This review contains full spoilers for this week’s episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
“I think I could be quite happy in a place like this.” Aww, poor Egg. A tranquil life in the country doesn’t seem to be what fate has in store for him because, as we learn in the closing moments of this week’s episode (“The Squire”), Egg is actually Prince Aegon V Targaryen.
“Egg” (Dexter Sol Ansell) is the son of Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell) and kid brother of both major jackass Prince Aerion (Finn Bennett) and the elderly Maester Aemon of The Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones. (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set roughly 90 years before the events of the flagship series.)
This revelation happens after Dunk (Peter Claffey) does what any good knight should do and come to the aid of a damsel in distress, in this case the puppeteer Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) who is being assaulted by Aerion for her puppet show depicting the slaying of a dragon. To Aerion, her show is tantamount to treason because it depicts a symbol of the ruling Targaryen family being killed. (Aerion isn’t completely wrong about that symbolism, mind you, if the vitriolic disdain towards the Targaryens by the likes of Raymun Fossoway is any indicator of public sentiment.) Dunk then unleashes a beating on Aerion up until Egg’s intervention saves him from the guards.
Dunk and the other non-Targaryens present are floored by the revelation that Egg, the squire to a lowly hedge knight, is actually a prince of the realm. Although Egg’s behavior has been slightly evasive and curious in the past two episodes, we now know why this kid’s bald (“I cut it off, brother. I don’t want to look like you.”) and knows so much about knights and the Great Houses.
Dunk’s growing disillusionment with knighthood is his overriding arc this season, and if his doubts about knights were planted in Episode 2, then seeing Aerion’s dastardly and purposeful cheating at the Ashford tourney and subsequent punishment of Tanselle were the final straws. (Oh, and he’s also asked to participate in a fixed fight!)
We’ll have to wait until next week’s episode to learn the ramifications of not only Dunk’s assaulting Aerion but also of Egg’s sudden reunion with the family he’d run away from (his eldest brother Prince Daeron remains MIA for now).
The big reveal of Egg’s true identity – which wasn’t shocking to readers of George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas – shattered the harmony of what had been up until that point a sweet and simple episode. Egg is worried about Dunk’s chances of surviving the tourney, so he singlehandedly trains Dunk’s horse, and later hilariously turns a song about a woman who pleasured men’s bums into a pep talk about hope.
These charming vignettes of Dunk and Egg just talking, helping or teasing each other, eating sandwiches – punctuated by Dan Romer’s melodic score – make them underdogs you love rooting for, and adds them to the ranks of Game of Thrones’ most compelling pairings (e.g., Arya and the Hound, Tyrion and Bronn, Brienne and Jaime, etc.).
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