‘House of the Dragon’ director breaks down Rhaenyra and Alicent’s pivotal meeting

After a number of episodes aside, Home of the Dragon‘s Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) lastly reunite onscreen in Season 2, episode 3. Provided that their relationship is on the coronary heart of the sequence — and the civil warfare that looms over Westeros — episode director Geeta Vasant Patel knew that this assembly needed to be unforgettable.

“We needed it to really feel monumental,” Patel advised Mashable.

Reaching that monumental impact began with the sequence through which Rhaenyra sneaks into King’s Touchdown disguised as a septa and makes her method to the Grand Sept. Initially working three traces lengthy within the script and scheduled to be shot over three to 4 hours, Patel and showrunner Ryan Condal determined to broaden upon it as a way to construct suspense.

“We obtained each angle to actually give it the therapy of a thriller,” Patel stated of filming Rhaenyra and Alicent’s arrival within the sept, which ended up taking a complete day of taking pictures. “It is nearly like an Ocean‘s scene.”

Past thrillers, Patel additionally drew inspiration from a serious Recreation of Thrones second: Cersei Lannister’s Stroll of Disgrace from the Sept of Baelor to the Crimson Preserve. “This was one thing related in that you’ve somebody the place they should get and are holding their breath hoping they get there,” Patel defined. “So when she arrives within the Sept, we’re already charged.”

Patel described the precise dialog between Rhaenyra and Alicent as “a litmus check of what got here earlier than,” together with her, D’Arcy, and Cooke drawing on their prior work collectively in Season 1, episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” in preparation for the shoot. That episode brings us the closest we have ever been to Rhaenyra and Alicent reconciling, with Rhaenyra thanking Alicent for her loyalty to Viserys (Paddy Considine), and Alicent declaring that Rhaenyra will make “a positive queen.” Of their last scene collectively, Rhaenyra says she’ll return to King’s Touchdown on dragonback, hinting at a renewed bond between the 2.

“In [“The Lord of the Tides”], these two girls made a promise to one another,” Patel stated. “However Rhaenyra additionally noticed her father show that he cherished her, and that she was his inheritor.”

Nonetheless, Alicent betrayed that promise and newfound belief when she had Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) topped king, upending Rhaenyra’s notion of her relationship together with her father within the course of. After standing by her aspect for therefore lengthy, did he really abandon her in his final breath?

That query hangs over Rhaenyra as she reunites with Alicent. “Although it looks like Rhaenyra is coming to [King’s Landing] to cease the warfare, what she’s actually coming for is to know if her father cherished her, to look into Alicent’s eyes and ask, ‘did he actually change his thoughts?'” Patel stated.

The dialog can also be an opportunity for each Rhaenyra and Alicent to remind each other of the love you as soon as shared. “[The scene] is basically all in regards to the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent,” stated Patel. “It is Rhaenyra saying, ‘you promised me you would not activate me,’ and likewise Alicent wanting to inform her buddy, ‘I did not imply to do all that. This is not my fault. I had each intention of constructing you queen.'”

Nonetheless, the character-driven drama of the scene results in a revelation which will have sizable repercussions for your entire realm. In her efforts to guarantee Rhaenyra that Viserys needed Aegon to succeed, Alicent tells Rhaenyra her late husband’s dying phrases. Rhaenyra instantly acknowledges that Alicent misinterpreted a reference to Aegon the Conqueror’s prophetic dream of the Track of Ice and Hearth. Now that Alicent has discovered of her grave error, how will she proceed?

“Alicent getting this new data is an important second that she’s going to course of in episodes to return,” Patel stated. “Within the second, she stands by her argument and holds quick to it. I feel it is fairly human in that means. Typically, somebody tells us we’re incorrect, and within the second, you assume, ‘no I am not.’ Then a day later, you notice, ‘I used to be incorrect.’ That is a kind of human moments the place the writers did a extremely nice job of permitting it to have this nuance that all of us perceive.”

As for Rhaenyra, the information that Alicent will not budge galvanizes her within the warfare effort going ahead. “When Rhaenyra got here [to King’s Landing], she needed Alicent to make a take care of her. The issue is that she did not supply Alicent something. There was no collaboration, nothing that they did to work collectively,” Patel stated. “So popping out of that scene, Rhaenyra is pondering, ‘I’ve no alternative. I need to go to warfare with you.'”

To cite Aegon II: “To warfare, then.”

New episodes of Home of the Dragon air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.