“House of the Dragon” Season 2 came to a close with another confrontation between Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke), and director Geeta Vasant Patel once again handled the crucial off-book moment.
The pair’s first reunion came earlier this season in the septs of King’s Landing. Both that Episode 3 scene and the one in the finale — which centers around Alicent’s plea for peace, however late it may be — are creations of the show and never appeared in the “Fire & Blood” source material. Patel said those scenes excited her because the characters are magnetic together.
“What was interesting was that Ryan and the writers decided to only see them together twice,” she told TheWrap. “There’s something just chilling about them not being near each other, but you feel them in the room together and you’re just anticipating them coming together.”
Patel added that the last big scene beween Alicent and Rhaenyra sees them try to shift back from the enemies they’ve been in recent years, to the friends who loved each other as children.
“It’s about two people who love each other, who think they loved each other and they’re trying to pretend that they don’t,” she said. “That’s what keeps us at the edge of our seat.”
Below, Patel breaks down what went into the pair’s big moment together, that massive montage setting up Season 3, and how Daemon (Matt Smith) becomes “like a Yoda” to Rhaenyra after seeing the Ice and Fire prophecy.
TheWrap: Let’s start at the end with that final conversation between Rhaenyra and Alicent. You directed the episode where the two secretly meet in King’s Landing and now here in Dragonstone too. How did you approach that long confrontation between the two?
Geeta Vasant Patel: It was really nice being able to work on both scenes because we could look at both of them and make sure we had a shift. Funny enough I think the way the human mind works is you remember the emotions from the last dramatic event, so even though time has gone by and they’ve been apart it’s almost as if they’re picking up at that moment. The pain is there, at least for Rhaenyra.
When Alicent arrives, one of the most important things was making sure Rhaenyra’s mindset was immediately coming out of a moment where she appealed to Alicent and said ‘Hey, let’s work together. I’m on my knees’ and Alicent walked out and didn’t even try — and didn’t admit to what Rhaenyra needed her to admit to, which was that Viserys did intend for her to take the throne.
The way I approach a scene is understanding where the shift will be. It’s a very long, dialogue-heavy scene that twists and turns — thanks to the writing of Sara Hess. One of the things we did in the rehearsals beforehand was to just make sure we knew exactly what it was building to, because there are so many places to point to and say ‘This is the point, this is the point.’ In planning the scene, we knew it was about giving up Aegon, but we also needed to know that price was a price to pay. Everything before that scene had to really work in order for that moment to have meaning — we had to believe that in giving up her son Alicent was losing something.
What’s tricky about it is her son was acting so maniacal that you may think from the outside ‘Oh well, no big deal.’ But I think what Olivia had to do in that moment — which was an incredibly wonderful challenge that she met — is she loves this maniacal child. It’s her child, no matter what your child does you’re going to love him. The stakes needed to be real and high in that moment. When Rhaenyra says, ‘A son for a son’, we too have been on that journey with Alicent and we know that yes he’s been a problem, yes he’s been acting irrationally, but my God, don’t make her give up her son.
There is a moment where Alicent asks Rhaenyra for the “mercy of a friend who once loved me.” Were the conversations with Emma and Olivia beforehand placing them in the mindset of former friends rather than enemies like it seemed to be in Episode 3?
Definitely, and I think that was a conversation that started with the script. I think that was Ryan and Sara’s vision that this is the two of them coming back to when they were children and dig deep, and see if there is any vestige of hope left. We always say — and this comes from Ryan and Sara’s guidance — when these two women come together they are children again.
It very much reminds us of a divorced couple or a broken-up couple. You can be as professional as you want, you can turn 50, 60 years old but when you see that person who broke your heart you think in the way of a 15-year-old.
Ryan and Sara had a very strong vision of what this scene was about — that these two find themselves feeling, and the feelings fight what they’re thinking.
Were there pressures for you to bring this confrontation, and the one in Episode 3 to screen as major moments that don’t appear in “Fire & Blood”?
I think that pressure you’re speaking of is more on Ryan, and he has been extraordinary at adapting the material and fighting for what he thinks will appeal to people who love storytelling onscreen. One of the things we do — and it was very clear to me when I read this season — is have protagonists. With these two women and Daemon, we’ve set up these three characters in Season 1 and were obliged to continue with them in Season 2.
What was interesting was that Ryan and the writers decided to only see them together twice. There’s something just chilling about them not being near each other, but you feel them in the room together and you’re just anticipating them coming together.
This scene was very brave in that it was very long. I definitely at times was like ‘is this too long?’ I cut it so many different ways when I was doing the director’s cut, and I think what’s so wonderful about it is that we know these characters and the situation so well. It’s grounded. It’s about two people who love each other, who think they loved each other and they’re trying to pretend that they don’t. That’s what keeps us at the edge of our seat.
