House of the Dragon Episode 9 Review: A Juicy Appetizer Before The Finale, Prepares For The Climax
Episode Title: The Green Council
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel
Director: Claire Kilner
Streaming Platform: HBO Max
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
By showing everyone the extent of its ambitions and the unparalleled quality of its authoring sector, which has always been the flagship of HBO productions, House of the Dragon has climbed the rankings of approval both in terms of audiences and critics. The last episode, as mentioned in our review of House of the Dragon Episode 8, probably marked the high point reached by the spin-off inspired by Fire and Blood and, according to George RR Martin and Ryan Condal, even more, surprises await us. big with the arrival of the Dance of the Dragons. In its introductory and preparatory nature, the first season of the series aired on HBO Max has managed to enter the hearts of many thanks to wonderfully characterized characters, with a first-rate cast immersed in a context full of details, very close to the atmospheres and environments described by the author in his works.
After the epic finale of the last episode, which saw the King at the center of the scene the series hovers on the first sparks of the conflict and is definitively preparing for the war to come. House of the Dragon, since the first episode of this first season, has played with tension, with the relationships between the characters as tense as the string of a violin, with peaceful relationships suspended like the piano note which, opening the episode, already tells everything. As we will see in our review of House of the Dragon Episode 9, this penultimate appointment with the work created by George RR Martin and Ryan Condal does not present breaks, but – as in the tradition of series – once again prepares the chessboard, waiting for a season finale that will finally have to blow up the greatest conflict.
House of the Dragon Episode 9 Review: The Story
As widely mentioned by the cast and crew, the Stranger welcomed the King into his arms. The news, in the dark of the night, spreads slowly like a shadow that only those directly concerned can see. Alicent (Olivia Cooke) is awakened and brought to her father Otto (Rhys Ifans), to whom she confesses what she believes to be her husband’s last wishes: Aegon, her son, must ascend the Iron Throne to fulfill her fate. The two, therefore, convene the small council to communicate the news. Much to the Queen’s surprise and indignation, the entire Council seemed to have been organizing itself for some time now under the direction of the Hand. In the gloomy King’s Landing there is only room for a few fleeting moments of pain:
the organizational machine is already in motion and must bring Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) to the throne before anyone can even think of opposing. With the designated heir Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) in Dragonstone, the time seems more than auspicious to move quickly. Against the wishes of her father, the Queen Regent readily denies any drastic moves in an attempt to proceed in a balanced and wise manner, but the game of the Throne does not seem to leave room for reservations. Bringing on a thick series of intrigues, deceptions and secret actions, Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) will find herself forced to suffer the consequences of a daring series of developments, trying to escape as soon as possible from a place where she cannot be considered safe.
The episode that serves as a prelude to the season finale decides to move on a triple path of revelations, contrasts and exhausting searches, bringing new faces to the center of the scene (such as those of the brothers Arryk and Erryk Cargyll) and hinting at others whose destiny is still far from being defined. Finding no further opposition beyond the prince’s inner conflict, Otto’s plan will find its fulfillment, but it will also mark the beginning of ruin: amid thunderous applause and thunderous surprises, the Dance of the Dragons can officially begin.
It’s time for mourning in King’s Landing, but also for action. Strengthened by the last words spoken by Viserys, Alicent informs her father Otto, Hand of the Knight, of her husband’s will to crown Aegon, her firstborn. The boy, more interested in a lecherous and goliardic lifestyle, does not seem to be of the same idea and will hide in the streets of the city. It will be Aemond, who does not hide the desire to be recognized as a more valid heir than his elder brother, and Lord Cole, totally loyal to the queen, to seek him. Meanwhile, Otto Hightower knows that he cannot waste time: until the disastrous night, the king’s wishes preferred the accession to the throne of his daughter Rhaenyra, a woman who had already received her loyalty and oath from half the people and allied houses.
This is how right from the start, to pay the price, more than any other, is Princess Rhaenys, the Queen Who Wasn’t, the victim of a plot against the Targaryen long thought and now implemented. Because, you know, there are intrigues in the palace, and even more than one might think: slow cobwebs thought out with care, chessboards where the player (after all, it is always the “game of the throne”) uses people, even at he is close, like pawns, between those who remain standing and those who, on the other hand, are sacrificed. The world ordered, decided and commanded by the men of Westeros seems to exist within a perfect geometric figure. Points of view, because sometimes only a dragon can be enough to brutally break that order and that facade formality.
