‘The Bear,’ ‘Only Murders,’ and more of this summer’s hottest TV shows
USA TODAY TV critic Kelly Lawler lists this summer’s must-see TV shows, including the return of “The Bear” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
Spoiler alert! The following discusses plot details of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” Episode 5.
He’s alive! Well, sort of.
HBO’s “House of the Dragon” quickly answered the question the internet was asking after last week’s Dragon Battle Royale cliffhanger ending – Did Prince Aemond kill his brother, King Aegon?
Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) might have tried with his dragon Vhagar, but Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) somehow survives dragon fire and falling from the sky. In Sunday’s episode, “The Regent” (now streaming on Max), the burned, bloody and battered Aegon is shown being lowered into a King’s Landing bed for intensive care after a 10-day medieval ambulance journey from the Battle at Rook’s Rest. (Alas, rival Princess Rhaenys really died in Aemond’s dragon battle).
Chalk his existence up to luck and Aegon’s Valyrian steel armor, which melts into his skin.
“It’s a small miracle,” Glynn-Carney tells USA TODAY of Aegon’s survival. “His dragon Sunfyre took most of the brunt of the fall and might have cradled him. Maybe there’s a little hand of God. And those Targaryens are tough. He’s alive – for now.”
Episode 4 dragon battle explained: Was Aemond about to cut Aegon’s head off in ‘House of Dragon’ or just sheathing his sword?
As Aegon labors for every breath, the scheming and increasingly bold Aemond outmaneuvers his mother, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), to serve as ruling regent in the king’s absence. Suddenly, everyone (and especially Alicent) is praying for the deranged Aegon to get better to keep the more deranged Aemond from permanent power.
British actor Glynn-Carney, 27, helped answer key Aegon questions:
How bad is Aegon’s condition?
The episode was a blend of “Dragon” with “ER” as the medically minded Maesters ask shell-shocked Alicent to leave the makeshift operating theater and let them work on grievously injured Aegon. Glynn-Carney spent seven hours in the makeup chair each day for the horrifying look that featured bits of melted armor, burnt outfit parts and a hideously swollen face. “Even his left hand is all shriveled up,” says Glynn-Carney. “So, tough time for him.”
For the facial injuries, the make-up team taped Glynn-Carney’s eye shut and glued a swollen prosthetic eye over it, “so I was essentially blind in one eye,” he says. “And they pulled my nose down, so everything seemed to have melted into my chin and neck. It’s amazing what they can do.”
The medical work is depicted with horror-movie gruesomeness. “You really want to make people shiver when they hear those sticky sounds of pulling the armor off the burnt skin,” says director Clare Kilner, and see “the blood pools on (Aegon’s) chest. It was beautifully done by the crews.”
The hardest-to-watch moment is the Maester’s setting of Aegon’s broken left leg, which had a bone sticking out. The closeup required the team to construct a lifelike broken leg that was snapped back into place. “When they showed it to me, it was so amazing,” says Kilner. “It was so horrible and real.”
What did Aegon say to his mother Alicent?
With bandages and his medievel leg brace, Aegon is unconscious and hanging by a thread through much of the episode. Glynn-Carney added the painfully labored breathing from the dragon wounds. “All the fire and smoke completely obliterated his vocal cords and trachea,” he says.
But Aegon feels his worried mother’s presence when she visits him alone. “He’s regressed into a childlike state and he gives a cry for help,” he says, describing Aegon’s mumbled “Mummy” as fretful Alicent turns her back to exit. “He just wants to hold her.”
Sadly, Alicent doesn’t even hear the muted call as she exits.
Will Aegon survive his injuries?
If Aegon survives – his injuries, his enemies and the brother who wants him dead to become the new king – it’s going to be a long recovery with permanent injuries. Aegon knows his brother caused the dragon disaster. “But whether he thinks (Aemond) did this by accident is another story,” Glynn-Carney says.
In the meantime, Aemond looks very comfortable giving orders as regent.
Why did Aegon drive his dragon drunk into battle?
In Episode 4, Aegon disrupted Aemond’s secret battle attack by drunkenly entering Rook’s Rest on Sunfyre to fight Rhaenys on her steed, Meraxes. Drunken dragon riding is not encouraged on “Dragon,” but Glynn-Carney says it’s logical that the often-wasted king was “completely obliterated. He doesn’t have the courage of the other characters. He needed to numb his fears. And wine was the best way to go about it. And he relishes the ride. It was exciting for him … at the start.”
It was fun shooting the uninhibited flying scene for the actor on the moving dragon machine.
“You’re on a metal plate on a crane, with hydraulic legs that throw you around,” says Glenn-Carney. “With the wind machines blowing you around, it was like riding my motorbike down the motorway, and putting your visor up. It took my breath away.”