AKOTSK Episode 6 Finale: Ending Explained + What It Sets Up
The Morrow Finale Ending Explained: Dunk & Egg’s Last Choice in Episode 6 (and What It Sets Up)
Updated: February 22, 2026
The A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 finale (Episode 6, “The Morrow”) is designed to feel smaller than Game of Thrones—but it’s the kind of “small” that changes everything. After the chaos of the Trial of Seven, the finale’s real question isn’t “Who won?” It’s: What does winning cost?
Spoiler note: Because HBO typically keeps key finale beats close to the chest ahead of release, this breakdown focuses on the story’s established endgame from George R. R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight (the novella Season 1 adapts) and the publicly released preview materials for Episode 6. If the show deviates, the meaning of the ending will still map to the same core choices.
Watch the Episode 6 preview (HBO Max)
Where we left off after Episode 5: the victory that felt like a defeat
Episode 5 dropped the hammer: the Trial of Seven is “won,” but it leaves Dunk alive, battered, and surrounded by consequences that aren’t going away. The most important consequence is Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen—arguably the best of the royal men in this era— dying from an injury sustained during the fight.
That death is the emotional and political fuse that Episode 6 has to burn down. Not because the finale needs a bigger battle— but because someone must answer for the fact that a would-be king died while defending a hedge knight.
Episode 6 ending explained: the finale ends a story, not a “plot”
If you go into “The Morrow” expecting a giant twist, you may miss what the finale is actually doing. Season 1’s ending is built around three closing moves:
- Ashford mourns—and the realm quietly re-sorts itself. In the aftermath of Baelor’s death, the Targaryens must stabilize the situation without letting the tourney become a spark for open revolt.
- Dunk is offered a “ladder.” This is the classic fantasy temptation: a poor, unknown knight is handed a chance to become comfortable, respectable, and safe.
- Dunk chooses the road anyway—and chooses Egg, too. The ending locks in what this entire series is: not a throne story, but a “two people walking through history” story.
The finale’s “ending” isn’t only a farewell to Ashford Meadow. It’s Dunk finally defining knighthood on his own terms: not as a title other people validate, but as a set of decisions you keep making when nobody’s clapping.
What likely happens in the final scenes (based on The Hedge Knight)
Season 1 has repeatedly emphasized consequences over spectacle, so the finale’s endgame is expected to play like a reckoning. Here’s the spine of the novella’s closing stretch—and the set of beats Episode 6 is positioned to deliver:
1) The funeral: grief, optics, and a kingdom watching
A Baelor funeral isn’t just a goodbye. It’s a public signal about who has power, who is trusted, and whether “justice” actually exists in a world where royal blood matters more than common suffering. And for Dunk, it’s the kind of moment that can break a man’s belief that doing the “right” thing ever pays off.
2) Maekar’s truth (and Dunk’s impossible position)
The story’s bitter irony is that Dunk did not set out to “make history.” He set out to survive. But history finds him anyway. The finale’s most important adult conversation is typically the one where Maekar addresses what happened, what it means for his family, and what Dunk is going to do now that he’s become famous for all the worst reasons.
3) The offer: “stop wandering and be somebody”
This is the emotional hinge of the ending. A hedge knight’s life is hunger, mud, and uncertainty. A stable place in a prince’s household means food, armor that fits, and never having to beg for a chance to joust again.
But the catch is obvious: a comfortable life comes with a leash. Dunk would become “a man of the prince,” and his story would stop being his.
4) The choice: Dunk stays Dunk
Dunk’s “ending” is him refusing to let one brutal week define his entire future. He doesn’t choose comfort. He chooses motion—because motion is freedom, and freedom is how a good man stays a good man in a bad system.
5) Egg stays with him—because this is how a king is made
The most meaningful payoff of the finale is that Egg’s education becomes the point. Not sword drills. Not castle etiquette. But a prince walking beside a hedge knight, meeting smallfolk face-to-face, and learning what “rule” feels like from the ground.
That is why the ending matters even if it looks quiet on screen: it’s the origin story of a worldview, not just a partnership.
Why the episode is titled “The Morrow” (and why that line hits so hard)
The title “The Morrow” is the finale’s thesis in two words. In a universe where nobles treat the future like something they can purchase, Dunk treats tomorrow like something you earn—by surviving today without becoming cruel.
It also reframes the Trial of Seven: the “verdict” is not the gods declaring Dunk innocent. The “verdict” is Dunk being forced to decide whether he’ll let tragedy turn him into a smaller man.
What the finale sets up next: Season 2 isn’t “bigger”—it’s sharper
The smartest thing A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has done is commit to its lane: grounded stakes, personal honor, and politics that feel like real people protecting their pride. The finale’s ending is essentially a door opening onto the next kind of story.
Season 2: a drought, a land dispute, and knighthood under pressure
The next Dunk & Egg adventure (as adapted from The Sworn Sword) is built for the exact kind of moral drama the show does best: two sides both convinced they’re right, a feud that has nothing to do with dragons, and violence waiting in the wings because nobody can afford to compromise.
Baelor’s absence becomes a shadow over everything
If Baelor represents “the good Targaryen future,” then his death turns the dynasty into a question mark. The finale doesn’t need to give you a new villain to feel ominous. It just needs to show you a family losing the one man who could have held them together.
Dunk & Egg become a moving lens on Westeros
Ending Season 1 with the road ahead matters because it promises a structure: Dunk and Egg will keep wandering into the pressure points of the realm. Each stop is a new moral test—sometimes with swords, sometimes with laws, sometimes with hunger.
What Reddit Theories Say About the Finale Ending
Reddit has been obsessed with one big question going into Episode 6: will the show end with the classic “Dunk & Egg ride off together” feeling… or will it manufacture a fracture between them to juice the drama?
The interesting part is that both ideas can be true at once. A temporary blow-up (hurt feelings, identity, pride) can still end in the same essential place: Egg choosing Dunk, and Dunk choosing the road—because that’s the whole series engine.
Reddit thread: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 – “The Morrow” promo photos
Reddit thread: Novella-to-show breakdown and predictions (Spoilers Extended)
Reddit Reactions: The 31-Minute Finale Debate
A lot of fans love the show’s intimacy, but the short runtimes have been a constant talking point—especially heading into the finale. The key thing to remember is that “short” doesn’t have to mean “small,” as long as the episode lands its final emotional decisions cleanly.
Reddit thread: Episode runtimes for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
FAQ
What is the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finale called?
Episode 6 is titled “The Morrow.”
When does Episode 6 release in the U.S.?
In the U.S., it releases Sunday, February 22, 2026 on HBO and Max (HBO Max).
Is Season 2 happening?
Yes—Season 2 has been officially renewed, and the next story is expected to adapt The Sworn Sword.