Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Five/@comment-5102537-20140426100805/@comment-24785400-20140426122756

This episode marks the close of the "Gwen is Evil" mini-arc, and as such was adequate. There were some nice scenes, but as a whole it really doesn't come together. Its aims was to lift the enchantment, throw in some scenes between Mordred and Merlin and Mordred and Morgana, and oh yes, get Merlin in drag because that's just pure comedy gold. (sometimes I think the story-boarding for this season was done on the back of an envelope)  It manages to do the things it sets out do achieve, but yet... things felt off, were missing,  or just plain didn't make any sense. As always the acting was top notch, it looked great, but as well other episodes in this (and indeed season 4) the decision made by the producers  and writers were questionable. There are elements of a good story here, but they are forsaken for keeping the status quo. For starters, we are denied a scene where Merlin convinces Arthur something is wrong with Gwen and to follow her into the woods, where she meets up with Morgana. When was the last time Merlin told Arthur something that he didn't dismiss outright as rubbish, or ridicule Merlin for being an idiot. It just reeked of "too difficult to write, so we'll just skip it". Its not worth the audience seeing then is it? We've had previous seasons where Merlin kept quiet about Morgana and Agravaine, he finally decides to tell Arthur what he knows, and we don't see it. Then we have Merlin questioning his decision to help Gwen, it was too hard. If I had not watched previous seasons, I wouldn't have thought that Merlin and Gwen were, or had been friends. He didn't seem to care, I wanted to hit him! Then we have Arthur (who just a few episodes ago had used a magic horn to bring back his father for purely selfish reasons, and indeed in other previous seasons used magic for his own purpose) dither about using magic for Gwen. Instead we have Gaius! (who's usually the biggest naysayer) pushing them both into action. It made me wonder what the intended audience was supposed to be? Newcomers? Casual viewers? people who have watched previous seasons, usually more than once (as what happens with cult-tv type shows). As one of these viewers, it just asked me to suspend what I knew what had come before once too often.

Then we have the scene where Merlin disguises himself (I really don't know why, when she knew straight away who he was anyway) to visit the Dochraid. Why Gaius told him that she would know, when the dragon would have sufficed (as its Old-Magic etc) I don't know. But he takes Excalibur with him, and when she says Morgana will be the one to bring magic back, decides to slash her up a bit. (she does throw a knife in his direction, but still..) lovely. She tells Merlin that Gwen is bound the Silver Wheel, that he needs to travel to the Cauldron of Arianrhod, and summon the White Goddess that Gwen needs to enter the waters of her own free will. The Biggest problem I have with this is - Arianrhod (a real Welsh Deity)  is seen as an aspect of the Triple Goddess, her name means Silver Wheel. Presumably she's part of the Old Religion. The Dochraid tells Merlin he is no friend of the Old Religion, but he must use it to cleanse Gwen, even though its been used to put Gwen under enchantment to start with. (and the Triple Goddess has already made judgement on Arthur)   It makes no sense.

The following scenes where well-played, Gauis informing Arthur that the sorceress will be a woman, and the dinner scene trying to get Gwen to drink the drugged wine. BUT - hadn't Giaus already informed Arthur that the Old Sorcerer (Dragoon) wasn't the one to kill Uther? wouldn't it have been more dramatic for Arthur to come face to face with the same sorcerer?

To continue the discussion about women in this show, and paraphrasing something I once read on another forum, they've elevated Gwen to position of Queen, and  the power that it entails, all they can think to do with her is kidnap her, psychologically torture her, have her temporarily turn evil and then throw her over a horse and gallop around without a care of her safety (surely her neck would have broke), and then rescued by the menfolk

The other problem with this is - its been done before - more than once! I started to get the feeling back in season 4 that the show-runners wanted the actors to "take turns" in particular story lines. We had in season 4, Merlin enchanted and acting against his will, Arthur enchanted and reduced to a simpleton, now its Gwen's turn to act against her will (Morgana mustn't have counted, or they decided that she was good in season 1 and 2, and then turned evil and that was enough.) Then we get Morgana using the ageing spell, Morgana getting her own dragon, and later her own sword puffed on by a dragon, to even things up a bit. They've even said in a commentary (season 4 when Richard Wilson said that Angel felt she wasn't being given enough to do) "don't worry, she gets her turn"

Anyway, I digress and apologise for ranting.

We get scenes between Merlin and Mordred, well-acted, but Merlin isn't exactly friendly to Mordred, and he should realise that by behaving in that manner towards the kid, who seems to just want to please him, is going to make it easier for Mordred to turn against him, and to make it harder for himself if he needs to help Mordred down the line? I didn't understand the point of the Morgana/Mordred scenes either. The last time she saw him, he stabbed her in the back, yet she acted very tenderly towards him. Usually she seems to take delight in hurting people. Aithusa makes an appearance, and nobody see's Merlin commanding her to stop attacking? This poor creature who's crippled and maimed, and he never went looking for her, never asked about her whereabouts, now it the second time he's yelled at her.

We come to Dolma. It started of a bit dodgy, but the preening and the lisping etc, and then settled down when Colin played it seriously. Here producer decisions come into effect again.. We find out in the commentary (between Angel and Alex) that Colin was made to go back and re-shoot that first bit, as it wasn't deemed funny enough - yep, the bit that doesn't work was the bit they chose to put in. As I said before, I liked how Gwen had to enter the water of her own accord, but it was all a bit anti-climatic. And then we get Arthur forgetting Merlin was even there!

The scene between Merlin and Mordred riding back to Camelot was lovely, but it serves again as a question to us, as to why Merlin keeps doing things for Arthur and keeping himself a secret. Why indeed.

To finish, it was nicely done, but really all rather pointless, and in light of the news that the show was coming to an end, seemed like too much filler. I found the one of the best bits to be in the commentary,

Alex: Why am I the only one to notice things in Camelot?

Angel: Because everybody is stupid.