In 'House of the Dragon' Season 2, episode 5, there's one moment where Alicent (Olivia Cooke) knows what happened to her son.
Oh Alicent, with sons like these who needs Dragonstone-based enemies?
The fallout from the events of House of the Dragon Season 2, episode 4 make up the bulk of episode 5, following the near-fatal unsaddling of Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) by his brother Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) on dragonback.
Now we know Aegon isn't quite dead, just extremely injured, enough to require Aemond's instalment as prince regent. But did the prince mean to kill his own brother? What exactly happened at Rook's Rest is at the forefront of their mother Alicent's (Olivia Cooke) mind in episode 5, and there's one particular moment in episode 5, "Regent," where we know she knows.
During the brutal battle at Rook's Rest, Aegon and his dragon Sunfyre take on Rhaenys (Eve Best) riding Meleys, and the drunken king gets his ass served to him by the Queen Who Never Was. Aemond intercepts them on the colossal Vhagar. Problem is, when he gives Vhagar the order "dracarys" at the two fighting dragons, he does so knowing full well Aegon is also in the firing line.
While we can brush off Vhagar's chomping of Lucerys in the Season 1 finale as a rogue dragon act, this time it's Aemond's direct order.
When we see Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) staggering about at the end of the battle, once Aegon and Sunfyre have fallen, he searches for the king and finds Aemond with him, holding his sword aloft, possibly poised to end his brother. When Aemond hears Cole call out as if to stop him, he sheathes the blade, and picks up Aegon's Valyrian steel catspaw dagger — previously owned by King Viserys (Paddy Considine). Nothing is said, Cole looks devastated, and Aemond walks off.
At the start of episode 5, when Aegon's (still alive!) body is being semi-covertly brought through the streets of King's Landing, trailing after Meleys' unceremoniously severed head, Alicent and Aemond are watching from the Red Keep's walls. Alicent glances down trepidatiously at Aemond's belt, where Aegon's dagger sits prominently. Alicent knows this dagger well — it's the same one she came at Rhaenyra with in Season 1, episode 7, when she was gaslighting a continent about her heirs. It's also the same one Viserys had treasured, inscribed with King Aegon I's "Song of Ice and Fire" prophecy that speaks of "The Prince That Was Promised".
Oh, Alicent knows what Aemond is capable of after Lucerys, and she's seen Aegon's blatant bullying of Aemond over the years. But would he actually fell his own brother, her son? Nothing is said between them, but Aemond hasn't exactly made his yearning for the Iron Throne a secret. Later standing over Aegon's bed as he's being treated, Aemond knowingly declares to a nearby Alicent, "Someone will have to rule in his stead."
Later, Alicent tries to get the truth of Aemond's part out of Cole, previously her lover, and he lies to her face. Then, at the small council, Alicent is publicly betrayed by Cole, who supports Aemond's claim to prince regent while Aegon lies incapacitated. It seems Cole saw the opportunity for jumping ship as soon as he realised he'd failed to protect the king.
Between her constant undermining of the small council, this realisation of her son's true nature, and the truth bombs dropped by Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) in episode 3 during their stealth meeting, Alicent must by now know she should hotfoot it out of there and join the Dragonstone crew.
Nothing gets past Heleana (Phia Saban), who also realises what hand her brother had in her brother-husband's plight straight away. At the end of the episode, Aemond is standing unsubtly in front of the Iron Throne late at night, admiring its many swords, when the queen appears behind him.
"Was it worth the price?" Heleana asks her brother. Oh, she knows too.
However, Aemond's time as prince regent might not be as secure as he thought it was. In the last few moments of the episode, we hear Aegon's rasping voice say the word "mummy" as Alicent is leaving his room, though she doesn't hear it. If Aegon can talk, there's one other, particularly treasonous word he'll want to report to the small council, the one Aemond ordered toward him before he plunged to the forest below: "Dracarys."
New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
