A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Recap: The Part With the Fish

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Hard Salt Beef
Season 1 Episode 2
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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I have a confession: As much as I like George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, I feel they’re a little under-Egged. They’re mostly just the tales of Ser Duncan, as he tries to find a place for himself in Westeros, with the occasional aid of his tiny bald squire. Egg shows only flashes of personality in the books — and even then, his character is broadly defined by precociousness and a fan-ish devotion to all things knightly.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms clearly means to correct this imbalance. In the show’s second episode — titled “Hard Salt Beef,” after the staple of the hedge-knight diet — Egg starts becoming more of a true companion to Dunk. He’s still very much a little kid, but he also shows wisdom beyond his years. Plus he’s adorable.

One scene in particular this week illustrates how the TV version of Egg asserts himself more. Dunk and his squire return to that wonderful puppet show to watch a lanky young lady named Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) lead the troupe in a comic tale about knights and fools — and about how they are one and the same, where women are concerned. After the show, a smitten Ser Duncan the Tall flips Tanselle a couple of coins and asks if she’d be willing to paint his shield. But he fumbles his way through the conversation, even when she tries to bond with him by saying she has often been teased and called “Tanselle Too Tall.” 

Egg aims to cheer his boss up after this miserable attempt at flirting, saying that at least he and Tanselle are “gigantic.” (“It’s a commonality?” Egg offers.) And in the Martin books, the conversation might’ve ended there. But Egg presses on, saying that he too has been made fun of for his height — for being “puny,” even for his age. The still-distracted Dunk replies, “Everyone’s always told me I was stupid,” then offers no further lessons or reassurance … which annoys the heck out of Egg. 

The point is there’s much more of a give-and-take between these two characters in the TV series, to the benefit of both. Egg is like the embodiment of the voices in Dunk’s head. One minute he’s defiantly hailing the honor of hedge knights. The next, he’s mocking Ser Duncan for being a naïve underclass lunk, as thick as a castle wall. 

Although not much happens in “Hard Salt Beef” from a plot perspective, the episode is essential to the larger story this season is telling, about someone who’s technically a knight (or at least claims to be) but who doesn’t receive even a baseline level of respect from the noble class. Indeed, when the haughty royal Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) rides onto the castle grounds with his father and uncle, he takes one look at the idle Dunk and starts bossing him around, demanding that he see to his horse and fetch him “wine and a pretty wench.” When Ser Duncan mutters that he’s actually a knight, Aerion scoffs, “Knighthood has fallen on sad days.”

As in the series premiere, Dunk spends much of this briskly paced, refreshingly concise half-hour of television trying to find someone who remembers Ser Arlan of Pennytree and will vouch for Ser Duncan as a genuine knight, worthy of entry in the Ashford Meadow jousting tournament. Early in the episode, we hear an audio montage of Dunk pleading his case to lord after lord, reminding them of Ser Arlan’s sacrifices in their service. The process wears on Egg, who complains about having to keep hearing over and over about “your shit knight.” He asks, “Why do you treat these royal lapdogs like they’re your betters?” It’s a question that speaks to the class tension at the heart of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Dunk eventually finds help in an unexpected place. He barges into the castle to see Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), the Hand of King Daeron II and next in line for the Iron Throne. Baelor’s cranky brother, Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell), has no memory of Ser Arlan and is unimpressed with Ser Duncan. But the much kinder and more gracious Prince Baelor recalls a valiant Ser Arlan performance at a tournament, when he unhorsed a member of the high-and-mighty Lannister family. Baelor later defeated Arlan but took no ransom—a kindness Dunk’s master would recount for the rest of his life, according to Ser Duncan. 

Prince Baelor’s warm reception provides a welcome respite from the litany of rejections Dunk received through the first episode and a half of this series. It also sparks the young giant’s imagination. What if he performs so well himself at the tournament that the Targaryens ask him to join the Kingsguard? After all, earlier that day he met a guardsman who was born into a family of crabbers before donning those resplendent white Kingsguard robes. The impish Egg laughs this off. The dragon family isn’t in the habit of hiring hedge knights, he says. And that guardsman? Egg happens to know that his family members aren’t crabbers — they own half of the crabbing fleets in Westeros. 

