The war is not won, and things are heating back up.
Having been hoodwinked by Lord Ormund Hightower previously, Rhaenyra is tracking the new dimensions of the game and spends most of the episode trying to learn about her new opponent. And so do we.
There have been several cases wherein a mostly bland tertiary character from the text is presented in the adaptation with a bit more layers and character. Jeyne Arryn and the late Sharako Lohar are both examples, but Ormund Hightower might be the most unique of these. He’s got a lot of layers added to him, I think because it seems he’s the main threat this season.
A New Shade of Green
Ormund and his army have taken over the market town of Tumbleton, whose lord and lady are sworn to Rhaenyra. This is insurance against her dragons, but the town’s lack of defenses also invites danger from Team Black’s ground forces. He’s building a base that he hoped would be bolstered by Criston Cole’s army, as well as Aemond and his dragon. We are also finally introduced to the youngest of King Viserys and Alicent’s children, Prince Daeron, who has been a ward to Ormund since infancy.
While his cousins Alicent and Gwayne, paint a superficial picture of a pompous but scholarly and artistic aristocrat, two things about Ormund become very clear: the man has a massive ego, and he is batshit crazy. How the second part is revealed was a beautiful way of illustrating the relationship between Ormund and Daeron. There’s a whole story of abuse and trauma being told when Daeron reads Ormund and sees his violent tantrum about to explode upon learning that Aemond and Criston won’t be coming to back him up.
Alicent hoped she was sparing Daeron the life of dysfunction that ate away at her and the other kids when she sent him to ward at Oldtown. It’s Alicent, though. So, of course, she unwittingly allowed her last child to be raised by a megalomaniacal religious zealot who sees himself as naturally superior to the family of dragon-riders. A disturbing overtone of abuse (multiple kinds) to this relationship, yet it is surprisingly on brand for the other examples of Hightower parents/guardians we’ve seen. The first thing we see Daeron do in the episode is dutifully put Ormund’s robe on after he’s just dramatically stepped out of a bathtub. Poor boy.
Good Knight, Bad Knight
The Hand of the King’s army arrives at Harrenhal, but Criston and Gwayne are informed by Alys Rivers that Aemond is not there; she also updates them on King’s Landing. While Aemond could totally be hidden somewhere in that huge ass castle, I’m curious as to where Vhagar actually is.
Aemond has left Criston and Gwayne in a lurch, forcing them to rethink their next move. Gwayne thinks they should join forces with Ormund at Tumbleton, since neither army has much of a chance on their own. But Criston opts instead for suicidally dangerous guerrilla warfare against Team Black’s host of Rivermen and Northmen. He divulges a bit of his backstory, shedding a bit of light on why he’s so selfish and bitter (beyond the thing with Rhaenyra), but it doesn’t do much to humanize him. He criticizes the noble houses for treating war like a game, then announces his plan to lead his men into a fight they have no hope of winning for his own personal sense of honor.
Criston continues to be undefeated in his ability to anger and frustrate this viewer; most viewers, actually. Despite playing such a stoic and brooding jerk, I think Fabien Frankel sells the dimensions of Cole's character very well.
Wild Dragons
Lest we forget, the Targaryens are really screwed up people too.
Aegon and Larys reach what remains of Rook’s Rest, and of Aegon’s dragon, Sunfyre the Golden. The broken castle is occupied by camp of squatters, scavengers and random bandits. The head bandit puts the king to work on latrine duty with a stuttering guy called Tangletongue. That, combined with the loss of his dragon and the knowledge that he’s been declared dead thanks to Aemond and Rhaenyra, causes Aegon to lose his temper and nearly get himself killed. Which results in the even greater humiliation of being forced to kneel and kiss the bandit’s feet.
It’s hard not to feel bad for Aegon, even with his evil actions in the past, given the sheer level of pain and degradation he’s dealing with. Still, just about everything bad happening to him is his own fault.
Daemon at first appears to have a very successful trip in the Vale, getting a loan from Jeyne Arryn. Then Caraxes takes him on a detour and Daemon discovers Rhaena and Sheepstealer living in a cave. It’s a rare moment for him, fear and vulnerability in front of a loved one, especially one of his children. Daemon’s made to confront the child he neglected, and a sad consequence of his obsession with dragons being passed down to his kids. Rhaena felt a desperate need to prove herself a dragon-rider and be a truly valued member of her family, but that led her to Sheepstealer, the death of Jace, and her guilt-ridden decision to live in exile. Some people are likening her bond with Sheepstealer to a drug-addicted teen, but I think you could also read it as a girl falling into a relationship built on toxic codependence.
The Lord of Oldtown
The most surprising part was the end scene, in which Ormund elevates himself from random unstable high lord to a villain with a big vision.
His scenes are as unpredictable as his character. At times, he seems like a measured and reasonable pragmatist, like when he sides with the victims of an assault committed by one of his soldiers. He has his own man gelded and maimed to keep the peace in Tumbleton. Then we get to the end, and Ormund’s suddenly declaring Daeron the next king and compels him to murder the victim (Hugh Hammer’s brother-in-law) who defended himself against the soldier he punished as a rite of passage.
