The king is dead, long live the, um… Queen? King? Who knows? Take your pick! But choose carefully, because Lord Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) isn’t shaking hands (pun intended) with anyone not willing to swear fealty to his grandson, King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) in this week's episode of House of the Dragon. As a matter of fact, depending on how you wish to express your discontentment with the Hightower’s choice of a monarch, you might even end up hanging from one of the Red Keep’s many walls. It’s not that Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) condones her father’s actions, mind you, but she doesn’t have time to preserve the lives of every lord that might question her son’s rise to the Iron Throne, busy as she is trying to further her own power project. Meanwhile, at Dragonstone, a clueless and notably absent Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is probably putting her kids to sleep and anxiously waiting to return to King’s Landing to finally make up for lost time with her dear childhood friend. In "The Green Council," as in the Game of Thrones universe in general, information is key if you want to get the crown. And, right now, only one side of the Dance of the Dragons knows what’s what. It’s up to Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) to bring her former daughter-in-law up to speed.

The sad, solemn music and the dark, empty rooms of the Red Keep leave no doubt about what’s going on in the first few shots of “The Green Council”: King Viserys (Paddy Considine), the Peaceful, is dead. After decades (and eight hour-long episodes) of suffering, he has finally drawn his final breath, but not before passing on some pretty dubious info to his wife. The queen has taken her husband’s ramblings about King Aegon to heart. Believing him to be talking about their firstborn son, Alicent is intent on honoring Viserys’ last wishes and seeing their beloved (?) Prince Aegon to the Iron Throne. She calls a small council meeting to let them know that the king had changed his mind about his successor, ready to take on any kind of resistance from Rhaenyra supporters.

What Alicent didn't know was that the small council already had their own plans to make sure that Aegon will sit on that throne. The only person not on board is the Master of Coin, Lord Lyman Beesbury (Bill Paterson), whose concerns are quickly silenced by Ser Criston’s (Fabien Frankel) winning argument of smashing the other party’s head on the council’s table. Classy as always, Ser Criston.

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With Lord Lyman out of the picture, Lord Otto, Ser Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall, who also played Tyland’s twin, Jason, in Episode 3), and the other members of the council are free to speak their minds without fear of opposition. Word about the king’s death must not leave the castle, so it is imperative that all non-essential servants are locked up in the dungeons — a scene that is observed by Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), which is never a good sign. Time is also an important factor. They must act quickly to anoint Aegon and neutralize Rhaenyra. And in case you’re wondering what “neutralize” means in this context, it means killing her, her husband, and her children. This is where Alicent, who had been watching the whole debate in shock, comes out of her trance and draws the line. Viserys would never want his own daughter dead, not to mention his brother and his grandchildren. Still, she must agree that Rhaenyra will certainly challenge Aegon’s claim to the throne, so she must think of something to stop the princess.

But none of this matters if the alleged heir to the throne is nowhere to be found. When the council’s meeting comes to an end, Alicent and Otto go looking for the king-to-be to break the news of his father’s departure, but all things point to him being far and away from the Red Keep. And thus begins a dual search for the prince, helmed by two opposing, but allied parties, each looking to secretly control the realm on their own terms. On one side is Queen Alicent, who goes to her daughter/daughter-in-law to find out about Aegon’s whereabouts. “Where is Aegon?” she asks. "Not here," responds the absolute icon that is Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) with a shrug. The queen then tasks Ser Criston and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), with bringing the future king to her and her alone. Running against the queen in the Prince Aegon race is Lord Otto, who trusts that the prince’s sworn protector will know where to find him. Alas, his talk with Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor) only serves to bring to light the fact that Aegon threatens his guards to be left alone. Just like Alicent, Otto puts two of his best men on the job, and commands that Erryk and his twin brother Arryk (Luke Tittensor) bring the prince to him.

One thing is for certain: Aegon is somewhere enjoying the pleasures of King’s Landing. Aemond and Criston go looking for him in the town’s brothels, but come up short. Throughout their search, however, the second-born prince lets the Kingsguard in on a little secret, that he believes himself to be fitter to be king than his older brother. Meanwhile, the Cargylls’ investigation proves to be considerably more fruitful and reveals some interesting facts about Prince Aegon himself. Apparently, the future king enjoys spending his time watching death matches between enslaved children, a fact that we learn in a scene that is, at the same time, horrifying and reminiscent of Gravity Fallsfamous “Baby Fights”. To make it somehow even worse, the prince also leaves his own bastards to be trained in the ring. In face of such horrors, Arryk echoes Aemond's opinion that Aegon isn’t fit to be king.

