The Kingdom celebrates the second naming day of the King’s son, Aegon, as the Royal Retinue sets out on a hunt with an auspicious quarry. Meanwhile, on the Stepstones Daemon and Lord Corlys continue to wage a losing war against the Crab Feeder.

At its best, Game of Thrones was equal parts bloody violence and political intrigue, and thus far House of the Dragon has not disappointed on either front. While Daemon and his allies wage bloody war against an enemy who literally feeds prisoners to crabs (hence his rather prosaic moniker), back in Kings Landing, the intrigue continues to swirl.

Several years have passed since the end of the last episode and Viserys’ bombshell announcement that he intended to take Alicent Hightower for his new wife. Those years have clearly not been idle, as the couple not only have a two year old son, Aegon, but Alicent is heavily pregnant again. Convention being what it is in this setting, this means that everyone – Rhaenyra herself included – expects the young princess to be supplanted by the new firstborn male heir – can’t have a woman on the Iron Throne after all.

What’s masterful about this is how well it plays out, keeping us guessing as to the true feelings of Viserys himself on the matter even as everyone else around him assumes that it’s a given. Rhaenyra has obviously fallen out with Alicent and barely speaks to her father. Her mood is not improved when she is approached for her hand in marriage by someone she clearly (and correctly) intuits has her father’s hand behind them.

The hunt itself might as well be a metaphor for the whole sorry state of affairs writ large, from the constant gossiping and assumption of the various subjects to the rather artificial nature of the actual ‘hunt’ itself, the ludicrous amount of alcohol Viserys chooses to drown his sorrows in and the various pleas from slightly saner voices that he stop indulging this celebration and pay attention to the very real issues happening in the Stepstones.

As to that, Daemon and his allies of convenience find themselves fighting a battle where all the firepower of their dragons cannot quite provide them with the victory they so desperately seek. Morale is low, and the Crab Feeder continues to cause catastrophic damage to both the resources and the psychology of his opponents A bold move or some assistance from the King are needed if this deadlock is to be broken in favour of Daemon’s forces, but which will it come down to in the end?

It’s almost literally an episode cut neatly in half between action and intrigue, and also not without some rather on the nose symbolism, but it’s cracking good fun, even as it continues to introduce an ever-lengthening parade of characters I’m somehow supposed to keep track of without giving many of them much time in which to make an impression. Hopefully that will get better as time goes on and we see more of them but for now, this is satisfying enough.

Verdict: Blood, guts and politics, all done with flair. 9/10

Greg D. Smith