House Of The Dragon Episode Eight Review - 8 Ups & 2 Downs

The tempestuous Olivia Cooke made the role of Alicent Hightower her own from the very second she stepped into the green attire of the Queen and her magnificent performance as Westeros' latest wickedly complex monarch continued into this week's offering.

The parallels between Cersei and Alicent are plain to see in the aftermath of Aegon's rape of a chambermaid. Cersei knew that her child Joffrey was a monster but loved him regardless, in spite of his despicable nature. While Alicent may be appalled at her son's abominable actions, decrying Aegon as no son of her own, the Hightower Queen's implacable desire to ensure his accession would indicate otherwise.

With that being said, while Otto's daughter possesses her own brand of sinister ruthlessness - exemplified in morbid fashion in this episode as she intimidates the aforementioned maid into silence - she has not graduated to Cersei's level of ruthless brutality. That poor girl would have had her head on a spike before she even drew breath to begin crying had she been faced with Tywin Lannister's daughter.

Olivia Cooke appears to be taking notes from Lena Headey's towering performance as Cersei, while adding delightfully subtle enhancements of her own. The end result is a new villain, who is arguably more terrifyingly unpredictable as a result of the grey areas in the moral nature of her character. Audiences always knew where they were with the wickedly irreplaceable Cersei, but when it comes to Alicent, she is such a thoroughly engaging character because quite literally anything could happen.