A 'wow' moment is also a weird narrative choice on 'House of the Dragon'

Oct. 17—[Contains spoilers for the "Game of Thrones" series up through season 1, episode 9 of HBO's "House of the Dragon.]

In the early trailers for "House of the Dragon," Ser Otto Hightower says to his daughter, "We play an ugly game."

That game kicked into high gear with this week's episode. "The Green Council" sees a lot of ugly business going down as Ser Otto and Team Green make their power move to install Aegon II on the Iron Throne before Rhaenyra even knows the king is dead.

The other part of Otto's quote to Alicent is, "You have the determination to win it." And it seemed true last week. Alicent has been all-in on stoking the discord between the Greens and Blacks. So it's hard to believe her shock that the rest of the Small Council has been plotting the actual logistics of this hostile takeover. A few episodes ago, she made it very clear to Aegon that if Rhaenyra became queen, his life would be in danger. So it's hard to believe that she didn't realize that, once this coup goes down, Team Black has got to go.

It kind of feels like a weak writing decision to gain Alicent a little sympathy. But honestly, I'm all out of sympathy for Team Green.

Criston Cole continues to be just the worst, accidentally murdering Lyman Beesbury for being the one Small Council member with the stones to call out the coup. He takes it a little too far, implying that maybe Alicent killed the king, but he probably doesn't deserve to get brained in the middle of a meeting.

Ser Otto makes his move to essentially seize the reins of power, sending for Aegon and demanding that the future king be brought straight to him — presumably so he can convince Aegon to order the death of everyone on Team Black. Meanwhile, Alicent dispatches Criston and Aemond to find Aegon and bring him straight to her.

We also meet the Cargyll twins, Erryk and Arryk — C'mon, man, really? Isn't it tough enough keeping names straight on this show? — who start out trying to find Aegon for Otto, but end up on opposite sides of the the coming war. Arryk is down with the coup, but Erryk's not having it.

The future king is also not having it. Aegon has been stashed for safekeeping by Daemon's old girlfriend, who's now a spymaster going by the moniker White Worm. She's got a network of spies in the Red Keep, and sells Aegon's location to Otto. But when Erryk and Arryk go to retrieve the kid, he doesn't want to go. He even tries to convince Aemond that they should just go get on a boat and disappear to Essos.

But it's too late for all that. Team Green needs to get this kid coronated and on the Iron Throne, pronto. They organize a hasty ceremony and hustle a few thousand civilians to witness the crowning. Meanwhile, Erryk takes the opportunity to send word of the coup to Team Black in the best way possible.

Rhaenys Targaryen continues to be the greatest character on this show, and once again shows why none of this mess would be happening if The Great Council had just made her queen instead of making Viserys king.

After spending most of the episode locked in her guest room, Rhaenys is spirited away by Erryk, only to get caught up in the crowd being ushered to the coronation — which is taking place directly above the Dragon Pit. I'm a little fuzzy on the geography here. I thought the Dragon Pit was its own gigantic building. And it doesn't make a ton of sense to have this coronation in the top level of the Dragon Pit.

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More 'House of the Dragon':

—Episode 8 review: The king gets confused as 'House of the Dragon' dances on the edge of war

—Episode 7 review: If looks could kill, they wouldn't need daggers on 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 6 review: Tough to find someone to root for on 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 5 review: The kettle boils over and all the tea gets spilled on 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 4 review: Targaryens gonna Targaryen on this week's 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 3 review: Everyone's on the hunt in this week's 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 2 review: A good man makes a real bad decision on 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 1 review: 'House of the Dragon' gets back to the backstabbing we loved in 'Thrones'

—TV Talk: HBO recaptures 'Game of Thrones' political dynamics in 'House of the Dragon'

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But let's not quibble. Let's instead marvel at Rhaenys busting through the floor atop her giant red dragon, Meleys, to give Aegon a coronation that no one will forget. Meleys roars his official disapproval and they head off to Dragonstone to tell Rhaenyra about this farce.

It's another interesting choice by the writers. I was expecting that once Aegon was crowned, we would hear a roar and see Rhaenys and Meleys doing a lap around the building. The crowd would think it was part of the celebration, but everyone on the dais would know exactly what was happening. That would have made a good, effective, dramatic moment to end the episode.

Instead, we have a dragon busting through the floor and — let's keep it real — murdering a bunch of civilians. Is it a "holy crap" moment? Sure. But it also doesn't make a ton of narrative sense.

As the episode is about to end, Rhaenys — who has clearly declared for Team Black and who has been held prisoner for two-thirds of this episode by Team Green — has all of her enemies helpless in front of her. She could just literally roast all of Team Green, fly off to get Rhaenyra and the whole show is over.

And why wouldn't she do that? She's been giving off boss energy all season long. She's the one who tried to warn everyone that the knives are coming out sooner than later. The writers put that character in a position to end the war before it begins... and instead she just scares the crap out of everyone and basically sneers, "I'm gonna telllll, I'm gonna tellllll!"

It's a weird narrative decision.

Some reviewers have characterized it as Rhaenys sending a message to Alicent — particularly after their conversation earlier in the episode — that the women in this world need to prevent this war from happening. But again, Rhaenys knows better than anyone that the men of Westeros are not about to let the moral high ground get in the way as they pursue power.

Nevertheless, the war is about to ramp up, on multiple fronts. Team Green and Team Black are going to be lining up supporters. There could be some Spy-vs.-Spy action as Larys Strong and the White Worm battle for control of the information leaking out the Red Keep. And of course, odds are good that we'll have at least two dragons dancing before the end of next week's season finale.

A few stray dragon eggs

—Ser Harrold Westerling quit like a boss. He's not having any of this foolishness, and he's definitely got enough respect to do it without getting murdered.

—Larys Clubfoot has a foot fetish. That's a little bit on-the-nose. (on-the-toes?)

—Mhysaria the White Worm is a social activist! I mean, I'll definitely agree with her that King's Landing would be better off without child slave fights. And it's a pretty strong flex to kidnap the future king and stash him in a church.

—Aegon II just wants to be loved. He knows that he's just a pawn in all of this. Even so, you could see some real joy in his face when the crowd began to applaud him. It almost makes you forget that he's a sex criminal who apparently spends a lot of time at the child slave fights.

—A lot of fans complained about people traveling long distances in short periods of time in the latter seasons of "Game of Thrones." And it sure seems like Otto gathered up those lords to swear fealty to Aegon II in a real hurry.

"House of the Dragon" airs Sunday nights on HBO Max.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .