In episode three, “The Squire,” we finally got that big reveal. Episode four, “Seven,” digs into Dunk’s reaction to Egg’s monumental secret. But even more urgently, our favorite hedge knight must now face the consequences of kicking Aerion Targaryen’s very well-deserving incestuous alien ass.
What form will his punishment take, though—and who will stick by him? The thrilling and poignant “Seven” reveals all, leading up to another monumental A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms plot twist.
We open in a dungeon. A rat creeps in out of the rain, and the prisoner—a very worried-looking Dunk—reaches out to give it a scritch.
Egg, dressed in his princely finery, enters the cell. “My uncle says I must beg your forgiveness for deceiving you,” the boy says in a small voice.
His uncle, Dunk replies. As in, Prince Baelor, the heir to the Iron Throne. Dunk is furious about being lied too; it seems like that’s bothering him more than his still-undecided (but guaranteed to be unpleasant) fate.
And anyway, what’s with that nickname? “Short for Aegon,” the kid admits. Named after Aegon the Conquerer, and the four other King Aegons that have come before him.
Egg also explains why he did it. It wasn’t a joke at Dunk’s expense; he had really wanted to squire at the tournament, but his older brother, the oft-drunk Daeron, had zero plans to actually show up and fight. “I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” he insists, with tears in his eyes.
“Of course you did,” Dunk shoots back. “That’s why you lied.” He’s frustrated more than angry, and he’s sad, too.
Next up is a meeting with Prince Baelor, in a book-filled room upstairs. Dunk’s first instinct is to defend Egg: “He’s a good boy. A good squire. And he meant no harm. I know that now.”
© Steffan Hill/HBO“One need not intend harm to do it,” Baelor points out, and Egg looks contrite. Baelor says the boy should have sought out his uncle instead of Dunk when he saw Aerion attacking Tanselle.
Egg protests there wasn’t enough time. He also mutters that he wishes Dunk had killed his brother, and Baelor admonishes him. You have to love your brother, even if your brother is a cruel asshole. (Or in Baelor’s case with Maekar, a whiny snob.)
Baelor sends Egg out, and tells Dunk the situation has somehow gotten worse. Maekar finally tracked down Daeron, and the boozy lad wove a fantasy about a “huge robber knight” kidnapping Aegon. Now, Dunk’s on the hook not just for beating up Aerion, but snatching the youngest Targaryen too.
Baelor also grimly suspects Tanselle will be charged with high treason for her puppet show’s subject matter, thanks to Aerion’s exaggerated version of the story.
You can tell Baelor knows great portions of these accusations are complete bullshit, but he keeps his composure and doesn’t say anything against his family members. He also reminds Dunk that one part of all these events is indisputable: Dunk did indeed kick Aerion’s ass. “You laid hands upon the Blood of the Dragon,” is how he phrases it.
Dunk protests. He only did it because Aerion hurt Tanselle. And anyway, wouldn’t have Baelor done the same thing?
“I might have, but I am a prince of the realm, not a hedge knight.”
“Don’t all knights to take the same oath to protect the innocent?”
The question lingers. Baelor says a trial is unavoidable, and Daeron’s fib about Dunk kidnapping Egg will also be included in the charges. Dunk will most certainly be found guilty, and will likely lose a hand (for striking Aerion) and a foot (for kicking him) as punishment.
As this sinks in, Baelor brings context to a question he posed to Dunk earlier, and repeats it: “How good of a knight are you, truly?”
© Steffan Hill/HBOWe cut to the room where, not so long ago, Dunk asked the Targaryens to let him enter the tournament. Aerion is loudly cracking walnuts with the handle of his knife; Maekar sits next to him, barely containing his disgust at this horrible creature that happens to be his son. Baelor is also there, along with Lord Ashford and another big shot, Lord Leo Tyrell.
“Trial by combat,” Dunk announces. “That’s my right.”
Aerion: “I refuse.”
His father and uncle remind him he can’t do that, unless he wants to withdraw his claim. For half a second, Dunk looks hopeful that Aerion might say the word and make all this go away.
Nope: “A trial of seven,” Aerion declares.
Most of the men at the table are confused, so Baelor has to explain. “It is another form of trial by combat. Ancient. Seldom invoked. It came across the sea with the Andals and their seven gods.”
While we ponder how, exactly, Aerion—who doesn’t look like the type to do much reading—knew about the trial of seven, Baelor explains that this will require each man to rally six champions to back him up, making for a seven-on-seven fight. The Andals believed that the tribute would make the gods take interest and intervene, making sure the guilty party was rightfully punished.
Maekar, meanwhile, seizes upon a more urgent point. He turns to Aerion and hisses what we were all thinking: “Are you cowering behind some 6,000 year old Andal foolery because you’re afraid to face this hedge knight alone?”
Aerion condescendingly explains that no, he’s doing it because Dunk has to answer for all his crimes at once, including what Daeron’s accusing him of. The House of the Dragon wouldn’t want to leave “a matter of Targaryen honor in doubt,” now, would they?
(“This is fucking nonsense,” Maekar exclaims, and as odious as he is… we agree.)
So it’s settled. A trial of seven to be held at dawn, and it’s on Dunk—who arrived at Ashford Meadow with zero connections—to find six knights willing to fight alongside him. If he can’t find the men, “It will be because you are guilty,” Aerion says.
Maekar drags him out of the room, and we hear him call his son an idiot (again, agree) as the camera focuses on Dunk’s deeply concerned face.
“Seek your champions, Ser Duncan,” Baelor tells him as he exits, and we follow Dunk as he trudges into the rainy night.
© Steffan Hill/HBOBack at camp, he’s just finished telling his horses he’s pretty sure he’s gonna die tomorrow when Raymun appears—delighted his friend is somehow still alive—and insists he come back to the Fossoway tent for something to eat.
Ser Steffon is also there, and the cousins take in Dunk’s explanation of the trial by seven. Steffon is a blustering jerk, but he digs deep into his sense of knightly honor to tell Dunk he saw was Aerion did to the puppeteers, and he knows why Dunk intervened. All knights, after all, take a vow to protect the innocent.
“I’m for you,” Steffon declares. He’s also not afraid of royal reprisals. The Fossoways were in Westeros long before the Targaryens ever arrived—“and I’ll warrant we’ll be here long after they’re gone.”
Even better, he offers to help Dunk find five more men to join their side. “You shan’t die under my watch, ser. I promise you that.”
He leaves, and Dunk wonders about his chances. Raymund suggests it might be better to run; either way, he’s likely to meet his end.
“Maybe the gods figure it’s what I deserve,” Dunk says.
Raymun doesn’t believe it. “For doing what you were supposed to do?”
“For not knowing my place.”
Just then, Egg bursts in; he’s still Dunk’s squire, and he’s there to do his job and arm him for the fight. Dunk is surprised, in a good way.
© Steffan Hill/HBOHowever, he’s soon surprised, in a bad way, when Daeron—Dunk’s co-accuser—appears. The prince seems mostly sober for once, but Dunk is furious with him for his devastating lies. Daeron explains he had to, otherwise he’d get in big trouble with his father for losing track of Egg on the road to Ashford Meadow.
Egg, for his part, begs Dunk not to hurt his brother, then says Maekar will be fighting on Aerion’s side in the trial.
“Yeah, of course he will. He must redeem his son’s honor,” Dunk says.
Daeron interjects that he never asked to have his honor redeemed. “Whoever has it can keep it, as far as I’m concerned.” He furthers that point by promising he’ll be the least of all the threats on the side of the accusers. He even asks Dunk to give him a (not too hard) knock on the helm once the fighting starts, so he can slink away unharmed.
Dunk is angered anew. “Is that all you came her to say?”
Egg pipes in to say the three Kingsguard at Ashford will also be joining Aerion’s side. When Dunk says his only support so far is Raymun’s cousin, Egg says he’ll find people to fight—even against his own family. Maekar will be protected, and Daeron’s already planning to tap out early.
And Aerion? Here we get a charming story about Aerion threatening to slice off Egg’s genitals and turn him from a brother into a sister, “then he could marry me.” That is peak House of Incestuous Aliens, and needless to say, Egg would shed zero tears if Aerion died.
As Daeron turns to leave, he asks Dunk for a private word. Finally, we’re going to revisit that very odd exchange they had back at the inn in episode one: “I dreamed of you… my dreams are not like yours. Mine come true. An impressive talent for an unimpressive man.”
As we saw with the fortuneteller last week, Dunk doesn’t think much of woo-woo crap. But he listens as Daeron continues. “I have seen you, ser. And a fire. And a dead dragon. A great beast with wings so large they could cover this meadow. It had fallen on top of you. But you were alive, and the dragon was dead.”
Neither of them know what it means—and, they agree, neither of them want to die today. Daeron apologizes (finally) for his lie. He’s doomed to some kind of hell, he figures, “likely one without wine.”
Thunder and lightning rumble as Dunk wanders into the abandoned puppet tent, remembering Tanselle’s lines in the play: “You are no knight.” While he’s glumly pondering his future, Steely Pate appears. Tanselle is long gone, thankfully having escaped Targaryen wrath and headed to Dorne, but she left Dunk’s freshly painted shield behind.
Not only is the artwork—a tree with a shooting star—beautiful, Steely Pate has repaired the weak parts of the shield. It’ll be stronger than ever before. He also reassures a tearful Dunk, who despairs that the shield’s sunset scene evokes death a little too much: “The elm’s alive, man. See how green the leaves are?”
The rain stops as the sun rises, and Dunk walks to the misty meadow to see… a ragtag group of champions who have stepped forward for his cause. At least one is in it more to get revenge on Aerion: Ser Humfrey Hardyng, the knight whose horse was impaled (and his own leg broken) after being challenged by the Targaryen prince the previous day.
© Steffan Hill/HBOThere’s Ser Robyn Rhysling, the one-eyed weirdo Egg met in episode three. And our pal Ser Lyonel Baratheon, who came at Egg’s behest and also because “there hasn’t been a trial of seven for 100 years. I wasn’t about to miss the chance to bloody up the Kingsguard in their pretty white gowns!”
Outside the ring, a crowd has gathered; everyone is dead silent. Dunk is nervous. He’s down a man, for one thing—with Ser Steffon and himself, he’s still only got six on his side. (We don’t actually meet the sixth man, which is a little confusing, but it’s Ser Humfrey Beesbury. Watch carefully, and you’ll spot him and his beehive adornments.)
And anyway, it turns out Dunk only has five, because Ser Steffon has betrayed his earlier vow to protect Dunk at any cost, having been made an offer he decided he’d rather not refuse.
Raymun’s disgusted response sums it up: “You traded your honor for a lordship?” He absolutely did.
Dunk and Raymun watch Lord Steffon ride off. “We are lost,” Dunk nods with certainty.
Raymun barely hesitates. “Knight me,” he says. “I will take my cousin’s place.”
Dunk—who as we know was never actually knighted in the formal sense—does hesitate. The horn sounds, summoning Dunk to the field. Ser Lyonel steps in to knight Raymun, and we hear the part of the vow that charges the knight with protecting the young and innocent.
© Steffan Hill/HBOWhile this is happening, Dunk has a vision of Ser Arlan looking down at him, and shrugging, as if to say, “Sorry I never got around to it, kid.” It’s go time, but Dunk still only has six men. He’ll automatically be found guilty if he can’t find a seventh, and Lord Ashford allows him a little bit longer to try to recruit one more champion.
Dunk trots Thunder around the ring, addressing the still silent crowd, making his final plea. He knows nobody remembers Ser Arlan. But Ser Arlan knew many of them, and “he was a good man.”
“He taught me how to be a knight. Not just sword and lance, but honor. A knight defends the innocent. That’s-that’s all I did.”
“I was not Ser Arlan’s blood, but I have followed his example, as your sons have followed yours.” The camera cuts around to fathers and sons together, then shows an uncomfortable-looking Maekar… and a worried Egg. “Who will stand and fight with me?” Dunk calls out. The crowd is silent as ever. Nobody moves. Then one man stands.
The music swells, hopefully. “The Brute of Bracken!” someone in the crowd gasps. And then the man… lets out a huge, obnoxious fart. There’s laughter. Guffaws. We see Aerion chuckling from astride his horse.
“Has courage deserted the noble houses of Westeros?” a disgusted Dunk yells. “Are there no true knights among you?”
© Steffan Hill/HBOHope is fading. Until… yes, someone is coming. A solo rider gallops up to Dunk and removes his helmet as Maekar rides up behind him. It’s Prince Baelor.
“I will take Ser Duncan’s side,” he announces.
The music swells into a theme we all know very well, and there’s no shitting on the Game of Thrones music this time around. Instead, goosebumps. The crowd rises to its feet. Egg smiles in wonder. Aerion looks petulant. Dunk stares in disbelief.
“This man protected the innocent, as every true knight must,” Baelor declares. “Let the gods decide if he was right or wrong.”
Hell yes. A thousand times yes. The Game of Thrones theme swells as we cut to black. We’ll have to wait until Sunday for the battle to begin—A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ next episode hits HBO and HBO Max.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
English (US) ·