Warning: This story contains spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
NEED TO KNOW
Egg is not just a lowly squire after all.
In the Feb. 1 episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Dexter Sol Ansell’s character makes a shocking revelation: he’s actually Aegon Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne.
He shares his true identity only after his older brother, Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett), threatens punishment for Dunk (Peter Claffey) after he stepped in to save Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford).
As Claffey, 29, tells PEOPLE, the reveal “raises the stakes of everything, completely.”
“It’s the twist that really turns it from a good story into a great story,” Claffey says.
Steffan Hill/HBO
For fans of the book series of which the show is based, George R. R. Martin’s The Tales of Dunk and Egg, the squire’s real identity did not come as a surprise, but Claffey says that’s part of the beauty of adapting the story to the screen.
“I do think the people that don’t know the books and want to just watch the show are going to really enjoy that twist,” he says.
As for what it all means for Dunk, Claffey teases, “It really raises the stakes of stuff and thrusts Dunk into a world of highborn people that he wasn’t prepared for and puts him into, ultimately, a life-or-death situation.”
“It makes for, in my opinion, some pretty good watching towards the end,” he says.
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Steffan Hill/HBO
Dunk has already begun seeing the true nature of some people of Westeros. In the aftermath of his master’s death, he meets “all these knights that he always had so much respect for and reverence for” who, in Claffey’s words, “turn out to be just complete f—ing pieces of s— and really awful people.”
Those experiences contradict what Ser Arlan taught him, leaving Dunk questioning what’s the right path forward. Plus, the massive revelation from Egg adds to his confusion.
“There’s that decision that has to be made, where he’s like, ‘Do I go along the way that all these people have gone along? I’ve met royalty, to mad knights, from Lannisters to Baratheons to Targaryens, all these different things, all these well-regarded families,’ and he’s like, ‘Was Ser Arlan’s way the right way to go about things, or should I be doing that?'” Claffey says. “I think he learns a great deal about how to conduct himself and what he values.”
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiere Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO
