‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Episode 6 Recap: On The Hedge of Glory

In an alternate Knight of the Seven Kingdoms timeline, it’s possible to consider Dunk ambling into Ashford Meadow, enjoying a meal and flagon or two of ale in the always lively presence of Lord Lyonel Baratheon, and eventually getting a job as a blade sworn to Storm’s End. It’s just one way Ser Duncan the Tall could have begun his career as a hedge knight, instead of being caught up in a historic blood feud with the realm’s ruling family that ended up killing one of their own. It’s the day after the Trial of Seven, and Dunk is against his tree at River Camp, considering what fuckery of the gods instead led him to this current timeline. But Lyonel figures that’s nothing a drink can’t fix. 

“The Morrow,” the Episode 6 season finale of AKOTSK, asks what will become of Dunk as the knight asks this of himself. He feels complicit in Baelor Targaryen’s death, but Lyonel’s hot take is that his friend did the realm a favor. (“The only good dragon is a dead dragon.”) And besides, the lord says, the others who fought for Dunk’s side, those not in line for the big chair, also did so at great personal risk. In other words, it’s probably not as serious as Dunc is going on about, and all that remains is the absence after a good scrap. Baratheon asks his friend again: “You ever been to Tarth?” There is a war coming in which they could seek real glory. But Ser Duncan only hobbles off on his crutch to attend Baelor’s funeral. 

“Why would the gods take him and leave you?” Dunk has no answer for Prince Valarr, Baelor’s son. (The imprecise fit of Baelor wearing Valarr’s suit of armor instead of his own might have contributed to his death.) When summoned by Maekar, Dunk also agrees with the prince – they will both hear whispers about the trial and its violence until the day they are both dead. What if Dunk had given his foot or his hand, the first proposed punishment for touching Prince Aerion? “How can a foot be worth a prince’s life?” He wonders if fate still might have need of his foot, some purpose for him and his attendant parts, which the next morning or next month or next year might reveal. A noble like Maekar can’t see Dunk’s cosmic value as ever rating equal to that of his fallen brother. But even in his grief, he sees possible value in a new outcome. 

“My youngest son seems to have grown fond of you, ser. It is time he was a squire. But he tells me he will serve no knight but you. Swear your sword to me, and Aegon can squire for you. While you train him, my master-at-arms will finish your own training.”

Maekar knows his middle son is wicked. He has banished Aerion to the Free Cities, where time away might create positive change. Maekar also knows his oldest, Daerion, the drunk dreamer, is a lost cause. It is Aegon who represents this generation’s last best chance for an heir. And Ser Duncan, this hulking hedge knight, who uses a rope to hold up his longsword – and despite everything that went down – could be the one to build the boy into a man. 

Egg was listening outside the chamber during this conversation, and he is sad to hear his ser turn his uncle down. “Maybe you’re not the knight I thought you were.”

Still conflicted over his role in the death of Baelor, and honestly still in mourning over Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Dunk needs to sit with himself for a few moments, and explore a few more memories in flashback. And this affords us one final AKOTSK Season 1 visit with the fantastic Danny Webb as Arlan, who was spinning stories even as the crusty old knight leaned against his last tree trunk. Duncan never learned why the man never officially knighted his squire. But as he considers Maekar’s offer, he recalls one of Arlan’s final lessons. “A true knight always finishes a story.” 

To do it right with Egg, Ser Duncan would not train his squire inside House Targaryen. Both of Aegon’s brothers were raised at Summerhall, had all the rare beef they could eat and received every bit of coddling in the realm, and look how they turned out. “If you would consent,” Dunk says to Maekar on his return to the castle, “I would bring him on the road with me. He’ll learn to squire as I did.” And ideally, Ser Duncan could help make Prince Aegon “Egg” Targaryen into a more promising story for everybody.

Dunk is packing up Thunder and Chestnut for their journey, destination unknown, when who appears at River Camp but Egg, who ditched his black Targaryen fit and jaunty velvet beret for the sensible breeches and forest green cloak of a traveler. There is joy all over Ser Duncan’s features, beneath the purple bruises and fading shiner. But he doesn’t hug his squire or anything, just gives him a firm order. As Dunk and Egg turn toward the next adventure, they will learn from each other. And wherever they end up, out on the hedge of glory, perhaps the luck will still be theirs alone.

Helms & Hauberks for Episode 6 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (“The Morrow”):

• Ser Duncan might be the only hedge knight around whose squire has full grasp of the realm’s changing geopolitics. A knight of the Seven Kingdoms? Don’t sell yourself short. There are actually nine. “Crownlands, Westerlands, Stormlands, Riverlands, The Iron Islands, the North, the Reach, the Vale of Arryn, and Dorne.”

• We want this pair to touch every corner of the realm in their adventures. And there will definitely be more adventures, because AKOTSK was an instant renewal. But we wonder if the Dornish plateau might be their first stop. And perhaps a reunion with Tanselle? “I’ve never been over the Red Mountains before,” Egg says with a wink in his eye, “and I hear they have good puppet shows in Dorne…”

• “Where the fuck is he??!” So maybe Maekar didn’t give Aegon his full, direct permission to join Dunk’s hedge knight road trip. As the Targaryen party train pulls up stakes from Ashford, the Prince of Summerhall is shouting for somebody to locate his youngest boy. But the squire is already with his ser. See you down the Westerosi road, Dunk and Egg. Ser Arlan of Pennytree will be watching over you.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.