A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is the second episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixty-ninth episode of the series overall. It premiered on April 21, 2019. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by David Nutter.

Plot
The battle at Winterfell is approaching. Jaime is confronted with the consequences of the past. A tense interaction between Sansa and Daenerys follows.

At Winterfell
Jaime stands still while Daenery's first talks. She begins by saying that when she was a child, her brother would tell her a bedtime story - about the man who murdered their father. He told her other stories as well, about all the things they would do to that man, once they took back the Seven Kingdoms and had him in their grasp. Dany remarks to him that Cersei had pledged to send her army north, but that all she sees is one man with one hand, and it appears Cersei lied. Jaime makes it clear that she lied to him as well, and that she never had any intention of sending her army north. Jaime tells her that Cersei has Euron Greyjoy's fleet and 20,000 fresh troops, that the Golden Company from Essos paid for. Even if they defeat the Army of the Dead, she'll have plenty of men to kill the survivors. Jaime states he promised to fight for the living and he intends to keep that promise. Tyrion tries to step in but Dany quickly shuts him down, knowing that Tyrion was wrong about his sister too. Sansa also says they are right, that they can't trust him, that Jaime attacked their father in the streets and tried to destroy her house and family the same as he did Dany's. Jaime quickly retorts asking if it's an apology they are seeking and that he won't. He says they were at war, and that everything he did, he did for his house and his family and would do it all again. Bran interjects: "The things we do for love".

Brienne of Tarth stands and steps forward on Jaime's behalf. She tells Dany that Jaime is indeed a man of honor. That as they were traveling a group of men attempted to rape her, and Jaime defended her. For trying to do so, he lost his hand as punishment. She then looks to Sansa and adds, that without Jaime she wouldn't be alive. Jaime armed and armored her, and sent her to find Sansa and bring her home - because he swore an oath to her mother. Sansa eventually agrees that they should let Jaime stay. Without seeking approval for this from Dany first, Dany looks at Jon and asks his advice on the matter. Jon says they need every man they can get. Dany eventually says 'very well', and Tyrion gives an audible sigh of relief. Grey Worm walks over and gives Jaime back his sword. After Jaime says 'Thank you your Grace', Sansa walks away and Jon follows soon after, not even looking in Dany's direction - leaving it slightly awkward for the Queen, who is then left to walk off in her own direction. Once out of view from everyone, she, Tyrion, Jorah and Varys are walking down a corridor where Dany can vent her anger at the matter to her Hand. Both Dany and Tyrion agree he was a fool in this matter, and that if he cannot help get Dany on the Iron Throne, she'll find another Hand who can.

At the Forge
At the Forge, the men are hard at work with the Dragonglass forging weapons. Gendry is busy working, not seeing Arya watching him at first. She is watching him with high interest. He asks her if she has something better to do, for which she replies 'have you made my weapon yet?'. He remarks he'll get to it after he's done making a few 1000 more arrowhead style weapons first. She says he needs to make hers first, and that it should be stronger than the weapon he's currently working on. Gendry says it'll be safer down in the crypt anyway. Arya asks if he'll be in the crypt, and he says no. She then questions, 'but you're a fighter?'. Gendry says he's done his share and even fought a few. He even describes the Army of the Dead as best as possible to Arya. He tells her that he knows she wants to fight, but that they are much different than rapers or murderers, that they are simply put 'death'.

Arya says coyly that she knows 'death', and lifts one of the dragonglass arrowhead weapons and throws it like a dagger, hitting a door frame in the near distance. She adds 'he's got many faces', before throwing another and have it landing right beside the first dagger she threw. Gendry is stunned by what all he is seeing. Lastly Arya adds, 'I look forward to seeing this one', and throws the last dagger, it landing exactly beside the other two weapons. She walks past Gendry and asks one last time for her weapon, for which he hastily replies "I'll right on it."

