On last week’s series premiere of HBO‘s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, we met the new, much more endearing and gentle stars of the Game of Thrones spinoff, a hedge knight named Ser Duncan The Tall (Peter Claffey), his tiny, bald squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). And this week on the second episode, “Hard Salt Beef,” well, more stuff happens with them.
Shocking, I know, but unlike the packed premiere, the sophomore outing for the prequel series (it takes place about 100-ish years before the kick-off of Game of Thrones) continues those sweet vibes of the series but is about 10 minutes shorter and overall much lighter.
Want to know what went down on this week’s episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? Baby, that’s what this recap is for, so let’s get into it.
Spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1, Episode 2 “Hard Salt Beef” past this point.
In For A Penny, In For A Pound
A lot of this episode — like the last — is about how the legacy of Dunk’s former mentor Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) continues to weigh on him, particularly as he seeks out allies who might allow him (that would be Dunk) to compete in the tournament at Ashford. So naturally, we start off with a flashback that shows off Arlan’s enormous penis.
I’m not going to mince words here: Arlan is sporting a huge hog, which we get to see right in the opening seconds of the episode as Dunk narrates that “you might not remember him, but he was a true knight.” And like last week’s “diarrhea on a tree” scene, it’s a helpful reminder that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a lot about taking the piss out of Game of Thrones.
Oh, and yeah, we watch him take a piss as Dunk continues to talk about what made Arlan special is he just went and did his job. That even as he died, he never complained, “He just got on with it.” Now, granted, this might be Dunk’s youthful eyes filtering what he knew about Arlan, but we do see him taking a little money from villagers, singing a song about going “off to Ashford to see a fair maid,” which is likely why Dunk is so focused on entering the tourney, and eating hard salt beef under a tree in the rain.
Arlan, it seems, was not a great fighter, but a “dogged” one, and he did train Dunk, which answers at least one question: can Dunk fight? Yes. Can he fight well? Maybe, maybe not but he definitely beats Arlan.
And as it turns out, this whole speech is to, in turn, House Florent, House Hayford, then House Tyrell as Dunk visits them one by one, reminding them of specific connections Ser Arlan had with their great houses. But nobody remembers him, and as Egg explains, he must have been a “shit knight” because “he can’t have been a very good one if no one remembers him.”
Egg continues to express his dismay, understanding how Dunk is feeling about this… It isn’t just him asking lords for their help, it’s that by them not remembering Ser Arlan, it’s like Dunk is watching him “die” or fade into nothingness, over and over again.” In fact, Egg wants him to step up and just challenge someone on the lists — but Dunk remains steely in his resolve to find someone who will remember his former master.
House Of The Dragon
While Episode 1 brought on Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), Episode 2 introduces the main event: you know them, you hate them, the Targaryens. And Egg has an interesting reaction to this, immediately seeming scared and asking to go back to camp. While that’s reasonable to think one should be scared of the dragon lords (of note, no dragons are alive by the time this story rolls around), there’s more to it we’ll find out later.
Dunk has an idea, though… He’s going to ask the Targaryens for help. But first, he needs to be mistaken for a stableboy. Or actually, we need to meet our Targaryens, including: Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), who is next in line for the Iron Throne; Prince Maekar Targaryen (Sam Spruell), who is Baelor’s younger brother; and Prince Aerion “Brightflame” Targaryen (Finn Bennett), Maekar’s son and the one who has the most obvious “resting Targaryen face.”
While Dunk lurks in the background, Aerion shows up and does the “mistaking dunk for a stableboy” thing mentioned earlier, to which Aerion asks, “not clever enough? Well, if you can’t manage horses, fetch me wine and a pretty wench.” But Dunk isn’t a serving man, either… He’s a knight. “Oh… Well,” says Aerion. “Knightgood has fallen on sad days.”
Funnily enough, when Aerion’s horse goes a little nuts, Dunk does calm the steed down, and brings her into the stable. There he’s approached by two members of the Kingsguard — specifically Ser Roland Crakehall (Wade Briggs), and Ser Donnel of Duskendale (Bill Ward). If you want a little Westeros history, both served under Daeron Targaryen II, and continued under the rule of Aerys Targaryen.
Anyway, they’re also not very nice — or at least Ser Roland is not, while Ser Donnel explains after Roland has left to find a place to take a shit that he too is from humble beginnings… Specifically, his family was crabbers. So how did he become a member of the Kingsguard? “Same way we became crabbers,” Donnel explains when Dunk asks.
What does he mean by that? Dunk ponders this too, but likely he means he followed in his family’s footsteps.
Sneak, Sneak, My Name Is Dunk
Seeing a door opening to the keep, Dunk sneaks in, and finds himself near the room where the Targaryens are holding court. And we also find out a key piece of info: Maekar’s other two sons are missing… Daeron, who they commanded to enter the lists and instead ran away, and another one.
Gwin (Cara Harris), the Lord of Ashford’s (Paul Hunter) daughter, has a theory that she’s thrilled to share with Dunk: the boys are dead. “Wars have started for less,” Gwin says, before adding, “You’re big and stupid.”
She punches him in the shoulder and runs off, while Dunk continues to sneak around, and we find out that Maekar wants Daeron to step up and be the man of the family. Maekar also notices Dunk — he’s quite large, after all — at which point Dunk begins to entreat them to let him enter the lists. While Maekar is confused — “what the fuck is going on?” he asks — Baelor is surprisingly kind and lets Dunk talk.
Baelor does remember Ser Arlan, and tests Dunk by asking him the true name of The Grey Lion, the man Ser Arlan faced in a tourney long ago… And luckily, Dunk does remember, though Maekar continues to be flabbergasted by the whole thing. Baelor, in fact, went up against Ser Arlan, and unhorsed him after breaking four lances.
