Forget the Super Bowl, the real main event is this week’s episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO, which debuted early on HBO Max because of The Big Game. It’ll still broadcast as usual on Sunday night, but if you’re streaming on HBO Max? Great news, you can watch Episode 4, “Seven,” right now. Or, you can read our recap of the episode, below. Or both! I don’t care. You do you.
Spoilers past this point but leading into this episode the big twist (unless you saw it coming from a mile away) is that sweet little squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) is actually Aegon Targaryen. That certainly changes his relationship with Ser Duncan The Tall (Peter Claffey), who was in a dire position at the end of “The Squire” after attacking Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) to protect Tanselle Too-Tall (Tanzyn Crawford), the puppeteer he has a crush on. Egg saved Dunk’s life by revealing himself to be Aegon, but what does that actually mean for the duo? And will Dunk have to pay for his attack on Aerion?
Guess what: that’s what this week’s episode is all about! So let’s get into the recap for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 4, “Seven,” right away.
Dunk-geons And Dragons
Versus the cheery, sweet episodes we’ve gotten so far, Episode 4 opens in an extremely grim place, and things are only about to get worse from here. Egg’s timely intervention may have saved Dunk’s life, but when we find him he’s sitting in a dingy dungeon, rain pouring outside. A rat crawls on the window, and Dunk tries to pet it…
…Which is when Egg enters, now dressed like the lord he is, with food for Dunk. While Dunk hungrily wolfs down some bread, Egg sort of apologizes. “My uncle says I must be your forgiveness for deceiving you,” Egg says, referring to Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel).
“Your uncle?” Dunk asks. “The heir to The Iron Throne?”
Dunk is positively belligerent, and it’s clear he’s less pissed off about his circumstances than the fact that Egg has been lying to him. So he quizzes Egg, with the boy Prince explaining that yes, four Aegons have been king so far (and if you’re curious about whether there will be five, here are some future spoilers). And Dunk, totally reasonably, thinks that Egg was probably playing with him… After all, the Targaryens aren’t known for their earnest kindness; they’re known for toying with their food.
Egg, though, explains that he was supposed to squire for his brother Daeron (Henry Ashton), except he’s a “s**t knight” and a drunk, and most important to Egg, “he didn’t want to enter the lists.” Daeron’s plan? Cower in the inn where Egg met Dunk until the tourney was over, and he shaved Egg’s head to hide his identity.
This is, overall, a pretty heartbreaking scene as the still upset Dunk rails on Egg, telling him “of course you did” when the boy says he “didn’t think I was doing anything wrong.” You can see the tears in Egg’s eyes, he really does feel awful; but for Dunk, he feels mocked and betrayed. He thought he found a friend, maybe even a brother. Instead, Egg is just another lord with family of his own.
And maybe even more hurtful, Dunk now feels like “you would have served a donkey if it were squireless.” Just like he felt honored to be taken in by Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) and then felt picked by Egg, now he feels like just another hedge knight.
Also interesting? Dunk is still treating Egg like his inferior, despite the little prince far outranking his station.
Paying Bael(or)
“I’ve already kicked one Prince in the mouth,” Dunk says once Egg reveals Baelor wants to see him when he’s done eating. “I don’t mean to keep another one waiting.”
Turns out, Baelor isn’t a regular Targaryen… He’s a cool Targaryen. Or at the very least not cruel like the rest of his kin. Dunk immediately kneels in front of Baelor, showing him the deference he didn’t show Egg… And Baelor also tells Egg to pour Dunk a cup of wine. “Try not to spill it on him,” says the pissed off Hand of the King.
In an abrupt about face, Dunk defends Egg, who is shocked. “He won’t spill, your grace,” Dunk says. “He’s a good boy. And a good squire. And he meant no harm.” In this, it’s all very similar to how Dunk is constantly threatening to hit Egg because that’s what Arlan did to him… Dunk is a kind man, and a good knight. He knows Egg meant well, and while he talks a big game, he’s a big ol’ softie underneath.
Baelor disagrees, and lays out that Aegon should have come to him to save Tanselle. He dismisses Aegon, and then asks Dunk one of the biggest burning questions about the show: how good of a knight is he, really? While Dunk lays out his qualifications, Baelor lays out what’s stacked against him. Specifically, alongside kicking Aerion in the face, Daeron has framed Dunk for kidnapping Aegon. And Tanselle will be taken in for treason for a “veiled attack on House Targaryen” for crafting a puppet show that depicted her killing a dragon.
Baelor, for his part, is clearly a facts-first kind of guy, which means it doesn’t matter what he believes to be true so much as Dunk is in trouble, and he struck a prince of the realm. “Don’t all knights make the same oath?” asks the naive Dunk. “To protect the innocent?”
