House Of The Dragon: Rhaenyra Kills [Spoiler] As She Takes The Iron Throne — Read Recap

If you thought last week's "House of the Dragon" fatality was a doozy, make like Rhaena on a recalcitrant Sheepstealer and HOLD ON.

Rhaenyra and Daemon take King's Landing in Episode 2, and at first, everything goes according to the plan she and Alicent hatched last season. The dragons land, the Targaryens sweep into the castle like some Nelson cover band taking the stage, and minimal blood is spilled. You did it, queens! All hail the matriarchy!

But before I can print up some Lilith Faiir King's Landing Tour Stop t-shirts, things start to go pear-shaped, just moments after Rhaenyra enters the Throne Room. And before you know it, a character we haven't seen in quite some time makes a surprise appearance... and gets his head lobbed off soon after.

Read on for Episode 2's highlights.

Baela flies back to Dragonstone with Jace's corpse on her saddle. The news that #TeamBlack won the battle is zero comfort when Rhaenyra runs into her war room and sees her son, gray and lying on the ground. The queen can't seem to process that Jacaerys is very clearly not alive, asking him "What have you done?" like he's a stubborn puppy who's peed on the carpet.

Eventually, the truth of what's happened seeps in. Rhaenyra falls to her knees by Jace's side, sobbing, her hands in the air as though she doesn't know what to do with the grief that's suddenly filling her body. Her anger at his choice, and how it played out, manifests: She slaps him, hits him, lifts his torso off the ground and eventually grabs and holds him tight. Ser Laurent tries to pull her away, but she screams at him to leave her be. "How dare you set your hands on me? How DARE YOU?" she scream-cries. The knight (whom, you'll remember, sided with Jace and helped lock Rhaenyra in her room) offers his life in exchange for failing her. "What good would that do?" she asks, turning her rage to the nearby members of her small council. "EVERYONE HERE HAS BETRAYED YOUR QUEEN!" she yells — god, Emma D'Arcy is so good here — before she returns to Jace, hugging him close and crying so hard that it sounds like she's going to be sick.

News of Jace's death reaches Daemon where he and his men are celebrating in the field. Blondie tells the others he'll meet them in King's Landing, then Alys pulls him aside before he flies back to Dragonstone: She wants Rhaenyra to give her Harrenhal. Daemon scoffs that such a thing is unlikely, but he'll see what he can do. It's a mealymouthed answer, and the witch knows it. She warns him not to come back, yelling "remember what I told you!"

Daemon returns to Dragonstone to find Hugh and Ulf there; though their leaving their post without permission displeases him greatly, the interaction is quite funny. Upstairs, he runs into Mysaria, who taunts him that "I have the queen's trust, which you have yet to earn." He wonders what Mysaria is up to, but all she'll say (with disgust) is, "Not everything is about you, Daemon." Then they get word that Vhagar is leaving King's Landing and heading for the Riverlands, so Daemon moves on to the next item on his homecoming checklist: Finally go see wife who is nearly insensate with grief over the death of her second son in, like, months.

Rhaenyra is, indeed, in a very bad way when Daemon enters her chambers. She's in bed, lamenting that Jace died "so I may sit a throne of swords." Daemon sees he's got to pull out the big guns here, so he switches to High Valyrian as he tells her about his vision. Then he reminds her of what Viserys told her: If it were true, "then what would you do?" This gives her pause.

Next thing we know, she and Daemon are saddling up the beasts for a trip to King's Landing. Ulf and Hugh will ride as guards. All of her advisors think the trip is a bad idea, but Rhaenyra won't hear it. Just before they go, Mysaria hands Rhaenyra her crown. "I hope you will send for me," she says, adding: "Remember which one of us has been faithful." The SMIRK on Daemon's face as he passes Mysaria on the way out! When he teases his wife/niece about her newest advisor, Rhaenyra informs him, "I have no need of your approval."

Elsewhere, Corlys is missing after the Battle of the Gullet. Alyn, Addam, and Baela eventually find him. The old sailor is injured, but not badly enough that he can't finally do the right thing: He announces that he's ready to give the brothers his last name, which makes Addam and Alyn happy.

In other post-battle news: After inadvertently causing Very Bad Things to happen, Rhaena is back in The Vale, begging Jayne Arryn for help, because "I have done a terrible thing." Lady Arryn refuses the girl asylum, because Rhaenyra will be looking for her, and nobody wants to get in the way of that mess. So Rhaena plays her last, desperate card: "Do you want a dragon or not? ... You wanted protection. I offer it now." Jayne considers this for a moment. "The Vale is lost," she finally says. "I cannot stop a dragon from abiding where it pleases. I do not wish to see you again." (Unrelated side note: Lady Arryn's outfit SLAYS.)

On the road, Aegon and Larys' raven cart comes to an abrupt halt when Triarchy soldiers command it to halt. There's a scuffle, then pretty much everyone except the king and his companion are dead. In the glow of their newfound freedom, Aegon demands that they go to meet Ser Criston Cole at Rook's Rest. But Larys protests — that's a long, perilous way from where they are — and suggests they head to Duskendale instead.

Oh, and Tyland Lannister survived being tossed overboard by Lohar.

In King's Landing, Alicent is still running around like Tim Gunn, trying to take her plan with Rhaenyra and Make! It! Work! She tells the head of the Gold Cloaks that Helaena — who is the ranking royal still on property — intends to let the Black queen in when she arrives. "Some would call that reason," he says. "Some would," she replies coolly. "The question is: Would you?"

