{"id":269874,"date":"2026-02-02T06:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/269874\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T06:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:57:08","slug":"a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-recap-eggs-secret-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/269874\/","title":{"rendered":"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Recap: Egg\u2019s Secret Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s hard to blend in with the smallfolk when your brother is the most-hated prince in Westeros.
\n Photo: Steffan Hill\n <\/p>\n

In my recap<\/a> of the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series premiere, I wrote that no one needs to know any of the deep lore from George R.R. Martin\u2019s \u201cA Song of Ice and Fire\u201d universe to enjoy this show. This remains true. But given the big revelation at the end of this week\u2019s episode, I thought it might be helpful to provide some Westeros history, for context.<\/p>\n

The most important thing for you to know is that by the time Ser Duncan rides into Ashford Meadow at the start of this series, the people of Westeros have grown tired of the Targaryens. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set over 200 years into the Targaryen dynasty, and about 70 years after the devastating civil war depicted in House of the Dragon<\/a>. We\u2019re still about 80 years away \u2014 roughly three generations \u2014 from Robert Baratheon leading a rebellion that sticks and ending the Targaryen reign.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a reason why, in this week\u2019s \u201cThe Squire,\u201d the jousting tournament crowd boos and throws stones after the obnoxious Prince Aerion intentionally lances his opponent\u2019s horse, causing the animal to fall on top of its rider and crush his leg. There\u2019s a reason why the friendly squire Raymun Fossoway crudely tells Dunk, \u201cThe only honorable thing a Targaryen can do for this realm is finish on his wife\u2019s tits.\u201d And there\u2019s a reason why a fortune teller walks up to Egg and predicts, \u201cYou shall be king, and die in a hot fire, and worms shall feed upon your ashes, and all who know you shall rejoice in your dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Egg? Because, as we learn in \u201cThe Squire,\u201d Egg\u2019s real name is Aegon Targaryen. His father is Maekar Targaryen, the sourpuss sibling of the wise and kindly Baelor Targaryen, who is currently serving as the Hand to their father, King Daeron II Targaryen. Egg is a prince. Sure, he\u2019s waaaaay down in the line of succession. He\u2019s the fourth son of the fourth son of the current king. But as the fortune teller implies, Egg\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

If you knew nothing about Martin\u2019s Dunk and Egg novellas before watching this show, did you guess Egg\u2019s secret? I\u2019ll be honest: Long before I read \u201cThe Hedge Knight,\u201d I knew that the Dunk and Egg tales were about the adventures of King Aegon V Targaryen as a boy, when he was a squire to a traveling knight. I never knew that Egg\u2019s true identity was meant to be a surprise. That didn\u2019t spoil \u201cThe Hedge Knight\u201d for me, so I\u2019m hoping those of you who stumbled on the true premise of Seven Kingdoms (such as by reading the show\u2019s Wikipedia page) don\u2019t feel cheated.<\/p>\n

To be fair, I think knowing about Egg in advance does add some rich layers to the first half of this season. There\u2019s some delightful irony in the way the lowborn Ser Duncan unknowingly bosses around a prince (while still basically treating the boy kindly, because Dunk\u2019s a good dude). And in \u201cThe Squire,\u201d it\u2019s chilling to see Prince Aegon shout \u201cKill him!\u201d toward Aerion\u2019s jousting opponent, essentially wishing his brother dead.<\/p>\n

Still, the big twist does hit harder in this TV version, because the show\u2019s writers have made such an effort<\/a> from the beginning to develop Egg into a more well-rounded character. (No pun intended.) In this episode in particular, we really get to see him as a whole, complex little person, whether he\u2019s complaining about another breakfast of hard salt beef or he\u2019s fantasizing about growing old alongside Ser Duncan, settling on some grateful lord\u2019s land with the lord\u2019s second-fairest daughter. (Dunk gets the fairest.)<\/p>\n

All of the early moments in \u201cThe Squire\u201d of Dunk and Egg just hanging out together are all wonderful: like Dunk buying and cooking some goose eggs to placate his hungry squire, and later teaching him how to sew. Or Egg idly asking his new mentor, \u201cIs it odd that I have black hair growing out of my stones?\u201d (A perplexed Dunk: \u201cIt\u2019s odd you\u2019re telling me.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The overall loveliness of these scenes is encapsulated in the episode\u2019s opening, which sees Egg waking up early to train his master\u2019s horse to be tournament ready. He talks gently to the animal, while referring to the disdain his father \u2014 still unidentified at this point \u2014 has for the intelligence of horses. When a one-eyed knight wanders by, Egg starts geeking out in his usual Egg-y way when he realizes he\u2019s talking to Ser Robyn Rhysling (William Houston), the maddest knight in Westeros. When Ser Robyn scoffs that he\u2019s never heard of Ser Duncan, Egg boasts, \u201cYou will!\u201d That\u2019s a good lad.<\/p>\n

