User blog comment:Fimber/Nine questions about "The Wicked Day"/@comment-4135736-20120625091758/@comment-5102537-20120626091713

Aithusa, he became selfish and coldhearted when he didn't heal, or at least try to heal Uther in the first place, although he obviously was now suddenly capable of healing an almost dead person. Instead he told his best friend, Arthur, to just accept his father's death and only acted when he saw his own advantage in the opportunity to bring back magic to Camelot. So that means, he was willing to deny help and let a person die who was suffering, and suffering even more in the year that left Uther completely destroyed and helpless, and who was now bleeding to death without any chance for redemption. He was also willing to let the father of his best friend die although he saw how desperate and sad Arthur was.

A while ago, someone wrote that maybe Merlin didn't try to help Uther sooner because he wanted to release him and end his suffering of being catatonic. Well, if that was the case, which I seriously doubt, then his attempt to heal him from the wound when he saw an opportunity to bring back magic that way and by that continuing Uther's emotional and mental suffering, it was even crueler. So either way, Merlin acted selfish and coldhearted, totally used the upcoming death of a human being (wether he liked him or not) for his own advantage. He didn't try to heal Uther to help him and he didn't even want to help Arthur. He did it only for himself. And this was very unlikely for his character and was another reason why I couldn't stand The Wicked Day and neither the rest of season four.