Blood & Cheese In House of the Dragon Are Not As Dumb As You Thought

Summary

• House of the Dragon Season 2 had an explosive premiere.
• Its final scene gave viewers nightmares for days to come.
• However, many overlooked the fact that the moment was even more terrifying than they first thought.

It is safe to say that House of the Dragon Season 2 started with a bang. While George R.R. Martin's fans were expecting the final horrific scene of A Son for a Son, casual viewers were caught off guard and had trouble sleeping after the premiere.

Devastating Loss

The title A Son for a Son is an obvious reference to the events of the episode, but many viewers weren't expecting things to unfold in such a gruesome way.

After losing her son Lucerys in the Season 1 finale, Rhaenyra Targaryen is shown to be going through a deep grieving process. When she finds the remains of Lucerys' dragon, Arrax, and her son's cloak, Rhaenyra's anger consumes her and she demands the life of Luke's killer.

'I want Aemond Targaryen,' are the only words Rhaenyra utters in the entire episode. Yet they set off a chain of dreadful events.

Horrible Crime

Daemon Targaryen, Rhaenyra's husband, takes her words as a call to action and hires two assassins with access to the Red Keep, the residence of the newly crowned King Aegon II Targaryen, to kill Aemond.

The names of the assassins are lost in history, but everyone knows their nicknames - Blood and Cheese. The two make quite the comedic duo (trio, if you count Cheese's dog), much like the pair of dumb burglars in Home Alone, hence the out-of-context spoiler memes flooding social media.

The seemingly absurd actions of these two only added to the horror of the scene that followed their entry into the Red Keep. Blood and Cheese found the bedroom of King Aegon's twin children and made their mother, Helaena Targaryen, to point at the boy. When she did, they killed the six-year-old heir and cut off his head to take to Daemon.

This horrendous crime was made all the more distressing because we saw Daemon specifically instruct the killers to find and kill an adult with silver hair and one eye. But what many House of the Dragon viewers missed was that there was more to Daemon's instructions.

Grisly Truth

In fact, Blood and Cheese are not as stupid as many viewers thought. They did what they were told. The moment Daemon hires them is cut off after Cheese asks what they should do if they can't find Aemond. The murder scene makes it clear what he answers.

'"A son for a son" he said,' Blood recalls before committing the unspeakable act.

While this line is easy to miss amid the horror of a child's murder, it makes the scene all the more shocking. Aegon's heir was killed not because of the incompetence of the dumb killers, but because Daemon specifically ordered it, which surely made the Dance of the Dragons unavoidable.

House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 2 is scheduled to air on HBO and Max on June 23.