(Just an FWI for those who haven't had the chance to see :) ) 

http://merlin.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:77965?cb=1571

That's true. She could have easily killed Arthur already, as she could have done with Uther before. The very complicated plans to get rid of someone when it actually would have been so easy have always buffled me. So maybe Morgana wanted to reduce Camelot's defenses and the knights too. By unleashing the Dorocha, no potential army of hers had to bother killing the knights and soldiers because the Dorocha would do it until she decides to close the veil one way or another. Killing Camelot's army would be the only plausible reason in my opinion.

Aside from that, it would have been a good idea to explain the dorocha and why they were angry spirits. A little more about the afterlife would have been interesting, thouh I think  that it's always risky to deal with such things on TV anyway.

When the Dorocha attacked the castle and even broke through the windows, why was nobody there to protect Uther in his chambers? While everyone seeked a hiding place place to be safe from the spirit's attack, Uther was alone and asleep in his bed in the darkness with no fire to protect him against the Dorocha. Wouldn't it be first priority to protect the king in such a situation? I think that this contributed to the overall indifference towards Uther. Gaius entered his chambers when looking for Gwen, yet he didn't do anything to make sure that Uther won't be killed by the spirits but left him alone.

I also would have liked to know what happened to Lancelot when he entered the Spirit World. Did he just die or was he trapped in the Spirit World among the angry voices of the Dorocha?

Well well well, if it isn't the beginning on Merlin's fall from grace. This episode was a big blah for me, it was all a prime example of the producers making Merlin a wannabe-dark show.

What mainly irritated me about this episode was the godforsaken time-gap, pure laziness in writing. Where did Morgana's magic powers came from? She didn't just eat a magic mushroom and turned all goth Bellatrix didn't she?

This episode had so much potential, I liked Morgause's return, but I didn't like the lack of explanation on why she had to be sacrificed. Why was Morgause sacrificed opposed to some random man walking down the street?

I also didn't like AGRAVAINE! Boy what a hell of a waste of a character he was, he was not only a repeat of Morgana in Series 3, but a boring one-dimensional villain with absolutely NO back-story. He was one of the main factors of why I detested Series 4 so much (I thought it was batsh** until I saw Series 5). Why was Agravaine helping Morgana and against Arthur?

As for the story line, pretty dull in my opinion, took Merlin 2 minutes to travel to the impair Isle of the Blessed in Series 1, and it took the Knights of the Round Table 45 wasteful minutes to get to the reformed version of it. Why was the Isle of the Blessed all of a sudden a fortress?

Not only that, there was very little character development on the journey, let alone progress to the overall story in general. So to me, so to me, it was a very wasteful double episode in my opinion. Why did it need to be a two-parter?

If you exclude the events in the time-gap, this episode made little progress to the story aside from killing off various characters. I truly wish this was the Revival of the Witch [Nimueh] instead. :(

Sorry for the rant, but hey, it's my opinion, my two cents, take it or leave it.

Excellent point, Gwaine. I would love to highlight that particular point. Why indeed did Agravaine want to help Morgana? 

I seem to remember that Agravaine mentioned he had always been hungry for the throne of Camelot. But it also mentions he was VERY angry with Uther for letting his wife die during childbirth and therefore conceiving a child.  

But that doesn't fully answer the question. Why go to Morgana? Why not go to some Bandits or what not? 

In my opinion, I reckon when he helped Morgana, he was the biggest suck-up. There is nothing Morgana couldn't do without Agravaine and therefore he is just her puppet to gain information from behind enemy lines. 

As for his backstory: yes, I agree. Having a backstory could have improved our knowledge and therefore judging on his character and what he's been through. But I always knew from the start of his arrival in the series, that he would betray Arthur. 

As a spy, he was indeed important to Morgana. But other than that, I think it's interesting and also a shame at the same time that Morgana didn't care at all and had absolutely no feelings for him whatsoever. I don't mean that she should have returned his love, of course, but I think that she could have felt some kind of sympathy for him. He was the only one who showed genuine feelings for her after she had rejected everyone else. Yet she also rejected Agravaine's positive feelings completely which showed again that she either wasn't capable of loving anymore or she desperately ignored and surpressed it in order to not get a bad conscience. Had she acknowledged Uther, Arthur, Gwen and everyone else's love for her she wouldn't have been able to execute her sadistical plans.

Either that or she wasn't capable of feeling any other emotion than hatred anymore.

Wow, interesting discussion. I wanna share my opinion too :)

First of all, I totally agree with why Morgause had to be the one sacrified instead of any random man? To close the veil the dorocha only need any random people to sacrifice himself, it is logical to think that to open it, only need any random people too....

I liked Morgause, she should appear more. But after Morgana became villain and powerful, she just had to disappear I guess. So the focus will fall only on Morgana. Too bad...

The next thing that also crossed my mind : why was it so hard to kill Uther and Arthur when Agravaine could do it easily with poison or even stab them in their sleep since he had access to everywhere? Nobody will know who did it or being the right hand of Arthur he could easily pointed his finger to any servant or guard and everybody would believe him. 

But I guess if that is done like that, then there will be no interesting drama to build over and over again throughout the series :). While I think the whole series was almost always about how to kill the King, Uther (and after that Arthur) in so many interesting but stupid and impractical and inefficient ways. Then there is no use of Merlin too if they died just like that. :p

About Lancelot. OMG!! I can't believe that he had to die so soon and like that. I think everybody is right to say that he was not involved enough in the show given that he was the most noble and the bravest knight of them all. Sorry for fans of sir Leon, but I have to say this, why keeping Sir Leon alive again and again but not Lancelot. Sorry to say this (again) but  in the legend sir Leon was nobody compared to Lancelot, right? or in this case any other knight too. He should be the bravest and most noble knight, but when did he get the chance to show that? Only in this episode when he sacrificed himself. Not enough appearances. If sacrificing himself made him that, I think every other knight would gladly lay down their life to protect Arthur too, over and over again.

