Geeta Vasant Patel on helming House Of The Dragon’s slow-burning season finale

House Of The Dragon closes its second season without big battles or dragons setting cities ablaze. Despite that lack of action, “The Queen Who Ever Was” still feels monumental because of the charged reunion of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) that promises to turn the tides when HBO’s drama returns in 2026.  

Their conversation isn’t in the source material Fire & Blood, and it’s not the only creative liberty HOTD takes in the finale. Another big swing comes in the form of Daemon (Matt Smith), whose latest haphazard vision features a cameo from a Targaryen family member and two major Game Of Thrones characters. Clearly, the Ryan Condal-created adaptation is attempting to pave a unique path for itself

To do so, the show entrusted Geeta Vasant Patel to bring these key moments to life. The director had previously helmed two other HOTD installments, along with episodes of Ahsoka, The Great, Dead To Me, Superstore, and The Mindy Project. This year, she also produced and directed Hulu’s true-crime drama Under The Bridge, which earned series star Lily Gladstone an Emmy nomination. 

The A.V. Club spoke to Patel about how she framed Rhaenyra and Alicent’s big talk, why Daemon’s visions were her favorite part of the episode, and going back to her roots with projects like UTB. 

The A.V. Club: When did you find out you would direct the season-two finale? What did you want to achieve in the episode? 

Geeta Vasant Patel: Ryan called me after I had finished working on my season-one episode “The Lord Of The Tides.” I wanted to do a good job on it so I was just happy that he was happy enough to invite me back. It was a very nice surprise to do the finale. After that, I got all the episodes, read them, and saw what needed to happen, which was that we needed it to feel like a big rising action moment. I challenged myself to bookend the season premiere, so I went back and watched that the theme of it was sacrifice for duty. So I kept looking for opportunities to come full circle on that theme in the finale. It’s all in the writing because [episode writer] Sara Hess and Ryan had already spent probably a year making sure of it. So it’s just my process of understanding and finding my way through it visually. I also just wanted to make sure that the scene between Alicent and Rhaenyra was building off of the scene in episode three, which I also directed, I don’t think coincidentally. Maybe that was Ryan’s intention that we were all working together again. 

AVC: You directed the only two scenes that Olivia and Emma share in the season. Their conversation in the finale carries way more emotional weight. What did you all want to evoke with their interaction here?

GVP: We wanted to feel as if there was that sacrifice made for duty and that Rhaenyra is pressing Alicent against the wall to do what she’s never done before, which is to take action. What’s interesting is that these two women were friends to begin with, and then it became an eye-for-an-eye type of relationship. Now there is so much pain behind them that this scene is a wrestling match with pain and forgiveness. They both were telling themselves, “I’ve moved on. I can’t feel anything.” But all we saw was emotion. All we saw were these two friends who still loved each other and yet had gotten a divorce. And you ask yourself, Why are they both in this room again? 

It’s because they couldn’t stay away from each other. Yes, we can reason that it’s because of the kingdom and the realm. But when they come together, they are young girls again. Both actors together become a little juvenile and innocent with their facial expressions like Olivia biting her nails again. Emma contours their face like a child with exaggeration. That made it grounded and real. My hat is off to Sara, whose writing brought so much humanity to the scene. It was like watching a great film with two people who’ve taken this long journey together. It could have been boring, but the writing made it nail-biting and heartfelt. 

AVC: At some points, they’re close and face-to-face, while at other times, Alicent is moving around almost manically while explaining herself. What was your directive to the actors? 

GP: It’s a very collaborative experience. When we work on a scene like this, we’ve had rehearsals beforehand where we talk about the point of the scene. I mean Ryan, Sara, Emma, Olivia, and myself. What we came to is that the shift in the scene is when Rhaenyra says, “A son for a son” and then Alicent agrees. That’s what we’re building to, so if we think about that tone-wise, we’re already at a 10. 

The truth is also when we started the rehearsal, Emma and Olivia are such talented actors, they ran through it and started walking, and I was just watching. There is something to be said about allowing the performers to just be the characters. I do this quite a bit as a director. I say, “Okay, go ahead, do whatever you want to do.” I check that one moment that we know is about the shift and make adjustments along the way, some of which are technical because we want to make sure we can make the day if we have too many camera moves. I also thought it was lovely that at one point, there was a silence between them, so I asked them to keep that and exaggerate it if they felt it was right. I just said, “Don’t worry, keep going; we’ll keep rolling.” So those moments were beautiful and came from the two actors and me experimenting within the parameters set out. 

Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke in House Of The Dragon (Photo: Liam Daniel/HBO)

AVC: What was it like to prep with Ryan and Sara for this critical scene? 

GVP: Ryan and Sara are extraordinary in that they’re very easy to approach. One of the things I love about the show is we got all the episodes before we started shooting, so I would write all my notes and questions, mainly questions at that point. So much of what Ryan and Sara want for the show is between the lines. For example, in the first season when I did episode eight, it was about linear analysis between Rhaenyra and Alicent in that episode. I remember thinking even back then that they never say what they’re feeling, but it’s intentional. That’s a great part about Ryan’s vision for HOTD, and that’s why it’s so exciting to work on it because it feels very real even in a world with dragons in them. 

I asked them questions, but it was not for them to change the script. Instead, it’s for me to understand what’s intentionally not on the page. And then from there, we start molding the scenes together. I’m constantly checking in with them about what I’m thinking. I push their buttons and say, “No, no, but what about this?” Sometimes they’ll say things like, “No, you’re wrong” or “Okay, sure, let’s try it.” So, at that point, I’m trying to serve them and challenge their vision in a way. 

As we start shooting, we usually have rehearsals for the bigger scenes, and Ryan, Sara, or one of the writers would come to help us understand what the writers intended. A lot of times, what we found in the finale rehearsals is there’s something we needed [to set up] for season three, so it had to be this way. It’s valuable to have the writers there with you the whole time because they know more than we do. Or sometimes there’s a change to another episode, right? So then they’ll make sure that we check that. A lot of things in this episode had to do with the tone of the characters since we were introducing a few new ones. 

AVC: I presume one of the questions was about Daemon’s visions of things like Rhaenyra on the throne, him in the water, the Night King, and Daenerys. What went through your mind as you read it in the script about how you’d execute it? 

GVP: In the script, it was exactly like that: a list of the moments in his vision, almost like bullet points. Ryan and Sara wanted it to feel fragmented. So my first question to them was [about] what they want out of it in terms of story because it’s such a visual moment. And they particularly didn’t want it to be too literal. So they wanted me to run with it. Their main point to me was that this vision has to change Daemon’s point of view. It has to tell him Rhaenyra belongs on the throne, and everything he’s been doing this season or thinking about how his wife is putting him down and he’ll never work for her isn’t true. He needs to see that he’s part of something bigger than him, which was a huge undertaking. [It was] a huge challenge for me that definitely had some sleepless nights involved because Daemon is inherently someone who only thinks about himself. He is not someone who learns lessons easily. So we needed this to be powerful, and yet there are no words in it until the very, very end. 

I sat down with the storyboard artist, took everything they told me, and started filling in the blanks of what I thought we needed to get to what they were saying, finding transitions visually between them to give it an organic feel. Ryan wanted the tone of this scene to feel like something specific to HOTD and unlike anything you’ve seen in fantasy television before, or even in Game Of Thrones. So I spent some time looking to give it that treatment. I was quite honored. That was one of my favorite moments in my career as a TV director, to give this my voice and put it together with the storyboard artists. Once we came up with it, I presented it to them. I’ll never forget that day.

AVC: What was it like to put Matt Smith and Phia Saban in a scene? We rarely see Daemon and Heleana together.

GVP: It was fun to put them together, and I think they both enjoyed it too. It’s magical because Matt had been playing in this different dimension in season two.  For Daemon, it’s exciting to find someone who shares his powers. Phia has always played this person who is lost in her universe, and now there’s someone else in it. So it’s random, but it also makes sense. 

AVC: One of the new faces you introduce is Admiral Sharako Lohar, played by Abigail Thorn, who was originally a male character in the book. Her scenes with Tyland Lannister bring a degree of comic relief. Was it refreshing to have this aspect in the finale?

GVP: What’s great about Sara is she also has a comedy background, and it comes across in her effervescent writing. As a director, I’m trying to take her writing and make sure that everything I’m doing with it works together along with lighting, blocking, and tone. The second film I made, Meet The Patels starring my brother Ravi, is about my family, and it’s a comedy. What I learned while working with him was that a lot of comedy came from improvisation, feeling very comfortable, and having the space to play. As I started directing TV comedies, I would constantly work with the actors in that way and try to support them and give them space to do many takes. I know sometimes people say, “Oh, this great director can get a scene in two takes.” That’s fine, but I do love pushing the actors to take advantage of their talents. So many actors might say, “I can’t improv,” and I look at them and reassure them and say, “I’ve got you; if it’s not good, I’ll throw it away.” 

