Tonight marks the premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO's brand new Game of Thrones spinoff based on George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. The show's inaugural episode wastes no time introducing us to the towering young hedge knight at the heart of the series, Dunk, as he sets his sights on a local tourney in hopes of bolstering his renown and gaining employ from some lord or other.
But despite the fact that this is a new Game of Thrones show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms effortlessly differentiates itself from the weighty complexity of the original show and the bitterly tragic tome of its sister spinoff, House of the Dragon. This is a new take on Westeros, from the ground up.
FULL SPOILERS for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 1 beyond this point.
"I wish you didn't die, ser..."
"The Hedge Knight" begins in the exact same way as the short story upon which it's based, with Dunk (Peter Claffey) burying his former master in the ways of knighthood, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) on the side of a hill as rain pours down around him. I thoroughly enjoyed how much the show throws the viewer right into the different tone of this series, with Dunk's monologue over Ser Arlan's grave interspersed with brief flashbacks for comedic effect. The scene is both funnier and more emotional than I expected as a book reader, and it hooked me right from the first.
After laying Arlan to rest, Dunk spends some time mulling what to do next, speaking with his horses and imagining possible paths like joining the Gold Cloaks in King's Landing. Again, it improves the comedy factor over the novella, while staying insanely faithful; much of Dunk's dialogue is drawn straight from the book, including bits that were inner monologue that are now spoken words.
Ultimately, after a shocking and sudden scene of Dunk pooping behind a tree which I'll have emblazoned into my eyelids for weeks, our fledgeling knight sets off for a tourney at Ashford Meadow, claiming Ser Arlan's sword, shield, and horses as his own.
"Do you want a clout in the ear?"
Dunk's next port of call is an inn on the way to Ashford, where he encounters a young, bald boy playing outside. Yes, that's Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell)! Dunk orders this insolent young boy to see to his horses, giving us our first glimpse of the pair's excellent chemistry together. We get more of this at the end of this sequence, where Dunk returns from the inn to check on his horses, only to find Egg pretending to ride the war horse, Thunder. Their back-and-forth is a lot of fun, and sets up the conceit for this duo: Egg really wants to be Dunk's squire, and Dunk won't have it. When Dunk rides for Ashford, he's alone, but we all know that won't stick.
There are also a few interesting moments inside the inn when Dunk is having dinner. The interactions with the innkeep drive home the grounded nature of the show as well as its comedic flair; I especially chuckled at her swigging down the rest of her mug and then reusing it to serve Dunk. But obviously, the stand out part of this scene is when a drunkard at a nearby table wakes up, before threatening Dunk with a knife and telling him to stay away from him. He pays for his meal with a coin bearing the Targaryen dragon. Who is this man? Book readers will know immediately, and no doubt be excited; as for the show-only fans, we'll have to watch a few more episodes before this particular plot point comes back around. He doesn't even appear in the credits of the episode, so clearly something is afoot.
Off to Ashford Meadow
As soon as Dunk leaves the inn, we get hit with a few of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' secret weapons. The first two are the music and natural landscapes, which fill out a great montage where Dunk rides across the Reach to Ashford. Unlike Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the score for this new show is not composed by Ramin Djawadi. Instead, Dan Romer created the music. That, combined with the lack of the traditional Game of Thrones theme song intro, makes a noticeable difference in tone that sets A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms apart from House of the Dragon.
Ashford itself is another one of those secret weapons. From the tent city in a beautiful little field, to the perfectly costumed characters who move about each on their own business, to the colorful banners hanging everywhere, Ashford is the most immersive tournament setting in the entire franchise. It may even be one of the most immersive settings in general, because pretty much everything on screen was actually built from the ground up. There are no green screen sets to be found here for Dunk as he tries to secure his place in the tourney.
Dunk goes to the find the master of the games, Plummer (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), in hopes of signing up for the tournament. Once again, the show frontloads the laughs, with Plummer have an absurd penchant for loud spitting and a ridiculous threat about a torture called the "Ashford Chair." I loved when he revealed he was just messing with Dunk about the Ashford Chair, with the line "We're in the Reach, not the Riverlands." I'm all for some meta humor about the world of Westeros itself, well done, show.
Since Dunk has come to this affair dressed in roughspun and without any witnesses to his knighting by Ser Arlan on his deathbeed, the young knight will need to find someone else to vouch for him. This sets up the main conflict of the episode, as Dunk goes searching for Ser Manfred Dondarrion (Daniel Monks), since Ser Arlan once fought for his father.
