Episode five of House of the Dragon continues to push things forward, but some pacing issues do present themselves, both for this episode and for the remainder of the story to come.

One thing I noticed by the end of this week’s episode is just how little actually happened this week and how much of this story remains to be told. We know there’s three episodes left this season, plus one more season of presumably eight episodes left to complete this story. That’s not a lot of screen time left for what is, admittedly, an absurd amount of big moments left to come.

Not that this week was inherently bad. It wasn’t-it was quite good, in fact. A highlight being Ser Criston Cole marching towards his doom, carrying the guilt and shame of everything he’s done to date. He starts the episode off on something of a high note, ambushing the Tully/Stark host, but they quickly escape into the night and lay traps for the Hightower host, including little spikes to injure their horses. Marching on foot, their numbers slowly dwindle due to desertion as hope drains. But Cole is determined to go out swinging in the name of Queen Alicent, and in his glorious sacrifice, they’ll write songs about him. Oh, sweet summer child.

The other big thread this week was the emergence of a killer(s) who are targeting the Gold Cloaks in King’s Landing. Rhaenyra doesn’t think it’s worth the time of day, at least at first, believing it to be some angry commoners lashing out at the Cloaks’ heavy-handed approach last week. She’s more focused on where Aemond could be, as he’s been reported missing and unaccounted for. Hard to strategize when you don’t know where your enemy is. But Daemon suspects something else is afoot, due to the sadistic nature of the killings. His suspicions are confirmed as more and more of the Gold Cloaks are mutilated, including his friend Ser Luthor, by the end of the episode. Daemon is able to learn from one of the assassins who was captured that all this is part of a larger plan by Ormund Hightower himself, who has declared Daeron King (and even started minting coins with his likeness on them!). I wonder if this thread will eventually lead to a certain event in a certain pit. Book readers will know what I mean by that.

Elsewhere in the episode, we followed Aegon and Larys for quite some time, who eventually rejoin Tyland Lannister, who survived being kicked off the ship in the season’s opener (despite all that armour). I think I would’ve put some of these scenes into last week’s episode, as the lack of Dragonseed development feels shockingly surface level so far. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really loved the Aegon scenes; they offer some much-needed banter and retribution, but they felt far too time-consuming for what little has happened with him so far. Apart from Tyland coming back into the fold, the biggest event this week, apart from Lyonel scolding Aegon about how terrible a man and king he is, was that Aegon killed someone. I think some of the scenes could’ve been cut, and we could’ve had these scenes last week instead.

Alicent finally gets a bit more to do this week, now that she knows that Helaena is pregnant with Aegon’s child, who is a direct threat to Rhaenyra’s rule. Alicent doesn’t want anything bad to happen to the child or to Helaena and thinks aborting the baby at this point is the more humane thing to do. The birth of the child would only bring pain and misery. But Helaena isn’t having it. She’s already lost one child under Blood and Cheese and isn’t prepared to do it again, even if that child would be condemned as a hostage at best, or death at worst. She can’t have that blood on her hands. She is also able to persuade Mysaria to keep the pregnancy a secret, something that did surprise me, and I’m not 100% on board with, considering Mysaria has no reason not to be wary of Rhaenyra. Thanks to the additions of cats, the pair are able to find a secret passage, but that only leads to them being trapped in the dark after they close the door behind them and meet a dead end and a broken lantern.

Keeping things vague for non-book readers, but there were some fun instances of heavy foreshadowing for events to come in this episode that made me feel like Leo in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I just hope the show has enough time to properly convey and deliver on those promises. I think bringing this show down to 8 episodes was a huge error, and my main worry now is that the fourth season will be rushing to the finish line, not unlike Game of Thrones’ final season. We’ll find out soon enough, and I don’t want it to seem like I’m just dunking on the episode, but some flags are raised relative to the endgame that I can’t shake off. Stay tuned next week!