Before you saddle up for this adventure, please be warned that there are spoilers ahead for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 3, “The Squire.”
Last week, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms saw Ser Duncan The Tall (Peter Claffery, Bad Sisters) claw his way on to the lists of the Tourney at Ashford Meadow by bearing his soul to every overstuffed nobleman in sight. After a string of cold rejections, Dunk’s appeal to Prince Baelor ‘Breakspear’ Targaryen (Bertie Carvel, The Crown), heir to the Iron Throne, hit the mark. Baelor’s unexpected support lent an air of hope and possibility to the proceedings. Watching the Hand of the King act with humility and celebrate Dunk’s earnestness suggested that chivalry may not be dead after all.
Things aren’t quite so rosy in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 3, “The Squire,” but our beloved Hedge Knight makes it damn clear that chivalry won’t die on his watch. Furthermore, we find out that Prince Baelor may not be Dunk’s only well-connected friend at the tourney…but more on that later.
While Dunk isn’t forced to draw his line in the sand until the end of the episode, it’s clear from the jump that his world view is leaving an impression on those closest to him. Young Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) quickly steps up to show his commitment to his new gig as a squire. He wakes up early to take Duncan’s war horse, Thunder, for a workout in a nearby field. Not only does Egg show off his desire to put his best foot forward on the battlefield (including some impressive flourishes in his sword hand-off technique), but he offers the first of several peeks into his refreshingly empathetic world view. When Thunder resists his commands, Egg chooses to see things from the horse’s perspective: “I think a horse doesn’t want to be ordered about any more than a man does.”
Later Egg is able to see a story of honor and hope in the subtext of a dirty song about a woman who pleases men for money. Westerosi culture would be quick to label “Alice With Three Fingers” a “whore,” but Egg sees “a misfortuned girl making the best of her natural gifts.” With such an open mind, it’s no wonder that this precocious boy sees something romantic in Dunk’s quest to step out of the shadow of the hedge and become an honorable knight. In any case, when Egg says that he “serves Ser Duncan, the Tall – and he is large enough for the both of us,” he isn’t just talking about his mentor’s impressive stature. He is talking about Dunk’s big ol’ heart.
Viewers also get several opportunities to think about Dunk’s big ol’ heart. One opportunity comes in the form of the master of the games, Plummer (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Avengers: Endgame). It’s clear that the foul-mouthed Plummer is impressed with Dunk’s persistence and pluck so far, and he wants to do this struggling knight a favor. Unfortunately, Dunk doesn’t see Plummer’s offer as favor; in short, Plummer wants Dunk to participate in a fixed joust to defeat Lord Ashford’s son and help the nobleman recoup some of the losses he suffered in organizing a very costly tourney. In a less interesting story, Plummer would be a one-sided scoundrel who has misjudged the hero of the story, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is interested in a more nuanced question: is Plummer’s offer really so dishonorable?
Plummer is well aware that Dunk is risking it all at the tourney; if he is unable to defeat his opponent in the first round, he will not be able to ransom back his horse or equipment. As a result, Plummer sees his offer as a lifeline, a win-win for a decent man fighting to rise above his station. When Dunk refuses to participate and insists, “I do not want a victory that I have not earned,” Plummer is quick to reply with the words, “have you not earned it?” He’s watched Dunk humble himself to almost every nobleman at Ashford Meadow and pull off a surprise audience with one of the most powerful men in the realm. Furthermore, Dunk has conducted himself honorably since the moment he set foot on the tourney grounds, and based on the type of knight Plummer is accustomed to working with, it seems likely that he believes Dunk is overdue for an easy W. While Plummer is unable to sway Dunk’s opinion, it still feels like he is ready to join the Ser Duncan fanclub.
Dunk also endears himself to us with his gentle nature. As has been the case all season, he is unable to keep up his tough-guy act with his adorable ward, Egg. Every threat to hurt or punish Egg quickly evolves into genuine bonding. Not only do the two playfully and adorably mock one another while broing-out at the tourney (“Ooh, I’m Egg. I can’t even drink a pint of ale), but they exist on equal footing. Egg explains the inner workings of the tourney to Dunk and Dunk helps Egg learn the skills he will need to advance as a squire. Whether they are patching clothes, cheering on their fellow knights, or digging into a killer campfire breakfast sandwich, each step of their journey feels like a home run. Perhaps no moment shows their complementary relationship better than when Prince Aerion ‘Brightflame’ Targaryen (Finn Bennett, True Detective) exerts his cruelty and bloodlust by intentionally killing his opponent’s horse. Sweet summer child Dunk can’t believe that any knight of the realm would ever behave so dishonorably, but Egg knows what he saw: a cruel overreach of power.
A little later, Dunk’s buddy Ser Raymun ‘The Reluctant’ Fossoway (Shaun Thomas, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) will second Egg’s read of the jousting “accident” and voice his disdain for Aerion and the rest of the incestuous Targaryen line a bit more colorfully: “Every pale-haired brat they’ve saddled on us has been madder than the last.” Longtime Thrones fans know it’s pretty hard to argue Raymun’s logic.
At the end of the episode, Ser Duncan’s journey takes a major turn. Egg calls for his aid to save puppeteer Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford, Tiny Beautiful Things) from a horrific assault at the hand of Aerion. Her crime? Dramatizing a story in which a dragon is killed. Still unsatisfied by his earlier act of bloodlust, Aerion is continuing his domineering tough-guy routine by brutalizing an artist for performance art that he has construed as insulting to the Targaryen line. Without thought or hesitation, Dunk springs to Tanselle’s aid, assaults the sadistic princeling, and finds himself staring down the lens of a likely execution. It’s a scary moment, but once again, Dunk can’t help but make a strong impression. Even the narcissistic prince he just clocked in the face can’t help but react with awe and interest before formulating the most fitting punishment for his assailant…
At this moment, Egg flips the script and announces that he is Aerion’s brother. He orders the Targaryen guards to unhand Dunk, and we are left to see how the pieces will fall into place.
Is Dunk in the clear? Is this merely a temporary rescue? How will the Targaryens feel about the fact that he has taken on their missing heir as a humble squire?
Those questions will have to wait for next week, but we can rest assured that Egg would rather follow the rules and lifestyle exemplified by Ser Dunk than echo the cruelty of his older brother. As he tells Dunk earlier in the episode after a hard day’s work: “I think I could be happy in a place like this.”
Here’s hoping that Egg can hold on to his newfound humble existence next week in episode four, “Seven.” We’ll see you then, noble knights.
