House of the Dragon The Princess and The Queen Review: A new, jarring, brilliantly acted season begins

Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy take over the roles of Alicent and Rhaenyra in The Princess and The Queen to mixed success. The transition from Emily Carey to Cooke is seamless, while Milly Alcock to D’Arcy simply isn’t.

Cooke’s portrayal of Alicent feels like a natural progression for the character. Over the ten years, she’s given birth to another son and daughter, but her list of allies grows thin. Alicent has grown more confident and has a much stronger grasp on the situation than anyone else in King’s Landing. She’s terrified for her children’s well-being. As heir, Rhaenyra could kill her children.

D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra feels like a different character than Alcock’s. There’s nothing wrong with D’Arcy’s performance. The only time in which D’Arcy feels similar to Alcock’s version of the character is in the private conversations with Laenor. Rhaenyra has three kids of her own and none of them resemble Laenor. There’s also a proposal made by Rhaenyra during a small council meeting that feels hypocritical to this character. Also, Rhaenyra disagree with every small point Alicent brought up was annoying. The time jump is ten years, not twenty. Rhaenyra proposing a marriage between Alicent’s daughter and her oldest son doesn’t seem like a decision Rhaenyra would make.

The ten-year time jump from episode five to The Princess and The Queen is jarring, to say the least. Multiple characters are introduced or recast in this episode and are removed in the same episode. There’s simply no time to get attached to any of the characters. Unfortunately, when the deaths start happening, there’s no emotional attachment.

The performances, especially Cooke’s, are fighting against the time-jumping structure. The performances are still winning, but the cracks in the foundation are worsening with each episode. Here’s hoping the series will slow down and allow the storylines to flesh out more.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the elements that stood in The Princess and The Queen. There may be some minor spoilers. House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max.

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A rivalry between The Princess and The Queen

The Princess and The Queen waste little time. The episode opens with Rhaenyra giving birth to her 3rd child. Alicent wants to immediately see the child. Rhaenyra makes a point of carrying the child herself. Alicent makes it clear, Rhaenyra should be in bed.

Alicent isn’t shy anymore. When Viserys and Alicent are alone, she carries on with her accusation. None of Rhaenyra’s children resemble Laenor, Rhaenyra’s husband. Rhaenyra’s baby daddy is the new head of the King’s Guard, Ser Harwin Strong. He’s introduced and killed in this episode.

Ser Criston Cole is training Alicent and Rhaenyra’s boys. Harwin critiques his training method. Cole makes an accusation about his close connection to the children. Harwin nearly beats Cole to death.

Rhaenyra overhears a conversation between Harwin and Lord Lyonel Strong, his father and more importantly the Hand of the King. During a contentious small council meeting between Rhaenyra and Alicent, Rhaenyra makes a proposal. Rhaenyra wants to join her house with Alicent’s. She offers her oldest son to marry Alicent’s daughter. Alicent pretty much rejects the proposal. She points out Rhaenyra’s dress is leaking due to breastfeeding and ends the council meeting.

Alicent voices her frustration to Lyonel’s 2nd son Larys. Without any order from Alicent, he orchestrates an arson, which kills his father Lyonel and his brother Harwin. The move by Larys appears to set up the return of Otto as Hand of the King.

Apparently, Rhaenyra’s learned nothing about her own unwanted marriage. Honestly, I kind of side with Alicent in this episode. Instead of shoring up her claim to the throne, Rhaenyra continues to undermine herself. Only Viserys is in denial over the father of his grandchildren. Even Daemon who is nowhere near King’s Landing knows Laenor isn’t the father.

While there are some issues in this story, Alicent’s scene with her oldest son is tremendous. Cooke does a great job of demonstrating the love and fear she has for her son’s fate.

Daemon’s 2nd wife

Laena and Daemon are husband and wife. They have a couple of children themselves and are expecting another.

Nanna Blondell is the 3rd and likely the last actress to portray Laena Velaryon. Daemon and Laena are across The Narrow Sea in Pentos. The king offers Daemon and Laena a permanent home in exchange for their protection. Laena wants to return to her home at Driftmark. Daemon isn’t particularly interested. He also doesn’t care much for Pentos.

Similar to Rhaenyra’s mother, Laena’s pregnancy doesn’t go as planned. Instead of waiting to die or for the baby to be stillborn, she kills herself by ordering her dragon to douse her in flame.

Blondell is terrific given her time on screen. However, I wish we had more time with her and Daemon. The constant recasting in the same series makes it tough to connect. This is the 2nd of Daemon’s wives to die in as many episodes and the fate of Daemon’s next wife will probably be equally tragic.

Laenor and Rhaenyra: An Inconvenient Marriage

At times, Laenor appears to be a dotting husband. At other times, he’s completely oblivious.

He returns just after Rhaenyra gives birth. Laenor is furious at Alicent for wanting to see the child right after birth. He genuinely seems to care about Rhaenyra’s well-being.

Later in the episode, Laenor tells Rhaenyra that he’s planning on leaving the kingdom again. Rhaenyra is incredulous. He just wants to go off and have adventures with his new lover. Instead of staying by Rhaenyra’s side, he wants to leave when the intensity is beginning to swell. Rhaenyra orders her husband to stay in King’s Landing. As a rationale for leaving, he delivers this line “The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers”

After the small council meeting doesn’t go Rhaenyra’s way, she announced to Laenor that she is taking Laenor’s advice. She decides to vacate King’s Landing as the storm gathers. She even allows Laenor to take his lover with him as a sign of reconciliation.

The episode doesn’t do a great job of establishing how much Rhaenyra’s kids know about Laenor and Rhaenyra’s marriage. They call Laenor father but are also quite close to Harwin.

The scenes with Laenor and Rhaenyra are great. Once again, I wish we had more development with this iteration of these characters.

The Princess and The Queen Final Thoughts

The Princess and The Queen features some strong performances by Cooke and Blondell. Unfortunately, the fast pacing and time jumps are making it difficult to connect to the characters being killed off.