[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale, “The Queen Who Ever Was.”]
Director Geeta Vasant Patel made it so that each House of the Dragon character had their “David and Goliath” moment in the Season 2 finale, she tells TV Insider. For Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke), it was their final shots that closed out the season. For Daemon (Matt Smith), it was when he finally faced Rhaenyra at Harrenhal, his vulnerability is completely laid bare. Despite his former opinion of himself, it was in this moment that Daemon became a real “hero,” Patel says.
It took a whole season of haunting visions from Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) for Daemon to see that his conceited desire to be king mattered little in the grand scheme of things. He now understands what’s at stake in this war, and it’s the existential threat against not just the Targaryen line but life as they all know it. The vision showing Daenerys Targaryen, the White Walkers, the Three-Eyed Raven, and his own apparent drowning humbled Daemon.
When his queen and wife arrived to Harrenhal, he bent the knee and rallied the Riverlands army to her cause without hesitation. Kneeling before Rhaenyra was his “David and Goliath” moment in that it her arrival made him choose between himself and the fate of their lineage. Thankfully, and still somewhat surprisingly, he chose right.
“He is vulnerable in that moment, and he has been instilled with this knowledge that he can’t undo,” Patel explains of his decision. “He’s at the point of no return, and for the first time in his life, he realizes he’s part of something bigger than him —and he believes it. It’s like the guy who never meditated, who meditated for the first time and felt something that’s bigger than us. It’s a guy who found God, who never believed in God. It is this moment where he finally feels like he knows what to do and it runs against everything he stands for.”
Ollie Upton / HBO
Is Rhaenyra his God? “No, I don’t think so,” Patel says. “I think the truth is.” Daemon being awaked by the truth of their circumstances was the point of his Season 2 arc, the director explains, adding that showrunner Ryan Condal and writer/executive producer Sara Hess wanted Daemon to perform his first true act of heroism in the finale. The King Consort did think himself a hero before, but he had a twisted definition of heroism.
“When he gets to Harrenhal and all these crazy things start happening, he’s the first guy that’ll say, ‘This is weird. These are crazy.’ He’s that guy. He’s a realist. He’s a scientist. He doesn’t believe in all that stuff,” Patel shares. “In that moment where he’s with Rhaenyra, he is being chosen to be heroic. He’s always thought heroism is violence. I think in that moment, he needed to actually be heroic in a greater way. Ryan and Sara always wanted this to be a moment where he’s humbled by how small he is in the greater scheme of things, and he is called to action. That’s why he becomes a hero. That is the simple definition of a hero’s journey. It’s the first point.”
Patel perfectly encapsulates Daemon’s Season 2 plot with what she says next: “Action is such an interesting word because when we think of action, we think of boom, boom, violence. But call to action, in the spiritual sense, is call to do what your duty is and do the right thing, not the easy thing.”
Finally, Daemon has learned that lesson. It’s not one he’s soon to forget (hopefully).
House of the Dragon, Seasons 1 & 2 Available Now, Max