WARNING: Major spoilers for episode eight ahead.

On behalf of the Greens, Tyland Lannister heads to Essos in order to broker a deal with the Triarchy to help them break the blockade choking the shipping lanes of King’s Landing. They agree to join the fight at sea – if he can win over Admiral Sharako Lohar.

Lohar challenges Tyland to a mud-wrestling fight, stating they will only join him at sea if he beats them. While Lohar initially gains the upper hand, Tyland surprises them with their wits, ultimately getting in a punch and flooring them.

Later that evening, Lohar agrees to join the Greens' fight, eager to face off against the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon once again. They then ask Tyland to have their children.

Back at home, Aemond – furious Rhaenyra has the upper hand with a newly-formed dragon army, burns the entire town of Sharp Point to the ground, killing thousands.

He then returns to King’s Landing and attempts to get Heleana to join him at Harrenhal on dragonback. His first aggressive attempt fails, with Alicent stepping in and warning him smallfolk are paying for his bruised ego. Aemond later makes a more emotional plea to Heleana when he gets her alone, but again she refuses, telling him she knows he’s responsible for Aegon being burned at the Battle of Rook’s Rest, and warning him he is destined to disappear above God’s Eye.

As Aegon continues to recover from his injuries, Larys visits him, informing him of Rhaenyra’s new dramatic advantage, and what Aemond did at Sharp Point. Larys warns Aegon that Aemond is likely to kill him if he doesn't run and suggests they flee to Essos.

Aegon is hesitant to budge, insisting he will return to his throne and arrest Aemond, Larys reminds him that, with Rhaenyra now having seven dragons at her disposal, it’ll only be a matter of time before he loses the crown. Aegon responds that he’s largely lost everything he had anyway.

Over on Dragonstone, Ulf makes himself at home a little too easily – much to the annoyance of Prince Jacaerys, who scolds him on his manners as he puts his feet up on the council table. Ulf, not even aware of who he is, quickly gets a rude awakening but only angers Jace further when he insists they’re “cut from the same cloth”. Jace, not trusting of the new dragon riders, threatens Ulf to fall in line quickly or meet a brutal end.

A smug Ulf continues to prove an annoyance and untrustworthy new member of the team at dinner, belittling Queen Rhaenyra when she offers him a knighthood and behaving brutishly.

Jace later shares his worries with Baela, admitting his anger at the new additions. Baela encourages him to get over himself, saying his worth is more than his birthright.

At the dock, Corlys and Rhaenyra discuss the new dragonriders and try to figure out Aemond’s next plan. While Rhaenyra believes Heleana will not fight, Corlys is not so sure, knowing Aemond will want strength in numbers to match her own. He also reveals he’s renamed his ship The Queen That Never Was, in honour of his fallen wife, Rhaenys.

Corlys later gets a rude awakening from Alyn Of Hull, his first mate, who informs him he’s aware he’s his bastard son and that he doesn’t appreciate Corlys only now paying him attention after saving his life and his legitimate children, Laenor and Laena, are dead.

Over in Harrenhal, as Daemon’s army begins to take shape, Alys takes Daemon to Godswood, giving him a prediction with a stream of predictions of the future.

This includes events from Game Of Thrones, such as a warning of the Night King, the three-eyed raven, and Daenerys Targaryen as the mother to three dragons. The final part of the vision sees Rhaenyra as Queen on the Iron Throne.

Fearing Daemon’s motives to usurp Rhaenyra, Ser Simon sends word to Dragonstone about Daemon’s plans, prompting Rhaenyra to head to Harrenhal herself to confront him. To Jace’s anger, she chooses Addam to come with her.

However, upon her arrival, Daemon kneels before her, finally recognizing her as the One True Queen, vowing his loyalty to her, with the army quickly falling in line. He warns Rhaenyra that Winter is Coming, and they need to find a way to survive what lies ahead. She tells him never to leave her again and he promises not to.

On the eve of war, Rhaenyra is awoken in her sleep by Alicent, who has snuck away from King’s Landing to speak to her. Alicent admits resenting Rhaenyra for not caring about what was expected of her, when that was all she’d ever known. She admits to losing her way, and wanting to be free of plotting in the castle, hopes to run away with Heleana to safety.

Rhaenyra reminds her it’s her fault the battle between Blacks and Greens was started, and that she shouldn’t get the opportunity to run away from what she’s created. Alicent tries to broker a deal, saying that when Aemond flies to the Riverlands, she will allow Rhaenyra into King’s Landing to take the throne with her support.

In response, Rhaenyra warns her she will need Aegon’s head for the war to truly be over, and as proof to the smallfolk that she is the victor. Asking if Alicent has it in her to make that sacrifice, she begrudgingly agrees before returning home.

As the episode comes to an end, all the pieces are falling into place. The Blacks have an army at Harrenhal, Corlys’ ships, and their dragonriders. The Greens have an army brokered by the Lannisters and Ser Criston, Aemond on route to Harrenhal, and the Triarchy ships. Rhaena, who was sent away to the Vale, finally tracks down the riderless dragon that had been hiding in the hills, and Otto Hightower, long-missing, is seen huddled in a cell in an unknown location.

As Rhaenyra and Alicent look at the world around them and what they’ve organized to take place, Larys is seen fleeing King’s Landing, with a solemn-looking Aegon alongside him.

Sharako Lohar has a minor role in the book franchise, with only a handful of mentions, but is known as a fearsome admiral of the Triarchy fleet.

The Triarchy is an alliance army of the Free Cities of Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh, also known as the ‘Three Daughters’. Sharako is from Lys.

