There wasn't a whole lot that I didn't like from this episode, apart from it not being a sufficient finale. I should have known by the amount of time we spent with Temu Kenneth Branagh Lannister mud wrestling in Essos that we weren't going to get a big explosive finale.
But leaving out the fact that this didn't feel like a season finale, I did like it.
I really got a kick out of Daemon coming to his senses thanks to a weirwood binge of the entire series of GOT. I did like his inspiring speech too.
Helaena was also an MVP this episode and I really hope they bring her to the forefront in season 3 now that Aegon has gone into hiding.
I also liked that Alyn was finally given something interesting to do in the scene where he lets Corlys have it.
Was it just me or did Ulf feel like a completely different character in this episode? It's like they flipped a switch and made him an arrogant d***.
As much as I love seeing Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke act with each other (because they both killed it last night), one does have to question why Alicent is even bothering sneaking off to Dragonstone when she could use those resources to escape King's Landing and maybe Westeros altogether with Helaena and her granddaughter. I get that she doesn't want any further bloodshed but at this point it's beyond inevitable.
Apart from the mystery of how Otto got locked up (a waste of an appearance for Rhys Ifans but good for him for collecting that paycheck), did I miss something or was it blatantly revealed that Gwayne knew that Cole was sleeping with Alicent? He's no idiot so I'm sure he had his suspicions but to blatantly threaten Cole like that in front of their men made it seem like there was some big offscreen reveal. As far as I can tell, the only people who definitely knew were Helaena who's kept it to herself anyway, the Grand Maester (since he gave Alicent the moon tea) and I assume Larys since he pretty much has dirt on everyone.
Overall I liked season two a lot and would consider it to be among the best shows of 2024 but there's a big difference between the first half of the season and the latter half where the pacing issues started. Had they gone all out and given us two more epic episodes then I might have put it up there with the first season.
Not going into book spoilers but there are two big events that happen at around this point in the story that would have made for an excellent episode 9 and 10 this season but for reasons, HBO was stingy with the budget even though this is a cash cow franchise.
Oh well, at least season 3 should be epic but it just sucks that we'll have to wait another two years or so. If it were only a year long wait (you know, like how shows USED to be) then it wouldn't sting as much.
