Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Three/@comment-5102537-20130914110054/@comment-5674726-20130918200839

Lots and lots of breaches of the Evil Overlord List for Morgana & Co. in this episode:

Rule 3 - My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped plan to usurp will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my Cenred's dungeon.

Morgana, why would you want to let Cenred keep Arthur prisoner to get information from him about Camelot's defences? The plan was to get Arthur killed so you'd be the only possible heir to the throne. Why would you be okay with letting Cenred (a) keep Arthur alive longer than necessary, and (b) obtain information about the defences of your future kingdom?

Also yet another breach of Rule 4 - Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

Morgana, sweetheart, Merlin has already proven himself more than capable of mucking up your plans and it's perfectly believable that Cenred would off the servant who is of no use as either a bargaining chip or a source of useful information about tactics. The sensible thing to do would be to have Cenred's men kill Merlin straight away, not have him imprisoned, least of all with Arthur, which brings us to your next breach:

Rule 42 - When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

Eh... close enough.

Also Rule 36 - ''I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.''

If you must take Merlin prisoner rather than killing him, you don't keep him in the same cell as Arthur. Cenred's bound to have more than two cells in his dungeons. Keep everybody separate and don't let all of the guards have keys to their cells, especially as they are clearly idiots, as was very aptly detailed on the TV Tropes entry for this episode.

"Cenred's guards make at least five crucial mistakes within a minute. Let's count them. Mistake Number One: Actually coming when Merlin calls for help.

''Mistake Number Two: Believing Merlin when he says "The prince has escaped." Then why is Merlin still there? Or, better yet, why are you believing the prisoner?''

Mistake Number Three: Coming into the cell with their backs to Merlin.

Mistake Number Four: 'Leaving the door open. 'Honestly, Arthur could have hidden behind the door, quickly stepped out followed by Merlin, and locked the door behind them and it would have worked.

Mistake Number Five: When Arthur drops down on them, they don't even bother to point their swords up, which would have easily dispatched him."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MerlinS03E07TheCastleOfFyrien