Suffice to say, it doesn't go well. Dunk meets a few more members of the cast, including the camp followers Red (Rowan Robinson) and Beony (Carla Harrison-Hodge), who inform him Lord Dondarrion is asleep and not to be disturbed. This leads him to wander off, mumbling to his horses about some of their rude comments, where he comes upon Ser Steffon Fossoway (Edward Ashley) training with his cousin and squire, Raymun Fossoway (Shaun Thomas). I've been excited to see the show's take on the Fossoways ever since it was announced, and their first scene does not disappoint. Steffon is a stuffy jerk, while Raymun is instantly likable. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them! Also, extra points for the comedic beat where Steffon asked Dunk if he's wearing a longsword, Dunk responds "Yes, i is mine by right," and then Steffon deadpan answers "That's an odd thing to say." I laugh out loud every time I watch it.
Feeling a bit deflated, Dunk avoids training with Ser Steffon and decides to find a quieter place to make camp. He finds an elm tree by a river just outside the makeshift tourney village, and takes a bath in the river. All of this is right out of the book. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is shuffling events slightly — we don't meet the blacksmith Steely Pate, for example — but it's working really well to create a better dramatic throughline for the series as a television show.
As fresh as he can get, Dunk heads out for a night in the camps...where he's immediately shut down once again by the camp followers waiting on Dondarrion. But this time, there's a turn of events that foreshadows just how lovable our forthright knight can be. After the whores mock Dunk yet again, he calls them out directly on it, saying he was just asking for help. And Red decides to level with him in an honest and kind way. This is a perfect example of how Dunk's likability rallies people behind him, and watching Claffey in the role, it's easy to understand.
A puppet show and a dance party
From there, Dunk heads out to watch a puppet show, where he first sets eyes on its lovely narrator, Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford). Watching Tanselle's shyness come through her performance, the equally awkward Dunk becomes immediately smitten. It's a really cute scene, and of course, the dragon puppet itself is magnificent.
On his way out of the puppet show, Raymun Fossoway catches up to Dunk once more, and in an attempt to make up for the fact that he tried to pressure Dunk into dueling his cousin Steffon, invites our hedge knight to a party in the tent of House Baratheon. There we meet another wonderful character, Lord Lyonel Baratheon, played with flamboyant panache by Daniel Ings. Everything about this scene is a blast, from Lyonel's call for attentive ears to humor his profound thoughts, to his accusation that Dunk was there to kill him, to the subsequent dance party and end-of-night discussion. It's just a great time all around, though it does little to assuage Dunk's concerns that he's totally out of his depth at the tournament when Lyonel amusedly tells him he has no chance at defeating seasoned warriors like himself.
After the party, Dunk finally catches Manfred Dondarrion, who turns out to be cut from a wholly different and entirely more pretentious cloth than his Game of Thrones relative, Beric Dondarrion. Ser Manfred declares that he does not remember Arlan of Pennytree or Dunk and saunters off, leaving Dunk at a loss for who to get to vouch for him so he can enter the games.
A squire is born
"The Hedge Knight" ends in the perfect way: with Dunk returning to his camp only to find Egg has taken up residence there, having ridden all the way to Ashford in the back of a farmer's cart. The young boy has washed Dunk's clothes, set up the campsite, and is cooking a fish for dinner. After an endearing conversation, Dunk decides to officially take Egg on as a squire. The slow zoom on Egg's wondrous expression as Dunk describes what this will entail is a shot that lives rent free in my mind; if you know the details of Egg's story from the books, this scene takes on a whole new meaning, as Dunk levels with him in such an honest and kind way that he's simply not used to.
The final scene of the episode sees our hedge knight and squire bunk down together beneath their elm tree for the first time, while a shooting star soars overhead. We get a last endearing moment between them, where Egg tries to talk about how they're the only ones seeing the star because all the other knights are sleeping in tents, Dunk threatens him with a clout in the ear, and then slowly realizes that just may mean the luck is theirs alone while Egg smiles to himself. We've only had a few scenes with our main duo in this episode, but it's already obvious that their chemistry is off the charts.
Verdict
"The Hedge Knight" is a perfect introduction to the lighter tone and world of Dunk and Egg. From the swift introduction to nearly half its main cast, to the crackling chemistry between its leads, to the copious jokes, fidelity to its source material, and beautiful score, this episode gave me everything I wanted out of the premiere and more. It's a gentler affair than we're used to from the first episode of a Game of Thrones show; there's no real action scenes or horrific turns, which is a first for the pilot in this franchise. But that's a testament to the quiet confidence of this series, which isn't adding anything superfluous just for the sake of shocking viewers. It has a tell to tell, and it's telling it well so far. I can't wait to see more.
Episode grade: A
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres new episodes Sundays at 10:00 p.m. on HBO and HBO Max. We'll be covering it extensively here at the site, so check back for more in the coming weeks.