5 burning questions before House Of The Dragon episode 2

After a record-setting premiere to get things started, interest is running high for the second episode of House Of The Dragon (or HotD, if you prefer). The episode’s title, “The Rogue Prince,” implies that we’ll be seeing more of Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen but, of course, speculating on what will happen next in this show is a tricky business. Those who’ve read the source material—George R.R. Martin’s 2018 novel Fire And Blood—already have some idea of the big story beats to come. Or they might think they do. Like Game Of Thrones before it, House Of The Dragon may very well stray from its source material, which is rather sparse and based on third-party recollections many years after the events in the series. We’ve already seen some gaps filled in with deeper character moments, and future changes may be even more significant. There are no safe bets here (though some might be safer than others). As the series continues we’ll be posting our burning questions before each new episode. Here are some of the things we’re wondering about this week.

1. Will all those premiere viewers come back for more?

More than 10 million viewers tuned in for the first episode, in part to see if House Of The Dragon could recapture the Game Of Thrones magic. Of course, the real test comes this week. Will the second episode retain, or even build on, that massive audience? And what about those viewers who wrote off the franchise after that widely derided Game Of Thrones finale—will they somehow find their way back to Westeros? Among those who watched, did the first episode do enough to reassure them that the show won’t make the same missteps as its predecessor? Right off the bat, House Of The Dragon seemed to resort to familiar gimmicks like graphic sex and even more graphic violence, not to mention a controversial, bloody birth scene. The numbers this week could tell a lot about the show’s future success, so we’ll be paying close attention, along with HBO execs.