Despite all of these auditory and visual trappings of great importance, however, “The Green Council” never comes anywhere close to as shocking or disrupting as any previous second-to-last Game of Thrones installments. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. If anything, House of the Dragon should receive some credit for not forcing it. The rhythms of the story, as laid out in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, clearly led the show to big surprises in episodes six through eight followed by some necessary narrative bookkeeping in episode nine.

Though nothing particularly surprising happens this week, it’s certainly not accurate to say that nothing big happens this week. The ascension of Aegon Targaryen, Second of His Name, to the Iron Throne is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. After several events that serve as symbolic beginnings for The Dance of the Dragons civil war, Aegon’s coronation is now the official, concrete starting point for the conflict. Rhaenyra Targaryen (who, like Daemon and the rest of her Dragonstone contingent sits this episode out) is supposed to be upon the Iron Throne. The fact that she is not is fundamentally a declaration of war, as Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and his legions of traitorous goons are well aware of. 

Otto receives his supervillain glow up in this hour in superb, satisfying fashion. For the first time in nine episodes, the casting of the hyper-talented Ifans as the hyper-conniving Oldtowner makes sense. 

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“(Viserys) has left us a gift,” Otto tells his Small Council, which will heretofore be known as The Green Council. “With his last breath, he impressed upon his queen his final wish. That his son Aegon shall succeed him as Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.”

“Then we may proceed now with the King’s blessing of our long-laid plans,” master of ships Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) reveals, living up to his House’s reputation for treachery. 

Tyland’s declaration that he, Otto, and other council members have been in a state of active treason for nearly a decade is perhaps the most shocking part of “The Green Council.” It certainly wouldn’t have been hard to guess that this was the case but to be this confident and open about it is truly wild. It also helps establish one of the hour’s major themes, which could best be described as “man, the fucking patriarchy is really at it again, isn’t it?”