RECAP: ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Episode 5 — “In The Name of the Mother”

It’s time. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5, “In the Name of the Mother,” is the moment many of us have been waiting for. The Trial of the Seven is at hand, and, for the first time, audiences see Dunk (Peter Claffey) take the field as a knight, with six unlikely men at his side. 

In the last episode, Baelor Targaryen (Daniel Ings) walked through the gate with the original Game of Thrones score playing, and now in “In the Name of the Mother,” he is talking the men through expectations. But the men all have their own reasons to be by Dunk’s side.

There is: Ser Humfrey Hardyng (Ross Anderson), a man with a broken leg who was injured by Aerion Targareyn (Finn Bennett), and his brother-in-law Ser Humfrey Beesbury; Ser Robyn Rhysling, a man with one eye but a legend to his name; Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), the party boy of Westeros but with honor still; Raymun Fossaway (Shaun Thomas), a squire who has had his knighthood for minutes; and of course the Crown Prince Baelor Targaryen, an heir to the Iron Throne. 

The Trial of the Seven is finally here, and it doesn’t disappoint. 

As an unlikely group, it was easy for the audience, including myself to crave a battle that showed us everything. Going into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5, violence was the expectation. And in HBO fashion, we expected to see it in graphic detail.

Instead, we see the field from Dunk’s perspective. We hear it as he hears it, we see through his visor, and we only see sporadic bouts around him. We are as confused as Dunk is in the thick of it, and after it. That element builds suspense, yes, but it also highlights that this series is a character study more than it is a fantasy series about knights and would-be kings. 

As we see the men prepare, the ragtag nature of the group comes into focus: Raymun and Dunk vomit, Robin Rhysling jokes that he can fight so long as he isn’t unseated from his horse, and Baelor looks at them with worry. But when the horn calls to start the trial, Dunk is frozen. 

The people’s champion, Egg’s belief in Dunk is what helps get him going. 

The other six men charge into the battle. But Dunk is, well, Dunk. He is not Ser Duncan the Tall; he is not a great knight. He’s scared. His armor is thin, dirty, and his horse isn’t well armored. His shield, while new, is carrying a crest that is days old, and across from him is Aerion—a man whose armor is meant to be a dragon in human form. 

While this is his first battle, it may also be his last. With Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) cheering from the sidelines, calling for Thunder, Dunk’s horse, to move, Dunk finally moves forward. Only, he’s immediately brought down, a joust causing the lance to pierce his side, which we will find out later was so strong it caused chainmail to enter the wound. 

After this, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 changes, the bulk of “In the Name of the Mother” is about Dunk’s past before Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), when he lived in Flea Bottom. We see a young Dunk (Bamber Todd) and his best friend, a young girl named Rafe (Chloe Lea). 

But before we see them together, we see Dunk prying horseshoes from dead horses on the battlefield. The end of the Blackfyre Rebellion has come, but the body count is there only for those to scavenge from. When the man beneath the horse, who is peeling horseshoes from the horse, awakens, calling for his mother, Dunk tries to put him out of his misery, holding his hands over his mouth and nose. Then, Rafe appears, and they try to save him, hoping for a reward. But he dies anyway. 

“In the Name of the Mother” is a powerful episode, and one of the best examples of how to use a flashback. 

As the two discuss the death and why Dunk is startled by it, the audience learns that this isn’t the first time that Dunk has seen someone die. But as the man asked for his mother, he couldn’t help but also wonder about the mother who abandoned him. 

Believing they have enough money to book passage out of Flea Bottom, Rafe and Dunk plan to leave. But only after he shares that a part of him still hopes that his mother will come back for him. When you’re a child with that belief, you can’t just leave the last place your mother knew you were. Then, after discussing the family that abandoned him, he settles on what he knows in his heart. That Rafe is his family, and he wants to be by her side. 

 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is still Game of Thrones, and Westeros is no place for happy endings. When the two try to book passage out of the city, they’re met with a higher price they can’t afford. As they leave, they’re cornered by a man whom they stole from, and after the man takes all of their coins, Rafe tries to have the last moment. She tries to steal his knife, but the man uses it cut her throat. 

Dunk’s belief in knights isn’t naivete but a reflection of how good a man Ser Arlan was, even with his faults.

The moment is hard to watch, and Bamber Todd’s performance as young Dunk is angry, terrified, and lost. He has no idea what he should do. That is, until he is almost killed as well. What we learn about Dunk in this section of the series is that he isn’t good because he is naive. He is good because in a world where he has experienced endless cruelty, a man stumbled out of a bar to save him. 

Shouting “In the name of the Mother” as he demands the men leave Dunk alone, Ser Arlan erupts from the tavern, vomits from drinking, and then kills the men who killed Rafe and sought to kill Dunk. But in that violence, Dunk sees a true knight and, more importantly, experiences kindness from an adult, which we can assume is one of the first times. 