Earlier, Orwyle tells Rhaenyra that Otto Hightower sent his nephew letters over the years but got none back, and suggests that Ormund “ruled Oldtown as a kingdom unto itself.” This is easy to see in the way the guy carries himself. Like several of the prominent families in Westeros, the Hightowers have a long history and once ruled as kings of their own domain. Their seat of Oldtown is the center of both the realm’s main religion, the Faith of the Seven, and its only real school of learning, the Citadel where all the masters are educated.
All of this combined with Ormund’s hatred of the Targaryens and their dragons has compounded into his insanely ambitious plot to put a Hightower king on the Iron Throne by way of his surrogate son, Daeron, trying to mold the boy into his own likeness and turn him against his family.
In past reviews, I’ve been slightly annoyed with the way the greens are shown to be utterly unstable as a regime. Ormund going rogue like this is another example of that, but it at least feels more novel and intriguing than dour Alicent and Otto building sand castles in heavy rain at an iceberg’s pace for two seasons.
Blacks and Greens:
* While the terror and anxiety Daeron experiences around Ormund is quite clear, Hightower’s second in command, Jon Roxton (the guy with the bowl-cut), is a bit harder to read. He doesn’t even flinch when Ormund starts furiously screaming and hacking away at his table. He’s obviously as used to his lord’s mood swings as Daeron, but whether he tolerates it out of genuine loyalty, resolute duty or a strange mix of both is unclear.
* Hugh and Ulf are sent to keep watch over Tumbleton. Hugh is concerned for his wife, who relocated there. Rightly, considering what we see her go through.
* Ulf continues to be an artfully boorish nuisance. He comes to Rhaenyra with a bunch of favors he promised his tavern buddies. She gets pissed, cutting off his bar-hopping and basically declaring him a tool of the crown. He responds, in as deferential a tone as he can, by letting her know some people in King’s Landing are calling her “Queen of Bastards.” Wildly passive aggressive, but Rhaenyra is mostly just enraged that people are bad-mouthing her and orders the City Watch to put a stop to it, leading to a lot of brutalized peasants in the streets. Like Aegon, Rhaenyra’s queenly stance of diplomacy and peace lasts all of one episode before she turns on her own subjects.
* Corlys is leading the hunt for the rampaging pirates as a way to avoid Rhaenyra, but sends Alyn to court in his place. Alyn and Rhaenyra have a cute moment when he comes up with a solution to the Red Keep’s rat problem.
* Aegon crying over his fallen dragon was a remarkably sad scene. Tom Glynn-Carney does an excellent job of humanizing this pitiful scumbag.
* I had thought Daemon was the one most in sync with his dragon, but I was wrong. Like his rider, Caraxes sometimes just does whatever the hell he wants. Then again, he brought Daemon to Rhaena. Maybe the dragon knows what's best for him more than he does.
* Before this episode, I don't think there has been a single scene in which Daemon spoke to either of his daughters by Laena.
* As soon as Rhaena left and Daemon noticed that sheep herder, I knew that guy was dead meat.
* Helaena is pregnant. Uh-oh.
* I like that Tessarion clearly hates Ormund. The dragon can probably sense how Daeron feels toward him.
Quotes:
Alicent: “I bore Viserys three Targaryens. But with the last, my last… I wanted him to be a Hightower. In truth, I’m glad I waged that battle, seeing now what came of our other sons. Perhaps sending Daeron away was my truest act of motherhood. Though I do not know now what fate that choice has consigned him.”
Not a very good one.
Gwayne Hightower: “King’s Landing has fallen, Aegon is dead, our queens are both in chains, and here we are alone with a meager army and no dragon. We have the enemy just where we want them.”
Ser Criston Cole: “There is no home for one like me. Not while Rhaenyra sits the throne.”
Grandmaester Orwyle: “Your Grace sits the throne. Your people have welcomed you back as a liberator. Your dragons rule the skies. Are these not symbols of power enough?”
This makes Rhaenyra’s reaction to the graffiti even worse.
Jeyne Arryn: “Prince Daemon Targaryen, standing in my high hall, a beggar with a tin cup. I never thought I’d live to see such a sight.” Daemon: “A gift of gold would offer you the benefit of my speedy departure.”
Rhaena: “Let them grieve me and think me lost to sea. Unless you betray me.”
Daemon: “You ask me to deceive her. That is betrayal.”
Rhaena: “I have asked you nothing, father, in all my life. I ask this one thing of you now.”
Orwyle: “I suppose only that Lord Ormund ruled Oldtown as a kingdom unto itself.”
Aegon: “I’m the fucking king. If they knew I walked among them—”
Larys: “Even if you were to be believed, Rhaenyra sits the throne. And you have no dragon. She did us a favor by declaring you dead.”
Aegon: “I’m dead?”
Larys: “Anonymity is a boon for us. It will ensure that your eventual… resurrection… becomes the stuff of song and legend.”
Torrhen Manderly: “Ser Torrhen Manderly, my prince, the new Master of Coin. What little there is to be a master of.”
Daemon: “Well, I’ll wager you think you’re clever, don’t you, Manderly?”
Torrhen: “Well…”
Daemon: “You should know I’m the clever one around here.”
Said as his latest clever scheme lands very poorly.
Ormund Hightower: “The Targaryens are a savage race, poor in intellect, but rich in cunning. With dark spells, they created abominations to subdue what was rightly ours. We are the superior men. But against that… we could not stand.”
It was already exciting, but now it’s getting real interesting. Four out of five unfortunate sheep herders.
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