There is an old adage in high-end fantasy TV: put in a hard day’s work with a mid-season showstopper and you have to let the audience catch their breath. That is the aim of “Unbowed and Unbent,” which follows the carnage of Episode 4 by trying to return to the kind of political maneuvering and interpersonal sparring House of the Dragon is known for. The problem is the narrative applies the brakes a little too firmly, and for much of the hour it is treading water.
(Spoilers for the new episode of House of the Dragon)
The Case of Ser Criston Cole
If there is a flaw in the pacing, it is how much time is given to Fabien Frankel’s Cole. He is out in the Riverlands running some hard-nosed guerilla tactics in the dark, but for all that, he comes across as a man in a funk. Writer Phillipa Goslet and director Nina Lopez-Corrado seem to want us to see him as a kind of Westerosi Colonel Kurtz, lost in the futility of it all, but the material doesn’t quite support the brooding.
Frankel does what he can with it, but one has to wonder if this is still necessary. We have had enough of Cole’s off-screen comings and goings in House of the Dragon season three; his part in this feels like it is there to put in time before the campaign in the Riverlands gets under way.
Rhaenyra and the Red Keep
Over in the capital, the air in the Red Keep is getting thin. Emma D’Arcy is as good as ever at conveying a certain simmering weight, but Rhaenyra is in a hole of her own making. Her council may pay lip service to her rule, but she is more preoccupied with settling scores than with any long-term vision.
Then there is the matter of Daemon (Matt Smith). Their scenes are always worth watching, but they don’t offer much in the way of revelation. He is after the traitors in the City Watch; she wants him to put a stop to Aemond and Vhagar. It is a standoff that only underscores how tenuous her position is. She has the throne, but as she has trouble even with her son Joffrey, her hold on it seems to be slipping.
A Word for Larys and Aegon
You will find the best of the episode in the quieter moments. Matthew Needham is very effective as Larys Strong in a no-nonsense meeting with a ruffled Tom Glynn-Carney. Larys doesn’t have any patience for Aegon’s moods and puts it to him plainly: his own hand has been in the loss of the ground his people bled for. It is a scene that does some real work for Aegon’s character, turning him from a would-be brawler into a king who has to think about staying alive.
Elsewhere in the Realm
The rest of the hour is spent putting pieces in place for what is to come. Baela (Bethany Antonia) and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) are up in the sky over the Narrow Sea, looking for Vhagar. You can tell the events at the Gullet have not left Baela; there is a guilt there about Jacaerys that she is still carrying.
And at Harrenhal, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is in her element. When Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) comes to after his wounds, he is met with an unvarnished truth: with Vhagar not at his side, he is in a precarious spot.
In the End
It is not a bad episode, just a lull. By rehashing some of the same dynamics with the council and with Cole, it gives up some of the drive the story has been building. With Tumbleton in the offing, House of the Dragon will have to pick up the pace to close out the season properly.
