Titled "Seven", A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 episode 4, revisits an ancient Westeros tradition to summon justice from the gods.
The episode opens with Dunk (Peter Claffey) sitting alone in his cell. He is visited by Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), now dressed in traditional Targaryen attire, who brings him food and apologizes for his lies. Ser Duncan feels betrayed, convinced that it was all a big joke for Egg, who denies and asserts he never meant any harm. Here we learn that Egg is short for Aegon and that Daeron, Prince Maekar's eldest son, was the one who saved his head. Egg, teary-eyed, listens to Dunk ranting about ever having met the little prince.
After Dunk is done eating, he is taken to see Prince Baelor, where — to Egg's surprise — he praises the boy for being a good squire. The hedge knight learns that, beyond the charges related to assaulting Aerion, he is also being accused of kidnapping Egg. Furious, Dunk maintains that all he did was protect an innocent person, saying that Baelor would've done the same in his place. "Don't all knights make the same oath?", he asks.
Baelor, an honorable knight himself, doesn't object, but he reminds Dunk that he is a prince of the realm while he is just a ragged hedge knight. The prince explains that Aerion wants Dunk dead, and should a trial be held, the knight would likely lose the offending hand — in his case, the offending foot too, as he kicked Aerion in the face. In that sense, Baelor demands to know how good of a knight Ser Duncan the Tall is, for a trial by combat may be his only alternative.
The Targaryen prince shields himself behind a century-old tradition
In the presence of Lord Ashford and the Targaryen princes, Dunk clumsily requests a trial by combat, to which Aerion refuses, opting for a "trial of seven" instead — a tradition so rare and old that even Maekar is unfamiliar with it. The custom calls for two opposing parties of seven men to fight each other, assuming that seven champions are more likely to attract the attention of the gods than a single knight.
With that, after spending the night rotting in a cell, Dunk now must find six men to fight beside him by dawn, otherwise he will be declared guilty. A crestfallen Ser Duncan returns to the elm tree. He is approached by Raymun Fossoway, who takes him to see his cousin Steffon. Seemingly eager to humiliate the Targaryens, the Fossoway knight promises to fight on Dunk's side and goes out to find six other men.
The hedge knight is surprised by Egg, who returns to perform his squire duties. He's accompanied by Daeron, who is revealed to be the drunk man we saw at the inn in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 1. Daeron will join his brother, Aerion, and the knights of the Kingsguard in the trial of seven, but promises to "look gallant in the first charge" before quickly steering clear of the combat.
Outside the tent, Daeron confides to Dunk the prophetic nature of his dreams, claiming to have seen the hedge knight in a vision, surrounded by fire and a dead dragon. Later, Ser Duncan visits Tanselle's empty tent and retrieves his shield, carefully painted by the puppeteer. He encounters the blacksmith, who signals his respect for what Dunk did by charging him only a copper for his new armor.
The sun heralds a bloody morning
At dawn, Dunk welcomes the unlikely knights who have decided to fight by his side: Lyonel Baratheon, Humfrey Beesbury, Humfrey Hardyng, and Robyn Rhysling. He assumes that they are all there because of Steffon, who's nowhere to be seen. "Who the f*** is Ser Steffon?," Lyonel exclaims, explaining that it was Egg who came to them.
Dunk soon realizes that Steffon has betrayed him and will fight for the Targaryens in exchange for a lordship.
Realizing he's short two knights, Dunk is beyond desperate. Raymun volunteers to take his cousin's place, asking Ser Duncan to knight him. "Any knight can make a knight," declares Lyonel. What ensues is an ambiguous moment that will certainly have fans debating over it: Dunk's hesitation may be an indication that he was never knighted after all — and that he doesn't want to pass the lie on to Raymun. Lyonel, perhaps suspecting the same, volunteers to knight the boy instead.
Dunk still needs a knight to make it seven, so he resorts to the crowd, calling for any honorable knight who would like to fight his cause. He gives a thrilling, emotionally-charged speech, and a huge man stands up in the crowd, seemingly to join Ser Duncan, but all he does is let out a long fart. The crowd laughs, prompting Dunk to shout angrily: "Has courage deserted the noble houses of Westeros?"
Silence. Suddenly, the doors to the battlefield open, and Prince Baelor enters riding his horse in full armor. He announces he will take Ser Duncan's side, much to Maekar's dismay.
Review
The latest episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a major leap forward, building on the perceptible improvement seen in episode 3. Though it lacks action and combat, the psychological tension goes through the roof as Dunk scrambles to find worthy champions, searching for glimpses of honor and heroism in George R. R. Martin's famously grey, morally corrupt world.
Whereas Game of Thrones often rewards its honorable characters with a slow, painful death,
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms suggests that there's still room for kindness and compassion. We still don't know how things will turn out for Dunk. In fact, "Seven" ends with a cliffhanger for the ages, heightened by the emotional pull of Game of Thrones' score playing in the final moments. However, the sheer feat that Dunk managed to gather six knights to fight for him, one of whom is none other than the heir to the Iron Throne — who puts justice and honor over family ties — already proves something grand for the people of Westeros.
Episode 4 operates on a certain suspension of time, overcome by a prevailing sense of urgency. There's little time to plan, let alone rest. Dunk navigates the longest night of his life with his head up, refusing to run and embracing whatever fate has in store for him. The episode is the culmination of all of Dunk and Egg's small gestures of kindness and innocence towards the people they encountered along the way, a resolute tribute to mutual respect and first impressions, as a band of unlikely men materialize by dawn to fight at his side — they embody the glory that Ser Duncan never knew he deserved.
It's the kind of episode that showcases the power of weekly releases, leaving fans itching for (over) a week to know how the trial will unfold. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 4 is an
unparalleled exercise in character development. It builds and relies solely on anticipation, but it still feels incredibly satisfying.
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms air weekly on HBO and HBO Max.