“House of the Dragon” Episode 4 review

Story posted September 22, 2022 in Arts & Entertainment by CheRanda Hammond.

“House of the Dragon” continues to stay on top when it comes to the best new shows on television.

The fourth episode, “King of the Narrow Sea,” gives fans the reunion of Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and her uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith). It continues showing Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) plotting to undermine Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne and King Viserys (Paddy Considine) saying enough.

The previous episode opened up the idea of marriage in the princess’s life as her father and his advisors insist she must marry someone sooner rather than later. The episode starts with Rhaenyra defying her fathers orders and cutting her tour short to find a suitor. It also shows the return of Prince Daemon with his new title: “King of the Narrow Sea.” Daemon earned the title after his victory over the Triarchy and is now welcomed by the king with open arms.

With Daemon and Rhaenyra reunited again, it would seem that there would be a lot to catch up on from their time apart for the past few years. Daemon takes Rhaenyra out for a night on the town, showing her what’s outside the walls of the keep and taking her to a brothel which would come to be an issue as Otto Hightower has spies all over the city.

Matt Smith and Milly Alcock have incredible on-screen chemistry as niece and uncle and possibly even lovers as this would go with the theme of the Targaryens having incest. The scene in the brothel is an intense scene. The extras and main characters have amazing chemistry.

Otto Hightower in the last episode wanted the king to name Aegon, his new son, the heir to the throne instead of Rhaenyra. Hightower continues to keep trying to get his way considering Aegon is his grandson and he has spies following Rhaenyra whenever she leaves and one of them follows her to the brothel with Daemon.

Hightower reports to the king what his spies told him but King Viserys denies the accusation as he says Daemon is Rhaenyra’s uncle. Viserys then confronts his brother Daemon to which his brother doesn’t deny the accusation like Rhaenyra did with Allicent (Emily Carey) who overheard her father and reports to Rhaenyra.

Daemon instead tells Viserys that he should give Rhaenyra to him as his wife (even though he already has one) since he has “defiled” his daughter, but Viserys refuses as he says daemon wants his throne not his daughter.

Viserys calls Rhaenyra into his chambers to remind her of her duty as his heir and tells her that she will marry Ser Laenor Velaryon (John MacMillan) the son of the Sea Snake. Rhaenyra agrees but only if her father gets rid of his hand Otto HighTower since she believes he has a conflict of interest wanting his grandson on the throne. Viserys agrees and Otto Hightower is let go.

Overall, this episode was very slow paced as opposed to the pretty action packed third episode but this episode continues keeping everything in line and preparing fans for the actors switch coming soon.

Hopefully the next episode will be more action packed and have more dragons. The character growth is extraordinary and this episode is definitely worth the watch and continues to show “House of the Dragon” is worth the watch whether you’re an original Game of Thrones fan or not.

Rating: 4/5

CheRanda Hammond is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email clh5932@psu.edu.