It’s here when we see how Dunk and Ser Arlan came together. and the answer to that was that Dunk just followed him. He was exposed to the elements, he was deeply ill and almost died, but he always followed Arlan. A good distance away at first, he gets closer and closer to Ser Arlan over time until they are sitting at the same fire, and together from that point forward. There is nothing loud or overt about Ser Arlan accepting Dunk into his life. There are no words of pride or mentorship, just a man allowing a boy he saved to find a home with him. 

Peter Claffey as Ser Duncan the Tall will go down as one of the most meaningful characters in the Game of Thrones series.

After this,  A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 pivots back to the Trial of the Seven. Dunk is still not Ser Duncan the Tall. He is a man unfamiliar with battle as a knight, and hit after hit, he’s kept on the ground. A mace to the head, the chest, he’s stuck as the Accusers pummel him. 

And Aerion is not far behind. But the Dunk we see in this fight is emerging as the Dunk we saw in the flashback. A resilient person, driven by grit and the refusal to die. No matter how many times Aerion stabs him, he keeps giving it back, wounding Aerion just as much; his size is an advantage. Dunk is moving to survive, not to win. He is surviving the only way he knows how. 

Then Dunk goes down, and Egg calls to him from the stands. He calls for him to get up, to keep fighting, and it’s a moment where you can feel a knot begin to form in your throat. You can see happening to Egg the longer that his knight remains on the ground. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 action is expertly shot, acted, and choreographed.

When Dunk rises, he’s a man possessed. Not by anything violent, despite his continued dedication to fighting, but by the aggressive determination to survive. He isn’t even fighting to prove his innocence, just to stay alive. This entire fight sequence still doesn’t show the audience everything that happened on the battlefield. We see some land hits or being knocked from their horses in the background, but this fight is about Dunk. 

The sequence is harrowing, and every time Dunk is wounded yet again, you see him refuse to cower, refuse to stay down, and ultimately, at the end of the fight, when Dunk wins, severely wounding Aerion, Ser Duncan the Tall emerges. Survival turns to honor as he drags the dragon prince across the mud, holds him up to the stands, and Aerion recants. The shame is palpable, but more importantly, so is Ser Duncan the Tall’s honor. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 showcases why this series has easily become one of the best adaptations of George R.R. Martin‘s world. Everything is about the human toll of the choices made by dishonorable people, but, more importantly, it’s always about Dunk. 

There is a tenderness that moves the narrative in “In the Name of the Mother”.

There is evident care that goes into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 that has been the current moving of the narrative all season. While this episode features the long-awaited Trial of the Seven and gives audiences the closest we have gotten to the traditional Martin flair that HBO has defined Westeros by, there is still a tenderness. That is what makes this series so entirely special.

It’s not that Dunk idolizes knights out of some childlike dream. It’s because in a world of pain and grief, the boy who could have died in Flea Bottom was saved by a drunkard who cared enough about the smallfolk to save him. That little bit of kindness in the face of such tragedy is a light for Dunk. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 also puts Dunk’s relationship with Egg into perspective. The same way that Dunk followed Ser Arlan around, stuck to him, and refused to leave, so does Egg to him. It showcases why he was so hurt by the lie of omission and why, even with that, he is still kind to him. 

Still, the more important takeaway from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 is that it is not easy to be a good man. That is a fact we have seen since Game of Thrones Season 1, Episode 9, when Ned Stark was executed, and we have continued to see throughout the series. However, from Ser Arlan dying penniless on the side of a muddy road with no lord he served, remembering him to Prince Baelor dying from his brother’s mace, good men suffer. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 is a perfect episode of television. 

But to be a knight, to be a knight true to his code, you must be a good man even when it is hard. And that’s what Dunk has clung to, that is what he has lived his life by. And right now, in a world where it feels like absolutely no one in power has the spine to do what’s right, this is the story we need. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a series about the smallfolk, about the kindness that remains after a life of trauma, and the choice we make to do good when it is entirely easy to think of glory or title instead. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 is compelling because of how it ends, with Dunk cradling Baelor, entirely unsure why he was spared. There is pain here, and that pain comes from the stark reminder that innocence and justice don’t guarantee success or a long life, and certainly not glory. 

“In the Name of the Mother” is about protecting the innocent and the need to do good, even when it’s hard. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 is the best singular episode of the Game of Thrones series, and it just may be one of the best television episodes ever. It’s quiet, loud, tense, and tender. It covers a spectrum of emotions by focusing on one man and how his life has brought him to the exact moment we see on screen. 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 5 is streaming now on HBO with the final episode airing on Sunday.