In last week’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, we saw how Dunk met Egg—and the moment the hedge knight reluctantly agreed to let the peculiar bald kid serve as his squire.
We also followed Dunk’s increasingly desperate quest to find someone, anyone, to vouch for him—hoping the legacy of his master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree, would be enough to get him into the tourney at Ashford Meadow.
This week, in an episode entitled “Hard Salt Beef,” well… Dunk has to level up. Big time.
Your eyeballs won’t soon forget the sight of Ser Arlan of Pennytree emerging from a shack (where he’s clearly just had a tryst) and taking a relaxing whizz—stark naked, his dangling manhood on display. Last week’s projectile poop has nothing on this explicit visual. Does anything in Game of Thrones-adjacent history? It’s deadpan. In your face. Full of pee.
This memorable moment in the past is underscored by Dunk’s narration in the present. Ser Manfred Dondarrion blew him off last week, but some knight or lord must remember Ser Arlan… right?
“He had a peaceful nature. Quiet and humble,” Dunk describes. “A veteran of a hundred wars but an enemy to none. He always knew what was expected of him.”
It’s a glowing reminiscence that isn’t entirely supported by a flashback montage, which shows Ser Arlan was frequently very drunk and fond of singing at the top of his lungs in that state. But Dunk is genuinely earnest, and when we pull away from his memories, we see the young hedge knight is making the rounds… in vain. None of the men—House Florent, House Hayford, House Tyrell—gathered at Ashford have any recollection of his late master.
We realize that Egg has been taking in the many rejections and feels sorry that Dunk is being humiliated over and over.
He doesn’t understand why Dunk puts up with it. “Why do you treat these royal lapdogs like they’re your betters?” he asks. Dunk’s answer: “They are my betters.”
Dunk barges into the House of the Dragon. © Steffan Hill/HBOHe’s still got hope that someone will remember Ser Arlan. But his quest is interrupted when trumpets sound and a group of riders, dressed in black and holding banners festooned with that familiar three-headed dragon, gallop into Ashford.
We get a close-up of Egg looking concerned. He quickly offers to head back to their camp to keep an eye on things. Distracted, Dunk agrees and sets off after the new arrivals.
They are, of course, the Targaryen contingent, led by Baelor—Hand of the King and heir to the Iron Throne. Also along are his brother, Maekar, and Maekar’s son, Aerion. Only the latter two have the ice-blonde hair the family is known for, as well as that trademark surly, superior attitude.
Aerion immediately mistakes the hovering Dunk for a stable boy. Nice first impression. But that doesn’t deter Dunk from mustering up the gumption to follow the elder Targaryens into the castle.
He’s intending to continue his hunt for a sponsor but overhears Baelor (polite, diplomatic), Maekar (rude and blustery), and Lord Ashford (obsequious) discussing the unpleasant fact that two of Maekar’s sons, Daeron and Aegon, have gone missing while making their way to the tourney.
The even-tempered Baelor is certain they’ll turn up. Maekar, talking about Daeron, who was supposed to enter the lists, mutters, “I do not need to be reminded of my son’s failings. He can change; he will change, gods be damned.”
Dunk chooses that moment to make his presence known—interrupting the family tension—and explains his predicament.
Baelor is, again, polite; Maekar is rude as hell. Even Ashford is snooty. But Baelor remembers Ser Arlan! In great detail, in fact!
He’s as kind as Dunk is awkward (even as Maekar snorts at the hedge knight’s fumblings) and suggests to the Ashford steward—the phlegmy guy we met last week; he’s in charge of running the tourney—that Dunk should be allowed to enter.
Dunk puts his foot in his mouth a few times during this chat, but Baelor lets it slide. He gently reminds Dunk he can’t use the Pennytree sigil since he wasn’t the old man’s son. He’ll need to change up Ser Arlan’s shield and make it his own.
Tanselle at work. © Steffan Hill/HBOWe’re back at the puppet show. The pretty narrator from last week, now even taller on stilts, performs as Dunk looks at her through goo-goo eyes. After the show, Dunk and Egg (Egg is also delighted by the puppet show, for more childlike reasons) approach. After she mentions she helps create the puppets, Dunk asks her if he can hire her to paint a new design on his shield.
His shaky confidence runs out when he realizes he hasn’t actually thought about the design, but Egg steps in to help shape the idea: an elm tree with a shooting star above. Dunk introduces himself as “Ser Duncan the Tall,” and she reveals her name is Tanselle, adding, “The boys used to call me Tanselle Too-Tall.”
Dunk, of course, turns this into a clumsy compliment. Moments later, he asks his tiny wingman, “Was that ill-handled?”
His mortification is eased when Ser Lyonel—the good-time guy we met last week, who took quite the shine to Dunk—appears and drafts the pair into a rowdy, spontaneous game of tug-of-war. Dunk, who is as enormous as Egg is small, helps lead their side to victory.
After, Dunk wanders the makeshift village until he finds an armorer, who says he can outfit him for 800 stags. It’s steep. Too steep. But he can’t fight without armor. The man—Steely Pate is his name—gives off very gruff vibes, but he’s not without reason. He agrees to let Dunk trade in some old armor (Ser Arlan’s, no doubt) and to lower the price a little.
© Steffan Hill/HBOHe also accepts Dunk’s two stags (that’s all he has) as a deposit, but the generosity ends there. We see Dunk reluctantly selling one of his beloved horses to make up the rest.
“Is there any measure of a fool I fail to meet?” he murmurs sadly. He promises the pony he’ll buy her back if he wins.
In a somber mood, he tells Egg that maybe if he becomes a champion at Ashford, some great house will want to take him into its service. Maybe even House Targaryen. Egg doesn’t think much of that plan, but the moment is interrupted when the horn blows: time to watch some opening-night jousting!
What looks to be a Tully of Riverrun sets the tone by biting the head off a fish and yelling “For the new gods… and old!” to thunderous approval; his opponent is “Prince Valaar, Baelor’s son. Second in line to the throne,” Egg explains.
Then, as the crowd hushes to await the start of the joust, some jokester in the crowd screams out, “LORD ASHFORD FUCKS HIS SHEEP,” which goes over even better than the fish stunt.
Dunk hoists Egg onto his shoulders so he can see above the masses. The action is boisterous, electric, and… terrifying, at least to Dunk. Egg is hooting like he’s at a pro wrestling match. But Dunk’s face as he watches riders get struck down and horses collapse betrays his realization that this is what he himself will be doing once he’s called into the ring. He flashes back to burying Ser Arlan, and it’s a sobering moment.
© Steffan Hill/HBOBy the campfire after, Egg is still amped, but Dunk is reflective. We get a lovely, thoughtful monologue as he ponders what’s happened so far—and what lies ahead.
“Do great knights live in the hedges and die by the side of a muddy road? I think not.”
Ser Arlan “was a hard man to know,” Dunk admits. “He had no friends either. He lived nigh on 60 years and never was a champion. What chance do I have, truly?”
But all is not lost. There’s still hope for this young hedge knight. “But he was good to me. I wasn’t his family. But he kept me like we were. He raised me to be an honorable man, and all these noble lords can’t even remember his name. His name was Ser Arlan of Pennytree, and I am his legacy.”
“On the morrow, we will show them what his hand has wrought.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
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