This review contains full spoilers for this week’s episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
In “The Morrow”, a very battered Dunk wrestles with survivor’s guilt following Baelor’s death, wondering aloud why the gods spared him but took a prince’s life. Dunk’s low self-esteem, being smallfolk from Flea Bottom, makes him view himself as worth less than the highborn, even though if he’s learned anything this season it should be that knights and noble lords are full of crap.
Dunk’s guilt also stems from Baelor, like Ser Arlan of Pennytree before him, having shown him kindness and fighting for him. But Ser Lyonel Baratheon gives Dunk a reality check early on, pointing out that as a Targaryen prince, Baelor was supposed to be safe and it was himself and the other members of Dunk’s seven knights who were actually risking their lives for him. “And the gods don’t favor a fraud,” he adds.
While Ser Lyonel’s scenes – and a later scene with Raymun Fossoway and his honey trap new wife, Red – reintroduce some humor back into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the season finale remains largely a dramatic tale as Dunk struggles with finding meaning in what transpired at Ashford and where to go next. Egg still wants to be Dunk’s squire, something even Egg’s dad Prince Maekar is willing to allow and have Dunk swear his sword to him. Dunk declines, saying he’s done with princes. Egg is disappointed in Dunk, doubting that he’s the knight he thought he was. Sometimes a kid knows just what to say to a grown-up to hit them where it hurts most.
It’s not until Prince Daeron essentially broaches the subject of nature vs. nurture with Dunk, revealing that Aerion was a good kid once before he became a monster, that Dunk realizes he could perhaps have an influence on Egg to make sure he doesn’t end up being yet another Targaryen tyrant. If he’s to do this, though, he’ll do it on his terms, telling Maekar that Egg will learn as he did by living the life of the squire to a hedge knight. Maekar ain’t having it; royal pride and traditions demand that the Blood of the Dragon not live as a peasant. Or at least that’s his pretense.
Maekar actor Sam Spruell has his best moments of the season in this finale, revealing a wounded humanity within this father exasperated by his family. When Maekar sees Egg standing at Aerion’s bedside holding a dagger – what a great moment that was of Egg looking at his white hair growing back and not wanting to look like his cruel brother – he doesn’t respond with anger or punishment, but comfort and compassion, gently placing his hands on his youngest son’s shoulders.
He understands why Egg is doing what he’s doing at that moment and knows exactly who Aerion is. It’s an incredibly human scene and it’s all done without anyone saying a word, but it speaks volumes. As Maekar tells Dunk when he rejects his offer of taking Egg on the road, Egg is his last son. He can’t stomach anything bad happening to him.
Egg has other ideas. In the end, the impetuous scamp cons Dunk once again, running off to be Dunk’s squire by saying Maekar had given him his blessing (which we learn in the humorous end credits scene is not the case at all). Dunk and Egg are now free to wander the, ahem, Nine Kingdoms seeking adventure. And as symbolized by that bittersweet final image of the specter of Ser Arlan riding away from them, Dunk is now his own man and his own knight.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 can’t arrive soon enough for me.
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