Then I think it’s about sacrifice. At the beginning of the season, the very first voiceover is about the sacrifices we have to make for our duty. So in Episode 8, when I got the scripts that’s the very first thing that I focused on – I wanted to make sure we were coming full circle from that voiceover and theme.
That final montage really does spike the hype meter for Season 3. There are a lot of cool teases, and I’m curious what went into putting all those pieces together in the right order.
It’s a very long montage, it’s a lot of information in it. When I first read it I thought ‘OK, everything’s there.’ Then I went down the rabbit hole of classic filmmaking of where montages came from, what were the montages that were successful in film history, how do we apply that to our montage for this show so that it’s not just bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump? When we bring it to cinematic space, how do we make sure it has a structure visually?
One of the things we did early on was the Aegon leaving shifted into the montage, it had been before the montage. One of the things that was done later was that moment went into the montage, which was great, because we were able to build all these armies getting ready, and then the shift — that was the second act of the montage — when you see Aegon leaving. You’re thinking the sacrifice has flown the nest. Alicent just promised her son and what will Rhaenyra think? That really helped me as a director structure it all.
The end of the montage, I spent months thinking about the visuals of how to end this episode and end this season. That came to me just in terms of how they both were feeling in the end. One of them was trapped — and as Ryan says is now carrying the burden — and that would be Rhaenyra. The other one has lifted the burden off of her own shoulders and is now free having given it to Rhaenyra. Visually my thought was: Rhaenyra is caught in a web and Alicent is free.
Did you have any back and forth on whether Alicent looking out on the horizon or Rhaenyra trapped in her web of duty was going to be the true closing shot of the episode?
I flipped it around a few times. We played with it, I think there are many ways we could have gone. I probably would still play with it if I didn’t have a deadline.
The whole montage is very affective from the visuals to the music. I’m a sucker for a motif, so hearing the Stark theme when they showed up and the Rains of Castamere with the Lannisters really hit.
The credit on that goes to Ramin (Djwadi) our amazing composer. I’m so thankful to him because I remember turning it in and thinking ‘OK, we need Ramin.’ That’s the only missing piece.
Here’s one thing about just the directing side of it, you always have a choice to edit with music or without music, and I was asked if I wanted to edit with music and I said no. I never want to edit with music because obviously when you put music in the music video side of it starts working and you don’t want that. You want the challenge as a filmmaker to let the visuals just ride on their own. Then of course Ramin comes in and takes it to a whole other level.
My worry as always is it’s not at the right level to begin with and that was an interesting conversation along the way particularly for that montage.
What was your process of taking Daemon seeing the Ice and Fire prophecy from the page to the screen?
That was my favorite part of the season probably. I read the script and it had the beats laid out, and I spoke with Ryan and Sara and they gave me a really good idea of what needed to be done in that scene. It’s an important scene in that he has a vision and in that vision — without talking to him — is supposed to tell him ‘Hey, you need to get down on one knee the next time you see her and you need to give up this thing that you’ve been doing this entire season.’
I felt the challenge of that. Ryan said here are the beats, mix and match them as you will, but this is what the point of the scene needs to be. I sat down with our storyboard artist and just focused on that. It was quite fun. I took the visuals that they gave me, added a few things that we didn’t have and tried to make it all flow in a way that told that story. By the time he saw her on the throne you knew that that was what the vision was trying to tell him.
What conversations did you have with Matt about Daemon’s interpretation of the prophecy and his immediate reaction to it? He does misinterpret it a bit, confusing Rhaenyra and Daenerys.
When I spoke with Matt we walked through the storyboards of the vision. We studied what Ryan and Sara were looking for in that moment, which is he is given a message and the message is “You are meant to follow Rhaenyra. She is meant to be queen.” That was the most important thing. It doesn’t mean that it needs to be clear right after you see the vision. It just meant that that idea would be simmering and hopefully be earned by the time he bent the knee.
The other thing we spoke about was Daemon’s power and Daemon’s strength in that scene. It’s very easy for Daemon to come across as someone who’s weak and is just like ‘OK, yeah, you’re number one.’ That’s not what the intention was. The intention is that Daemon is almost — and this is my opinion — I felt like Daemon was almost like a Yoda.
He’s saying, “I know what’s coming and I will be here to be your guide, your best friend, to be whatever you need, but you are the Chosen One.” That is what Matt and I talked about. That’s actually the ultimate power that Daemon has, that he’s saying I’m here to usher and guide you. Not as a man, but as part of this mission.
All episodes of “House of the Dragon” are now streaming on Max.
