This review contains full spoilers for this week’s episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Death is everywhere in the penultimate episode of the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, one that sheds additional light on Dunk’s backstory and what forged his moral character. Episode 5 (titled “In the Name of the Mother”) opens with the Trial of Seven between Dunk’s faction, including newfound ally Prince Baelor Targaryen, and nasty Prince Aerion’s, which immediately establishes the life-is-cheap tone of the rest of the episode.
Dunk (a never better Peter Claffey) is quickly knocked unconscious, and the story flashes back to his youth where young Dunk (a wide-eyed Bamber Todd) and his best friend and first love Rafe (played with world-weary grit by Dune: Prophecy’s Chloe Lea) scavenge the remains of a battlefield for whatever they can sell back in Flea Bottom. Where Dunk is sensitive, Rafe is steely and unsentimental, hardened at such a young age by growing up amongst the disease and despair that’s ever-present in Flea Bottom.
Roughly half of “In the Name of the Mother” takes place in the past, chronicling Rafe and Dunk’s plan to scrape up enough coin to buy passage to the Free Cities where they can start a new life together. Or at least that’s their hope. A vicious city watchman (Edward Davis, another Dune: Prophecy cast member making a stop in Westeros) harasses them, with Rafe pick-pocketing him a few times — the final time fatally.
In a heartbreaking instant, Rafe has her throat slit by the watchman and dies on the street with Dunk at her side. She had been the stronger of the duo, pressing Dunk to be wiser about the world and to accept that his long-missing mother is dead and never coming back. And then, with one slash of a dagger, their dream of running away together comes to a brutal end. (Rafe also appears to be of Dornish descent, so perhaps older Dunk saw something of her in the imperiled Tanselle, maybe a chance for the life he might have had with Rafe. Alas, love doesn’t seem in the cards for Dunk.)
“The swiftness and brutality of the Trial of Seven combat scenes makes for some of the most unflinching knight-on-knight violence viewers have seen this side of a Ridley Scott film.“
Rafe’s death is also when young Dunk first meets Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), who staggers out of a tavern, vomiting, but coming to the aid of those in distress, as a good knight should. Despite being half-drunk, Ser Arlan wields his mighty sword – no, not that one! – and cuts down the watchman and his sidekick (the latter’s head instantly becoming pig fodder). With nowhere else to go and having lost any other chance of escaping Flea Bottom, young Dunk surreptitiously follows Ser Arlan as he rides off into the countryside. Eventually, the hedge knight finds the kid and offers him water with this simple bit of life advice: “Get up.”
“Get up” becomes a refrain for the rest of the episode, with Egg urging his hero Dunk to get back up on his feet and defeat Aerion. Like a medieval Rocky, Dunk is a dim-witted palooka who can take a beating like no one else. He endures several gruesome injuries but finally rises to the occasion and defeats Aerion, forcing him to publicly concede. But we quickly find out that Dunk’s victory has come at a heavy price, one that will affect the course of history in Westeros.
Following the battle, Baelor arrives to check on Dunk only for us to see that the back of the prince’s head has been caved in by what is believed to have been his own brother Maekar’s mace. Like Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, Baelor’s honor and decision to do the right thing gets him killed. Dunk finally finds a true high-born knight he could believe in, one who reflected the chivalry he believed they should uphold, and Dunk gets him killed. Dunk has spoken about his misfortune before, but it sure seems like he’s unlucky to be around.
The swiftness and brutality of the Trial of Seven combat scenes makes for some of the most unflinching knight-on-knight violence viewers have seen this side of a Ridley Scott film. Every wound, groan, blood spurt, impact of a mace or a horse smashing into a fighter makes for a very visceral, cinematic experience. While the jousting scenes in earlier episodes packed a huge wallop, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms saved its bloody best until (second to) last.