House Of The Dragon: The Green Dress And Alice's Motivations Explained

To bring it back to the green dress of it all, this episode (titled "We Light the Way") provides a hands-on explanation of Alicent's clothing choice, regarding the fiery green beacon that House Hightower has traditionally used to call their banners and signal the start of the war. The thematic underpinnings, however, extend well beyond the simple color scheme and remain closely tied to the various motivations that led her to this tumultuous moment in the history of Targaryen's reign.

Perhaps most impressive is that actress Emily Carey does much of the heavy lifting in Alicent's story with barely a word of dialogue.

In classic 'Game of Thrones' style, this 'House of the Dragon' episode features a series of largely one-sided conversations that force the Queen to come to terms with her role amid a much larger Targaryen drama . First comes the dismissal of his father and Hand of the King, Otto, whose loss as his only major ally in court poses a whole host of issues...including the subtle importance of manipulative Larys Strong (Matthew Needham, doing his own twist on Aiden Gillan as Littlefinger in the original series) only complicates it further. Forced to make her own decisions for once, Alicent's summoning of Kingsguard knight Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) proves fateful. Crackling under his (rather oblivious) interrogation, he spills the seeds of his affair with Rhaenyra and sows even more seeds of dissent between the two former friends.

All of this combines to transform Alicent from a young girl driven by the whims of others to a woman in charge of her own destiny, leading smoothly to next week's recast of Alicent and Rhaenyra starring Olivia Cooke and Emma D'Arcy, respectively.

New episodes of "House of the Dragon" air Sunday nights on HBO.