‘the GREEN council’
Directed By: Clare Kilner / Written By: Sara Hess
Original Airdate: October 16, 2022
Runtime: 58 minutes
Queen Alicent Hightower informs her father, Ser Otto, of King Viserys Targaryen’s dying wish, which had been misinterpreted, was that their son Prince Aegon should succeed him rather than his daughter and chosen heir, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Though the lords and ladies of Westeros already swore obeisance to the princess, Ser Otto delays publicly announcing King Viserys’ death and convenes a Small Council meeting to discuss supplanting Aegon on the Iron Throne before Rhaenyra finds out, much to Alicent’s surprise. Meanwhile, the Kingsguard is sent out into the streets of the capital in order to find the missing Prince Aegon ahead of the coronation.
featuring
ELLIOTT TITTENSOR as ERRYK CARGYLL / LUKE TITTENSOR as ARRYK CARGYLL / KURT EGYIAWAN as GRAND MAESTER ORWYLE
PAUL KENNEDY as JASPER WYLDE / PAUL HICKEY as ALLUN CASWELL / ALEXIS RABEN as TALYA / NINA BARKER-FRANCIS as JAYNE
MICHELLE BONNARD as BROTHEL MADAM / OLIVER GRANGE as JON / MIRIAM LUCIA as LADY FELL
PAUL CLAYTON as LORD MERRYWEATHER and SIMON CHANDLER as SEPTON EUSTACE
king’s landing
In the dead of night, a servant boy discovers King Viserys Targaryen has died in his sleep and immediately informs Queen Alicent Hightower's lady in waiting, Talya, who wakes her mistress with the news. A tearful Alicent hastily dresses and heads to her father's chambers in the Tower of the Hand, informing Ser Otto of the king's death. Alicent then declares to her father of Viserys’ confession, which made it clear to her that the king’s choice on his deathbed was to rename his heir as his eldest son Aegon Targaryen. Otto’s initial skepticism fills the air with an uncomfortable silence before Alicent urges the revelation as truth. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Alicent, Talya lights a candelabra in the window of King Viserys' chamber as a signal to someone in King's Landing.
The Small Council then hastily convenes as Otto sombrely notes that they grieve for their fallen sovereign, dubbing the late king "Viserys the Peaceful," before noting that Viserys has given them a final gift in naming Aegon as his heir. Ser Tyland Lannister notes that they can now proceed with his blessing on their long laid plans, to which Otto agrees. An appalled Alicent demands to know why she was not informed that the council was plotting to install her son as heir without her knowledge, to which Lord Jasper Wylde replies they did not want to sully her with their schemes. Lord Lyman Beesbury is also appalled by this subterfuge, raging at the other council members for plotting to replace Viserys’ chosen heir, his eldest daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen. A furious Lyman snaps that he has known Viserys longer than any of the other incumbents, and refuses to believe Viserys, who was a tireless advocate of his daughter's right to throne would change his mind on his deathbed. Lyman refuses to be silenced, going so far as to insinuate regicide. Before he can say more, Ser Criston Cole furiously seizes Lyman and forces him back into his seat; unfortunately, the force of the slam against Lyman's frail head fatally cracks his skull on the table. A furious Harrold Westerling draws his sword and orders Cole to forfeit his white cloak. Before the two Kingsguard can come to blows, Alicent and Otto order them to stand down. Alicent then asks of Rhaenyra, as Ser Otto vaguely informs her of his intentions. Knowing Rhaenyra would ever swear obeisance, Alicent realizes that Otto and his fellow conspirators mean to kill Rhaenyra and her family. She furiously shouts that Viserys would never have condoned the murder of his beloved daughter, though Alicent cannot offer an alternative when Tyland asks for one. Otto then orders Harrold to take his knights to Dragonstone in order to assassinate Rhaenyra and her family. However, a disgusted Harrold resigns from the Kingsguard in protest.
COMING SOON
COMING SOON
“There is no power but what the people allow you to take. ”
“Our hearts were never one. I see that now. Rather, I have been a piece that you moved about the board... I wanted whatever you impressed upon me to want. And now the debt comes due. A debt you were happy enough to pay... Reluctance to murder is not a weakness! I have Aegon. We’ll proceed now as I see fit.”
“We grieve for Viserys the Peaceful. Our sovereign. Our friend... But he has left us a gift.”
