Merlin 5.06 - "For A Moment I Didn't Think I Was Going To Win."

[bluebeeangel]

Hello! It's that time of the week again. My Merlin review, for episode six. You'll have to make your way through the Spoilers of Injustice and the Words of Weeping Fandom to...oh crap it, just click on the cut below...



Previously on Merlin…bad decisions were made…

You remember back in season one and two when Morgana used to go on those pilgrimages to her father’s grave and they used to go so well and end in kidnapping or death? Well apparently Gwen’s taken the reigns of that one. Her and Elyan are visiting the grave of their father, Tom. Do you remember Tom? Elyan does, even though Tom never mentioned him. That’s got to sting a bit for Elyan. Why Tom is buried so far from Camelot, we never find out. He died in the castle, who dragged his carcass all the way out there?

It’s one of those rare weeks where Gwen and Elyan actually remember they’re related. This is his third season on the show and probably only the third reference we’ve had of them being siblings. This is actually a shame, because although only a short little scene, it’s actually sweet and believable and provides a little bit more inner depth and connection that is often missing from both characters.

Apparently Gwen needs four of Arthur’s best Knights to go with her, as Leon, Gwaine and Percival are also on the journey. It must be like a day out for them, rather than actual work. On the way back they’re going to stop at a car boot sale and then for a meal at The Little Chef. I use the phrase ‘best knights’ loosely by the way, as we’re soon to find out. Interestingly, Mordred isn’t with them (or in the rest of the episode). I’m assuming Arthur’s sent him on one of those ‘How to Dodge Spears’ training courses. He really will be the best trained Knight in Camelot’s history.

There is a nice little banter on the drive…or trot…back from the grave between Gwen and the Knights. The rest of the boys are teasing Elyan about his luck with women and Gwaine asks Gwen if Arthur told her about it; “Arthur never tells me anything”. She’s bob on there. There’s almost a little glimmer of friction in the way she says that. I’m not getting up hope that it’ll actually turn into anything interesting about them both, but it’s a start I suppose. It’s intriguing to note that Arthur isn’t with her on her little journey. It could be down to the fact he had a hand in Tom’s death, but they’re married so she obviously isn’t holding that against him. I feel like any minute Gwen and The Knights are going to pass by Merlin and Arthur having one of their fireside heart to heart chats.

Morgana was absent (again!) from last week’s episode, I assume looking for another new house. All this moving is really going to play havoc with her credit checks. She’s back now though, sneaking behind trees, dressed in an outfit designed by The Disir. They’re apparently not only witches and an aspiring pop group, but also fashion designers too. Look out next week for the release of their new perfume. Morgana has managed to get herself a horse though, I hope she hasn’t traded in Aithusa for it. I’d like to have seen that transaction go down, where she convinces some poor sap that the dragon is actually a hunting dog.

The Knights arrive at the field that Morgana’s just put a spell on. What amazing act of sorcerey will she conjure up? So far this season, her and Merlin have basically been in a ‘Snakes and Hitting Walls’ funk. It’ll be nice to see something new. Oh. Snakes again….yay. I would have been a lot more impressed if there had been a herd of rabid badgers charging their way towards the Knights. This is just two slightly annoyed snakes, which seem to bring down both Percival and Leon by just giving a slight hiss. For crying out loud boys, it’s not a flippin Basilisk! Man up!

The boys send Gwen into the woods to get away from the two tiny snakes. I think Arthur’s sending the wrong Knights on these training courses. It’s no point just investing money into new recruits, you’ve got to give existing employees the same opportunities. Leon, get your Employee Handbook out. Gwen doesn’t make it too far before she runs into Morgana. Never call Morgana predictable though, for instead of the old ‘push into a tree’ tactic, she goes for the lesser known ‘pull off of a horse’ one. There’s not a huge degree of difference, I think they’re pretty much the same spell in ‘Magic Monthly’.

After the titles, we’re back in Camelot. Gaius and Merlin proceed to have a conversation that I don’t have any comprehension of at all. Something about Lugwart. I think Gaius has made his own names up for the medicines. It’s a bit like how the BFG has different names for things. Merlin is Sophie in this situation. It’s frankly not the most medically skewed thing Gaius does, so we’ll let it slide.