The Godswood Tree
Bran is in his wheelchair out in snow, just beneath the red leaves of the Godswood tree. Jaime slowly nears. The first thing Jaime says is that he is sorry for what he did to him. Bran replies: "You weren't sorry then." He adds that he was protecting his family. Jaime says he isn't that person anymore. Bran states that he still would be if he hadn't pushed him out of that window, and that he'd still be Brandon Stark. Curious, Jaime simply asks, 'your not?'. Bran replies that he isn't, and that he is something else now. Jaime is curious why Bran isn't angry at him, and Bran says he isn't angry at anyone. Jaime asks why Bran didn't tell anyone the truth. He replies that Jaime wouldn't have been able to help them in this war if they had been able to murder him first. When he asks about 'afterwards', Bran says, 'how do you know there is an afterwards?'.

At Winterfell
While Tyrion is walking about the castle grounds inspecting everything, Jaime approaches him. The brothers are back together, saying a quick 'here we are' to one another. Up on a staircase one of the military men spit down near the Lannister brothers, where Tyrion replies "and the masses rejoice". Jaime asks Tyrion what they think of their new Queen Daenerys. After reminding Jaime that she's now his new queen as well, he remarks the people remember what happened the last time Targaryen's brought Dragons north. He also states they'll come around once they see Daenery's is different. Jaime asks his brother if he is sure about her, and Tyrion says yes. And when Jaime states that Dany didn't seem to sure of his brother, Tyrion agreed saying he didn't blame her. During their conversation, Tyrion finds out through Jaime that Cersei's pregnancy wasn't a lie. Jaime says for Tyrion to not be too hard on himself, that Cersei fooled him more than anybody. Tyrion states that Cersei never fooled him, that Jaime always knew exactly what she was and he loved her anyway. Tyrion tells Jaime he never imagined he'd die at Winterfell, bringing a past joke between the two of exactly how Tyrion pictured himself dying. As Tyrion is talking, Jaime is distracted and walks away to look out in the distance at Brienne, who is overseeing sword practicing.

Jaime walks out of the castle gate where moats are being built with traps and men, like Podrick Payne are practicing with their swords. He eventually reaches Brienne and they greet one another. Jaime tells her that he has been told she is commanding the left flank during battle. She states it is great ground and with the rise it would give good advantage. Quickly, she finally turns to him and asks what he's doing, knowing they've never had a conversation this long without him insulting her. He finally admits that he came to Winterfell because he's not the fighter he use to be, and that he'd be honored to serve under her command, if she'd have him.

Appearances

 * ''Main: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms/Appearances

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Lord Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Sophie Turner as Lady Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund
 * Joe Dempsie as Gendry
 * Jacob Anderson as Commander Grey Worm
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Guest Starring
 * Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce
 * Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Megan Parkinson as Lady Alys Karstark
 * Staz Nair as Qhono
 * Ben Crompton as Lord Commander Eddison Tollett

Cast notes

 * Nick Chopping, Rob Hayns, Rowley Irlam, Jason Oettle, and Sam Stefan were stunt performers in this episode.

General

 * Due to concerns about spoilers, HBO is only releasing the titles of Season 8 episodes the moment they start airing — meaning that Game of Thrones Wiki can only list episodes as their number in the season until they air.
 * Despite their concern about security, HBO's affiliate in Germany accidentally released the episode a few hours before its scheduled release, at 9 p.m. EST. Do not add information about it to the wiki until its official premiere airing finishes.
 * The King's Landing storylines do not appear in this episode, instead focusing entirely on the various storylines at Winterfell.
 * The end credits version of Jenny's Song was performed by major music group Florence and the Machine.

Timeline and Character Ages
Gilly's son Sam appears again in this episode, bringing up the question of just how much time has passed since the beginning of the TV series, and how old all of the younger characters are supposed to be.

The short answer is that the TV writers did not thoroughly keep track of the internal timeline. Particularly, travel time stops following established information, so that journeys that should have taken weeks or months could take plays in days - or even a few hours, as was the case with the Wight Hunt at the end of Season 7. Nonetheless the number of calendar years that have passed can more or less be worked out. The early TV seasons clearly followed the rule that one TV season equaled one year of internal time: Robert's Rebellion was "17 years ago" in Season 1, but then said to be "18 years ago" in Season 2. Characters in Season 3 directly stated that the War of the Five Kings had been going on for "two years", when it began at the end of Season 1. Afterwards, story time expanded or contracted depending on the storyline - and this is not necessarily an error. The writers did accurately point out that every storyline seen in a given week isn't in synch with all the others, but presented due to dramatic pacing: i.e. Arya's storyline in Braavos wasn't physically tied to events at the Wall or King's Landing, and could have taken up entirely different spans of time. What matters is when storylines intersect.