“Seven,” blurts out Dunk… And once again, we’re dealing with memory here. He ultimately bows to Baelor saying four, but it does point to how the thrust of this season is focused on how Dunk remembers his master, and how he wants to honor his memory, and perhaps how that may transition into how Dunk, himself, wants to be remembered.
And wonder of wonders, Dunk is allowed to enter the lists thanks to the grace of Baelor, though once again Maekar would like Dunk to “fuck off.” Baelor explains that Maekar is just worried about his sons, to which Dunk replies, “I trust they will not be found dead.”
Maekar looks ready to murder Dunk, but there’s one last thing: since Dunk isn’t of Ser Arlan’s blood, he has to get a sigil of his own. He thanks them, and then hilariously walks in the wrong direction as he exits the room.
Master Of Puppets
After that minor victory, it’s back to Tanselle’s (Tanzyn Crawford) puppet show, where they’re performing a short play about Florian the Fool, where the dialogue includes such bon mots as “All men are fools, and all men are knights… Where women are concerned.”
Dunk is smitten, and Egg is enamored as well, though mostly with the giant puppets and fire effects, which they do by throwing pollen through candles. The main thrust of the scene, though, is that Dunk wants Tanselle to paint him a new sigil. He has no idea what he wants it to be though, ultimately with Egg’s help they settle on an elm tree with a shooting star above.
They both giggle a bit, and Tanselle reveals her nickname used to be “Tanselle Too-Tall,” to which Dunk says, “You’re not too tall, you’re just right for–“
“Puppets,” fills in Egg helpfully.
Grown-Ups
The relationship between Egg, who is clearly the actual adult in this situation, continues as Dunk asks Egg for romance advice, and how much he screwed things up. Egg thinks it helps that they’re both tall, so that’ll help — though that leaves Egg bummed out about whether he’s too “puny” to be a knight.
Dunk offers up that people always think he’s too stupid, with no follow-up, which confuses Egg. Wasn’t that a tee up to a helpful anecdote about how Dunk deals with people calling him stupid? Well, nope. Dunk has no advice, and doesn’t even seem to remember what he just said. “Aren’t you trying to help me?” Egg asks. “Help you what? Grow?” shoots back Dunk.
Anyway, then they get recruited by Lyonel into a tug-of-war game, with Egg up front and Dunk at the back, while Lyonel takes a little break for a drink… Leaving Dunk to win the game. Perhaps given the growth discussion, Tanselle Too-Tall, and the enormous penis, the whole theme of this episode is “size DOES matter”?
A Suit Of Armor Around The World
Later that night, as Dunk wanders the camp area he encounters another important character to the series: Steely Pate (Youssef Kerkour). The armorer deals with Dunk, but he’s asking eight hundred stag for the armor — which is too much for Dunk’s poor ass. Steely Pate knocks it down to 600 in trade for Dunk’s current armor, which he’ll melt down… But Dunk only has two stags, which he gives to Steely Pate… The armorer wants the rest, but Dunk of course doesn’t have that, either.
So he does the only thing he can: he sells Sweetfoot, one his three horse, though he swears he’ll buy her back as soon as he wins.
And as Dunk sits down with Egg for a drink (“there’s a bug in my cider,” Egg says, grossed out), he explains his motivation. “If I could call myself a champion of Ashford Meadow, even for an hour, maybe some great house might take me into its service. Perhaps even House Targaryen.”
Egg bristles at that, and throws out that there aren’t a lot of Hedge Knights employed by the dragon house. Dunk mentions Ser Donnel, and Egg clarifies: “His father owns half the crabbing fleets in Westeros.”
So yeah, not exactly a salt of the Earth who pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
The Tourney Begins
Before we can get any further into that, the tournament kicks off… And with the crowd all headed to the field, the tiny Egg can’t see over their heads, leading to a sweet moment where Dunk puts Egg on his shoulders.
Dunk is in awe, and Egg is losing his mind like he’s at the WWE. The tournament? A ton of jousts all at the same time, including Prince Valarr, Baelor’s son as the “favorite.”
While Dunk seems to be having a great time, Egg is clearly troubled by something and asks to be put down on the ground. And the rest is a blur of horses and jousting as they brutally take it to each other… With Dunk having a panic attack.
He pictures carrying Ser Arlan into his grave, and is clearly thinking about dying in the joust himself.
Egg, back at camp, is thrilled. He’s play acting the Blackfyre Rebellion — an event that was essentially a Westeros Civil War… But Dunk is near catatonic.
“Do great knights live in the hedges and die by the side of a muddy road?” asks Dunk, and it’s clear this is the first time he’s seen real knights in action; or at least it’s making him reevaluate a lot about Ser Arlan.
Dunk continues to talk about him more realistically now, about how Arlan drank, and he whored, and never won a tournament; the flip of the mythologizing Dunk engaged in at the top of the episode. “What chance do I have, truly?” Dunk asks.
There’s another part to it, though. “He was good to me,” Dunk continues. “I wasn’t part of his family, but he kept me like we were. He raised me to be an honorable man. And all these noble lords can’t even remember his name. His name was Ser Arlan of Pennytree. And I am his legacy. On the morrow, we will show them what his hand has wrought.”
And with a bite of hard salt beef, it’s over for this week. See you next week to find out how quickly Dunk dies in the tournament!
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max, at 10pm ET. The season will premiere with one episodes on January 18, followed by one new episode weekly until the season finale.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms with premiere dates.
- Sunday, January 18, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 1
- Sunday, January 25, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 2
- Sunday, February 1, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 3
- Sunday, February 8, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 4
- Sunday, February 15, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 5
- Sunday, February 22, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 6 *Season Finale*
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