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While in the junior fight club, the Cargylls are approached by a young woman working for the elusive White Worm, also known as Daemon’s (Matt Smith) former lover Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). With her little spiders spread all across town, she guides them straight to where the prince is. The problem is the prince didn’t want to be found. He tries to escape the Cargylls, and even promises Aemond that he will abdicate the throne and flee Westeros when his brother and Ser Criston take him away from his original captors. All of this is to no avail. Aegon is taken to queen and preparations to make him the next king are put into motion.

The White Worm sure seems to have a good hold on the royals of King’s Landing, perhaps just as good as Lord Varys (Conleth Hill). She even gets to bargain for the information she provides to the Lord Hand himself, stating that she will only reveal the prince’s whereabouts if the Crown puts an end to the child fights. Sadly, her reign might be nearing its end. Lord Larys is quick to inform Queen Alicent that there are spies among the castle’s servants and even quicker to burn down the dungeons where they were locked up just as he did with Harrenhal. But Lord Larys has a price. For the first time since his inaugural conversation with Alicent, we see what he truly has to gain from offering her his help. It turns out that it is not power that he covets — or not just power— but a bit of feet action. And what better feet to appease a lord’s fetish than the Queen’s?

Extortion and weird fetishes aside, things are going well for Alicent. She names Ser Criston the new commander of the City Watch and manages to convince Aegon to accept his fate by telling him about Viserys’ last words. She even advises him to be kind to Rhaenyra. Whether he will listen to her is a different matter entirely. The prince becomes king in a packed ceremony, forcefully attended by all the peasants of King’s Landing, who clap enthusiastically for their new male monarch. As for the nearby lords, they all swear fealty to King Aegon, Second of His Name.

Wait, all of them? Well…

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While Arryk, Erryk, Criston, and Aemond are looking for Aegon, Lord Otto is holding court for all the lords that happened to be around at the time of Viserys’ death. He tells them about the king’s sudden change of heart and asks them to pledge their banners to Aegon. Those that decline his request, however, aren’t met with an understanding look of defeat. Two of them are promptly arrested and one that was seemingly trying to escape the Red Keep to warn Rhaenyra is hanged in the castle’s courtyard. The only head of house who escapes Lord Otto’s small purge is Lady Rhaenys, who was locked in her room by Queen Alicent.

Alicent tries to reason with Rhaenys to make her drop her support for Rhaenyra. She argues that Daemon and Rhaenyra are responsible for Laenor (John Macmillan) and Laena’s (Nanna Blondell) death, and that none of Rhaenyra’s children are of Velaryon blood. Then, Alicent moves on to flattery, telling Rhaenys that she should’ve been queen instead of Viserys. Last, but not least, she promises Rhaenys and her granddaughters the Driftwood Throne. Still, the lady of Driftmark is not convinced, and thus the queen locks her up for a while longer so that she can do some thinking.

However, Rhaenys is not without allies in the Red Keep. Ser Arryk breaks her out of the castle and tries to get her out of town through Blackwater Bay. What he wasn’t counting on was the tsunami of peasants that filled the city’s streets on the way to Aegon’s coronation ceremony. Rhaenys is dragged along, disguised with a gray burlap cloak, but the fear in her eyes soon turns into joy when she realizes where the crowd is taking her. Once inside the castle, she makes her way to the dragon pit and rescues Meleys. She then proceeds to smash into the great hall on dragonback, breaking everything in the way and most likely killing some people in attendance. There’s panic among royals and peasants alike, and the now-King Aegon shivers in fear when Meleys stops right in front of him. Alicent runs to protect her son, but he was never in any real danger. At least, not immediately. Instead of Dracarys-ing the entire royal, Rhaenys simply has her dragon roar and then turns to leave — probably to warn Rhaenyra, as well as give the king and the queen mother something to be really afraid of.

House of the Dragon airs on Sundays on HBO. Episodes are also available to stream on HBO Max.