Word of her query makes its way to that little weasel Lord Jasper, who finds the queen dowager in her chambers and decides that today would be a good day to sexually assault her. He knows she's working in her own best interests, and he wants her to pay. He literally chases her around the room. Though she fights him as hard as she can, he eventually pins her hands behind her and pulls up her skirts, but he's stopped from doing anything more heinous when Grand Maester Orwell runs in with guards in tow. Jasper calls Alicent a traitor; thank goodness the maester sides with the green queen, and Jasper is hauled away. (Side note: It doesn't escape me that even though Alicent is literal royalty IN THE DAMN CASTLE SHE LIVES IN, her fate hinges on the decision of a man's word here. Sickening.)

Anywho! Time waits for no man, or queen, and #TeamBlack is on its way. So Alicent scoops up Helaena and gets her on board with the plan — the hope for a simpler life proves quite attractive to the young royal — and they inform the men patrolling the wall not to fire on any dragons that approach the city.

Meanwhile, Aemond rides Vhagar to Harrenhal, which crumbles even worse than normal under the beast's massive feet. The dragon burns everyone he sees, then Aemond climbs down, sword drawn. He enters the dining room the way Daemon did last season, expecting a battle but instead finding Ser Simon Strong and a few others calmly eating a meal. 

Aemond wants to fight Daemon, and upon learning that Daemon isn't there, he wants to fight, uh, someone? "Surely there is some other way you might find satisfaction, hm?" Ser Simon asks. The old man placidly explains that there's nothing to stop Aemond from doing whatever he wants, but he doesn't finish that thought, because Aemond stabs him in the stomach and then goes on to kill everyone in the room. 

Well, almost everyone. He turns to see Alys at the same moment he realizes someone got him in the back. He falls, bleeding heavily, and pleads with the witch to help him. She says and does nothing as he collapses, face down on the stone. Man, that was satisfying!

When Rhaenyra and Daemon arrive in King's Landing, all of the men guarding the entrance to the Red Keep lay down their arms. "Alicent did as she promised," Rhaeynra says, pleasantly surprised, but Daemon reminds her that the true test is inside. "Do not be afraid. We come to make things right," the queen says to the people warily watching her. A group of Kingsguard knights rush them when they enter the building, but Daemon dispatches them all. "Who else dares rise against us in our house?!" Daemon yells. Turns out, there are a few more who do, indeed, dare, but Daemon kills them as though he's swatting away flies. All of a sudden, we arrive at the Throne Room, and it's empty.

Daemon ushers her Rhaenyra, calling her "your grace," and they hold hands for a moment before she takes a deep breath and approaches the literal seat of all power. Instantly, a phalanx of Kingsguard knights gets between her and the throne. The knights laugh when Rhaenyra pulls her sword, which makes me hope she'll run it through all of them at once, like a big, stupid shish kebob. But she doesn't have to, because the Gold Cloaks swarm in behind them. Ser Luthor Largent calls out, saying he remembers that Daemon was one of them once, and therefore the King's Landing police force is backing #TeamBlack.

While all of this is going on, Helaena, Alicent, and little Jaehaera slink out of the castle in cloaks as they try to escape the city. I know the King's Landing Party City probably closed like the rest of them, but were there NO better costumes that could've hidden their royal faces a bit better?

After the Kingsguard are carted away, Rhaenyra knows she has to do one thing before she can sit the throne: "Bring Aegon The Usurper to me!" she commands. When that's not possible, for reasons you already know, there's another choice: Everyone is shocked when Otto Hightower, Alicent's father and former Hand of the King, is hauled up from the dungeons, where he's apparently been held since the last time we saw him.

Rhaenyra is mightily out of sorts at the sight of her father's counselor; Daemon, on the other hand, is doing all he can to refrain from clapping his hands with glee. "I assume everyone else is dead?" Otto says flatly. Ignoring him, Daemon whispers that Rhaenyra should kill Otto in Aegon's place. "They're watching," he adds, upping the pressure by noting the crowd that has gathered in the room. "If you wish to rule, show them you do not waiver."

The thing is? Rhaenyra is wavering HARD; Otto sees it, and he's over it. The old man takes one look at Rhaenyra's teary face and tells her to let Daemon kill him to "spare me at least from being hacked at." And though Rhaenyra's the one holding the sword, Otto's doing some knife-twisting of his own. "If your father could see what it's come to," he muses, "he never could've imagined it." Rhaenyra orders him to shut his bearded pie hole. Daemon draws closer and croons to her that "in this moment, you will become queen," though it looks like in this moment, Rhaenyra is about to become violently ill.

She circles behind Otto, and the crowd draws closer. Her first attempt to behead him doesn't work, and she ugly-cries, snot and everything, as she takes another whack. The second time does it. As Otto's head leaves his body, Daemon swiftly kills Lord Jasper, as well.

So there's a LOT of the red stuff on the ground as Rhaenyra moves toward the throne; she steps in the mess, leaving a literal trail of blood as she ascends the stairs. She pauses before she sits, touching the seat for a moment in a daze before she falls into the throne. Make no mistake: This is not a triumphant capture of power. Rhaenyra needs a boogie wipe, a saline IV, a week-long nap, and a hug.

From below, Daemon watches his wife/niece shrewdly. And just then, guards march Alicent and Helaena — who've been caught trying to escape — before the new queen. Alicent sees her father dead on the ground and her former best friend sitting tearful but resolute on the Iron Throne, then the episode cuts to black.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Were you surprised to see Otto after all this time? Hit the comments, and let us know!