Is King Aegon dead or alive?

(Warning: Spoilers for episode 5 of House of the Dragon in advance.)

The situation in Westeros is getting out of control. The Greens and the Blacks have officially declared a Dragon War, for which no one is prepared – but that is not stopping anyone.

With the deaths of Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon, the Blacks have just lost two valuable assets and one of the only things standing in the way of open war. King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) isn’t quite dead from the encounter, but almost, and the Green Council is about to make a huge mistake out of desperation (and, let’s face it, sexism). Both sides lost more than they gained at Rook’s Rest, and the consequences will be worse than Aegon’s dragonfire burns.

War is a trap. No one knows this better than Alicent (Olivia Cooke), who spent her youth condemning herself to a life of dissatisfaction and frustration. She was queen for a time, but she hardly enjoyed it before her own sons and her Small Council usurped her power. All those who dislike allowing a queen to ascend to the Iron Throne are now waging war against the very person who once tried to do so. It’s no wonder she spends half of the episode’s council meeting with a loud ringing in her ears.

Aegon is in poor shape, and was secretly smuggled back to King’s Landing during the ill-advised Meleys Parade (more on that in a moment) so that the common folk wouldn’t see that Vhagar’s dragonfire had seared Aegon the Conqueror’s Valyrian steel armor in a bold symbolic detail that Tyrion Lannister would have relished.

Alicent correctly suspects that Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) has something to do with it, but Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) refuses to tell her the truth. He has found himself comically outmatched in the war between dragons, and insists that to show strength, the Greens should be led by a dragon rider—if not the king, then the king’s evil brother will do. He claims to have stopped Alicent from ruling over Ash, but she gets her punches in private, hissing, “Does your loyalty fade, or does it only bloom at night and flee like a moth before the sunrise?” Now that’s a nasty thing.

King’s Landing is in trouble due to the Corlys trade blockade, and Aemond’s first act as regent is to close the gates and lock all the starving people inside. The procession bearing the head of the “traitor dragon Meleys” does not go down as well as the Greens had hoped. The citizens call it “a black omen” and “an abomination.” It is a pivotal moment in the war: The Greens have effectively destroyed the idea that dragons are mythical, magical beasts that give the Targaryens their god-given right to rule. “It’s just meat,” Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) succinctly sums it up.

Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is in a similar predicament on Dragonstone as Alicent was in King’s Landing. The Black Council is no longer listening to her since Rhaenys, the only voice of reason, is no longer there. She’s stuck on Dragonstone because the Blacks can’t lose her in battle, she can’t get revenge on Cole because they don’t have the manpower, and she can’t ask Daemon (Matt Smith) for help because he’s not answering his DMs. It’s the perfect time for Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) to resurface and set some things in motion. She encourages Rhaenyra to outsource her influence and send Elinda Massey (Jordon Stevens), her lady-in-waiting, to King’s Landing on a secret mission whose boundaries remain far too easy to cross.

This episode is more for children. Baela (Bethany Antonia) is sent to Driftmark to ask the reluctant and now widowed Corlys (Steve Toussaint) to become Rhaenyra’s hand. During their conversation, she rejects Corlys’ offer to name her his heir (of course, since there are no boys left now) and proclaims that she would rather die in dragon fire like her grandmother and mother did. Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), who sent Rhaenyra to bring baby dragons to the Vale and protect them from further conflict, commiserates with the defiant Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) over her sense of powerlessness. Jacaerys (Harry Collett) goes on a secret errand to the twins and successfully negotiates a trade treaty to secure the Riverlands, giving the Freys Harrenhal if they choose Rhaenyra. While the adults are struggling, their offspring are doing hard work.

And what’s going on at Harrenhal, you ask? Daemon is still there, chopping wood and having sexy visions of his mother in the middle of dinner. He’s still trying to raise an army, but the jury’s out on whether it’s for Rhaenyra or him. He orders his new vassal Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) to terrorize the Riverlands, but that doesn’t result in legions of sworn swords loyal to the Blacks when the River Lords show up. personal In the middle of the night at Harrenhal to rebuke Daemon and declare, “We will not raise our banners for a tyrant.” All the fire and blood the Targaryens preach will not flow in the oldest and proudest houses of Westeros. Caraxes can sleep on.

Everyone is desperate, but by the end of the episode, it’s Rhaenyra and Jacaerys who find a solution. As they dig into the history of their house, Jacaerys mentions the old saying that anyone with Valyrian blood can ride a dragon, even the little bastards who can maybe trace their lineage back a few generations. They don’t have 23andMe, but they do have a huge room full of scrolls, which is just as well.

Is it a good idea to send more dragons into the air so they can fight each other and cover everything in fire? Not really! If you know anything about the Dance of Dragons, you know it won’t end well for the dragons and humans involved. “Was it worth the price?” the tragically prescient Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) asks Aemond as they look at the Iron Throne. How much more will these people be willing to pay?