House of the Dragon's ninth episode, titled "The Green Council," draws a clear line in the sand. There's no going back now. War is coming. The Dance of the Dragons that viewers have been waiting for is finally here. Now all that is needed is for the other side, the Blacks, to find out what their enemies have done behind their backs. Thanks to Rhaenys Targaryen, they will do so on their own terms.
The episode starts with the aftermath of the King's death and the decision made by those closest to him -- Alicent and Otto, especially -- to ignore Rhaenyra's claim to the Iron Throne and crown Aegon II as the next King. For Alicent, this is a new choice, one borne of misunderstanding the late king's dying words. For Otto, this has been a long time coming. He's been planning and plotting for a while, and not only does he have a lot of people on his side, he's willing to kill anyone who isn't.
"The Green Council" ends where it was always going to end: with Aegon's coronation. Before that, the episode pits Otto against his daughter and then Alicent against Rhaenys. Alicent wins in her silent battle against her father to spare Rhaenyra and her family, even if her win might be considered a loss in the long run, but loses against a Rhaenys that could have ended the Dance of the Dragons before it even began with a simple "Dracarys." Compassion and overconfidence stop her, just as those things, and perhaps, some distant memory of fondness for Rhaenyra, stay Alicent's hand earlier in the hour.
Storytelling-wise, the decision to stay in King's Landing and with the greens for an entire hour is both perplexing and, perhaps, the right one for the show in general. The episode's pacing is tremendous, and the tension is very well achieved. There just isn't anyone for the audience to truly root for, even if there are plenty of characters fans will understand better after this hour. Rhaenys isn't Rhaneyra, but in the context of "The Green Council," she is the one that draws both the audience's eyes and interest. The greens might be able to make the episode work, but they never truly manage to win the audience's hearts.
Eve Best and Olivia Cooke, however, carry the episode in a way the many men around them have rarely been able to achieve. Without Paddy Considine's Viserys or Matt Smith's Daemon, viewers can only root for the women to own their own stories. Even on opposite sides of the upcoming war, it's clear they would all like the same thing. Whatever decisions must be made in the days to come, it would be great if they were Alicent's and Rhaenyra's decisions, not the decisions that the men around them want them to make.
The difference, of course, is that team green takes one entire episode to coalesce with a common goal that even they don't seem to fully believe in, while team black is already united behind Rhaenyra. Plus, they have more dragons -- not an inconsequential thing in a war that will be fought dragon against dragon.
Even the choice of colors, which follows the source material, is inspired. The greens of this episode might look, on the surface, like the kindest or even smartest option, but the house of the dragon has never been about that. Rhaenyra's black is more House Targaryen than the Hightowers can ever hope to achieve, and that is why it's easier for fans to align with them. Well, that and Rhaenyra and Daemon are just better characters than Alicent, Otto, and her kids. In fiction, fans rarely root for the good guys. Instead, viewers root for the characters that speak to them, whether they're doing horrible things or not.
"The Green Council" was the penultimate episode of this House of the Dragon season, the one Game of Thrones always reserved for its biggest battles and deaths. This time, it seems like audiences might have to wait for the finale for actual war and possible big deaths. House of the Dragon has already subverted expectations in other big ways -- one more is not so surprising.
To see the greens plot to take over the throne, new episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays at 9:00 ET on HBO, with new episodes available to stream immediately on HBO Max.