S1·E5 — We Light the Way
The hour retold
A wedding hour, and everything about it is funereal. It opens with a murder disguised as an accident — Daemon calling on the wife he never wanted at Runestone, and Lady Rhea Royce dead in the dirt with the stone that finished her in her husband's hand — and it ends with a betrothal feast turned abattoir. In between, Viserys sails to Driftmark to mend the realm's two dragon houses, promising Rhaenyra to Laenor Velaryon and their someday-sons to the throne, and the two young people, each in love elsewhere, strike the only honest bargain in the room: a marriage of duty with the door left open.
The episode's title is the Hightower words, and the episode's last image explains them. Ser Criston Cole, refused as a paramour and unstrung by the vows he has already broken, beats Laenor's lover Ser Joffrey Lonmouth to death on the feast-hall floor while the court watches its future curdle. And Alicent arrives late, deliberately, in a gown of Hightower green — the color Oldtown's beacon burns when it calls its banners to war. She says nothing. She doesn't need to. The two women who were once each other's only friend are now the two poles of a realm, and the whole hall reads the dress correctly.
What happens
- Daemon calls on his wife at Runestone. Lady Rhea Royce falls from her horse; the stone that ends her is in her husband's hand.
- Viserys sails to Driftmark to mend the realm's two dragon houses: Rhaenyra will wed Laenor Velaryon, and their sons will sit the throne.
- Rhaenyra and Laenor strike a private bargain — a marriage of duty, with room for what each of them actually wants.
- At the betrothal feast Ser Criston, refused as a paramour and half mad with broken vows, beats Laenor's lover Ser Joffrey Lonmouth to death on the floor.
- Alicent arrives late — in Hightower green, the color of Oldtown's beacon when it calls its banners to war. Everyone understands.
The people of the episode
Daemon Targaryen — Widowed by his own hand, and refused a Velaryon bride for his trouble.
Rhaenyra Targaryen — Weds the realm's most eligible man on the realm's saddest wedding day.
Alicent Hightower — Stops being the king's wife and becomes her father's daughter — in green.
Laenor Velaryon — A dragonrider of the Stepstones, wed to a princess, in love with a knight.
Criston Cole — Confesses to the queen and finds a protector where he sought a headsman.
Viserys I Targaryen — Collapses at the feast; the ruling is done, the rotting is not.The fallen — spoilers
- Lady Rhea Royce — Daemon's 'bronze bitch' of Runestone — thrown from her horse, then finished. The Vale suspects; the Vale cannot prove.
- Ser Joffrey Lonmouth — The Knight of Kisses, Laenor's lover — beaten faceless by Ser Criston Cole at the betrothal feast.