S2·E4 — The Red Dragon and the Gold
The hour retold
The season's centerpiece, and the first time the Dance shows the realm what a dragon actually costs. Daemon rots in a ghost-ridden Harrenhal, dosed by Alys Rivers's draughts and dreaming his way through everyone he has broken, while Criston Cole marches a green host cross-country — taking Duskendale and beheading Lord Darklyn for keeping the oath he swore to Rhaenyra — and lays a trap at Rook's Rest baited specifically to draw down a dragon. It works better than anyone planned. Rhaenys answers on Meleys; Aegon, half-drunk and desperate to feel like a king, rides unannounced into his own battle on Sunfyre; and Aemond, waiting on Vhagar, burns king and enemy alike in a single pass.
The hour belongs to the Queen Who Never Was. With Sunfyre and Aegon falling broken into the wood and Vhagar's vast bulk between her and the sky, Rhaenys has a clear window to flee and turns Meleys back into the ancient dragon's teeth instead. She dies the death she chose over every softer ending on offer, and she does not die cheaply — Meleys wounds Sunfyre badly enough to eventually kill him and burns Aegon half to ruin, taking the greens' king out of the war's middle stretch. The best monarch the Dance never crowned falls at a small castle nobody remembers the name of, and the war's arithmetic changes in the smoke she leaves behind.
What happens
- Daemon holds a ghost-ridden Harrenhal, dosed by Alys Rivers's draughts, dreaming of everything he broke.
- Criston Cole takes Duskendale — Lord Darklyn keeps his loyalty and loses his head — then marches on Rook's Rest by night.
- Rhaenys and Meleys answer Rook's Rest; the trap closes: Aegon comes half-drunk on Sunfyre, and Aemond brings Vhagar for both dragons.
- Aemond's fire takes king and enemy alike — Sunfyre and Aegon fall broken into the wood.
- Rhaenys, clear of the fight, turns Meleys back into Vhagar's teeth rather than run. The Queen Who Never Was dies a queen's death.
The people of the episode
Rhaenys Targaryen — Flies to a small castle's defense and into the war's first dragon-fall.
Aegon II Targaryen — Rides to his own battle unannounced to feel like a king. Carried home in pieces.
Aemond Targaryen — Burns the enemy and the brother in one pass, and walks away regent in all but name.
Criston Cole — His trap works — at the cost of a king he'll now have to explain.
Daemon Targaryen — Fights the only enemy Caraxes can't burn: Harrenhal, and himself.
Corlys Velaryon — Waits at the heart of the blockade for a wife who doesn't come home.The fallen — spoilers
- Princess Rhaenys Targaryen — The Queen Who Never Was, with her Red Queen Meleys — turned back into a hopeless fight at Rook's Rest and died refusing to run from it.
- Lord Gunthor Darklyn — Master of Duskendale, beheaded by the Hand for keeping the oath he swore to Rhaenyra.