House of the Dragon episode 6 review: Time-jump recasting with mixed results

The creative process of looming over was a key decision House of the Dragon since the August premiere of the show: A 10-year time jump right in the middle of the show’s first season, one that would mark new actors assuming the lead roles of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower. With a few exceptions — like those who play the children of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), who are each portrayed by three sets of actors throughout the season — Rhaenyra and Alicent are the only two main cast members to swap performers after the time jump. This has made the mid-season decade leap forward feel unusually weighty — and for the most part, House of the DragonIt is not worth the effort.

It is consistent with the established customs. This is the epic sweep of House of the DragonThe show only subtlety indicated this. After on-screen text in the premiere denotes that the series’ events take place “172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen,” House of the DragonNever again give a straight answer to the timeline. Characters denote the passage of time and say how many years it’s been — often for the audience’s benefit — but like in Mad MenTime jumps on this show are common and not remarkable. Time between each episode is just how long it takes to get another exciting thing to happen. It could take four days, or four years.

So it’s a little underwhelming, if consistent, to see House of the DragonIntroduce the two new versions of Rhaenyra (now Alicent) in relatively ordinary circumstances. We meet Rhaenyra first (now played by Emma D’Arcy after Milly Alcock’s tenure as young Rhaenyra) in the midst of childbirth. The arrival of her son, Joffrey, is what “The Princess and the Queen” hangs its structure around, as Rhaenyra chooses to forgo resting to take her newborn son around the court.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

We learn from this the new status-quo. It’s surprisingly similar. Viserys (Paddy Considine), who survived the terrible collapse last week, still reigns as King. Alicent (Olivia Cooke replacing Emily Carey) is now settled in her position as Queen. The place is bustling with children, as Rhaenyra has two other sons beside Joffrey — none of whom, Alicent notes, look like her husband, Laenor Velaryon (now played by John Macmillan). Alicent’s son Aegon is now a punk-ass teen, and still the heart of Alicent’s long-simmering quiet conflict with Rhaenyra, who remains heir apparent instead of her son.

This is without any prior knowledge about the Targaryen past. House of the DragonDramatizations can feel repetitive. “The Princess and the Queen” comes across as a second pilot, one that sets up the real show. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just means the rest of the series now has to prove that these last five episodes were vital to what’s in store, putting what may be undue weight on things like this cast change.

Putting aside those extant concerns, “The Princess and the Queen” feels like a quiet stage play built to ratchet up tension. Conflicts that have their roots in previous episodes are starting to boil over: Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) is now Alicent’s loyal stooge, consumed by rage and jealousy after Rhaenyra both spurned him and had children with another Kingsguard knight, Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr). Those children have then been passed off as Rhaenyra’s legitimate sons with Laenor, a royal scandal festering right under everyone’s nose that goes public when Criston insults Harwin and the two come to blows.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

By the end of the episode, Alicent’s cold war turns hot. Speaking with the crafty and manipulative Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), Harwin’s brother and son of the current hand, Lord Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes), Alicent rages against Rhaenyra’s flouting of the decorum she has so strongly adhered to, seemingly without consequence. Larys takes this as indirect instruction to create some by offering to spare the lives of convicted criminals if they agree to lose their tongues and do his dirty work — which is setting his family home ablaze to kill his father and brother.

The new version House of the Dragon, palace intrigue is still paramount, but its ripples outside of King’s Landing might soon be hard to ignore. As its new leads, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke take over nigh-seamlessly from their predecessors — although Cooke’s resemblance to Emily Carey is so uncanny, recasting Alicent feels redundant. As an older Rhaenyra, Emma D’Arcy depicts a more resigned version of the crown princess, attempting to maintain a presence in the Small Council while also fulfilling — in her own, scandal-prone way — her duty to produce heirs. In this, Rhaenyra’s recasting feels justified, as the girl who came so close to the power she wanted at a shockingly young age is forced to wait and endure threats to that power well into her womanhood.

Players old and new are moved around to create a dynamic environment that’s both disorienting, but also animated. Pentos: Daemon (played now by Matt Smith) is still in exile after his wife Laena Velaryon (played now by Nanna Blundell) commits suicide via dragon fire following the death of her baby during childbirth. House of the Dragon doesn’t seem like it’s being subtle here: We are watching the versions of all these characters that will soon implode and reshape the map of Westeros for the next century.

“The Princess and the Queen” is the kind of TV episode that feels lesser as it’s being watched, but deepens with some distance. It’s an hour of TV that, more than most House of the Dragon Episodes thus far clearly trades Game of Thrones’ sprawl for a more focused study of entropy and the ways in which royal self-preservation is at odds with familial bonds. It explores these issues in an interesting way. The core conflicts of the book are the same but have become more complex over time. Eventually, everybody will find themselves in a conflict they don’t understand. Even the most straightforward of arguments have an edge to them when there are dragons there, lurking beneath everyone’s feet.