‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 director on why the finale had no battle: ‘Challenge that expectation’
The Targaryens are landing their dragons.
“House of the Dragon” Season 2 ended on Sunday night (on HBO Max) with a low-key finale that didn’t include a big battle or dramatic death but did snare nearly 9 million viewers.
Geeta Vasant Patel, who directed the Season 2 finale, told The Post that because she’s a fan, “I know that in the [‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Game of Thrones’] universe, a season finale is the go-to. You have a bunch of dragons fighting in the sky. And, I love it.”
Regarding why that didn’t happen in the Season 2 finale, she said, “But, I support [showrunner] Ryan Condal’s great vision in this episode to challenge that expectation with really strong dramatic storytelling, the nuts and bolts of dramaturgy … So I felt excited, and I definitely felt the challenge. Hopefully, it left you feeling something powerful.”
The “Game of Thrones” spinoff show will end with Season 4, it was announced on Monday.
The story is set around 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones,” and follows Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), who was supposed to be the Queen of Westeros, but her brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) usurped her. Now, the two sides are at war.
After Aegon got injured midseason, his fierce brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), has ruled in his place. During the Season 2 finale, Aemond and his sister, Helaena (Phia Saban), had a tense conversation on a balcony when he tried to push her to fight for him. Helaena, who has prophetic dreams and visions, refused to fight, and told him where he will die.
Patel called Aemond and Helaena’s relationship “special.”
“Helaena is the only person that can really get to Aemond’s heart. He cares about her in a way that breaks through his armor. And he doesn’t have that with anyone else … when [his mother] Alicent interacts with Aemond, he puts his armor on in defense. But Helaena is the only person that can keep him as Aemond, and can see him as the child he is.”
Patel added that when the two siblings were on the balcony, “That was the undertone — she could say what she wanted and he wouldn’t throw her over the balcony.”
The other big moment was Rhaenyra and her old friend-turned-enemy Alicent (Olivia Cooke) have a secret meeting as Alicent tries to tell Rhaenyra how she can take the Iron Throne without spilling blood.
Patel said that Condal and writer/producer Sara Hess “had conceived that scene as these two friends who love each other and can’t stay away from each other because they’re connected at birth. That’s how they feel.”
Patel added, “For me, I worked in war zones for a while. My background is in human rights and conflict. So I’ve seen people go through this idea of, ‘An eye for an eye.’ Somebody’s son or daughter is killed by the other side, and you decide ‘that side is inhuman because of what they did to me,’ so you go kill them, and now you’ve got a problem.”
Condal and author George R.R. Martin “have created this incredible moment in storytelling where you have these two people that have this undying love for each other that they don’t know what to do with,” Patel added about Rhaenyra and Alicent.
Patel explained, “There is a childish juvenile level to us that comes to life in those moments. You saw Olivia [Cooke] bite her nails and become childlike as Alicent, you saw Rhaenyra become this brat at times … those are choices the actors made.”
Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) also found a big dragon at the end of the hour after spending the show agonizing over her lack of a dragon. Book fans may think this means she’s getting the Nettles plot line, but Patel played coy and said, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