As for Dunk, he has a day filled with surprises. It begins when the Master of the Games brings him a proposition: to challenge Lord Ashford\u2019s skilled youngest son, who has agreed to lose on purpose in the tournament so that the Ashfords can make a pile of coin by gambling on the fixed outcome. (Note again how the Westerosi aristocracy has fallen on hard times.) A prideful Dunk turns the offer down \u2026 for now.<\/p>\n

Dunk is surprised also when he learns he won\u2019t be jousting on a day when only knights of high birth and renown are allowed to enter the lists. (\u201cThen why have I been vomiting all morning?\u201d Ser Duncan grumbles.) But his biggest surprise comes when Egg calls on him to help Tanselle, the too-tall puppeteer, who is being assaulted by Aerion.<\/p>\n

It seems that Tanselle\u2019s spectacular, crowd-pleasing performance as a dragon slayer is tantamount to treason against the Targaryens. But this doesn\u2019t stop Ser Duncan from landing a hard punch on Aerion, knocking out one of the prince\u2019s teeth. When the guard arrives and restrains Dunk, Aerion is set to break all of his attacker\u2019s teeth in retaliation. But then Egg shouts at Aerion to stand down, calling him \u201cbrother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boom! Twistaroo. Cue closing credits. I can\u2019t imagine how fun this ending must\u2019ve been for people who weren\u2019t expecting it. Alas, alas.<\/p>\n

The implications of all of this for Ser Duncan and Prince Aegon will have to wait until next week. None of it bodes well for our heroes, I can say that. So let\u2019s push that darkness aside for now and enjoy some lighthearted ribaldry. Because this is an especially raunchy episode on the whole \u2014 and sweetly so.<\/p>\n

At one point, we hear Egg singing a classic pub-style ditty about the Targaryen dynasty, slyly replacing all the vulgar words. (\u201cHorse die in battle \/ The battle was the front \/ Blackfyre\u2019s not a trueborn \/ He came from the wrong \u2026 Country was in peril,\u201d etc.) Later, at the Baratheon pavilion, a song about a thumbless woman with a talent for fingering men\u2019s bungholes inspires Egg to wax poetic about the service such a lady has provided to the realm, without anyone ever knowing her name.<\/p>\n

All of this speaks to Egg\u2019s charmingly sunny take on the world \u2014 with the exception of his own family. In one of this week\u2019s nicest scenes (among many), Egg is sitting contently on the hill with Ser Duncan and says, \u201cI could be quite happy in a place like this.\u201d When Dunk says, \u201cYou\u2019re in a place like this,\u201d Egg sighs and says, \u201cI meant for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince Aegon knows his squiring days could be short-lived. But until he gets yanked back to King\u2019s Landing or Dragonstone, he\u2019s going to savor every second.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A nice bit of framing in those early scenes between Dunk and Egg: Ser Duncan\u2019s face filling the left side of the frame, looking gigantic, while Prince Aegon\u2019s face, on the right, is appropriately tiny.<\/p>\n

\u2022 One advantage to knowing in advance that Egg is Prince Aegon is that you can enjoy all the moments when someone almost mentions who the kid really is but doesn\u2019t. For example, in this episode, Raymun someone wonders if Prince Maekar has left Ashford Meadow to \u201csearch for his misbegats,\u201d and then names all the problems with Maekar\u2019s kids. One\u2019s a drunk, one\u2019s vain, one\u2019s a maester, and one \u2026 well, that sentence never gets completed. But now we know.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The vain one, by the way? That\u2019s Aerion. The drunk? We\u2019ll learn more about him next week. The maester doesn\u2019t appear in the novellas at all, except as a passing mention.<\/p>\n

\u2022 While we\u2019re on the subject of the Targaryen family, you may be wondering where Aegon V\u2019s reign falls in Westeros history. There\u2019s no need to go into the fine details. (The novellas sure don\u2019t.) But as for where we are in HBO\u2019s timeline, you may be interested to know that Aegon V will one day sire King Jaehaerys II Targaryen, who will sire \u201cthe mad king\u201d Viserys, whose reign Robert Baratheon and Jamie Lannister will violently end. Or, to put it into more meaningful terms for Game of Thrones fans: Egg is Daenerys\u2019s great-grandfather.<\/p>\n

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