As Gaius begins to “treat” Leon and Percival, Arthur enters. He asks them all what happened. The last he heard from Gwaine’s Twitter update, they’d just ordered Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding for dessert at the restaurant (Leon had Lemon Meringue Pie). Elyan replies that they encountered a nest of snakes. Erm…a ‘nest’, Elyan? Really? You don’t want to edit that comment slightly to read ‘we were big arse wimps who got attached by two tiny garden snakes’? You may want to rethink your answer before you fill in the Accident Book and an internal investigation in underway.

Arthur asks where Gwen is. I’m not sure if he’s asking in relation to the trip, or if he just hasn’t seen her around the castle for a few weeks. He leaves Gaius’ chambers and Merlin follows him. I’m sure he’s going to set off right away to find Gwen, who knows what’s happened to her, it won’t be safe to leave the Queen of Camelot out and alone at night. “We ride at dawn.” Oh. Well I suppose a King needs his beauty sleep. Gwen wanders feral around the castle most nights, I’m sure she can look after herself.

I’m kinda intrigued about what Merlin and Arthur were doing when everyone else was starring in ‘When Good Snakes Go Bad!’. It always feels weird and kinda disconcerting when we’re not seeing the POV of one or both boys. In-between episodes and in-between seasons don’t count, but within episodes I feel like I have to know what they are doing at all times. I feel like there was this whole other bit of story that was going on while Gwen, Elyan et al were hanging out in local cemeteries.

Gaius and Merlin are looking after Percival and Leon in the hospital wing. Gaius says that it’s not your everyday snake attack, that there is magic in their veins and they should be dead. I know we’re all thinking that after an hour in Gaius’ care they probably should be dead.

Merlin goes to see a bit of a grouchy Arthur. Gwen going missing has clearly effected him. Well as much as anyone else who he’s had to trek after this season. Gwen seems to have fallen slightly down the list somewhere between Sir Ranalph’s killer and Princess Em’s dad who neither myself or probably Arthur can remember the name of. This episode is a bit like Labyrinth (only not nearly as good). I feel we missed the scene at the beginning where Arthur said "Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be, take this wife of mine far away from me! I mean, Morgana doesn't have the crotch tight trousers of David Bowie, but if her hair gets any bigger she won't be able to fit through doors

Merlin tells Arthur that there is evidence of sorcery and that Gaius suspects that Morgana is involved. Does he?? He couldn’t tell Morgana was involved the other week when she was practically straddling him she was so close, but he can tell from a snake bite?

Arthur tells Merlin that he lost Guinevere once before. I have absolutely no memory of what he’s talking about. Does anyone else? Is he speaking of the beginning of the season when he lost her in the castle for three years? Merlin seems to care more about Gwen’s disappearance than Arthur and vehemently promises him they will find her. He holds his hand out for Arthur to shake. Arthur apparently having only arrived on the planet, completely misses Merlin’s hand and shakes his elbow instead. It’s a little bit like in Peter Pan where Wendy asks Peter for a kiss and he gives her a thimble.

Back in Snakey Woods and Gwen’s still unconscious. Morgana wakes her up though. She’s even done Gwen’s hair all nice and leafy to match hers. Morgana tells Gwen that they can play a little game to find out how much Arthur loves her. I assume it’s not ‘He loves me. He loves me not’ by picking the petals off flowers? That may be a little sweet for Morgana. Maybe it’s the same game, but removing the heads off spikes instead. I don’t think Morgana had many sleep overs with friends as a child.Morgana tells Gwen that she underestimates Arthur’s feelings for his wife. Well…that’s not strictly true, Morgana. It’s true they are married, but Arthur’s seen you more in the past few weeks than he has Gwen. Really, you need to sneak about the castle more, Arthur’s more touchy feely with Mordred than Gwen. Gwen replies that Arthur isn’t stupid.

…

….

….No…no…not stupid. He’s special. He’s very special.

The Knights find Gwen’s horse (didn’t he used to be Lancelot’s horse?), tied up, looking very relaxed eating some grass. He’s got a ‘Oh for fuck’s sake…” look on his face as he sees them approaching. I think he may be in cahoots with Morgana. You know how Morgana likes her animals. Together they can take over Camelot. Sir Percival wins the Specsavers Award for most unbelievable spot of the week. There’s a slight dent in the mud, clearly that must be Gwen. Or one of those rabid badgers from earlier.

