Time for some of the most fun you can have on this show without a big fight

Like all red-blooded Home Box Office viewers, nothing makes me walk like some goddamn dragons. Sure, I love unpacking all the political machinations, the careful explorations of patriarchal power and class consciousness in House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, but I also want to see how well all that goes with giant fire-breathing lizards. It's right there in the title: House of the Dragon. And in this penultimate episode, the dragons are here to play ball.

This is immediately apparent from the opening scene, a tense battle on a beach as Syrax and Seasmoke stare each other down while Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) confronts a newly minted dragon rider: Addam Hull (Clinton Liberty). What could be a very violent showdown quickly works in Rhaenyra's favor, as Addam has no interest in using her newfound power for her own purposes. Instead, he is happy to have found a purpose away from the sea and will join Rhaenyra if she will teach him to be a dragon rider.

So with a week left in its second season, House of the Dragon brings us its version of an episode about "putting together a team," and it's swinging. The revelation of Addams' ties to Seasmoke has Rhaenyra re-examining her noble family's long-standing divine claim to dragons, and with a little help from Mysaria, she begins to consider candidates that would not be found in long-forgotten records of descendants of diluted Targaryen blood. Bastards born from the kingdom's brothels and the nobility's disinterest in whatever happens once their time in the funhouse is over.