‘House of the Dragon’: Targaryens Are on the Brink of War as [SPOILER] Sits on the Iron Throne

SPOILER alert: Do not read if you haven’t watched Episode 9 of “House of the Dragon,” titled “The Green Council.”

King Viserys is dead, long live King Aegon!

Season 1 of “House of the Dragon” barrels toward an explosive finale next Sunday, as the battle lines are further drawn between the greens and the blacks. The penultimate episode didn’t feature Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) or her side of the impending civil war, instead focusing on how Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and her supporters usurped the Iron Throne and ushered in the new, somewhat reluctant, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney).

The episode begins with word quickly spreading within the Red Keep of King Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) death overnight. As we saw at the end of the previous episode, Alicent conveniently misinterprets Viserys’ final words about Aegon the Conqueror to be about her son Aegon and how he should be king instead of Rhaenyra. She relays this well-timed piece of news to Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), whose master plan is finally coming together. He calls the royal council together and it turns out some of them had already been making an action plan for Aegon’s ascension.

Things get tense at the late-night council meeting, where some of the Viserys loyalists, like Harrold Westerling (Graham McTavish) and Lyman Beesbury (Bill Patterson), are outraged at the reversal of Viserys’ succession plan. In response, Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) smashes Lyman’s head to the table, killing him instantly. It’s another shocking death after Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) murdered Vaemond Velaryon (Wil Johnson) last episode, and further proof that heads will roll and no one is safe in Westeros.

Secrets leak quickly in the Red Keep, so Otto and the greens round up all the servants and keep them in the dungeon — and Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) looks all too happy to be watching over the prisoners. They also lock Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) in her room so she can’t send word to Rhaenyra in Dragonstone. Alicent asks Otto if he plans to kill Rhaenyra, her former childhood best friend, to protect their hold on the Iron Throne, and she’s not too thrilled by his answer. Later, Otto brings in some lords and ladies of Westeros houses and commands them to bend the knee to King Aegon. Most do, but those who don’t get sent away to the dungeon or hung outside the Red Keep as a warning to those who oppose the greens.

Meanwhile, with all this talk about the king, nobody has been able to find Aegon and tell him the good news, so Alicent and Otto send out two different teams to find him. Alicent dispatches Criston and one-eyed Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), and Otto sends twin knights Arryk and Erryk Cargyll (Luke and Elliott Tittensor). Criston and Aemond check out one of Aegon’s favorite brothels and stumble upon an illicit, underground child-fighting ring, but they don’t find the young king. Aemond also not-so-subtly hints to Criston that he wouldn’t mind sitting on the Iron Throne if they don’t find his older brother.

Back in the Red Keep, Larys offers to be a double agent for Otto — giving shades of Littlefinger for this slimeball master of whispers. Alicent confronts Rhaenys and asks for her support in Aegon’s usurping of the Iron Throne, offering her the island of Driftmark in return. Rhaenys scoffs at the queen, asking why she’s bowing to the men in her life instead of sitting on the throne herself.

Otto ends up getting a tip about Aegon’s whereabouts from Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), Daemon’s former mistress who has been assembling her own network of “little birds.” She tells him where Aegon is, but, in return, Otto must shut down the child-fighting ring and owe her a favor. The Cargylls find Aegon, who’s hiding from his responsibility, and they have a sword fight against Criston and Aemond. The Targaryen boys get into their own fight, and Aegon tells Aemond that they could sail away and leave King’s Landing behind. Criston wins the fight, returns Aegon and everyone prepares for his royal coronation.

In one of the creepiest scenes of the show so far, Larys has a late-night meeting with Alicent and reveals that her maid Talia (Alexis Raben) is a spy for Mysaria. To pay for Larys’ information, Alicent, visibly uncomfortable, shows him her bare feet, and he masturbates while she looks away. Just like he did against Harwin and Lyonel Strong, Larys orchestrates another arson to kill Talia. At the same time, Rhaenys is freed and sneaks onto the streets of King’s Landing.

On the way to his coronation, Aegon rides in a carriage with Alicent but laments how Viserys never wanted him to rule. The whole city, including a disguised Rhaenys, crowds in to watch the ceremony, where Otto officially proclaims Aegon as king. As he’s crowned, Aemond watches jealously, Otto looks on proudly and Aegon briefly looks happy as he raises his sword Blackfyre. But, the coronation goes off the rails when a dragon crashes the ceremony, flattening dozens of citizens underneath its feet. It’s revealed to be Rhaenys, who snuck away to her dragon Meraxes. As the chaos unfolds, she walks the dragon over to the royal family, but instead of incinerating them in a blaze of fire, the dragon roars in their faces and Rhaenys flies away.

In next week’s finale, we’re sure to see how Rhaenyra, Daemon and their allies respond to this royal betrayal, as the Dance of Dragons finally kicks off.