Back to Thelma and Louise, and Morgana’s got Gwen trussed up like a Christmas Turkey and is dragging her along behind. Morgana offers Gwen some bottled water, but she’s turns her snout up at it. Arthur’s obviously been keeping her in Bollinger. I’m not really paying the full amount of my attention to this scene because in my head I’m replaying this…

Click to view

Percival’s super powered contact lenses are starting to fail him and he can’t see the tracks anymore. Speaking of Percival, how are he and Leon so magically cured? Last time we saw them they were two shakes away from being autopsied by Gaius, now they’re bounding about like spring lambs. Jesus, that Lugwart must be good shit. I’ve got to get me some of that. Arthur’s getting a bit antsy about the time taken to find Gwen. It’s cutting into hunting season something chronic. Merlin looks around at everyone else and says “I’ll talk to him.” . I’m not sure anyone else was offering love, but you go ahead. Merlin and Arthur have a horse to horse chat. It’s not quite doing it for Merlin though, so he suggests starting a fire. Arthur can apparently only bare his soul while marshmallows are toasting.

Morgana’s taken Gwen to a tower. It kinda looks like the one in that episode with The Fisher King. I’m sure it’s not though, I’m sure it’s a brand new tower. They’re literally thousands of them kicking about the kingdom. It’s nice that Morgana’s got herself some new accommodation though. I feel for her, I do, moving is supposedly one of the most stressful things you can do. She’s got to get all her weird menagerie of pets into their carry cases without upsetting them and make sure the movers are gentle with her Spiked Heads, as the insurance doesn’t cover them. She puts Gwen into a dark room, where she hears a blood curdling scream let out. It doesn’t seem to upset her that much, but Gwen has been near Gaius when he treats patients so it’s not an uncommon noise to her ear.

Merlin’s sitting there, all ready for his weekly fire side chat with Arthur. The king goes right off the beaten path though as he goes and stands next to Elyan. What a bitch. Elyan says he feels guilty about not staying with Gwen. Arthur tells him that he “saved Percival, he saved Leon”. Is he prioritising them in order? Does it go Percival, Leon, Gwen? That’s very strange. I would have thought he would have put Leon before Percival. This is actually a really nice scene between Arthur and Elyan. It displays how underused the Knights are sometimes. Although we’ve got not one single bit of evidence, Elyan paying homage to his sister’s influence is quite touching. It would have been even nicer if we’d seen them interacting over the years and this actually happening, but Adetomiwa sells it well.

All the Knights and Merlin are asleep. Leon wakes up and screams and makes me jump out of my skin. Merlin’s up to him in about 2 seconds. That made me snort a bit. He’s about an inch away from hugging him and then making him some cocoa. Merlin and Leon are reminding me of Gwen and Arthur…only with more sexual chemistry. Leon had a bad dream, the same one Percival had as well. I bet their periods are synchronised too. Merlin starts to look a bit edgy and begins to wonder if Gaius has crapped up another diagnosis and treatment again. The medical malpractice lawsuits must be numerous. Anyway Pervical and Leon have basically been sent a PDF of the tower via their dreams. I wish I could do that. It would be handy to get email when I’ve got no Wi-Fi signal.

Arthur, apparently, disturbed from his slumber, knows of this tower of darkness that Percival and Leon speak of. Now, this show has a knack of giving places and people names which I can’t spell, pronounce or remember. So, Arthur, what’s this dark tower called? “ It’s called The Dark Tower”. You get the feeling that the writer noted ‘change to more interesting name’ in the margin of the script and then forgot about it. Arthur tells the others that it’s a place that every young Knight is told about and feared. Well except Leon and Percival apparently. Arthur must have cut some corners on their training, or they just weren’t paying attention. I can see Percival being distracted by a chicken drumstick while they were being taught that, but surely not Leon? He would have used highlighters and post it notes and everything.

Gwaine, I should imagine like the rest of us, is slightly confused over the ‘everyone hears about the tower, but everyone who hears of the tower has dark thoughts’ exposition. I think we should leave all exposition to Exposition Fairy Gaius. He sells it better than Arthur. Gwaine says he was dreaming about cheese that tasted of apple pie. As a fan of cheese and apple pie, I thoroughly support this dream. The rest of the boys go back to sleep, while Merlin tries to use an array of whiteboards, sketches and crayons to explain to Arthur that it’s all being done by magic.

