‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Episode 1 Review - Clouds of Revenge

I was filled with excitement when the familiar theme music started playing during the opening credits of the first episode of House of the Dragon. Some shows feel like reuniting with an old friend when you sit down to watch a new season, and House of the Dragon turned out to be one of those for me. However, I must admit that I couldn't remember many details from its previous season, which is a challenge I often face when a new season arrives after a long time. Interestingly, I've never encountered this issue with movies. I felt a bit lost during the first few minutes of the episode, struggling to recall the characters' names on the screen. It also took me a moment to realize that Rhaenyra's son had passed away when I saw her grieving initially. Maybe other viewers/reviewers would be in a better position than me before watching the first episode of the series.

The atmosphere is predictably solemn and tense as one side mourns while the other prepares for unpleasant surprises. Daemon contemplates revenge, thinking, "A Son for a Son." He not only talks about it but also takes action by hiring two men to kill Aemond. Ewan Mitchell, portraying the one-eyed prince, continues to send shivers down the audience's spine. His tough-looking face appears as though it's made of rocks, and his eye patch adds to his menacing demeanor. When he smiles, it's enough to make you want to find a place to hide. Aemond, like a White Walker, brings intense cold and darkness with him. Whenever he appears on the screen, the surroundings seem bleak, as if the air has turned to ice.

On the other end of the spectrum is Tom Glynn-Carney's Aegon the Magnanimous, who looks like a cartoon villain when he tells Tyland to give Jaehaerys a pony ride and elicits chuckles from us when he listens to his citizens during a courtroom scene. He promptly decides to return a sheep and offers compensation to the smiths. The friction between him and Otto Hightower generates amusement, though it looks as if it can also lead to a great conflict. "No need to be nervous," says Aegon proudly, and you believe in him. Here is a king who suggests he can return that sheep secretly because the man "came all this way." It's evident that Aegon doesn't like being treated as a puppet, and it would be interesting to see how he would handle Otto's control over him.

What's also apparent is that Aegon is not very bright. He takes a character's fear of rats too literally. Later, we hear about Maegor's tunnels, which is described as a "great big rat's nest." This is the tunnel those men hired by Daemon use to carry out their mission. What happens next, I cannot spoil. Episode 1 is fine and sets the table for future events. The war is coming all right, but will the journey be dull or dramatic?

Final Score- [7/10]