Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Five/@comment-5102537-20140420094458/@comment-24629321-20140420141946

I thought this was a good one. It gave us something much needed for this season, after we've spent so long questioning Merlin's morals and feeling that he's forsaken his destiny to bring magic back to the land. We do see Merlin's power shine in this episode (in the 'I don't need [a sword]' scene), and are reminded again of how much he's matured. But what   I love even more is that Merlin's attempts to use magic to save himself from the poison fail. But he does save himself—through the kindness he's shown Daegal. He saves himself because whatever missteps he's taken recently, he's worth saving. (In other words, this was the episode where I finally forgave Merlin for the events of The Disir.)

I think Daegal is pretty obviously meant to remind the audience of young Merlin in his enthusiasm (especially once he knows that he has a chance to help save Arthur), and for that it's interesting that he dies right after 'saving' Arthur. If we didn't know how the legend ends, this could have been a cool bit of foreshadowing misdirection as to how they were going to end the series. (Merlin giving his life to save Arthur, instead of Arthur dying.) Instead, it's just another loss for Merlin and another painful reminder that the young boy Merlin once was is lost forever too. I would have liked to see Daegal live, but unfortunately that wouldn't have fit at all with the tone of series 5 and the symbolism they seemed to be going for there!