House of the Dragon ep 5 review: Warning — Spoilers ahead. The fifth episode of the House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, premiered on Monday morning (IST) and featured its first series wedding ceremony. Now, weddings in Game of Thrones have had their share of drama and blood. Who can forget the gory Red Wedding? While the House of the Dragon’s first wedding episode wasn’t as dramatic as the ones seen in GoT, it did have a dash (or rather a pool) of blood.
The fifth episode began with fans introducing Prince Daemon’s (Matt Smith) wife, Lady Rhea Royce. As fierce as she’s shown, House of the Dragon doesn’t let you get too attached to her. Lasting just a few minutes of the episode, Rhea is seen riding into the wild on her horse only to meet her death at the hands of Daemon. Prince Targaryen obviously has bigger plans in his mind but it is not until later that the episode delves into it.
Meanwhile, as the fourth episode had already revealed, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) has no option but to wed Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate) — the son of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best). So, to propose the union, Rhaenyra and King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) head to Driftmark and meet the Velaryon. The King was evidently unwell, as though his days are numbered.
As the heads of House Targaryen and House Velaryon discuss the union — right from which house’s name will the children carry to how they will rule the throne — Rhaenyra and Laenor discuss their wedding arrangement.
They decide their wedding is merely to respect their fathers and fulfil their duties towards their houses but they don’t necessarily have to be romantic with each other. While we already know that Rhaenyra is attracted to the handsome Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), we soon learn that Laenor is attracted to men. The deal is sealed but Criston is not on board. He offers to sweep the heir to the Iron Throne away from the crown and its politics but Rhaenyra has her eyes on the throne and refuses to have him as anything but her secret affair.
Returning back to Dragonstone, Viserys orders to plan the wedding while Queen Alicent (Emily Carey) gets a sniff of Rhaenyra’s wild night with Criston. She summons him to her chambers and confronts him. Heartbroken about Rheanyra’s decision to wed, he decides to reveal her the big secret. Alicent, who had trusted Rhaenyra over her father Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), was heartbroken and as her sign of revolt, distances herself from the wedding preparations.
The day soon arrives when the various Houses come together to attend the announcement of Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding. Daemon also decides to attend the wedding festivities while Alicent participates in the ceremony wearing a green gown, a sign that she is representing the Hightower at the wedding. The wedding is officially announced and the betrothed couple come together and kick off the celebrations with a dance.
In the meantime, Laenor’s partner learns that Rhaenyra’s secret affair is none other than Criston. Hoping to use this against her in the future, he decides to warn Criston, informing him that he knows his and Rhaenyra’s little secret. However, Criston is not pleased. The wedding festivities soon turn tragic when Criston decides to pound Laenor’s partner down, leading to a gory murder in the middle of it all.
As the drama unfolded, Daemon appeared to have a spark going on with Laena Velaryon (Nova Foueillis-Mosé). It appeared as though he was trying to woo her. Not revealing spoilers from the book but Daemon and Laena are people to watch out for in the coming episodes.
Amid this chaos, Viserys is seen bleeding from his nose. The scene swiftly shifts to Rhaenyra and Laenor hurriedly getting married in the outfits they wore at the announcement ball. The episode comes to an end with Viserys falling to the ground. The King is dead? We’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out.
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Review of House of the Dragon ep 5:
House of the Dragon finally featured a wedding ceremony/celebrations and it kept a few wedding traditions of the Game of Thrones alive. The death in the first featured wedding instantly reminded us of the deaths at Daenerys’ wedding to Khal Drogo in the Game of Thrones’ first season. While there were multiple deaths in that, House of the Dragon refrained to one.
Though the gruesome scene, it seemed like House of the Dragon played it mellow, keeping the scene short. Personally, the scene felt rather too short, leaving very little to side with Criston. It deserved to simmer a little more before it ended.
The latest episode was similar to the second episode of House of the Dragon — with events merely unfolding one after the other and a momentary high moment towards the end of the episode. The linear storytelling is starting to become a little more evident with the fifth episode.
The first half of the episode also reminded us that House of the Dragon’s biggest highlight is the visuals. Cinematographer Fabien Wagner has made the fifth episode a visual treat as well, taking us through Driftmark, the calm seas, and revisiting a few chambers of the Viserys’ castle.
On the acting front, Paddy Considine and Matt Smith are undoubtedly the stars of the episode. Considine has managed to make viewers feel closely connected with Viserys. On the other hand, Smith is magic on screen. Be it the scenes in which his character cold-heartedly kills his wife or the scene in which Daemon effortlessly woos Laena, Smith is a natural on screen. Fabien Frankel as the noble knight on the crossroad of love and duty also stands out in his scenes. He also manages to steal the attention of Milly Alcock in their scenes together.
House of the Dragon episode 5 marks the mid-season mark for the first season of the show. While we’ve learned a lot about the Targaryen, the series is yet to give a high point. The new teaser is hinting at a lot more drama in store for fans, hopefully keeping the best for the second half of the season.
Catch new episodes of House of the Dragon with the rest of the world every Monday at 6:30 am IST, exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar in India.
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