This article contains SPOILERS for the season 1 finale of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
After a tourney filled with twists and turns, we've finally reached the end of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1. "The Morrow" caps off the show's inaugural season with a quiet installment that focuses on the fallout of the deadly trial of seven, and the shocker death of Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel).
Much of the episode revolves around whether the honorable hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a.k.a. Aegon Targaryen, can find some way to move forward together as a team. It adapts the key conversation between Dunk and Egg's father Maekar (Sam Spruell) from George R.R. Martin's novella that serves as the culmination of the story, but with a few important tweaks — including a surprising post-credits scene that confirms Maekar did not, in fact, give Egg permission to set off on more adventures with Dunk, but rather the young prince snuck off yet again.
This runs counter to the book, which strongly alludes to Maekar making the choice to let Egg go with Dunk. And on the final episode of The Official Game of Thrones Podcast for the season, showrunner Ira Parker breaks down exactly how this humorous final scene with Maekar came about.
"I just think it's funny," Parker said of the ending stinger. "And it fits within [Egg's] character, obviously, what we know about it. You know, he ran off before, so he runs off now. We never really break POV like that, but I figured after the credits had rolled, we were allowed to have one private scene with the Lord, give ourselves just a little out for something that's fun or funny."
There's no denying that Maekar's final realization that Egg gave him the slip yet again is a funny scene, but there's also that thorny issue of how it challenges the source material. How did Parker navigate that?
"I can actually... Wrap my head around both versions of Maekar saying no and Maekar saying yes, which I think is a wonderful position, and hopefully the audience will appreciate that," Parker said. "In the book, obviously, you know, things are a lot more tight around that situation, and Egg shows up pretty immediately after the conversation in Dunk's camp. But you never know for certain. It didn't feel like we were totally going against, you know. It's possible that Egg was just, you know, hiding off in the bushes the whole time. And skirted in and Maekar actually never said that that was okay. This is how we create on this show, by taking very little thin threads and trying to run with them. That's the best way to write it."
While I always read the end of "The Hedge Knight" as Maekar making a decision about Egg and Dunk, Parker does have an interesting point. We don't ever actually get that confirmed in that specific novella — though future novellas do reference the idea that Maekar is well aware of Egg traveling with Dunk, so presumably A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 2 will iron out this bit of deception from Egg. Maybe Dunk finds out, and forces a visit to Summerhall to get Maekar's formal permission, or they send a raven from Oldtown while visiting Egg's brother Aemon. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has earned enough trust that I'm happy to see where it takes this thread.
Maekar's proposal to Dunk was a way to "take back some control"
Parker also dished a bit on the conversations between Dunk and Maekar, and the subtle ways the Targaryen prince is trying to pressure the hedge knight. In the show as in the book, it is Maekar who first approaches Dunk with the prospect of training Egg at Summerhall, since Egg won't squire for anyone else. And while this would allow the two to stay together, it would also ensure that they stay firmly under Maekar's supervision — something Dunk ultimately rejects.
"That initial pitch to me was always actually maybe not the best side of Maekar, which was the Maekar kind to take back some control," Parker explained. "This hedge knight has just, you know, scored a victory on him, a big one, a very public one and him saying, okay, fine, you come here, you know, you'll come to Summerhall. You'll be one of my men, you know, is basically like saying, I will put my foot on you and, you know, and we'll finish your own training. And Dunk, I think very rightly, pushes back at that and says you know I've seen how these things are done up close now I've met you and your family. I know a little bit more than I did before and that's not how this is gonna go, that's not what I want and so he leaves."
Ultimately, Dunk ends up having a change of heart and going back to Maekar with a counterproposal: He'll take Egg to squire, but only if the young boy can travel the wilds with him, sleeping in ditches and living the life of a hedge knight. A big part of what pushes Dunk to this end is a brief conversation with Egg's older brother Daeron (Henry Ashton), who reveals that the loathsome Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) wasn't always a monster, but was likely twisted by life at court.
"I don't know if that's actually true or not or how much Daeron’s just fucking with Dunk," Parker said. "If Aerion was a product of this system of this sort of...cast iron press that you know, forces its boys to become you know something not wonderful in the world. And Maekar doesn't say, doesn't agree to that. But what we do get from that, the conclusion of that scene is just how conflicted he is about what's right. That obviously he was brought up in a very specific way, and he has been a father in a specific way. And now the results sort of speak for themselves."
We'll see whether Egg can avoid his brothers' fate by traveling the world with Dunk when A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms returns! It is currently filming its second season, which is due out sometime in 2027. Until then, we'll be catching up with some other dysfunctional Targaryens in House of the Dragon season 3 this June.