And to make Lancelot returned and had a fling with Gwen under spell for me just plain stupid. Not making any sense and was not a good thing at all. It will be much more interesting and meaningful if Lancelot and Gwen had a fling because of their own feeling, not because some stupid useless spell. But yeah, I know why the producers decided this way : so Merlin can save the day again with his spell and to save Gwen's and Lancelot's reputation because it was not their fault! Because Gwen and Lancelot must stay oh-so-perfect-and-noble. 

About Agravaine, when I first watched him appeared out of nowhere and suddenly became the most trusted person at Arthur's side (just because he said he was his uncle), I thought I have lost some episodes from the DVD I bought. I thought, OK, I must missed it somewhere, where there must be some explanation or at least hints of who he was and where did he come from or how he became the most trusted person of Arthur. But I didn't miss it. It just Agravaine just *poof* appeared out of thin air. LOL. 

And Gwen. I very much dislike her in this episode. She took care of Uther not because she was so noble and forgiving and kind hearted, but because of Arthur. But everyone seems to see her like that. Or at least that  was the image about her we should believe. If she was so noble and kind and forgiving that meant she could become a great queen and would be accepted although she was a servant. And has anybody noticed that her outfit just become more and more sexier? Her breasts almost falling out of her gown, and her gown getting tighter and tighter each time. Hmm, I think this was purposedly done to make her even more acceptable unconciously (she is kind and sexy. What do you want more from perfect queen? :)) 

Anyway, what I like about this episodes : The interactions between Merlin and Lancelot. I always love to see those two together. I am so sad there were just too few episodes with both of them bonding.

I also like when Merlin didn't have his magic and couldn't do anything to save the day like always. He had to be brave and fight with his own two hands. Admitting that he was scared but still willingly fought and defended Arthur with his life showed his true courage. 

I agree with everything you posted above, Edrea. Though I didn't mind Gwen becoming sexier. I've always thought that she was a beautiful woman and always looked great, no matter what she was wearing :-) I only found it disappointing that her great character was changed and became more flat with the seasons progressing.

Anyway, Lancelot and Leon.

I'm a fan of keeping characters on a show and not parting with them. So keeping Leon was totally fine with me, yet I would have wished for more depth and background for his character because I've never ever figured out what he was like. What was going on in his mind, what did he think about others and Camelot and the laws, what were his emotions? To me he seemed to be part of the inventory, like a recurring tool or something. Shame they didn't give him a story and more depth.

I assume that Lancelot was killed off because (maybe aside from the time schedule of the actor) he was too mature and too much of a competition for Arthur and also Merlin and Arthur's friendship. In comparison to Lancelot, Arthur came across like a teenager from Highschool whereas Lancelot could have been the older and more mature mysterious and charismatic mentor. He had more depth than Arthur and the other knights. Moreover, his friendship with Merlin was also more mature and believable than the friendship between Arthur and Merlin, also due to the fact that Lancelot knew of Merlin's secret.

The first few minutes that Merlin and Lancelot met convinced me more than the entire show convinced me about Merlin and Arthur's friendship. I think their chemistry was great but at the same time in the way regarding Arthur and Merlin. And imagine Lancelot's reaction when Arthur and the knights bullied Merlin later. It would have been out of character for him to join them, as well as it would have been out of character for him to just let Arthur kill Caerleon without objection.

But then, it's just my assumption. However, I found it odd that, except for Gaius, the mature and deeper characters were killed off.

I agree, the friendship between Merlin and Lancelot was far more believable than Arthur and Merlin. Keeping Lancelot alive might jeopardize it. Merlin had to keep Arthur alive only because it was his destiny and not because he was his friend anymore.

Not just Merlin, but Gwen might easily fell in love with Lancelot. Lancelot would easily "steal" Merlin's and Gwen's heart from Arthur, not to mention that he would be the one knight that other knights listen too...maybe he would become their leader and everybody would listen to him including Sir Leon. Yea..keeping him alive was far too dangerous :p 

And that's why all other mature characters were killed too, because they will jeopardize the character of Arthur. The King that supposed to be the greatest king of Albion but seemed so immature, impulsive, reckless, spoiled, and like to bully others.

I think Arthur did do some growing up throughout the show, though... :-)

Leon is still my favorite knight though. Followed closely by Percival and Elyan. :-D

Lol, I don't understand the dislike for Arthur- I prefer Lancelot too, but come on, he was nice really!

Anyway, this episode was quite good, and yes, I like the maturity of Arthur, Merlin and Gwen in this episode, though what she said about Uther was a bit worrying, and if I'm honest, I think her reaction to Lancelot's death at the end was a case of her shifting attention to herself  :S no, you don't do that when someone dies, sweetheart :S

I dislike Morgause as well, but yeah, she could have been developed more- really disliked the Caileach too- as for Aggravaine- well, yeah, I hate him too, for the exact reasons everyone else has said

Morgana did show emotion over Morgause- she looked like she was pained to do what she did, and immediately fell over afterwards- as for Aggravaine- I don't blame her for not returning that creep's affections- she did love Mordred, Morgause and Aithusa

Lancelot- aww, Lancelot- how sad what happened :( but it shows what a wonderful person he was- though Merlin had the capability of doing so too