“I think mother’s intuition”: Olivia Cooke Confirms 1 Tragic Detail About Alicent From ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 That Fans Have Long Wondered

Spoiler Alert!

House of the Dragon Season 2 has finally ended, and the season has been mostly about family and political drama. Olivia Cooke’s character, Alicent Hightower, was in the middle of this, dealing with all the chaos, and even she couldn’t escape the family drama.

Recently, Cooke opened up more about her character, and it turns out Alicent knew more about the happenings in her dysfunctional family than viewers might have thought. Alicent has been the highlight of Season 2. She is a mother, a queen, and apparently, a human lie detector too, when it comes to her children.

Alicent’s Intuition and Aegon’s Fate

In Season 2, Episode 4, during the battle at Rook’s Rest, a great dragon battle takes place where Aemond plans with Criston Cole and attacks Rhaenys Targaryen and Meleys with his Vhagar. However, Aegon suddenly appears in the fight, and Aemond seemingly takes the opportunity to attack both Aegon and Rhaenys and makes it look like an accident.

Rhaenys dies with Meleys and Aegon gets seriously injured during the battle. In a recent interview with GQ, Olivia Cooke was asked if she thinks Alicent knew about Aemond being the one behind Aegon’s injuries. Cooke said,

I think mother’s intuition, and also just the way she asked Criston Cole, and Criston Cole — who usually, I think, has been quite transparent with Alicent — sort of shirked off the answer and the subtext within that. I think she absolutely can sense that Aemond was the cause of Aegon’s [attack].

Cooke’s revelation shows how layered Alicent’s character is. She is not just dealing with political enemies only, she has to watch out for backstabbing within her own family too.

But although she suspected Aemond’s involvement in Aegon’s injuries, Alicent makes a decision in the season finale, which is quite shocking. When Rhaenyra demands Aegon’s head as part of a peace deal, Alicent doesn’t immediately shut it down. Cooke explains Alicent’s mindset in her GQ interview, saying,

When she comes to Rhaenyra [in the finale], it’s as close to ego death as Alicent will possibly allow herself to come to.

It is a huge moment for Alicent, as it shows just how far she is willing to go for what she believes is peace. As far as Aegon’s death is concerned, it seems like both Aemond and Alicent want him to die for their greater cause.

Aemond’s Motivations Against Aegon

Why would Aemond want to take out his own brother? Aemond’s actor Ewan Mitchell himself talked about his character’s motivations in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Mitchell said, 

It was no secret that he felt like Aegon was inferior to himself. He felt like Aegon lacked the perseverance to be a leader. Also, it’s no secret that Aegon was almost the ringleader to a lot of Aemond’s childhood torment and trauma.

It looks like Aemond has been holding some serious grudges against his brother for a long time. But was Aemond really trying to kill Aegon, or was it just an accident? Mitchell said that he believes Aemond might have never intended to attack Aegon. It was unfortunate of him to get tangled with Rhaenys and Meleys when he was on top of Sunfyre.

But director Alan Taylor seemingly left it to the viewers to decide Aemond’s true intentions for Aegon. In the interview, he said,

We wanted to sustain multiple motivations that might have happened there. It’s a battle move, but he did deliberately join the battle late, and he is being a little bit indiscriminate with how he’s blasting fire. 

In the end, whether Aemond meant to burn his brother or not, the result is the same. Aegon was injured, Alicent looks suspicious, and the Targaryen family drama just keeps getting hotter. 

House of the Dragon Season 2 is now streaming on Max.