TV Review: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON: Season 1, Episode 8: The Lord of the Tides [HBO]

House of the Dragon The Lord of the Tides Review

HBO‘s House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 8: The Lord of the Tides TV Show Review. The Lord of the Tides, like Driftmark, is illustrative of how the words and deeds of those that populate a royal court can be just as impressive and engaging as a well-choreographed action scene or a CGI-heavy battle sequence.

The Princess asks the King for Help

One of the purposes of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) visiting King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) in The Lord of the Tides is to show the viewer the king’s physical and mental deterioration. That deterioration is profound. Prince Daemon can barely look at him but it is the question that Princess Rhaenyra asks her father when alone with him that is the most important of the episode, though it seems innocuous at the time.

A child’s heart-felt plea can be powerful to a parent. Dana Brody showed that on Homeland when she telephoned Nicholas Brody when he was about to blow up himself and high-ranking government officials via suicide vest. Her belief in her father’s goodness and him not wanting to disappoint her stopped him.

King Viserys’ love for his daughter does something similar in The Lord of the Tides: 1.) it pushes him not to take milk of the poppy, for the benefit of a clear mind, and 2.) it propels him to take a throne room walk, A Walk to Remember as it were, making every step count, like Jamie Sullivan did in the aforementioned book. The walk in The Lord of the Tides is staged perfectly, its powerful, and is quite an impressive character moment for the king. It’s a never-ending show of will-power and love overriding pain and physical aliment.

Every step he takes, it is a silent declaration to Rhaenyra – this is for you, my daughter.

Daemon The Brother / The Protector

Prince Daemon Targaryen is the most capricious character on House of the Dragon – the viewer never knows how he will react or what he will do. When the King sent him notification that he would be sending him military assistance in Second of His Name, Daemon beat the messenger with his helmet. In The Lord of the Tides, the king falters on The Iron Throne steps and Daemon is there, out of everyone, to help him. It is a heart-warming moment and Daemon is the best person that could have been chosen by the scene’s writers to help the king. The King’s wife or a King’s Guard helping him would make the king look weak. But one brother giving another brother a hand, especially in front of an audience, that is something else. The important thing – it is no lose of face for the king regarding those in attendance.

Daemon placing the crown on the king’s head ended the walk and the ascent to the throne superbly. This is an example of a finesse of screenwriting and actualization that The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power completely lack.

After murdering his wife, this act of kindness on Daemon’s part makes him seem human, with recognizable emotions. As I mentioned previously, Daemon is capricious, but as it turns out, he is complex as well.

The Dinner

The dinner table is often used as a substitute for a battle field in dramas involving families, business men, gangsters, old friends, and foes. This is true in A Song of Ice and Fire, Dune, Game of Thrones, and The Sopranos. This is also true in The Lord of the Tides.

Unlike the after-mentioned references, the dinner table in The Lord of the Tides is also a seer’s pool through which Viserys glimpses a possible happy future for his family. The king’s actions in the throne room spurred reverence in some of those that saw his physical deterioration and his surmounting of it. When he spoke at the dinner table, those gathered heard that same determination, his acquired wisdom, and his wishes out of a place of humility, a deep part of himself longing for amity and love in his household.

Viserys sacrificed some of this remaining dignity (by showing how frail he’d become) to help his daughter in the throne room and more of it at the dinner table (by showing his disease-mutilated face) to bring his fractured family together (or at least begin the process of healing amongst them).

So many at that table are unaware of it, what it is that they are witnessing, except for Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).

Leadership.

Leadership by example, leadership by sacrifice.

Like happily surprised Frank Gallagher in Showtime’s Shameless when one of his estranged daughters calls him “Dad” out of the blue after he actually parents, Viserys is given a similar reward for his words and deeds at the dinner table in The Lord of the Tides when: 1.) Rhaenyra speaks positively about the Queen, 2.) the queen speaks positively about Rhaenyra, 3.) Jace and Princess Helaena dance, and 4.) genuine, happy banter slowly erupts around the dinner table.

Three other moments of note at the dinner table:

1. The look on Daemon’s face when Queen Ailcent began praying at the dinner table. He can’t believe the foolishness he is witnessing. The look on his face is amusing.
2. Prince Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) goading Prince Jacaerys “Jace” Velaryon (Harry Collett) about his presumed lack of sexual experience, Prince Jacaerys becoming incensed, standing up, Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) standing up, Jace lightly tapping Aegon II in the arm, then sitting down. It is an entertaining escalation and sequence of events.
3. The “Strong” moment when the past creeps in and the pleasant evening the dinner has become falls apart. It’s unfortunate but Aemond sees the past in the mirror every time his looks into it. Because of that, the past is not easy to let go. The moment ending with Daemon stepping in is precise and needs no words. Aemond is brash but is no fool.

The Assault, Tea, and Aegon

Numerous characters had character-moments up to this episode of House of the Dragon, some subtle, some big. Prince Aegon II Targaryen had a subtle one in The Lord of the Tides, subtle because he is not in the on-screen moment, but rather its aftermath.

The rape of handmaiden Dyana (Maddie Evans) and the Queen’s heart-felt then pragmatic response are a symptom and a result of where, how, and by whom Aegon was raised. It is Aegon II’s reaction to his mother’s fury and her words that are illuminating when it comes to Aegon’s character, personality, and morals.

With no consequences for his actions, Queen Alicent is creating a low-grade Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones. Someone who does what he wants, when he wants, knowing that he will suffer no real repercussions for his deeds.

Prince Aegon II’s personality is a collection of his vices and trying to live up to something, an ideal, his cares little-to-nothing about.

For all of her pluses as a wife, and as a leader, Queen Alicent lacks when it comes to right and wrong with her children and instilling in them a moral center.

The King gives the Prophesy to the Wrong Person

Delirious King Viserys I Targaryen’s bedroom moment at the conclusion of The Lord of the Tides with Queen Alicent Hightower is unfortunate. Queen Alicent has always wanted a peaceful resolution to the quandary of succession. With what he says to Alicent: broken, in pieces, and to the wrong person, that is no longer a possibility.

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