IR TV Review: A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS - EPISODE 6 (“The Morrow”) [HBO]
The aftermath of the tournament, especially with the final shot in Episode 5 would cause anybody worth their salt, especially one challenged to have a faint of heart and fall. Sir Dunk cannot catch a break. His redemption is all but thwarted. With the Season Finale of “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms”: "The Morrow", he is just trying to pick up the pieces. He is injured. He can hardly see out of one eye. And the one person that seemed to believe in him (with any sort of power) just bit the dust at the hand of one of his own. Despite that, it is befallen on him as the problem. What is interesting here is the mechanizations that come into play that have repercussions down the road. The locals in the town (including an interesting and ironic offer from Lyonel) Dunk has a way out but he is worried about how he will be seen and under whose thumb he will be. What is intriguing is that when we see flashbacks with his mentor knight, a specific idea of Dunk's knighthood comes into play.
Perhaps the more important texture here is seeing Egg and his reaction in certain scenes just within earshot. He is different than other people in his family but there the legacy that follows him. Egg hears things throughout the castle, even his father's discussion with Dunk and a certain refusal which leads to a dynamic scene which may indicate Egg's true nature (or maybe a hidden one). Dunk, as he hangs out with his would-be friends outside the castle, realizes that he is been put in a very unique situation and yet his pride is making him question certain things which maybe he shouldn't. The key point is that Egg will not train with anyone else by Dunk. The eventual resolution is of course apt and opens up the storytelling options moving forward. "The Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms" was an experiment to see if a new approach to "Game Of Thrones" might work and in what seems a test (or abridged) first season, it found the balance between its brevity and some darker drama that really came into its own in Episode 5. B+
By Tim Wassberg
