Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S1E6, “The Morrow” (written by Ira Parker and Ti Mikkel, and directed by Sarah Adina Smith). Spoilers also may include plot points from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
How can a foot be worth a prince’s life?
This line that comes near the very end of both the final episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and The Hedge Knight, the first novella in the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms book, comes as Ser Duncan (Peter Claffey) and Prince Maekar Targaryen (Sam Spruell) speak after the results of the Trial of Seven portrayed in Episode 5.
While Episode 6, “The Morrow,” has to embellish and create quite a bit of new story to fill the 28 minutes in this final episode of the first season (more on that to come), this conversation and exact line are directly taken from the book, as both Dunk and Maekar try to make sense of why the gods would choose to take the Crown Prince Baelor (Bertie Carvel) from them in the aftermath of Dunk besting Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett), forcing the latter to withdraw his accusation.
Dunk understands that if he had not demanded a trial by combat, Aerion would not have retaliated with the Trial of Seven, meaning Baelor would never have fought for Dunk, and never would have lost his life. Surely, Dunk and Baelor debate, one hedge knight (“there are as many hedge knights in the seven kingdoms as there are hedges”) losing his hand and foot is not an equitable trade-off for the life of a prince.
Even Maekar, as miserable as he is, seems to understand that Baelor was to be a wonderful king, a king who could keep the realm united while at the same time keeping the commoners happy. He mentions to Dunk that in the future, whenever a crop fails or a rebellion sprouts up, the people will question whether or not Baelor would have let it happen.
This, of course, is a fair question. If Baelor were to truly be a great king, the realm and most knights should willingly give up a hand and a foot to secure that future. But it’s a future timeline that no longer exists now, with Baelor dead and his line no longer in succession for the Iron Throne. Shortly after the events of this show, Maekar’s line will earn succession, meaning either Daeron the Drunken (Henry Ashton), Aerion Brightflame, or Aegon V (Dexter Sol Ansell) will also be a few breaths away from being king.
But this is where the mastery of George R.R. Martin comes in. He is truly one of the best at situating circumstances that allow past events to slowly uncover future outcomes. No decision is inconsequential, and no action goes without either a reward or a punishment. Those rewards and punishments may be decades away, but they always come.
This is, of course, true about Baelor Targaryen’s death and Dunk’s involvement in the ordeal. Without spoiling any of the details, this Trial of Seven has directly laid the groundwork for what will happen in Game of Thrones. And for the question of whether a hedge knight’s hand and foot were worth what is to come? Well, future seasons of this show should tell us the answer to that question.
The second important part of the conversation unfolds as Maekar tells Dunk that he knows Egg needs to begin to squire with a knight, but he refuses to do so with anyone else but Dunk. Maekar, then, presents a proposal. The two of them will serve the Targaryens at Summerhall, where Egg can learn under Dunk, and Dunk can finish training under the Targaryen Master of Arms. But an impasse occurs when Dunk offers to take him on the road for a year or two, teaching Egg to squire just as he did.
Maekar is appalled at the idea, because princes (“Blood of the dragon”) should not be subjected to sleeping in ditches or eating hard salt beef. But when Dunk reminds him that it didn’t do Daeron or Aerion any good sleeping in castles or eating thick and bloody cuts of beef, it at least forces Maekar to reconsider his position.
Both the show and the book end with Egg presenting himself to Dunk, saying his father told him he is to squire with Dunk while they travel the Seven Kingdoms. However, one massive creative change could set up interesting parts of future seasons of this show. In the final stinger of this episode, Prince Maekar is looking for Egg, revealing a strong implication that he came to squire with Dunk against the will of his father.
The book offers no such information or commentary, so what does this mean for Dunk and Egg? Does the Targaryen family hunt them down? Do they just relent and let Egg go? Is Dunk labeled a criminal? What happens to him throughout the kingdom is now a major question in this adaptive story.
In the novella, there are literally a couple of pages left after the death of Baelor, so this show had to add some pieces to fill the time in this finale. Here are some other interesting/entertaining adaptations made to this episode to fill out the time:
- The conversation with Dunk, Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), and his “shit” Maester is a highlight of the comedic part of the season. While it culminates in the accusation from Lyonel Baratheon that Baelor sacrificed nothing in his attempt to act chivalrous, that conversation puts an exclamation point on how the Baratheons feel about the Targaryens. It’s something to remember for the future seasons.
- While the book tells us Raymun Fossway (Shaun Thomas) snuck out to paint his green apple on this shield before the Trial, we get to see the full picture of it in this episode. He wants nothing to do with the red apple branch of his family now that Steffon Fossway (Edward Ashley) dishonored them, and Raymun gets a relationship (and baby?) with Red (Rowan Robinson), the prostitute we met in earlier episodes.
- Unlike in the novella, this episode gives us a flashback scene between Dunk and Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) that confirms Dunk was never officially knighted. This is hinted at throughout the story (especially by Dunk hesitating when asked to knight Raymun), but this scene confirms it didn’t happen. It leaves the question, then, up to us. What makes a knight? A ritual, or the chivalrous, selfless acts of someone like Dunk, who does all he can to protect the innocent?
- The conversation between Dunk and Egg about the Seven Kingdoms and the Nine Kingdoms is a cheeky nod to all of us Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin nerds. Anecdotally, the realm is called the Seven Kingdoms, but that’s because there were seven great territories when Aegon the Conqueror took over Westeros. But after that time, the Riverland and Crownlands were established, adding two and making nine total kingdoms in the realm.