 * It generally seems that the TV show continued to follow the rule that one TV season equals one year, though somewhat more loosely, and as more of an average in the later seasons.
 * An internal event which can be timed is that Gilly's son was born on-screen in Season 3. This puts an upper limit on how much time has passed in the TV series: something like "ten years" can't have passed between Seasons 3 and 8 due to unstated, off-screen time skips, otherwise Gilly's son would look like a ten year old.

Thus, the major characters still alive at this point are all, at most, seven years older than they were stated to be in Season 1, five years older than stated in Season 3. Possibly a year younger if the half-seasons of Seasons 7 and 8 combined take up a single year. Their maximum ages, assuming one season to one year through Season 8, are:


 * Daenerys Targaryen: 23 - stated to be 16 in Season 1, born after her father died at the end of Robert's Rebellion, 17 years before Season 1.
 * Jon Snow: 23 - stated to be 16 in Season 1, born after Robert's Rebellion.
 * Robb Stark was also roughly the same age as Jon Snow - meaning that in late Season 2, when he had sex with and then married Talisa, he was at least 17 years old, possibly verging on 18 years old.
 * Sansa Stark: 20 - stated she was 13 years old in Season 1.
 * Sansa stated on her wedding night to Tyrion in Season 3 that she was 14 years old, but this may have been in error, as it contradicted several other lines also in Season 3 which said that 2 years had passed since Season 1. This also means that at the time of her rape by Ramsay Bolton in Season 5, she was 17 years old (possibly 16 to 17 if the Season 4 line during her wedding to Tyrion was somehow not an error).
 * Arya Stark: 18 - Arya stated during Season 1 that she was 11 years old, thus she is at most 18 years old by Season 8 - possibly 17 if Seasons 7 and 8 cover a single year.
 * By the transitive property, it was well established that two years passed by Season 3, at which point Arya was 13 and Gilly's son was born. Thus Arya is "13 plus however old Gilly's son is".
 * Bran Stark: 17 - Stated on-screen to be 10 years old in Season 1.
 * Gendry: 23 - In the books, Gendry is stated to be around the same age as Jon Snow (and thus around the same age as Robb and Daenerys). King Robert fathered him on a whore in Flea Bottom, apparently not long after the war ended and he moved to King's Landing.

In the books, the age of legal adulthood in Westeros is 16 years old - though the TV series apparently made a tacit retcon of this up to 18 years, due to legal restrictions on depicting very young characters having sex: specifically due to Daenerys's sex scenes in Season 1). Because Daenerys's birth is tied to the end of Robert's Rebellion (being born after her father died at the end of it), Robert's Rebellion had to be pushed back from 15 years before the beginning of the narrative in the first book, to 17 years before Season 1.  Most younger characters were then aged-up by two years to match this.  Daenerys was still, fundamentally, a 16 year old having sex with Drogo throughout Season 1 - but depicting her as 13 years old as she was at that time in the novels would not have worked due to U.K. television filming laws.

In the books
[This section will be updated with comparisons when the sixth and seventh novels are released.]

Memorable quotes
Daenerys Targaryen: "When I was a child, my brother would tell me a bedtime story about the man who murdered our father, about all the things we would do to that man."

Daenerys Targaryen: "He never should've trusted Cersei." Sansa Stark: "You never should've either."

Arya Stark: "I know Death. He's got many faces. I look forward to seeing this one."

Jon Snow: "How long do we have?" Tormund: "Before the sun comes up tomorrow."

 Jaime Lannister: "Arise Brienne of Tarth a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

Image gallery

 * ''Main - Gallery: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

There is a range of promotional images and screen captures featuring 'Episode 2, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" of 'Season 8' in the gallery.