Fair warning: there are spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 6 ahead! House of the Dragon fans were overjoyed – if not entirely surprised – to see actor Paddy Considine reprise his role as King Viserys I this week. Some fans went as far as to renew their calls for Considine to win an Emmy or some other award for his singular performance. Others doubted that this brief reappearance will be enough to get Considine the recognition fans want for him.
Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has been experiencing eerie visions and dreams all season, which has already provided two chances for Milly Alcock to reprise her role as a younger Rhaenyra. Considering how the visions have explored Daemon’s regrets, it wasn’t hard to guess that his brother would return before all this self-reflection was over. That didn’t dampen the excitement in the slightest as fans cheered to see Considine back on the Iron Throne this week.
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Considine’s first appearance in this episode was more or less a re-enactment of a scene from Season 1, with no real changes to the dialogue or delivery. Once again, he was furious at Daemon for the way Daemon spoke about the death of Viserys’ wife Aemma and their infant son, then banished Daemon from King’s Landing. Smith’s performance here had a lot of nuance as he hesitated on the verge of approaching the king, like he wanted to do something different this time. Instead, he tried to flee and panicked when he found the doors locked.
Considine’s second appearance in this episode was a greater showcase for both him and Smith. This time we saw a new scene, with Viserys contemplating his late wife’s corpse and Daemon approaching him. Considine earned the emphatic praise he has always gotten from fans, breaking down in his brother’s arms and completely dropping his regal facade without seeming to break character at all. This time, Daemon responded better than he did in real life, comforting his brother without any concern for his own position.
This also felt like a much needed advancement of Daemon’s storyline – as soon as he atoned for his past and did something differently in this vision, things began to go better for him in real life too. However, it was all thanks to Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), adding fuel to the theory that Alys can see Daemon’s dreams and visions in perfect detail. Some fans even suspect that Alys is controlling Daemon’s visions, which would be new for the TV continuity but actually has a strong precedent in the novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
It seems like there are more dreams and visions ahead for Daemon, though it’s not clear if Viserys will appear in them again. In this episode, Daemon set things right with the ghost of his brother in a way that he has not done with the younger version of Rhaenyra, so it seems safe to guess that we will see Alcock again, not Considine. However, a character like Daemon has many sins to atone for, so there’s no telling how many people he might see in his dreams before the war is over.
If Viserys does not return again, it’s hard to imagine him getting the award nominations fans want so badly for him. House of the Dragon scored nine Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, but no wins. However, fans were floored that none of the cast members were nominated for their performances. With the massive set pieces and CGI dragons, fans commented that the award show voters were overlooking some incredible character-driven melodrama.
We’ll have to wait to see if the Emmys decides to atone for these oversights the same way Daemon is trying to atone for his sins. House of the Dragon Season 2 continues on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max. George R.R. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.
