Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Five/@comment-5102537-20140503113617/@comment-24785400-20140504124548

I think this is a fairly typical Merlin episode. Watching on a superficial level, its fine. Its mainly plot-driven, there's lots of action, and some nice scenes. But when its finished (or even before the finish) you start to  think about it, rationalise it, put it into context of the rest of the season, especially with the knowledge that we are close to the end and wonder what was the point of that? After all, only two pieces of information are revealed. One, that Arthur is going to die (which we've known since the start of the season anyway) At Camlann (yes, that's new, but since Merlin has known its coming soon, is the exact location really important?), and secondly, the Dragon is dying, sad yes, but does it have any baring on the episode? Although now I think about it in retrospect, it may be there so we don't question why Merlin didn't call him sooner in the final episode. The only other thing that happened was in the final moments the knight with the melted face was discovered and we're told that its the High-Priestess (i.e Morgana) declaring war. What you call what's been going on before-hand then I have no idea - horseplay?

To re-cap. (and I'm probably going to miss out on heaps as I've  largely forgotten this episode and I'll issue now a warning for possible ranting and sarcasm with apologies) We have a cute scene where Merlin is bringing Arthur and Gwen breakfast. We see Gwen has recovered from her ordeal perfectly, she must have no memory of what she's done while enchanted, but then I suppose we shouldn't expect our characters to have much continuity, or suffer consequences. Arthur sends Merlin out for flowers, where he stumbles upon Finna who is looking for him. She tells him Alator has sent her with an important message, do beware the Druid-Boy, and arranges to meet up with him later. He promises to do so. Then we get the big red-herring moment of "is he right to trust her" as she sends a message by Morgana's favourite "raven-mail". Which finds Alator imprisoned by Morgana. (phew, they had us worrying there for all of 30 seconds)  I loved Alator back in season 4. He was a powerful sorcerer, stood up to Morgana, and had been on the run from various groups of people for a long time. She's torturing him to find out where to find Emrys (side-note:  how does she know that's not the name he goes by?  Did somebody tell her its an alias at some point?, and why was it only when the Dochraid told her, she remember him at all?) So, he's smart and powerful, but nobody told him to NOT LEAVE A NOTE LYING AROUND WHILE IMPRISONED!!! *head-desk* At least Finna didn't say Merlin's name, but she signed her own!. Its the most obvious, lazy plot-points I think I've ever seen anywhere!. Of course the guards (and again, you wonder where on earth does Morgana keep finding all these people, does she pay well or they are all just so scared of her? Since when and why are we calling random renegade armies Saxons anyway?). Morgana (who's back to been a one-dimensional, smirking, villain who delights in hurting people) snapped his neck in such a way that I was glad I didn't let my under 10 year old kids watch any more, and the over 10 year old wasn't interested any more.

Back at Camelot:  (and I'm sure I've got the sequence here a bit confused, but anyway...) Arthur, Gwen go on a picnic for their wedding anniversary, accompanied by Merlin. So we can have a scene where Arthur can say "just the two of us" and be corrected, and say Merlin doesn't count (just a scene to  play to certain sections of fandom). When they return there's a group of people seeking refuge. They are from a neighboring kingdom that Morgana has attacked, where magic is legal. This raises all sorts of questions for me. Why do they choose Camelot, knowing magic is illegal (and you can possibly be put to death). How do they keep it legal and not degenerating into chaos and corruption? Why doesn't everybody with magic just go and live in villages like this, and just leave Camelot all-together? What did Arthur do with these people?

At some point Merlin talks to Giaus about Finna. Of course Gaius is immediately suspicious (why wouldn't he be?), and warns Merlin against meeting her. Now I don't think Merlin ever promised that he wouldn't, but Gaius has been living with Merlin for what? 10 years and doesn't think Merlin was going to listen to him? Usually Gaius would do nothing,  but now, he goes to tell Arthur that he believes his life is in danger from a magic-user and person of the Old-Religion. I don't know if I"m supposed to like Gaius for his actions here.  I haven't particularly liked Gaius for some time.  He's just used as exposition, and to warn for or against something (whatever the script call for), and again, it's become a bit of a joke.   Sad as it would be for all, if he'd died either in season 4, or the start of season 5, then it would be chance for Merlin to step into his shoes somewhat, and he would be respected for his knowledge and skills as a physician.  As much as Arthur's presence stunted Merlin's character growth, so did Gaius's.  I realise that he put Merlin in danger unwittingly,but he also should have known what Merlin would do anyway.   Arthur orders a search party to hunt her down and puts Mordred in charge.  Yep, Mordred.  Ex-Druid, one-time magic user, soon to turn against Arthur, who currently has no qualms about hunting a person "of his kind" .  I still don't know why Mordred abandoned everything to come to Arthur. What exactly is he doing to inspire such action?

I liked the scenes between Merlin and Mordred. Even though he knows Merlin dislikes him and doesn't know why, he's still trying to offer support. The scenes between Merlin and the knights were not so pleasant. Poor Percival and his palsy

I loved, loved Finna. Loved the idea of her. She was of the Old-Religion and wasn't trying to kill Arthur. She'd lived her whole life on the run from Uther, and was waiting for change to happen. Giaus told us she was one of nine chosen. According to lore, the Isle of Avalon, or the Island of Apples, ruled by nine sisters "She who is first of them is more skilled in the healing art, and excels her sisters in the beauty of her person. Morgen is her name" ( from the Vita Merlini) so perhaps she was to have something to do with Morgana, or even take Arthur to Avalon? Even if not, and I was reading to much into that little fact (and I sadly was) she could have been there to remind Merlin of the rest of his destiny - to unite the old ways and the new, to create Albion (as he was told by the Fisher King) But no, she was merely there to reinforce his focus on Arthur (as if it could be anything less than the devotion and obsession he had now). So now Merlin and Finna have two sets of armies looking for them - Camelot and Morgana. How Morgana's hounds were able to find her scent and track her and not know they were looking for two people I don't know. (don't you need something to tell the hounds what scent to follow to start with?)  Anyway, Morgana finds Finna's signs that lead to the meeting place. Merlin gets hurt protecting Finna from capture, and while he wanted to stand and fight together (which I wanted to see) she was able to persuade him to leave her (with the sword he had) so she could protect his secret from Morgana. She gives him the little box containing the prophesy. When Morgana finds her and starts questioning her, she plunged the sword through her heart and I cried!. Why? Why bring in these characters so kill them off? Why can't Merlin have any interactions with other magic-users, why does everybody he come to care about die. Why was she so devoted to him? What was he doing that inspired such devotion? Why, at this stage should he still be keeping his identity a secret?

So Merlin stumbles to the roof, calls the dragon who heals him. When he wakes he see's the dragon not looking so great and asks what's wrong. The dragon tells him that he is old and dying and Merlin can't help him. Poor Kilgarrah, but no word about Aithusa.

Merlin gets Giaus to open the box and read the prophesy and comments on how many people were hurt and died getting this information to him. (which he already knew most of anyway!). I also wonder if he knew treating Mordred the way he was, was going to give Mordred some ammunition against him eventually, and also be a factor in his turning. Had Merlin not yet learned about self-fulfilling prophesies from that time in the crystal cave. At first I thought the prophesy was that Arthur HAD to die at Camlann, that Merlin had to let it  happen, so other things could happen in turn. That would have been something to wrestle with! But now, he had to stop the inevitable happening.

At the end we have that scene with the unnamed knight with the melted face and Morgana declaring war. As I said, lots of things were going on, but nothing really happened. The story didn't advance in any way, nothing much was added to it.