‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 9 Recap: The Queen Who Never Was

The king is dead. You already know that if you’ve seen the teaser for episode 9, titled The Green Council, which announced the monarch’s passing after last week’s show. Just before Viserys died, he managed to ensure the realm’s disruption when he accidentally gave Alicent the impression he wanted their son Aegon to be king.

A classic mix up! This wouldn’t have happened if the Targaryens didn’t insist of naming every second newborn Aegon. 

The Green Council is the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon’s first season. (The title is a reference to the Hightowers, whose house color is green.) It was one of the best, too. A few characters got to shine like never before, while others showed their true colors for the first time. Caution: House of the Dragon spoilers ahead. In addition, this recap references sexual coercion.

The king is dead

We begin this week with the end of King Viserys Targaryen. The old chap has seemingly been knocking on death’s door for years, even back in the day when Milly Alcock was playing Rhaenyra. Queen Alicent is notified of his passing in the opening moments of the episode, and quickly seeks the council of her father, Otto Hightower.

“I saw him last night, before he … he told me he wished for Aegon to be king,” Alicent tells him. “It is the truth, uttered with his own lips, his last words to me and I was the only one to hear it. And now he’s dead.”

The queen and the Hand call together a Small Council meeting, where Otto reveals King Viserys’ apparent last words. That’s a gift for them all, as it makes their succession plan easier: It turns out Hightower had been plotting with members of the Small Council to install Aegon as King after Viserys’ death all along. Viserys’ purported wish is just an extra weapon in their arsenal.

Among those not involved in the plan are Lord Beesbury, Master of Coin, and Queen Alicent herself.

“Am I to understand that members of the Small Council have been planning, secretly, to install my son without me?” Alicent asks with indignation.

Even more outraged is Lord Beesbury, who calls their plot theft, treason and seizure.

“I am six and 70 years old, I have known Viserys longer than any who sit at this table, and I will not believe that he said this on his deathbed alone with only the boy’s mother as a witness.”

Beesbury accuses the group of regicide, of being party to the king’s passing. Ser Criston Cole takes it upon himself to handle Beesbury in an orderly fashion: By smashing Beesbury’s face onto the table, killing him instantly.

Lord Commander Westerling orders Criston to lay down his sword, but Ser Criston refuses, until Queen Alicent orders him to. Otto Hightower says no one leaves the room until the business is sorted, and Alicent brings up Rhaenyra.

“The former heir cannot of course be allowed to remain free and draw support to her claim … she and her family will be given the opportunity to publicly declare obeisance to the new king.”

Alicent rightly points out that Rhaenyra and especially Daemon would never bend the knee, and realizes the true plan is to have Rhaenyra and Daemon killed. Hightower demands Lord Commander Westerling take his knights to Dragonstone and murder the rival Targaryens.

Westerling refuses. He says he takes orders from the king, but there is no king. He takes off his cape and leaves it on the Small Council table.

All that’s left to do is inform Aegon about his new duty. But there’s a problem: No one can find Aegon. Aegon isn’t in his chambers, and Ser Erryk, the Kingsguard knight sworn to protect him, doesn’t know where he is either. Otto Hightower orders Erryk to go into King’s Landing and find Aegon, and make sure the prince is brought to Hightower and Hightower alone. The queen, Hightower says, cannot know.

Chasing Aegon

The queen, for her part, puts Ser Criston on the case. “Aegon must be found, and he must be brought to me. The very fate of the Seven Kingdoms depends on it.”

Aemond, Aegon’s brother, says he wants to go with Ser Criston, that he knows Aegon better than anyone. Naturally, the first place Aemond thinks Aegon will be is a pleasure house. But Aegon isn’t there.

In the meantime, Otto Hightower has assembled King’s Landing’s lords and ladies in the Great Hall. It’s a shakedown: He’s forcing them to bend the knee to the new…