House of the Dragon Episode 9 Review and Analysis
The episode that sees the Greens prepare for Aegon’s rise will undoubtedly make the most avid fans of the parent series happy. Bringing back sequences and surprises like the apex moments of Game of Thrones, the ninth episode of House of the Dragon is unequivocally the densest of the entire series. The direction of Clare Kilner brings to the eye of the beholder three different equally important fragments: the darkness of absence, the shadows of intrigue and revenge beyond deception. Building with the help of music and photography a Red Fortress never seen before, the initial phase of the episode is among the most fascinating ever: between narrow corridors and silent steps, the night of King’s Landing seems to envelop the viewer as in the fourth episode of the show, except to provide sensations never so dark.
The entire introductory montage is masterful in making one perceive the presence of death as if it were a character that hovers among the rooms, serving as an ideal prelude to the following sequences. In alternating the scenes between interiors and exteriors, Kilner plays with the sensitivity of the viewer while horror and horror merge between the alleys of the city and the corridors of the castle. Sara Hess, the executive producer who is entrusted with the drafting of the episode, focuses all her attention on the characters and their stories, providing more than a few interesting ideas for the supporting actors and maniacally deepening the point of view of the protagonists.
Some goosebumps exchanges are a manifesto for the mastery of the performers, with an Eve Best never so central and a Rhys Ifans rarely so active in representing Otto’s shrewdness and perpetual activity. The glue and epicenter of the events, however, is Olivia Cooke’s Alicent: never as in this episode, the queen’s interpreter has been able to show all her charisma, fully transmitting the conflicts, but also the maturity reached from the character. Her gaze keeps glued to the screen and is perfectly reflected in Aegon’s, in which the pain and glory of an unexpected ruler are concentrated. The ninth episode of House of the Dragon may have told fewer crackling segments than initially expected. However, the morbid and oppressive density of the episode leaves no respite and explodes in a final sequence worthy of the legacy of Game of Thrones.
Perhaps only the constant alternation risks making less attentive fans turn up their noses, but it is precisely this aspect that continually stimulates the viewer. The prelude to the season finale gives history the first crucial event of the Dance of the Dragons: if there could have been any doubts before, it now seems certain that real conflicts will be at the center of the next season of the series. Yet, faced with an array so subjugated by the specter of power, the incessant expectations of imminent conflicts still do not cease to surprise. In an epic of tense faces amid the gazes of unknown persons, the lament of the Red Queen marks the first, crucial step of the War.
The concept that the direction of Claire Kilner expresses best, giving a very elegant episode (especially in the first few minutes) without smudging: the aim is to represent a paradox inherent in the kingdom. The death of a king is not mourned, but it is exploited. The ceremony with the people is not spontaneous but only constructed. The regents are subjects among themselves. It is a dangerous little theater, but still, a little theater, where the actors not only act towards the spectator but also among themselves, deceivers and deceived. The cold calculation with which the legacy of Viserys is managed is staged without the need for special effects: it is human nature, rationality, and order (which excessively becomes authoritarian control). On the other hand, the protagonists of the series live in gigantic buildings, with huge but empty rooms,
Curious is the fact that it is precisely the dragon, a CGI creature (which in general, unfortunately, during the episode is not always convincing, even in the less spectacular sequences), which can burn this composite and false order, both about the new generations (Aemond, unlike the new king brother, has a dragon) and as regards a declaration of identity little inclined to be subjugated. Vital element while everything else is stagnant. Demonstration that chaos, at a certain point, becomes more necessary than ever to express one’s being alive.
House of the Dragon Episode 9 Review: The Last Words
House of the Dragon Episode 9 tells the consequences of the king’s death by staging the ideological conflict within the world created by Martin. The deception and the fine weaving of intrigues for the personal interests of men and the breaking of those balances by the dragons. The tension remains and we give up on the spectacular (noting the flaws of a CGI that is not always convincing), but we can only be fascinated by the main characters, especially the female ones. The prelude to the season finale of House of the Dragon definitively sets the pace for the future developments of the Dance of the Dragons. In the darkest episode of the series, intrigues and mysteries intertwine in different but equally fascinating paths. The figure of Queen Alicent stands out in all the majesty of her, flanked by the engaging pain of a tormented heir, but even in the horror, the series manages to keep perpetually glued to the screen. The dance has now begun.