“My father never wanted this. He had twenty years to name me heir and he never did. Steadfastly, he upheld Rhaenyra’s claim... He could have [changed his mind], but he never did. Because he didn’t like me.”
“I am Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. I recognize no authority but the King’s. And until there is one... I have no place here.”
“You are wiser than I believed you to be... And yet you toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne? ”
episode NINE music
INSIDE THE EPISODE
did you know?
The episode title refers to the fact that the small council (except Lyman Beesbury) has been manned entirely by the greens.
This is the first episode in which Daemon Targaryen and Rhaenyra Targaryen do not appear.
In contrast to the former episodes, this episode begins at the point the previous episode ended, without jumping years ahead.
This episode takes place entirely at King's Landing.
The episode follows the tradition of Game of Thrones to include a pivotal event (typically a battle) in the ninth episode of each season.
Lord Boremund Baratheon dies at some point between 116 and 132 AC, having been succeeded by his son Borros Baratheon as the Lord of Storm's End (acknowledged by Ser Tyland Lannister at the small council).
Aemond states that he is next in line after Aegon. Even if Aemond's older sister Helaena and Aegon's daughter Jaehaera are excluded from the line of succession, Aegon still has a son who would seemingly come before Aemond.
Lyman Beesbury states that he is 76 years old. In Fire & Blood, he is 80. 76 was the age of Bill Paterson, the actor who portrays him, at the time of filming.
The discussion at the council meeting about Rhaenyra is similar to the discussion of Robert Baratheon's small council whether to assassinate Daenerys Targaryen ("The Wolf and the Lion"; A Game of Thrones, Eddard VIII); similarly to Eddard Stark, Alicent objects to kill Rhaenyra, and Harrold Westerling disdainfully resigns from his office. In the book, Barristan Selmy was also against, but unlike Ser Harrold, he did not resign.
It is unknown what stopped Rhaenys from destroying the greens, thus preventing the subsequent war. Maybe she did not want to become a kinslayer by killing Viserys's offsprings; or, since Alicent had not harmed her though she could, Rhaenys chose to spare her life; or did not want to get herself involved in the conflict between the greens and the blacks; or thought her demonstration of power was enough to discourage the greens (as things turn to be, it was not). In the book, Rhaenys was not in King's Landing at that point, and no one interrupted Aegon's coronation.
The seedy place which Aemond and Ser Criston visit is known as "rat pit". Such places that can be found in the slum districts, like Flea Bottom, of major cities in Westeros. By contrast, in Slaver's Bay such establishments operate openly and officially (A Storm of Swords, Daenerys II).
As happened in former episodes ("The Princess and the Queen", "Driftmark"), Helaena keeps revealing her prophetic abilities: her words "there is a beast beneath the boards" foreshadow the final scene of this episode when Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys escape the capital by punching through the floor of the sept from below.
Aegon wears the black crown Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel wore, not the golden crown his father and great-grandfather wore; moreover, Aegon wields Blackfyre, which was also used by Aegon I and Maegor the Cruel. These may foreshadow that Aegon's reign will be plagued with battles, not peaceful as was during the reign periods of Jaehaerys and Viserys.
In "The Heirs of the Dragon", Viserys told Aemma about a dream he had: "Our son was born wearing Aegon's iron crown. And I heard the sound of thundering hooves, splintering shields, and ringing swords, and I placed our son upon the Iron Throne... as the bells of the Grand Sept tolled and all the dragons roared as one." The dream could be a foreshadowing of Aegon's coronation, though not all its details match the final scene (Aegon is not Aemma's son, there was only one dragon).
Rhaenys's act of killing civilians slightly resembles what Daenerys Targaryen will do many years later, though the latter was in much bigger scale; in both cases, there were no early warning signs that they were capable of committing such inhumane deeds (there were hints that Daenerys was gradually succumbing to the Targaryen madness, but their significance became clear only after the massacre she committed).
Alicent tells Rhaenys "I loved my husband, but I will speak the truth we both know. You should've been queen". Alicent must have missed the irony: she says Rhaenys was more competent to reign than Viserys, and at the same time requests Rhaenys to support her drunken, irresponsible, fool son Aegon's claim to the Iron Throne, instead of Rhaenyra who is clearly a better choice for a monarch.