suddenness of interludes, fiery exchanges and diatribes, the fourth episode of House of the Dragon shows how much Martin’s experience in the flagship series has been fundamental: for a long time, such a dense and intense episode has not been observed full of pathos, to the point of not allowing a moment to breathe.
House of the Dragon Episode 4 Review and Analysis
After admiring an episode full of elements on screen like the one last week, the idea of drastically changing course to return with extreme arrogance to the intrigues and relationships between the characters managed to surprise for the vehemence with which the events are represented. The gaze of the camera offers this time countless sequences that, graceful and intriguing, make their way like contortionists in the mind of the beholder. It almost seems to observe the leading characters weaving their web, while the others inevitably end up being trapped in it. The fourth episode of House of the Dragon captures and overwhelms how a black widow makes her with her prey of hers, indulging in a macabre dance of insane and unstoppable passion. The rendering of the dark and nocturnal environments is sensational in penetrating the viewer’s gaze, captivating with choreography and continuous changes of course while the protagonists alternate in scenes of very high intensity.
In this sense, the two crazy splinters within the narrative are the masters: Rhaenyra and Daemon steal the show with their incredible alchemy and the evolution of their relationship will undoubtedly manage to capture the attention of many fans. The development of the plot manages to compensate excellently for the lack of particular action scenes, to the point of allowing some particularly risky choices to pass in the writing. As often happens in other HBO shows, the interpretations and narrative management are also confirmed in this series among the best on the television scene and could satisfy any palate. The management in the editing phase and the pace of the events undergo a sharp, but not extreme, turn that could turn up their noses at those spectators who have not liked the progression of the spin-off so far. Nonetheless, what is shown on screen is enough to consider this episode one of the best of the whole season. The very idea of having to leave some elements of the cast soon breaks our heart, given the overall quality of the ensemble, but we cannot hide our curiosity about the future developments that will lead to the long-awaited Dance of the Dragons.
Leaving more than a glimmer for unexpected developments and endless speculation, the Game of Thrones spin-off seems to be proceeding relentlessly towards the most chaotic junctures in the history of Fire and Blood. The overall quality of the show surpasses several episodes of the parent series on several occasions both in technical terms and in authorial terms. There are also fundamental hints to the lore of Ice and Fire, with the skilful hand of Martin increasingly perceptible in the main scenes. The HBO production seems to be betting everything it has on the spin-off and intends to keep the bar high until the end. Net of some slight distortions, very few shows can share such ambitions, much less a production context of the same level. We can’t wait to find out what else Condal and associates have in store for the second half of the season.
House of the Dragon Episode 4 Review: The Last Words
House of the Dragon Episode 4 puts aside the intense action sequences to focus on a massive array of intrigue and ties around the throne. No one could have imagined that in doing so it would be possible to obtain such an intriguing and enveloping episode, capable of placing in rapid sequence crossings of rare intensity without giving a moment of respite. Qualifying in all respects as one of the most interesting episodes of the season, we await the next developments with extreme curiosity.
