User blog:Merlinfan/Trapped in the Crystal Cave

Many people, it seems, are complaining about Morgana's plan to finally defeat the powerless Merlin: trapping him in the Crystal Cave by causing a rock fall. They say it was a stupid thing to do, considering Morgana knew that that was the exact place where Merlin could regain his magic.

I must say it was, as far as I'm concerned, a nice thing for the writers to do: they linked this semi-final episode to the well-known event in the Arthurian legend, Merlin being seduced and tricked by Nimueh/Vivien and trapped for all eternity in an oak/magical castle/Crystal Cave. In the legend Merlin still had his magic, but the spell was impossible to break.

In the episode, Morgana might as well have thought the rocks fell directly ON Merlin, crushing him. She also dind't know that Merlin was magic itself, and so his powers could not be taken from him. Without magic, and probably injured to death, he could not have escaped or tried to conjure back his powers.