Egg doesn’t mean to be mean. It’s just that he thinks what Dunk does — roaming the realm, righting wrongs, tilting at tournaments — is more impressive than any boring lord’s life. 

We see more of Egg’s “nerding out for knights” when we finally get our first big jousting sequence, which is thrillingly staged and shot. As the horses gallop and the lances shatter, Egg whoops like a ringside spectator at WrestleMania. (He also steals a glance at his small hands, as though wondering whether he’ll be physically able to attend to Ser Duncan when the time comes.) The first set of combatants — nobles, all — flash their fancy gear and show off obnoxiously for the crowd. One of the riders actually bites the head off a fish. 

Dunk, though, can’t enjoy any of it because his mind’s awash in self-pity and grudgefulness. Later, back at camp, Egg tries to keep his new master focused. “Splendid riding tonight,” he says, adding, “the part with the fish was disgusting.” But Dunk can’t hear his squire because he’s too busy contemplating his master’s undistinguished, unsung 60 years of life. 

Sure, Ser Arlan tried to do what was right wherever and whenever he could — when he wasn’t drinking or whoring, that is. But he was also “a hard man to know and made no friends.” His legacy, intended or not, is his former squire. Dunk is now feeling the weight of that responsibility. He wants to punish every cocky noble who has forgotten Ser Arlan. 

“On the morrow,” Ser Duncan says in a voice both seething and stirring, “we will show them what his hand has wrought.” Hell yeah. 

A Few Clouts in the Ear

• So far, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has eschewed the copious nudity of Game of Thrones, replacing it with more pooping. (The Kingsguard to Ser Duncan: “Is there a proper place to shit around here?” Dunk, sheepishly: “Not really, no.”) But this episode does offer an unforgettable flashback of Ser Arlan (Danny Webb) rising from the bed of a comely wench and walking outside to urinate, his massive member swinging freely.

• By custom, Ser Duncan can’t have Ser Arlan’s sigil on his shield because he’s not a blood relation. So during his awkward exchange with Tanselle Too Tall, Dunk — with Egg’s help — describes how he envisions his very own shield. He wants a background the color of sunsets behind an image of an elm tree and a shooting star. 

• Really can’t say enough good things about Peter Claffey’s performance as Dunk. It isn’t easy to play a sad sack without becoming overly maudlin or silly. Claffey’s Dunk is so grounded and relatable, whether he’s turning the wrong way when trying to leave a room or he’s mumbling to Egg that his conversation with Tanselle was “ill-handled.” (“Didn’t feel well handled,” he repeats, unable to let it go.) 

• Steely Pate (Youssef Kerkour), the armorer, is skeptical about Dunk’s ability to afford new gear. Nevertheless, Steely Pate makes a deal, letting Dunk take care of some of the cost by trading in Ser Arlan’s armor — so long as Dunk doesn’t want some kind of stupidly elaborate helm that looks like an animal or a foreign fruit or something. The armorer seems to appreciate his new client’s lack of knightly arrogance. That said, when Dunk tells Steely Pate that he means to be the Ashford Meadow champion, the armorer rolls his eyes and says, “And the others all came just to cheer you on?” 

• That jovial libertine Ser Lyonel Baratheon returns briefly, just long enough to draft Dunk and Egg onto his tug-of-war team … and then to let them almost get dragged into the mud when he steps away from the rope to grab a drink. It’s too early to tell whether Ser Lyonel’s a friend or foe, but it certainly bodes well that he enjoys having Dunk around. 

• Don’t blame Prince Maekar too much for his surliness. He has one son, Aerion, who’s a complete arsehole, and two other sons who were supposed to be at the tournament but have gone missing altogether. The Targaryen family is kind of a mess. 

• It’s telling that when the tournament begins, one of the smallfolk yells at the host from the crowd, shouting “Lord Ashford fucks his sheep!” to riotous laughter. The nobles aren’t super-popular, it seems. Pay heed.