Baelor isn’t swayed (or is he?), and continues to lay it all out: Dunk will likely lose at least a hand and a foot if he’s brought to trial. But there’s another choice, and it all hinges on “how good a knight are you… Truly.”
A Trial Of Seven
The plan? Duncan proposes a trial by combat, with the assumption that he’ll be taking on Aerion, who he already kicked the crap out of in the previous episode. Aerion refuses, but he can only decline if he withdraws his claim. So instead, he calls for a Trial of Seven.
What’s that, you ask? It’s an ancient form of trial by combat that came across the Seven Seas with the Andals. Specifically, seven warriors assemble on each side in order to invoke the gods and “see the guilty party punished.”
Maekar (Sam Spruell), the father of Aerion and Aegon, doesn’t get it. He thinks Aerion is scared to face Dunk — and let’s be honest, he probably is — but Aerion explains that Daeron has been wronged as well (he hasn’t), so “Ser Duncan must pay for his crimes again us all.”
So Dunk has to find six more knights to fight with him. Only problem? He doesn’t know anybody. And if he can’t find six more knights, he’s guilty.
Dragons Vs Apples
Stunned, Dunk wanders through the rain, telling his horses that he thinks he’s going to die tomorrow, when who comes out from the dark in a poncho but Raymun Fossoway (Shaun Thomas), who takes him back to the Apple House’s tent for some dinner — tough Dunk is far from hungry. Good thing, though, as Dunk gets his first ally: Ser Steffon Fossoway (Edward Ashley) saw what happened with Tanselle, and declares himself for Dunk.
Dunk doesn’t think Steffon should go against the Dragon house, aka the Targaryens, but Steffon points out that there aren’t any dragons anymore, and Fossoway was in Westeros long before the Targaryens, and thinks they can find five more men who would like to become immortal. I mentioned this last week as well, but about a hundred years on from House of the Dragon and post-dragons, the standing of the Targaryens is not what it once was.
Steffon has some ideas of who to recruit, too: Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), Lord Lannister, Ser Otho. If you’re curious about the latter two, that’s Tybolt Lannister and Otho Bracken. Tybolt is the Uncle of Tybos Lannister, who was the father of Tywin Lannister, aka Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion’s dad. And Otho is known as the “Brute of Bracken.” Basically, three good recruits here, and though that only brings them up to five it’s still a better start than when Dunk was wandering through the rain and talking to horses.
“You shan’t die under my watch ser,” Steffon says. “I promise you that.”
And from there, he heads off to gather the swords. Seems great! Nothing shall go wrong. Raymun isn’t so sure, and counters that Dunk should run. And just as Dunk is lamenting that he should have known his place, who enters but Egg, saying he’ll need his squire in the battle to come.
Truth Or Daeron?
There’s one more surprise in store, as Daeron is right behind Egg. And by the way, in case you didn’t put it together before, that was Daeron, drunk in the inn in the series premiere, spewing prophecy to Dunk and paying with Targaryen gold.
Dunk is pissed off, and is about to attack yet another Targaryen, even holding him down and putting a dagger to his neck. Daeron is totally non-apologetic, and Egg reveals once Dunk lets Daeron go that Maekar will join the battle on the side of the accusers. Daeron, on the other hand, wants to throw the fight, in a parallel of what Dunk was asked to do in the previous episode. Daeron will put on a good show, but then Dunk can conk him in the helmet. “Make it ring,” Daeron suggests. “Not too loud.”
Egg then offers up that three members of the Kingsguard will be joining, too. And Egg, by contrast, offers to recruit knights for Dunk. Why is Egg doing this, though? Why go against Aerion? Because Aerion used to “come into my bed chamber at night, put his knife in between my legs. He had too many brothers, he’d say. Maybe one night, he’d make me his sister. Then he could marry me.”
Perhaps even worse? Aerion threw Egg’s cat in the well. “He says he didnt, but he did,” says Egg, more furious at that than the whole “make me his sister” thing. Daeron agrees, Aerion is a monster, and asks for a private word with Dunk.
“I dreamed of you,” Daeron says, with Dunk reminding him he said that back at the inn. “I have seen you sir. And a fire. And a dead dragon. A great beast with wings so large they could cover this meadow. It had fallen on top of you. But you were alive, and the dragon was dead.”
That’s all Daeron knows, and he too laments that they used to be dragon masters — the Targaryens — and now they’re all that’s left: unimpressive human beings.
