‘Home of the Dragon’ director Geeta Vasant Patel breaks down Rhaenyra and Alicent’s pivotal assembly

After a number of episodes aside, Home of the Dragon‘s Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) lastly reunite onscreen in Season 2, episode 3. On condition that their relationship is on the coronary heart of the collection — and the civil battle that looms over Westeros — episode director Geeta Vasant Patel knew that this assembly needed to be unforgettable.

“We wanted it to feel monumental,” Patel instructed Mashable.

Attaining that monumental impact began with the sequence by which Rhaenyra sneaks into King’s Touchdown disguised as a septa and makes her method to the Grand Sept. Initially working three strains lengthy within the script and scheduled to be shot over three to 4 hours, Patel and showrunner Ryan Condal determined to increase upon it with a purpose to construct suspense.

“We got every angle to really give it the treatment of a thriller,” Patel stated of filming Rhaenyra and Alicent’s arrival within the sept, which ended up taking a complete day of taking pictures. “It’s almost like an Ocean‘s scene.”

Past thrillers, Patel additionally drew inspiration from a significant Recreation of Thrones second: Cersei Lannister’s Stroll of Disgrace from the Sept of Baelor to the Pink Preserve. “This was something similar in that you have someone looking at where they need to get and are holding their breath hoping they get there,” Patel defined. “So when she arrives in the Sept, we’re already charged.”

Patel described the precise dialog between Rhaenyra and Alicent as “a litmus test of what came before,” together with her, D’Arcy, and Cooke drawing on their prior work collectively in Season 1, episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” in preparation for the shoot. That episode brings us the closest we have ever been to Rhaenyra and Alicent reconciling, with Rhaenyra thanking Alicent for her loyalty to Viserys (Paddy Considine), and Alicent declaring that Rhaenyra will make “a fine queen.” Of their remaining scene collectively, Rhaenyra says she’ll return to King’s Touchdown on dragonback, hinting at a renewed bond between the 2.

“In [“The Lord of the Tides”], these two women made a promise to each other,” Patel stated. “But Rhaenyra also saw her father prove that he loved her, and that she was his heir.”

Nonetheless, Alicent betrayed that promise and newfound belief when she had Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) topped king, upending Rhaenyra’s notion of her relationship together with her father within the course of. After standing by her facet for therefore lengthy, did he really abandon her in his final breath?

That query hangs over Rhaenyra as she reunites with Alicent. “Even though it seems like Rhaenyra is coming to [King’s Landing] to stop the war, what she’s really coming for is to know if her father loved her, to look into Alicent’s eyes and ask, ‘did he really change his mind?'” Patel stated.

The dialog can be an opportunity for each Rhaenyra and Alicent to remind each other of the love you as soon as shared. “[The scene] is really all about the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent,” stated Patel. “It’s Rhaenyra saying, ‘you promised me you wouldn’t turn on me,’ and also Alicent wanting to tell her friend, ‘I didn’t mean to do all that. This isn’t my fault. I had every intention of making you queen.'”

Nonetheless, the character-driven drama of the scene results in a revelation which will have sizable repercussions for your complete realm. In her efforts to guarantee Rhaenyra that Viserys needed Aegon to succeed, Alicent tells Rhaenyra her late husband’s dying phrases. Rhaenyra instantly acknowledges that Alicent misinterpreted a reference to Aegon the Conqueror’s prophetic dream of the Tune of Ice and Fireplace. Now that Alicent has discovered of her grave error, how will she proceed?

“Alicent getting this new information is a very important moment that she will process in episodes to come,” Patel stated. “In the moment, she stands by her argument and holds fast to it. I think it’s quite human in that way. Sometimes, someone tells us we’re wrong, and in the moment, you think, ‘no I’m not.’ Then a day later, you realize, ‘I was wrong.’ This is one of those human moments where the writers did a really great job of allowing it to have this nuance that we all understand.”

As for Rhaenyra, the information that Alicent will not budge galvanizes her within the battle effort going ahead. “When Rhaenyra came [to King’s Landing], she wanted Alicent to make a deal with her. The problem is that she didn’t offer Alicent anything. There was no collaboration, nothing that they did to work together,” Patel stated. “So coming out of that scene, Rhaenyra is thinking, ‘I have no choice. I must go to war with you.'”

To cite Aegon II: “To war, then.”

New episodes of Home of the Dragon air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.