The Red Queen is here

The penultimate episode of 'House of the Dragon's first season dropped this week, setting up an almighty showdown in episode 10.

*Spoilers for 'House of the Dragon' episode 9 ahead*

Picking up in the moments after King Viserys' passing, the episode almost completely focuses on the Greens, aka the Hightower/Targaryen side of things, with Alicent and her family taking charge.

And all of this coming through a misunderstanding? Poor Viserys.. But it turns out that sticking Aegon on the throne is not as easy as it looks. First of all, you have to convince the entire Small Council that those were indeed Viserys wishes.

Lyman, the long-time loyal Lord of Viserys is having absolutely none of it, but he's soon sat down (forever) by the ever more unlikeable Ser Christen Cole. Ser Harrold also can't stomach the treachery, so he walks out, his fate left a mystery for now.

There was a lot of scheming and plotting in this episode but, for the most part, it was basically just everyone scrambling around King's Landing trying to find whatever nook or cranny Aegon has hidden himself in to avoid becoming king. This led to some very funny little outfit changes.

But really, this episode belonged to one person and one person only: Princess Rhaenys. Locked up in her room while the coup is underway, Rhaenys finally manages to escape. But not before she throws an absolute pearl of an insult to Alicent.

Eventually, when Aegon is found and presented as King in the Dragon Pit amidst a crowd of onlookers, Rhaenys legs it down to her conveniently placed dragon and armour (come on, where was that armour hiding?).

Not soon after the crown is placed on Aegon's head an almighty explosion takes place right in the middle of the hall and Rhaenys appears on top of Meleys. Much to the slight relief from the horror they face, the Princess decides not to burn them to a crisp. Rather, she takes flight, probably to warn the Blacks of the Green's treason, officially setting off the Dance of the Dragons.

Judging from online reactions, people seem to be a bit on the fence about this episode. It came off the back of arguably the strongest episode of the series so far and may well prove to be an excellent set up for the season finale, however.

All we know is that next week's episode is not going to hold anything back, we can't wait to see what happens!

'House of the Dragon' episode 10, drops on Sunday, October 23.