House of the Dragon Episode 9: The Green Council

King Viserys has died, and the Small Council moves swiftly to seize control of the realm. Otto convenes an emergency meeting and reveals that Viserys' final words to Alicent expressed his wish for their son Aegon to inherit the throne—a statement Alicent interprets as a direct succession order. The council members shock Alicent by revealing they have been secretly preparing for this moment for years, treating Viserys' words as justification for their coup.

When Lord Beesbury voices his moral objection to this act of treason, Ser Criston Cole kills him by smashing his head into the council table, seemingly in a moment of violence rather than calculated murder. Lord Commander Harrold Westerling walks out of the meeting in protest and later resigns rather than carry out orders to execute Rhaenyra and her children. Alicent refuses her father Otto's insistence that Rhaenyra be killed, showing fractures within the Green faction.

Meanwhile, Otto and Alicent dispatch their forces to locate the missing Prince Aegon, who has vanished from the Red Keep. Larys Strong offers to help find Aegon, using the opportunity to extract favors from Alicent involving increasingly disturbing demands. Mysaria, learning of the king's death through her spy network, negotiates directly with Otto, trading information about Aegon's location in exchange for promises of civic improvements to the lower city.

The Greens attempt to secure Princess Rhaenys' support by holding her captive in the Red Keep, but she refuses and mocks Alicent for her submission to the men controlling her life. Ser Erryk, recognizing that Aegon will be nothing more than a puppet king, decides to help Rhaenys escape the Red Keep. However, as they move through the crowds heading toward the harbor, the masses push Rhaenys toward the Dragonpit, where Aegon's coronation ceremony is about to begin.

At the Dragonpit, Otto announces Viserys' death to the assembled smallfolk, and Ser Criston crowns Aegon as the new king. Separated from Erryk in the chaos of the crowd, Rhaenys makes her way into the Dragonpit's lower caverns and mounts her dragon, Meleys. She then bursts through the floor of the Dragonpit in a spectacular and violent eruption, killing hundreds of innocent citizens who had been forced into the pit. Rhaenys flies away on her dragon, leaving the royal family threatened and the coronation in chaos.