The Dragon Family – The Burning Mill (S02E03)

As the saying goes, so long will one walk around with a pitcher of water until eventually the ear is torn off. The third episode is a salutary example that artificially prolonging the series, without the action parts, a bit of battles and dragons, doesn't really pay off. Unfortunately, the third episode is filler, nothing happened in it and we only enjoyed a few hundred dead bodies after the battle, a bit of "birds" and a royal "wipe". Still, with the war looming, both Rhaenyra and Alicent gradually see their father/husband's bad decisions gradually revealed in their sheer beauty. Rhaenyra is really trying to make sure that the great war with the dragons doesn't start at all, and Alicent has already lost her father in the royal council, and the young king himself is just a buffoon out for blood and sex. Let's not forget Daemon, who has found himself getting new partners for his punishment, for the protection of his wife. The only thing he can think of to do is to gain allies in the dead Harrenhal, where two houses were murdered some time ago. That's pretty much all that happened in the third episode. The episode was dull and it was evident that director Geeta Vasant Patel, though one of the experienced directors of the show, could not give her wards acting gigs as seen in the first episodes. Alan Taylor has done it perfectly. Clare Kilner in the previous episode didn't mess it up either. And so Black Peter fell to a director who has only done series work, albeit in famous series like Ahsoka and Huang in America. Hopefully this won't be the worst episode of season two. Fans may enjoy the boobs, penises, and sex again towards the end, but as I wrote with my review of 300: Rise of an Empire, "Sex and blood does not a good movie make." And finally, I can't forget the truly perfect cameo by young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), who returned for our most horrific scene. Rating: 40 %