If you’re curious about this little prophecy… Well, stay curious. Fans of the novellas know that Daeron is pretty spot on with it, though things may not go the way you think. There are no literal dragons after all, only figurative ones.
The Shield
Dunk, at this, continues to wander through the rain, seeing the puppet head for Florian the Fool. That’s when Steely Pate (Youssef Kerkour) approaches, and reveals Tanselle finished Dunk’s shield before she left for Dorne. “Well gone is well forgot,” Steely Pate the armorer explains.
And the shield is just what Dunk wanted: a tree, a shooting star, a sunset. As a bonus, Steely Pate has strengthened the rim of the shield, making it heavier, but sturdier as well. Dunk, though, looks at it as a glass half full thing. Instead of a shooting star, he sees a falling star. Instead of a sunset, he sees the beginning of night. But Steely Pate has another idea. “The elm’s alive, man,” he says. “See how green the leaves are?”
Steely Pate asks if Dunk remembers the old shield rhyme. “Oak and iron, guard me well.”
“Or else I’m dead an doomed to hell,” Dunk finishes. Westeros: not a glass half-full place. Except also, Steely Pate only asks for a copper. Perhaps even if Dunk survives this, he’s managed to inspire a few others.
Avengers Assemble
As the dawn begins to rise, Dunk approaches the men who have agreed to back him up. They include: Ser Humfrey Hardyng (Ross Anderson), who has a bone to pick with Aerion after he dishonorably killed Humfrey’s horse, breaking Humfrey’s leg last episode; Ser Robyn Rhysling (William Houston), who Egg met in the fields last episode and explains that “when the crown goes against the gods, Ser Robyn goes against the crown”; Lyonel Baratheon, who’s just there to “bloody up the Kingsguard.” It also turns out that Ser Steffon (or as Lyonel says, “who the hell is Ser Stevron?”) didn’t gather them… Egg did.
Dunk enters the silent, misty arena, and watches as the Targaryens ride in with the Kingsguard. That’s when Steffon reveals he’s switched sides. He’s joined Prince Aerion and the accusers because he was made a lord. As we saw from the first episode on, Steffon is only thinking of his own glory — nothing else. He is, shall we say, a bad knight. And Raymun agrees, quitting as his squire.
That brings Aerion’s side up to seven, but Dunk’s is now down to five… And if he can’t find two more immediately, he’ll be found guilty.
Another Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
I had mentioned earlier one of the big questions around this show is how well Dunk can fight. A second one: is he a knight at all? He says Ser Arlan knighted him before he died, but there’s been plenty of evidence to the contrary. Now, add more fuel to the fire, as Raymun tells Dunk to knight him so he can participate in the trial, as any knight can make a knight… But Dunk hesitates. Why does he hesitate? Probably because he’s not actually a knight, right?
Lucky for Dunk, the trial begins, while Lyonel knights now Ser Raymun, so we’ll have to wait for that revelation for another episode.
By the way, if you’re counting Dunk still needs one more knight or he’s dead.
Another Knight, Another Theme, But Always You
As we hear Lyonel knight Raymun, Dunk approaches the dias. He pictures his mentor, Ser Arlan, who one would expect would be offering some advice at this moment. Instead, the memory of Ser Arlan shrugs. He has no idea what to do now, either.
So Duncan pulls out one last trick: appealing the honor of the people of Westeros.
Uhoh.
“M’lords. I know none of you remember Ser Arlan of Pennytree,” Dunk says. “But I was his squire. We served many of you. Ate at your tables. Slept in your halls. He was a good man. And he taught me how to be a knight. Not just with sword and lance, but with honor. A knight defends the innocent. That’s — That’s all I did.”
As he continues to appeal to the crowd, he calls on them to set examples for their sons, to stand and fight with him. And sure enough, the largest knight in the crowd looks at his son, then stands up as the music swells. It’s Ser Otho, the Brute of Bracken, ready to join Dunk’s–
Oh no, wait, he’s just loudly farting. The crowd laughs — well, most of them — but Dunk has managed to stir one heart with his speech. “Has courage deserted the noble houses of Westeros?” yells Dunk, upset now. “Are there no true knights among you?”
The doors to the tourney field open, and in rides… Baelor, joining Dunk, rounding out the seven, as the crowd goes nuts. And in case that wasn’t enough of a “hell yeah” moment, after a little joke in the premiere cut it off, the iconic Game of Thrones theme begins to play.
“Have you taken leave of your senses?” asks Maekar. “This man attacked my son.”
“This man protected the innocent,” Baelor says. “As every true knight must. Let the gods decide if he was right or wrong.”
Dunk spurs on his horse, and the battle is about to begin. Beat that rousing moment, American football game! Ya can’t!
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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