You want ass? You get lots of ass.

King of the Narrow Sea kicks off with Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) trying and failing to find an tolerable suitor amongst a horde of royals - and in case you were wondering, she's still as rude as ever. Did she ever take diplomacy classes or any vague training about decorum? No? okay moving on. Rhaenyra and Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) end up leaving the parade of wealth early when a fight breaks out between a confident little royal and a smug douche. The smug douche dies by sword-inserted-in-gut.

Back home, Daemon (Matt Smith) dramatically walks in and surrenders the previously seized Stepstones and his newly acquired King of the Narrow Sea crown to his brother as a mea culpa. Nobody with half a wit would buy this clearly calculated move but King Viserys (Paddy Considine) does and so does his daughter who can't seem to take her eyes off her Uncle.

When will the whining end Rhaenyra?

 While celebrating Daemon's return, Rhaenyra sits  on a comfy cushion with her bestie/stepmother, wearing richly embroidered robes, complaining about how no one likes them for who they really are waaaah.

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via GIPHY

Rhaenyra starts a fresh round of whining to her uncle about how marriage is a death trap for women and how her mother died pushing out heirs. Daemon decides to take Rhaeneyra on a midnight tryst. Rhaenyra sees firsthand that though her people adore her, they want Aegon to rule because he has something dangling between his legs. To this Rhaenyra says "who gives a shit what the people think".

 Okay fine, she didn't say that but she might as well have - "their wants are of no consequence", she says as she walks away. Daemon tries to correct her clearly naive and selfish thinking but she's having none of it and says she wants to be freed from the "burdens of her inheritance" for a night.

Now this entire scene brings two very important questions forth

  • How exactly is Rhaenyra beloved by the people? The one time we see her interact with 'commonfolk' is when she leaves her dragon with its carers without even acknowledging them. Or are we to count her interaction with the musician who she made play one song on repeat?
  • How about you give up your inheritance forever Rhaeny? You don't seem to want it and quite frankly, it doesn't look like you'd be very good at it - white hart appearance be damned.




Queue the Whoring, the incest and then some more whoring

After stating she wants "freedom" for a day, Daemon takes Rhaenyra to the Street of Silk where everyone is in different forms of undress and all holes are plugged. It's worth mentioning that all the while the two Targayrens frolicked about having harmless fun, they were in disguise. When they get to one of the top places a princess should absolutely not be seen, Daemon takes off Rhaenyra's disguise. Curious. But does the princess notice? Nope. She's intrigued by all the butts.

She and Daemon get into a very heated makeout session and then Daemon abruptly lives her pants down (literally) and with the largest blue vulva ever. 

On Inside the Episode, Showrunner Miguel Sapochink says that Daemon was "impotent" in that scene because he knew what he was doing was inherently wrong while Director Claire Kilner says Daemon jumped ship because he expected to shock Rhaenyra but got shocked by the fact that she was into it. Both viewa are quite different and the show itself disagrees with Kilner's point of view as barely minutes past, Daemon was giving Rhaenyra a speech about how women want and enjoy sex too. He's also been with whores and probably experienced women who wouldn't just lay there and let things be done to them like Alicent does. 

Fans are speculating along the lines of Kilner; stating that Daemon  left because the "power" was taken from him. He was going to take his niece from behind and when she turns around, clearly into it, Daemon loses interest. The interesting tidbit about this fan theory is that it paints Daemon as very "rapey". Ultimately, it's quite irrelevant if Daemon intended to have sex with or rape Rhaenyra. Simply having her in that brothel undisguised and a scandalous inch away from her uncle, is enough damage to her maiden reputation.

We get an entire 4 minutes of the Street of Silk business and then another 4 minutes of Rhaenyra trying to scratch an itch with her bodyhunk Ser Criston. That's 8 entire minutes of sexy time. We get it, sex is fun. Rhaenyra's decision to hook up with her bodyguard does bring up a moral question of if Ser Criston went through with it because he was attracted to Rhaenyra or because he owed her everything as he said in Second of His Name.




This is a vile accusation.

Now that urges have been satisfied, Rhaenyra has to live with the consequences of her action. Word of her little tryst has reached the ears of the King and an eavesdropping queen. The latter's summoning interrupts her happy time and whatever the fuck she was hoping to do with Criston in her bedroom.

Alicent (Emily Carey) who overhears the disturbing rumour runs to Rhaenyra and little Rhaeny lies to the face of her only ally. "Daemon never touched me" she says with a sincere look on her face.  

Rhaenyra denies and denies and denies Daemon touching her. Daemon doesn't and instead proposes marriage to his niece, which his brother turns down. While Rhaenyra denies the allegations to her father, Viserys again reminds her of the impending doom of all mankind, and shows her the catspaw dagger (which eventually takes out the Night King) with an inscription and prophecy on it "From my blood, comes the Prince that was promised". Viserys seems to be the only one who cares about the prophecy. 
Rhaenyra eventually agrees to marry Laenor on the condition that her father fires his hand, Otto. Viserys' conversation with Otto is quite hilarious because Viserys very very truly did not think Otto was manipulating him.

Despite Rhaenyra's vehement denial of her sexytime with Daemon or anyone else and her bestie Alicent vouching for her, Viserys refuses to believe and sends Rhaenyra a medieval Plan B.


Let's call it a plot twist

It appears that Daemon might have plotted the whole thing as the little spy who reported the uncle and niece tryst to Otto returns to Mysaria with coins (which he was probably paid by Otto).

Quote of the episode

Viserys to Rhaenyra - "You're my political headache!"