House of the Dragon recently released Episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” and it might just be their best one yet. It certainly feels like this is the calm before the storm because the final scene goes down between King Viserys and Alicent. As we know from Episode 9’s trailer, Viserys will die next week, meaning Rhaenyra should be named Queen. But if Alicent has any say in the matter, that might not happen.
And now for the discussion about Episode 8 … but first, we need to catch you up on everything that happened before. This week, there’s not a lot of violence (except for Daemon beheading Vaemond), so the dialogue and performances are what keep our attention. We also get to meet some new actors who play the grown-up version of our favorite characters—it can’t start soon enough!
Rhaenyra, Alicent, and Daemon’s children are all becoming responsible adults. With these newfound responsibilities come some new duties. For example, Aegon is married now, as are Helaena and Jaehaera. However, there seems to be a little confusion over the latter two marriages.
Aegon Targaryen’s wife in House of the Dragon
In the episode, after Alicent discovers Aegon has sexually assaulted Dyana, she mentions Aegon’s wife in her speech during a family dinner. Then, Helaena gives an awkward and hilarious speech about being married to her brother, which turns out to be confirmed when reading Fire & Blood. Helaena’s marriage was likely not uncommon for House Targaryen.
Aegon and Helaena have their children now, though we don’t see them in Episode 8. Their brother Aemond is not married, but I’m curious to know if he has plans for a love life. I find him fascinating!
House of the Dragon premieres new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max, with the season 1 finale coming out on October 23.