So when it came to this finale, it was the same thing. I would say [to Abigail and Jefferson Hall], “Go ahead, let’s do this” and later move to, “Okay, now forget everything I said and do whatever you want.” It’s like an exercise in theater, and these are excellent performers. Matt Smith particularly also loves to play, as does Emma, and when they do, every take is different. As for Abigail, when the audition process started, I think Ryan knew she was the one. She was so great to work with. If you look at the Lohar scenes, you don’t know much about her background. Abigail and I wanted to make sure that her character felt very lived-in and had history. I wanted to give her all the tools she needed so that when she said something, it was coming from a deep, authentic place. We spent a few weeks on and off training, and she would improv moments of Lohar’s history. We had one of our esteemed dialect coaches play against her. We played out her childhood, who her mother, father, and sister might be, where her pain comes from, and everything leading up to this episode. It helped shape her voice, the way she moved, and her tonality.

Abigail Thorn and Jefferson Hall in House Of The Dragon (Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO

AVC: The finale ends with a montage revealing where every character stands. It’s a big season-three setup. Were you nervous about pulling that off?

GVP: With the final montage, my biggest fear was it would be boring because it’s so many images. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t, as a director, treating everything similarly. We wanted the montage to have rising stakes for the impending war. When you have that many images, we need to keep up the pulse of the sequence. So the first thing I did was to ask myself if I could break it into three acts and what the shift point would be so it doesn’t all feel monotonous. The big thing I settled on was a sacrifice, which is Aegon. His placement had to come at the two-third mark. I had hoped it would give the montage its shape and sustain it. It also tells a story because, in the previous scene, Rhaenyra says to Alicent that she hasn’t sacrificed anything, and they decide it’s going to be a son for a son. The montage is to show everyone’s going to war, but Aegon has now left. So the stakes have changed. What’s going to happen now? It’s an interesting way to leave the season. 

AVC: This year also saw the release of Hulu’s Under The Bridge, which you directed and executive produced. What drew you to it? What was it like to bring personal experience along with your expertise to this undertaking? 

GVP: Yeah, so I’ve been looking to do a pilot for a few years. There are exciting episodes like House Of The Dragon, of course, but I’ve been wanting to direct a pilot. When I read the script for Under The Bridge, about an Indian girl in Canada who was bullied and killed, I couldn’t stop crying. I was bullied around the same age of 14 for being Indian, and that still stays with me. It’s shaped me. I know UTB is a true story, and I felt so bad that it happened. At the time early on, the project was small and no big stars were attached to it yet. There wasn’t a lot of money for this project. While developing it, it was about what angle and perspective to take, and when that was done, I got the job of directing the pilot. 

The next thing was to make sure the performances felt real and that we were doing Reena Virk justice. I particularly had four young actors who hadn’t done much yet simply because of their ages; they were 12 to 15. None of them had done anything that resembled UTB’s tone, which was going to be very 8 Mile and Fish Tank. In a method similar to HOTD, I spent a few weeks and weekends workshopping the characters with the actors. We improvised their histories. It was very hard for the girls, and it was hard for me to watch. We also worked on their voices. Vritika Gupta, if you hear talk, it’s very sweet. When she’s playing Reena, her voice goes down. UTB was a labor of love. Again, I had a collaborative showrunner and studio. I said to them in the beginning that I can deliver a show that’s just like something you’ve seen before, or I can deliver what you want, but you’ve got to give me time to work with these talented actors. 

AVC: As someone who’s directed big-budget dramas, TV comedies, and gritty documentaries, how do you think playing in different genres has developed your skillset? What do you want to work on next? 

GVP: I grew up going to India almost every year of my life, and I’ve constantly recognized a clash of cultures. So I’ve always wanted to work on topics of civil and social justice through my work, which is how I started in the documentary space. But then I realized quickly that doing it was preaching to the choir because a lot of liberals were watching the movies made by me, a liberal. So when I entered the entertainment industry, I planned to hone my skills and come back to doing those kinds of things and expanding my audience. I want to make a difference. So it’s been eight years that I’ve been trying to hone it. The three episodes of HOTD feel like the Olympics for me. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for years along with the comedies. 

Now it’s time for me to switch gears. I want to bring more South Asians to the screen. I am working specifically on stories like that, which have my voice, having now learned whatever I have. I have an entirely Gujarati language film I wrote because everything doesn’t have to be in English anymore. You can make shows and films from other backgrounds. I don’t mean a Hindi-language Bollywood film, but something even more different. I mean, we watched and loved Squid Games, right? So I’m going back to my roots to explore these topics of race and gender. I also want to make things that are classics that I could watch over and over again like When Harry Met Sally.