Quarrel, death and funeral of the twins explained

Theo Whiteman

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers from Season 2, Episode 2 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”

The consequences of “Blood and Cheese” continue in “House of the Dragon”.

Episode 2 begins with heartbreak in King’s Landing, as King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) discovers the gruesome murder of his young son Jaehaerys. He blames Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) for failing to protect the prince – and as we saw at the end of the premiere, Criston was too busy sleeping with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) to guard the castle grounds. Everyone in King’s Landing gathers for a somber funeral procession to pay their final respects to Jaehaerys, whose head has been sewn back on for the occasion.

“I remember they said, ‘Do you want to see the doll?’ Oh my God, it was really beautifully made,” said Phia Saban, who plays Queen Helaena Targaryen, Diversity. “They wove gold thread in and you could see the head sewn back onto the body. It had all the flowers and everything.”

“It was an incredible prosthetic,” Cooke added. “It was really intense. Then you go a little bit deaf and we just sing in the back of the car between takes.”

Blood, Jaehaerys’ murderer, is arrested, and to deal with his accomplice Cheese, Aegon orders all the rat catchers in the city to be hanged. Criston replaces Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) as Aegon’s Hand. They begin to forge a war strategy, blaming Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) for the child murder.

In Dragonstone, the news surprises Rhaenyra, as she only wanted Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) dead for the death of her son Lucerys. She denies having anything to do with Jaehaerys’ death, but then realizes that her husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) must have given the order. The two have a heated argument and Daemon storms off on his dragon.

Once again, it’s time for revenge. Criston plans a twin swap, “Twins Come Alone” style, to kill Rhaenyra, using identical knights Arryk and Erryk Cargyll (Luke and Elliot Tittensor). Arryk pledged his services to Alicent’s Greens, while Erryk joined Rhaenyra’s Blacks. Arryk disguises himself as his brother and sneaks into Dragonstone to murder Rhaenyra without anyone knowing his true identity. Of course, everything goes wrong when he meets the only person who would recognize him: Erryk. The two brothers remain loyal to their queens and engage in a tearful battle to the death. It’s hard to say who has the upper hand in the sibling affair, but Erryk inflicts a fatal wound on his brother, then apologizes to Rhaenyra and commits suicide in grief over his actions.

With diversityShowrunner Ryan Condal talks about the funeral scene, the fight against Cargyll, some absent book characters and whether they will appear in the future.

Should I have been afraid that Jaehaerys’ head would fall off during the ride in the hearse? Because I was!

No, that wasn’t anything special that we were looking for. Just the danger of moving a body through a public square like that. It’s a very moving scene. Sara Hess brought that into the space by making a funeral procession a public show and having Jaehaerys’ body – and the fact that they cut off his head and then sewed it back on – paraded through the public square to belittle Rhaenyra and her claim and try to make a monster out of her. A great Otto Hightower plot that obviously does some good to win points for the Green side.

In Fire & Blood, there are several accounts of the fight between Cargyll and the death of the twins. How did you decide to stage this fight specifically for the show?

We obviously spent a lot of time discussing how that battle would play out. The way that different narrators portray this particular historical event in the book is very different, so we’re trying to find a story that feels true to the two characters. These are two guys who swore an oath and put their lives on the line to protect the royal family. And as Erryk says to Daemon in the first episode of the season, “We don’t know what to do with that oath, because we swore to protect the royal family, and now they’ve turned against each other, and what should we do?” It’s this tragic story of two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict, in some ways a great archetype that goes back to the American Civil War, westerns, Arthurian legends. To try and fulfill his oath, Arryk sails to Dragonstone to try to impersonate his brother and infiltrates the castle and gets very close to the queen, but luckily Erryk intervenes. We wanted this really emotional conflict between these two brothers who love each other deeply but become sworn enemies because of the political system they’ve bought into. The film was shot over several days, was beautifully choreographed and Luke and Elliott Tittensor pulled it off and were in every shot of that sequence. They learned the fight and pulled it off brilliantly.

Can you explain the difference between the violent fight between Daemon and Rhaenyra at the end of season one and this fight that causes him to leave?

I think the end of season one is a much more sudden and emotional outburst, whereas that great scene in episode 2 is a full-on exploration of the fundamental nature of their relationship. It’s the fact that throughout history and time, their relationship has been built on deceit and mistrust. That’s just the nature of Daemon. Rhaenyra desperately wants to have that intimate connection where she’s very close to him and can trust him. But then she keeps finding that he doesn’t open up enough or be accessible enough to trust. That’s something she really struggles with. It’s the same frustration Viserys has always had with Daemon, that you can only let him get close to you so far and then he disappoints people because of his impulsive decisions. The big questions that come out of that scene are: where is Daemon going? Where are his loyalties and what will become of this marriage? The rest of the season is very much a study of Daemon and Rhaenyra’s marriage.

Alicent and Viserys’ other son, Daeron, is mentioned for the first time in this episode. What decisions did you make regarding the casting of him and other key characters from Fire and Blood who haven’t appeared or been mentioned before, like Nettles?

Daeron hasn’t been cast yet. I’ve said he’s a character in the show, but at this point in the story he’s in Oldtown, where he was relegated as a young child. So we don’t have a character from that world yet to tell the story from, and there’s no dramatic reason to go there. That happened all the time in the Middle Ages, especially among the nobility. You’d take your youngest children and send them to other places to grow up away from court, learn things, and have their own place and standing in the world. We know he’s not a dragon rider yet, but he’s been born with a dragon. So he’ll factor into the narrative and play a role, just like in the book – we’re just not that far along in the narrative yet.

And nettles?

I’m not ready to comment on anything about this character that hasn’t been established in the series yet.

Will the season include the battles of Rook’s Rest and The Gullet?

Well, that remains to be seen. We’re not there yet. We’re following the narrative of the book. I think there will be big, exciting action sequences with dragons, fire and blood.