(Warning: Spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon.)

Westeros needs dragons. With Rhaenys and Meleys gone, there’s only one big dragon left in the skies with a rider, and the looming threat of Vhagar has brought the steadily amassing armies to a standstill.

The western forces of Houses Lannister and Lefford won’t march for the Greens unless they have a dragon above their heads. Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) is reluctant to march on Harrenhal because of the threat of Daemon (Matt Smith) and Caraxes. The Blacks can’t spare more than babies, since their riders also happen to be heirs and aren’t expendable. Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) must somehow find more dragonriders to claim the unridden beasts in their lairs on Dragonstone, but her plan doesn’t go the way she’d hoped.

Rhaenyra bustles into her Small Council meeting with the kind of enthusiasm you only see from college students who pulled an all-nighter in the library before an exam. She’s studied the family records, and determined that there is a distant Targaryen-Velaryon ancestor right under her roof.

Olivia Cooke and Fabien Frankel

Ser Steffon Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan), Lord Commander of Rhaenyra’s whitecloaks, is more than happy to take up the challenge of claiming one of the big guys napping under their feet, but Rhaenyra is honest with him: “To claim a dragon you must also be prepared........

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