This review contains full spoilers for this week’s episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
In “The Morrow”, a very battered Dunk wrestles with survivor’s guilt following Baelor’s death, wondering aloud why the gods spared him but took a prince’s life. Dunk’s low self-esteem, being smallfolk from Flea Bottom, makes him view himself as worth less than the highborn, even though if he’s learned anything this season it should be that knights and noble lords are full of crap.
Dunk’s guilt also stems from Baelor, like Ser Arlan of Pennytree before him, having shown him kindness and fighting for him. But Ser Lyonel Baratheon gives Dunk a reality check early on, pointing out that as a Targaryen prince, Baelor was supposed to be safe and it was himself and the other members of Dunk’s seven knights who were actually risking their lives for him. “And the gods don’t favor a fraud,” he adds.
While Ser Lyonel’s scenes – and a later scene with Raymun Fossoway and his honey trap new wife, Red – reintroduce some humor back into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the season finale remains largely a dramatic tale as Dunk struggles with finding meaning in what transpired at Ashford and where to go next. Egg still wants to be Dunk’s squire, something even Egg’s dad Prince Maekar is willing to allow and have Dunk swear his sword to him. Dunk declines, saying he’s done with princes. Egg is disappointed in Dunk, doubting that he’s the knight he thought he was. Sometimes a kid knows just what to say to a grown-up to hit them where it hurts most.
