This review contains spoilers.

Events

Following the events in Ep 6, when Seasmoke the dragon chose Addam of Hull as his rider, episode 7 begins with Rhaenyra’s decision to find out who Seasmoke’s rider is. Upon discovering that Addam of Hull is the rider and learning about his intentions and allegiance to her, she decided to take him to Dragonstone to teach him the ways of becoming one of her dragon riders, which were, of course, met with some pushback.

You see, her council did not particularly agree with her. Even her son Jacarys, who suggested recruiting people with even a little bit of Targaryen blood to become dragonriders, did not agree with this newfound dragon rider, seeing as Addam of Hull is a lowborn.
So what would they rather have her do? She either listens to them and does not have any dragonriders or stands on her decision, she chooses the latter and decides to ignore their opinions and send a message for any interested lowborn to partake. This scene is interesting because it emphasizes Rhaenyra as a person who is willing to challenge traditional norms if she thinks it’ll be for a great course, no matter the consequences.

Meanwhile, Daemon faces a difficult but expected choice between gaining the Riverlords’ allegiance or killing Willem Blackwood for which, he chooses the latter. Throughout the episode, Alicent is on a solitary journey at Lake Kingswood. She strips her clothes, moves to the lake with a solemn expression, and lies backwards in it, which suggests she might be rethinking her past actions and may regret them, therefore cleansing herself in the lake.

Back at Rhaenyra’s side, all the bastards gathered to try to claim Vermithor, but most of them were unsuccessful, and he killed them all. When we thought this time Rhaenyra had bitten more than she could chew and we were about to see the consequences of her actions, Hugh Hammer turns out to be the one Vermithor spares. While this happens, another bastard, Ulf the white ventures into an unknown cave to avoid being killed by Vermithon, not knowing he is entering another dragon lair where he’ll find Silverwing.

In King Landing, Aemond mounts Vhagar and follows Silverwing with his new dragon rider, Ulf. However, when he sees Rhaenyra with Vermithon, Silverwing and Syrax, he makes an unexpected decision and, tells Vhagar to turn back when he realizes it could be a trap.
This is one of the best episodes yet, in season 2 of House of the Dragon. The cinematography was beautiful as usual, but one of the scenes that stood out, was when Rhaenyra called out and calmed down Vermithor in High Valyrian. The shot of her standing with her back to the dragon showed the depth of her courage and power, which were not duly explored in previous episodes.

Another great scene was, when Hugh Hammer boldly stood in front of Vermithor and protected the woman even though he knew he could be killed, which showed his courage. I think, that must have been another layer of why Vermithor accepted him, his bravery.

Conclusion

The events of this episode are in no doubt, an intense building block for a climactic scene in the final episode. What are your thoughts on this episode, and what do you think will happen in the finale?

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