Alicent’s love interest just got a huge promotion that nobody saw coming (except for the book fans).

A brutal murder of the Greens’ heir to the throne keeps coming as the most sinister omen for the dynasty’s future as House of the Dragon ’s season 2 continues its run with much bigger problems and major replacements in King’s Landing.

Already divided by the approaching war that now seems to be closer than ever after Aegon II’s emotional outburst, the Targaryens are facing yet another crisis that this time may be caused by someone pretty dangerous in the King’s closest surroundings.

Spoilers for House of the Dragon’s season 2 episode 2 ahead, the show now finds King Aegon II and the rest of the family grieving young Prince Jaehaerys after the latter has been brutally killed by a duo of thugs nicknamed Blood and Cheese.

While Helaena opts for staying alone in her chambers with no desire to make her little son’s funeral public, Aegon’s outrage goes further in action when he decides to punish Blood and Cheese in a much worse way than just torturing them in prison.

When assassins are hung alongside the castle’s walls for all the passersby to see, Aegon gets confronted by his grandfather and Hand of the King Otto Hightower, with the latter insisting that Aegon completely ruined common citizens’ trust by showing them his ruthless nature. With no minor hesitation Aegon later on dismisses Otto as his Hand of the King and offers this position to Ser Criston Cole, all this time present during Aegon and Otto’s squabble.

With Criston Cole now being the King’s main adviser, things may turn out even worse for the Greens than ever before. Soon after getting a huge promotion, Cole was quick to prove (not to the King though) that he had no real moral compass when he admitted there was no reason for him to seek absolution as he saw nothing bad in what he’d ever done, even a secret affair with Alicent didn’t count in this case.

However, his own actions are a major reason to doubt his own words as Cole got to be the one to send Ser Arryk on a mission to kill Rhaenyra, something that left the Blacks’ Queen alive, yet resulted in a double murder of Ser Arryk himself and his twin brother Erryk.

Having started his duties as Hand of the King with the twins’ blood on his hands, Criston Cole thus becomes a dangerous player for Team Green and its future, especially with Otto departing from King’s Landing, Aegon being significantly weakened by his heir’s death, Aemond becoming the one to wish for the war to come (yet he still regrets having killed Lucerys) and Alicent now having no real power over her love interest.