Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 8.
The latest installment of HBO’s House of the Dragon left even the most well-read of Westeros fans with their jaws on the floor, thanks to a shocking death and a surprise sting in the tale that marked a stark departure from the source material. But this is just the beginning of the show ratcheting up a gear, apparently, as episode director Geeta Patel is promising that episode 8 was only a prelude to the all the drama that’s about to unfurl.
Unpacking the game-changing events of the episode with Entertainment Weekly, following its airing this Sunday, Patel was asked if she saw this installment as the “calm before the storm.” The director agreed with the description, emphasizing that the whole point of this episode was to raise the stakes as high as they could go. The creative team was so adamant on ensuring this one was as dramatic as possible that there was a greater quality control on every aspect of production than usual. As Patel explained:
“It definitely felt like that was the story that we wanted to tell, and I think making it come to life was a team effort. [Series showrunners] Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] were very clear that they wanted the stakes to be very high as far as all these strings holding this realm together just barely. That takes every level of storytelling, in my mind, to create. So we were constantly having meetings and going through the scenes and triple checking — quadruple checking — every single scene to make sure that the strings were pulled as tight as they could, like they were at the breaking point. It took conversations with the actors, understanding that nothing could be black and white. Nothing. Everything had to be tentative, in a way.”
If you’re for some reason reading this and haven’t seen the episode yet, now is your last chance to remain unspoiled… All right, here goes. Episode eight ended on an explosive development as Paddy Considine’s King Viserys finally succumbed to his gross, degenerative illness, with his final words throwing a spanner in the works of the line of succession. Thanks to his invoking the “Prince That Was Promised” prophecy, a major twist from the books, his son Aegon is now set to be crowned king, thereby starting the fabled Dance of the Dragons, which is destined to bring down the Targaryen dynasty.
Witness the beginnings of the storm as House of the Dragon unfolds the final two episodes of its first season Sundays on HBO.