SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 6, titled “Smallfolk,” now streaming on Max.
Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her new closest confidant and righthand woman Mysaria a.k.a. The White Worm (Sonoya Mizuno) marked a turn in their relationship on this week’s episode of “House of the Dragon,” as the two shared a passionate kiss in the final moments of the installment.
The kiss, however, is interrupted, causing Rhaenyra to take off on dragonback almost immediately to go find out who’s been spotted riding a wild dragon around Westeros — and whether they’re aligned with her and the Blacks or Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and the Greens. So viewers are left with many questions about the intimate moment, and what it means for the rest of Season 2.
One thing is for certain in D’Arcy’s opinion: The kiss was not a calculated decision on Rhaenyra’s part.
“Honestly, I think initially there was just such a desire to connect,” D’Arcy told Variety. “I think what you see initially is intimacy, and an intimacy that Rhaenyra shares so rarely. Even in some of her other romantic relationships, there’s a lot of presentation, there’s a lot of bravado, often from both sides. Certainly with Daemon, I think both parties struggle to reveal themselves in weakness, and that their eroticism is sort of predicated on power.
“Whereas with Mysaria, in this growing relationship — it’s remarkably honest,” D’Arcy continued. “Initially, there’s huge feelings of empathy and gratitude toward this person. Rhaenyra is hugely affected by the life that Mysaria has lived so bravely. Then, they are two bodies completely overrun by touch. As soon as they embrace and their bodies are touching, I think it’s pure bodily desire.”
Courtesy of Theo Whiteman/HBO
While Mizuno says she’s sure “people will have their own opinions about it,” she thinks the kiss took both Mysaria and Rhaenyra “by surprise.”
“There’s nothing Machiavellian in it, as far as I’m concerned,” Mizuno said in an interview on Friday. “It’s a really beautiful, tender kiss, and it would be impossible not to feel something as Mysaria in that moment. I don’t think she has had that kind of kiss — maybe ever. And I think sex and sexuality is very complicated for her, given her history as a young woman with her father, and then going into her professional work life. So to have that such a tender, loving and passionate moment would have woken something up.”
Mizuno spoke about how the two actors conceived of their characters’ feelings before filming the scene. “When we discussed it, we talked about when you realize you have a crush on someone in hindsight, and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, of course. I’ve fancied that person for six months, and I didn’t realize,’” she said. “But then once you realize it, it’s then a full-blown teenage crush. So maybe there’s some of that going on. But there’s also a civil war breaking out, so what are the priorities going to be?”
While Daemon (Matt Smith) has been gone from Dragonstone for half the season, and is communicating with Rhaenyra only through his unsettling hallucinations and dreams while building up an army at Harrenhal, he’s bound to reunite with his wife at some point. So what happens if he finds out about Rhaenyra’s intimate moment with Mysaria, who used to regularly have sex with Daemon when Rhaenyra was still a child?
“It’s going to be a bit of a shit show, isn’t it?” Mizuno said. “But I’m looking forward to it, whatever it’s going to be.”
Readers can dive into what happened with the Greens on “House of the Dragon” this week in Variety‘s interview with actor Ewan Mitchell about the start of Aemond Targaryen’s reign.
See below for more from Variety‘s full interview with D’Arcy about Episode 6 of “House of the Dragon” Season 2, including their thoughts on how this kiss — which was not drawn from George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” — will affect Rhaenyra’s already strained relationship with Daemon.
Courtesy of Ollie Upton/HBO
Can you break down the situation Rhaenyra dealt with in this episode? She went from hope about her idea to utilize the Dragonseeds to help her cause, to seeing one burned to a crisp in attempting to carry out her wishes.
I suppose, as is often the case with Rhaenyra, her big ideas come with a slight quality of eccentricity. A keen belief that there might be a different answer available is met, in turn, by a trepidation about sharing these ideas with her male colleagues. I think she probably approaches most council meetings with an expectation that she will be sort of patronized, or underestimated. So the stakes are high. A woman in a position of power will have her mistakes judged more harshly, I would say, than a man in the same position. So it’s a high stakes game.
After weeks of begrudgingly listening to her council and family not to go out on her own dragon, Syrax, and leave the flying and fighting to everyone else, Rhaenyra took to the skies immediately after hearing there was an unknown dragon rider out in the world. What made her finally decide that was worth breaking the rules for?
Wonderfully, I don’t know that she sees any other course of action. I feel that this is one of those moments in the escalating civil war that, depending on who is riding that dragon, it could mark the end of their campaign. I suppose we’re already in a space of great extremity. If someone allied to the Greens has taken that dragon, then I think the odds are stacked so appallingly against Rhaenyra and her allies I wonder if her need for self-protection goes out of the window, anyway.
How do you see the evolution of Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s relationship from the start of the season until now?
It’s quite a new type of relationship for Rhaenyra. She is such a volatile person that she often allows herself to be led by her emotions — especially in the case of relationships. I think this marks something of a change. Their trust is one that grows creepingly. Initially, they don’t like each other at all. And I think there’s something interesting about seeing two women within such a patriarchal system who have both developed mechanisms for navigating, manipulating the systems of power. Those skill sets were not built to be used on other women so much. So certainly for Rhaenyra, she feels a great deal of threat, actually, from Mysaria — including, obviously, her history with Daemon.
But as the as the series progresses, Mysaria really affects Rhaenyra’s politics. She has a powerful impact on Rhaenyra’s ability to see how a kingdom and its citizens are affected in the case of civil war. That was slightly abstract to Rhaenyra — until Mysaria somehow makes that more concrete. And I think speaks to different forms of power that, again, maybe Rhaenyra, in her eagerness for a masculine conflict-based power, sometimes overlooks. Gaining the will, and the belief of the people — I don’t know how much that was part of her political consciousness prior to Mysaria.
Courtesy of Ollie Upton/HBO
This kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria is not included among the “historical” events recorded in George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood.” What were your thoughts on the addition of this scene for the show, knowing that “Fire & Blood” is made up of many conflicting retellings and holes?
I think there’s humor to be found that — also in our real written histories — so often women fall out of the history books. Partly from a lack of care: like, people are not concerned about what they’re up to. And I like trying to investigate what happened between the forgotten pages.
Have you always seen Rhaenyra as a queer character, or was this the first experience for her?
It’s hard, because I don’t think the word “queer” is a word that is in any way within Rhaenyra’s lexicon. There are so few images or stories within that world that she has access to that allow one to identify in that way. What I do think is that she is really sexual. Maybe that’s one of the real joys of playing her, is that I think she’s a super-embodied character, who knows when her body is sort of saying something. And that goes for many different contexts. I don’t think she is frightened by her body’s instruction. And certainly, I think there was great intimacy within her early relationship with Alicent.
How do you see this kiss affecting Rhaenyra’s tumultuous relationship with Daemon?
I don’t expect that she will have any intention of telling him. But I imagine that she feels quite proud, and feels quite emboldened. I imagine she quite likes the idea of him finding out. There’s such a power struggle in their relationship, that hooking up with his ex, I can only think, would feel like a useful point on the board.
What was it like for you to not work with Matt Smith as much this season after being such close scene partners in Season 1? And will Rhaenyra and Daemon’s estrangement last much longer?
Frankly, I found it frustrating. I know I’ve spoken a lot about it, but I enjoy shooting with Matt a lot, and it was a shame for me not to get to do more of that. I don’t want to spoil anything. But inevitably, there is a a bigger enemy at hand. And so both of them have to figure out how they’re going to approach that ultimate battle.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.