‘House of the Dragon’ Hits Highest IMDb Rating Ever Thanks to Emma D’Arcy

Few television dramas bear the weight of expectation like ‘House of the Dragon’ does each week. As the ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel approaches its penultimate season, the Dance of the Dragons has intensified, making every episode crucial to the narrative, and audiences are responding enthusiastically.

With the Targaryen civil war reaching its most personal and brutal phase, Season 3 has launched with momentum that leaves little room for error.

The season opener, titled “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood,” broke records for the series, debuting with a 9.4 out of 10 on IMDb, matching the previous high score held by the Season 2 episode “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” making it the joint-highest-rated episode in the show’s history. Following that was Episode 2.

Episode 2 of Season 3, titled “Queen’s Landing,” has now surpassed that score, achieving a 9.4 on IMDb and becoming the highest-rated episode of the entire series. Within hours of airing, social media erupted, with the show trending globally and Emma D’Arcy’s name appearing in nearly every conversation.

The episode begins in the wake of Jacaerys Velaryon’s death, with Team Black grappling with a devastating loss, compelling Rhaenyra to adopt the mindset of a queen rather than a grieving mother. The initial five minutes, where Emma D’Arcy conveys profound emotion with just their eyes, set the stage for the rest of the episode, showcasing one of the actor’s strongest performances in the series.

Instead of reacting as a queen making a strategic decision, Rhaenyra responds as a mother struggling to comprehend the loss of her child, creating one of the most discussed moments of the season thus far.

The internet took notice. Fans flooded social media with clips, reactions, and widespread calls for Emmy consideration, with one popular post succinctly stating: “Emma D’Arcy delivered an absolutely incredible performance in ‘House of the Dragon,’ season 3 episode 2. Emma D’Arcy should get an Emmy for this.”

The latter half of the episode takes a dramatic turn as grief transforms into determination. Rhaenyra and Daemon fly to the Red Keep with their dragon riders, entering the throne room with little resistance. However, with Aemond absent and Aegon on the run, Rhaenyra needs to make a decisive move to signal the end of Team Green’s reign.

Otto Hightower is brought before Rhaenyra, and in a moment that is neither triumphant nor satisfying, she makes the painful choice to sentence him to death, marking her full acceptance of the burdens of queenship. TV Insider spoke with Emma D’Arcy about Rhaenyra’s emotional state during that final throne room scene, where the actor explained: “I wanted Rhaenyra to be stripped of her adulthood by the time she reaches the throne.

She finds herself in this position where she’s required to execute her father’s former best friend. When someone has known you from your childhood, I think it’s very hard to retain the jacket of your adult self.”

Alicent arrives too late to save Otto, only to learn that he has already been executed, shattering the fragile understanding she hoped to maintain between the two queens and ensuring that the conflict will grow more personal moving forward. The cruel irony of Alicent’s gamble failing at the moment it seemed to be working gave the episode its most poignant emotional impact.

“Queen’s Landing” was penned by Sara Hess and directed by Clare Kilner, marking the final appearances of Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower and Harry Collett as Jacaerys Velaryon. The loss of two pivotal characters in a single episode would have been significant enough to spark discussion, but when paired with the level of performance that anchored them, the episode became impossible to overlook.

The season consists of eight episodes and is set to continue through August, meaning the conversation around ‘House of the Dragon’ is far from over, with the series still needing to meet the exceptionally high standard that Episode 2 has now established. If this is the level the show is operating at just two episodes in, the future promises to be genuinely remarkable.

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