A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 “The Morrow” deals with the fallout of Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) winning his Trial of Seven against Prince Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett). Dunk is a victor, but feels as though he lost. After all, the noble Prince Baelor (Bertie Carvel) died fighting for the lowly hedge knight.
What’s next for Ser Duncan the Tall? Does Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell) convince Dunk to take Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) as a squire? And does the HBO show reveal whether or not Ser Duncan is a real knight after all?
**Spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 “The Morrow,” now streaming on HBO Max**
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 “The Morrow” deals with Ser Duncan debating whether or not he will take Prince Aegon “Egg” Targaryen as his squire long-term. While you might think, “Obviously, he must! They’re so cute together!”, there is the fact that Dunk has become completely disillusioned by his experiences with the Targaryens. So when Prince Maekar asks Dunk to give up the road and take Egg as his squire as a castle knight in Summerhall, our hedge knight refuses.
Later, however, Prince Daeron Targaryen (Henry Ashton) visits Dunk and points out that his brother Aerion didn’t start out as a monster. He was once a nice kid corrupted by the trappings of power he was raised to enjoy. Daeron makes the case that Egg could either be left on the same path or Ser Duncan can teach him true chivalry as his squire.
Dunk returns to Prince Maekar, presenting a counter offer. He’ll take Egg as his squire so long as the prince sheds his royal trappings and goes on the road with him, sleeping in hedges and living off salt beef. Maekar is aghast, but seems to understand Dunk’s point. The season ends with Egg rushing to join Ser Duncan as he leaves Ashford. According to the little prince, his father gave his permission and Egg can squire for Ser Duncan the Tall. But did he?
Did Maekar give Egg his permission to serve Ser Duncan or did Egg run away? Is Dunk a real knight? And what’s all this about the Seven Kingdoms actually being Nine Kingdoms? Here’s everything you need to know about the end of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1…
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ending Explained: Is Egg Lying About Prince Maekar Giving Him Permission to Squire for Dunk?
Yes, Egg is 100% lying when he tells Dunk that his father gave his permission for him to be Dunk’s squire.
The actual final scene of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 sees Maekar watching as the Targaryens leave Ashford. He sees Prince Valarr (Oscar Morgan) and Prince Aerion, but not his youngest son. He asks a soldier if he’s seen Aegon and then yells, “Where the fuck is he?”
Now in George R.R. Martin’s novellas, it seems like Prince Maekar did give his permission. Egg is not only allowed to serve Ser Duncan, but they visit “off-screen” with Egg’s brother Aemon at the Citadel. In the third novella, “The Mystery Knight,” Dunk and Egg eventually meet a powerful Targaryen relative named Bloodraven, who marvels that Maekar lets his son roam Westeros with a hedge knight. The implication is that, yes, the Targaryens are okay with this arrangement.
In HBO’s show, however, showrunner Ira Parker is using Egg’s initial deception to fuel a natural character choice. We already know Egg is capable of lying to Dunk and his family. He’s just…doing it again.
This creative choice also creates narrative tension in Season 2, as the Targaryens will be looking for young Prince Aegon, and it opens the door for the likes of Sam Spruell, Finn Bennet, and other Season 1 actors to return to the series. There aren’t really any recurring characters in the first three Dunk and Egg stories except for Dunk and Egg.
Is Ser Duncan the Tall a Real Knight? Did Ser Arlan Knight Him?
We still don’t know!
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finally shows us the moments before Ser Arlan’s death, which starts with him explaining the origin of his name, Ser Arlan of Pennytree. He said in his hometown, when nobles called locals to fight in a war, the boys would nail a penny to a tree in the town center. If the young men survived, they could come home and take the penny back. Ser Arlan said it was hard to find a spare space to nail a penny to it in his time.
Dunk then pointedly, and tearfully, asks why Ser Arlan never knighted him. However, the old man nods off, seemingly dying, and doesn’t register anything. However, for a brief moment, he snaps back to life, says, “And that’s why they call it the Pennytree. A true knight always finishes a story.” And then the rain rolls in. You know, the rain that fell while Dunk buried Ser Arlan.
“Actually, that was one of my favorite scenes at the end, and Danny Webb, who plays Ser Arlan, just did such a wonderful job with that, with his ‘dying’ scene,” Ira Parker shared on HBO’s official A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms companion podcast.
“I love that it’s still, you know, it’s still unconfirmed. It’s possible that Dunk was knighted right after that moment. He just actually got out his sword and did it,” Parker said. “And it’s possible he, you know, died pretty immediately after that.”
Our theory is actually the latter, that Ser Arlan died immediately thereafter without officially knighting Dunk. Now, there have been ample clues for this throughout the series. Consider how the show links Dunk’s struggle to find someone to vouch for him with Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) exclaiming, “You are no knight!” in her Florian the Fool and Jonquil play. Then, there’s Dunk’s hesitation when Raymun Fossoway (Shaun Thomas) asks him to knight him, noting any knight can make a knight.
Even though Ira Parker refuses to confirm or deny if Dunk was knighted, there also are clues in Ser Arlan’s story that he has humble origins. He was one of the few young men in his town to survive a great war, evidenced by his penny in his sword hilt. Considering how Dunk balked at knighting Raymun, our theory is that Ser Arlan was never knighted himself, and neither, therefore, was Dunk. (Officially.) He is still truest knight in Westerosi history.
Much like Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), who is widely considered to be Dunk’s successor both in spirit and by blood, he might not be an official knight, but he behaves as the perfect knight. Honor is more important than semantics.
