A tighter episode than last week’s, House of the Dragon both pushes the plot forward and continues to spin its wheels in place with some of its many plot points. It’s an experience that’s still entertaining and engaging for sure, but one that grows equally frustrating, especially when there’s only two episodes left now that episode six, titled Smallfolk, has wrapped up.

No surprise to anyone but Daemon continues to trip balls in Harrenhal. Sure, it did allow for the return of Paddy Constantine as Viserys, which is never a bad thing, but the amount of times we’ve seen Daemon having nightmares only to be woken up by Simon Strong is comical now at this point. The only really important thing to come out of this plot point this week was that Alys Rivers seemingly killed Lord Tully, which now sets up the new Lord Paramount of the Riverlands to come to Daemond’s aid, thus netting him the army he’s been waiting for this season. I know Matt Smith is the top-billed actor on House of the Dragon, but the show would strongly benefit from his absence for one episode, affording the other plot lines more screen time.

With less, or no Daemon this week, we could’ve actually seen Addam embarking on his first dragon ride, but instead, we learned that Seasmoke has a new rider secondhand instead via a messenger. Denying us the chance to see a non-noble ride a dragon for the first time is pretty unfortunate, as all the dragonriders on the show have grown up with their dragons over the years from the comfort of their castle. This guy has never seen a dragon up close and had to deduce that the dragon has chosen him as a rider in an instant. How did he fair while being on dragonback? We’ll never know. I think that would’ve been nice, especially after the conversation he had with Alyn about inheriting the Sea Snake’s title being a pipe dream (all while Alyn shaves down his white hair no less).

Meanwhile, back at Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and Mysaria plan to give the smallfolk of King’s Landing food via small sailboats in order to win the hearts of the starving people, who turn on Alicent and Helaena in an instant while they’re out for prayers. It’s a solid plan, as the war costs the smallfolk dearly thanks to a blockade and for the amount of meat needed to feed the dragons. They’re starving and fed up with this war and those who are waging it, and of course, the brunt of their hatred goes to those who are ruling them. Mysaria’s agent from last week helped spread dissent for the Greens, which resulted in open chatter in a tavern about how Aemond has regular feasts while the smallfolk starve. With food now on the shore, the scales have tipped in the favour of the blacks in the eyes of the smallfolk, who would likely welcome the Queen to the Iron Throne with thunderous applause. Overall, smart plan!

Aemond has proven himself to be quite the arrogant ruler, despite his strategies being sound, and is seemingly isolating himself already from the rest of his advisers. He not only completely ignores his mother’s advice, but removes her from the Small Council completely and summons Otto Hightower to act as his Hand, much to the chagrin of Larys Strong, who was coveting the position. Larys has a great scene with Aegon about how when the body is broken, the mind becomes the most important asset, as people will always doubt those with a physical disability. It may not be a speech on the same level as the ones given by Varys or Tyrion back in the day, but it’s probably the closest we’ve gotten to date in House of the Dragon. Which is something I’ve come to notice about the show, despite liking it, it does lack that elegance in the dialogue (and much-needed levity) that Game of Thrones did so well.

Some minor book comments, but with Addam now a dragonrider, the show has set the stage for the other Dragonseeds to take root. I’m guessing they’re going to fuse Rhaena with Nettles (absent from the show) from the book, allowing her to ride Sheepstealer instead of Morning. Which is fine, I think adding another new character would only serve to crowd an already crowded show even further, and they’ve already been setting up Rhaena as being without a dragon since the first season. Overall, the show has done a good job at setting up the new smallfolk characters, both in terms of their eventual fate as dragonriders, as well as how they represent the mood of either bastards or peasants in a time of luxury and war. It’s nice to have those perspectives and characters like Hugh and Addam never overstay their welcome, offering us just enough insight to understand and care about the plight of the smallfolk.

This week’s episode did offer a little bit of something; solid monologue, a bit of tension, higher stakes, and revelations. It also just feels bogged down by its own ambitions in a way; there’s war on the continent and armies are moving, as evidenced by the Lannister forces, but we have to contend with Daemon’s whole arc, which after five episodes, has long overstayed its welcome. With two episodes left and the Riverlands now in service of Daemon, I hope the ball will get rolling for what’s to come and not drag towards the finale.