They caused chaos throughout season one, wreaking havoc on King’s Landing’s shipping lanes, and through their bloody, grey-scaled Prince-admiral known as The Crabfeeder, who was eventually taken down by Daemon.

In Fire and Blood, Lohar is only mentioned a handful of times by name, and only once by pronoun.

In the series, the character is played by transgender female actress, Abigail Thorn.

Among the Triarchy, Lohar is referred to as a man, but it is acknowledged she is female, with Tyland initially interpreting their request to bear children as a request to have sex with them. Lohar later clarifies he would be having sex with their wives.

The cast and creators of the show also refer to Lohar as female.

Showrunner Ryan Condal explained: “She's a bonkers character that feels like one of these very colourful characters ripped right out of the pages of George's books. The people there take her entirely seriously, and we're sort of looking at her the way that Tyland does, which is, what's going on? Is this real?”

He later explained the decision further and added to the official podcast: “The idea is it comes down to this is a woman in a man's role as a fleet commander, and this is a highly patriarchal society, and she has kind of played the David Bowie role her whole life. It's a bit of androgyny, and sort of, you know, tends one way or the other.

“I think what we're really trying to say is, in this time, all these salty sea dogs that she's surrounded with, all these men, their brains cannot process the idea that they're saluting a woman who is leading this massive... you see that fleet of ships at the end. So she presents herself as a masculine character in the classic sense, and then they sort of just accept it, and that's why they all follow her.

“But we, coming in from the outside with a modern eye, obviously see what's going on. But it's part of playing with the difference between the modern lens that we are all watching the show through, and the very backwards lens which most of the characters in the show look at life through.”

In this episode, Corlys is seen being forced to reflect on his legacy as The Sea Snake, but also the choices he’s made as a result, and how those choices have affected others.

This includes his acknowledgement of Rhaenys in renaming his ship, but also his treatment of Alyn Of Hull, leading to Alyn’s confrontation.

“He's lost all the people he loves,” said writer Sara Hess. “He's sort of come to this place of acceptance and understanding that his great exploits are less important than just having his family around him.”

“Rhaenys always had the conversation with Corlys about his heir, and none of them really feel like they're the right person,” she added. “For the first time, Corlys considers Addam and Alyn. Yes, they are bastards, but they are more qualified.”

Steve Toussaint, who plays Corlys, added: “He [Alyn] watched me with my other son, picking up wonderful gifts and walking into the castle, and he, who knew I was his father, had to grow up in poverty. For me then to come into his life and go ‘I'm trying to help you’, well, of course he's going to be resentful.”

“You see the way it lands on the Sea Snake,” said Condal. “I think he knows that he hasn't been the patriarchal figure that he needed to be to these guys, but I don't think he realizes until this moment the cost that it had on this human being.”

Throughout season two, Daemon has seemingly been battling his desire for the crown and power, at one point preparing to overtake Rhaenyra as ruler.

However, his vision at the Godswood – which shows him the prophecy of what the future holds – makes him finally vow loyalty to the Queen and his wife.

Sara Hess explained: “We definitely wanted to tie what Daemon sees to Game of Thrones, because where it picks up, it's Daenerys Targaryen finding those eggs.

“She is a descendant of Daemon and Rhaenyra, and so what he ends up seeing is that he's just this tiny piece of this massive story, and once you start to see that, you gain an entirely different perspective.”

“Even though Rhaenyra and Daemon are not going to save the realm from the White Walkers, their actions do have an impact on how that future is going to play out,” added Condal.

“To evolve from the character that stormed out of Dragonstone in episode two, we had to see Daemon go through all of his trials and tribulations and Rhaenyra not knowing what Damon is going to do. And I do believe he has changed, and he sees that he is not the player, but a piece on the board, as Alys tells him.”

At the end of the episode, Alicent has one last conversation with Rhaenyra on the eve of war, even offering up her son to end the fight once and for all in exchange for her freedom.

Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent, said: “It's massive that Alicent travels to Rhaenyra. It's treason if Aemond found out - head on a spike, but it's also to look for an era in the eye, as my rawest self.

“This is me shedding whatever power or queenly status I had. I was wrong. Take it. I don't want anything to do with it. I'm done. She's had this journey of self-actualization, and she's got a lot of power within her, and I think she feels much more capable.”

“The climax of that scene is Rhaenyra, 'I'm going to have to kill your son', and Alicent acceding to it, which is huge for Rhaenyra because that is not something that Alicent would ever have done before,” added Sara Hess.

“So I think that causes her to really believe what Alicent is saying. Rhaenyra has these new Dragon Riders. She's just gotten Daemon back. She has this big army if she wanted to, she could probably win this war herself, but at the cost of thousands and thousands of lives, and then she's sort of given this back door by Alicent. And so I think we leave Season Two with Rhaenyra in this place of, what am I going to do?”

“While this season was very much about the fits and starts of an early medieval war, season three is clearly going to be about total war,” teased Ryan Condal, with Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays Aegon, simply summarizing the situation as “s**t's about to hit the fan.”

Speaking further on the official podcast, Condal continued: “If you think about the first season as the calm before the storm, before the storm broke and the dragons danced, that famous line that George wrote in Fire and Blood.

“Season two is really, if not a Cold War, it was the march to war, and we're now literally seeing that at the end of the season. Whereas now the fuses have been lit, and season three is going to start with a bang.”

“I mean, there is no turning back now, which I hope is clear at the end of this,” he added. “There is no more dithering and looking for peace. It is an all-out fight.”

< Episode 7 – ‘The Red Sowing’