[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4, “The Red Dragon and the Gold.”]
Corlys Velaryon “f***ed up.” So says Eve Best, whose Princess Rhaenys does, in fact, know best on this matter (and most matters, really). Tragedy befell Houses Velaryon and Targaryen in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4, but not before the Queen Who Never Was could reveal the truth that she knows about Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) and presumably his brother Addam (Clinton Liberty). The stupidly charming Best and Toussaint address this moment in the TV Insider interview above.
Rhaenys met Alyn in “The Red Dragon and the Gold” long before she knew she was going off to battle with her beloved dragon, Meleys. At the dock of Corlys’ ship, Rhaenys met her husband’s illegitimate son and revealed her knowledge of his identity through subtext.
“I’m given to understand my lord husband owes you his life, but I was not told his savior was so comely,” she says while studying Alyn’s face closely. “Your mother must have been very beautiful.” The exchange is meant to make clear that Rhaenys sees her husband’s likeness in the heroic sailor. Unlike Catelyn Stark in Game of Thrones, Rhaenys accepts and honors her husband’s bastard.
HBO
“He was the sailor that plucked you from your watery grave?” Rhaenys then says to her husband in a private word. “You did not think to mention it?” Corlys replies, continuing to play the fool, “I did not think it relevant.”
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Rhaenys lays it out plain: “I know who he is, Corlys. Alyn’s past is no fault of his. He saved his lord’s life. He should be raised up and honored, not hidden beneath the tides.” This becomes one of the couple’s last moments together before Rhaenys’ heroic death at Rook’s Rest. The last moment we see of House of the Dragon‘s wisest couple is in Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) council at Dragonstone when Rhaenys insists that she and Meleys be sent to battle against Ser Criston Cole’s (Fabien Frankel) encroaching army.
Even after Rhaenys’ death, this Alyn reveal is undoubtedly going to have ripple effects on the House Velaryon legacy. In the video above, Toussaint says Corlys and Rhaenys’ marriage is put to the ultimate test by the issue of Corlys’ successor as Lord of the Tides.
“It is tested because there are issues that haven’t been resolved between them concerning Corlys’ life,” Toussaint teases above, remaining coy about the plot details in this interview conducted prior to the Season 2 premiere. Best trolls Toussaint for this answer.
“I love the way that that’s phrased: ‘There are issues that haven’t been resolved,’” she quips sarcastically. “You f***ed up, basically, is the truth! And he doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Now he has to because he can’t escape to sea,” adds Toussaint. Best is having none of this revisionist history. “He still doesn’t want to talk about it!” she declares. “He’s still not going to talk about it. I don’t think you ever actually do!”
Toussaint comes to Corlys’ defense, “There is that point when you say, ‘I know, I’m not stupid.’” Best basically says “duh” in response: “Yes, I know! I have to say I know!” Best gets her “justice” when Toussaint acquiesces and says, “Yeah, I suppose. Typical bloke just like, ‘I don’t want to talk about it! If I don’t talk about it, it didn’t happen.’”
He wraps his arms around his co-star in a playful apology, their onscreen charm and chemistry radiating. House of the Dragon gods, please take away all of House Velaryon’s suffering and give it to Criston Cole.
See the aftermath of the Battle of Rook’s Rest in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5, airing this Sunday, July 14, on HBO. We’ve clearly not seen the last of Corlys’ sons.
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