Back at Alton Towers and Gwen’s managed to have a nice kip. Until some ectoplasm falls on her. Morgana probably should have warned her that she doesn’t keep her accommodation in the best nick. What are those things hanging down? Are they the mandrake things from a few seasons ago that sent Uther a bit bat looney for a while?

In the morning Arthur states that he will journey to The Dark Tower. Elyan says he will go with him, because Gwen is his sister. Percival says he will go with him, because Gwen is his Queen. Leon says he will go because Gwen is their friend. Gwaine says that Gwen is a damsel in distress, so of course he’s going. Merlin basically says he’ll go because Arthur has pretty eyes. It’s all about Arthur and nothing about Gwen for him. The Merlin/Arthur dynamic is slightly…unusual, this episode, but I’ll get back on to the later.

The Knights ( by the way, why did Arthur bring so few?) try and make their way through The Impenetrable Forrest. They really went to town on the location names in this episode. I assume everything’s all innocent and the Impenetrable Forrest and the phallic shaped Dark Tower aren’t symbolising anything else? No. Okay then. It’s all bit twiggy. Gwaine seems to be getting slightly pissed off with it. I think he could live without Gwen too, he’s just coming along for something to do. Meanwhile Gwen’s in her tower and beginning to see fake people. Why doesn’t she just tear all the mandrake thingys down and throw them out the window? She’s making Arthur look like Einstein right now. DO SOMETHING GWEN!! Any sort of autonomous action would be dandy.

Back in the forest be, and Percival has just broken his sword. Sir Leon isn’t going to happy about sharing some of his weapons from his ‘Shack of Weapons and Love’ when they get home. He’ll have to adjust his spreadsheet. Apparently, Arthur pays attention in Herbolgy and quickly recognised they can find out which way is north by the way the ivy leaves face. Geek.

After seeing Pale!Elyan, Gwen now sees Pale!Merlin. He roars at her. Rawr! I’m not sure what this is supposed to symbolise, but Gwen and Pale!Merlin seem to get on better than her and real Merlin these days. Morgana enters and invites Gwen to dinner. I’m visualising it to be a bit like the Mad Hater’s Teaparty, complete with little white dragon in the teapot.

The boys are still hacking their way through the bush. Unable to penetrate it. Ahem. They find a bit of Gwaine’s cloak that got snagged on a twig from earlier. They’ve been going in circles. The Knights are tired and Arthur’s angry, but Merlin plunders on like an over enthusiastic holiday rep who ensures you that the holiday will be fine, even though your luggage is lost, the hotel room is full of cockroaches and it’s going to rain for the next two weeks. He tells Arthur that he promised him that Lassie will come home.

Bloody Hell, Morgana! At what point of the decorating of your new home did you tell the interior designer to ‘Miss Havisham it up’? You’ve got Gwen there, you might as well give her a feather duster, some Shake & Vac and get her to work. She asks Gwen if she would like some chicken. Don’t Gwen, just don’t. I don’t know what it is but, I doubt it’ll be chicken. Morgana’s being nice. It’s slightly disconcerting Gwen, but Morgana explains that she knows what it’s like to be prisoner; she won’t treat Gwen like that. She’ll force a hundred men to strip down and mine, but she’ll let Gwen have some chicken. Girl power. Gwen asks Morgana if she expects her to be grateful and Morgana explains that she would have loved for someone to have shown her this much kindness.
"That's not fair."
"You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is."
(Labyrinth quote. Boom!)

Merlin wakes up and sees something zipping it’s way through the forest. “Welcome to my realm, Emrys.” I assume as famous literary fairies go, that’s not fucking Tinkerbell. She looks a bit pissed off when Merlin is puzzled over who she is. Merlin, Queen Mab. Queen Mab…this is Merlin. Introductions over and Merlin tells Mab her impenetrable bush is bewildering to him. Ahem. Mab basically tells Merlin what we’ve been shouting at him all season; that he has magic so bloody well use it! She also implies that one of them will not return from the castle. So that was Queen Mab...will she be back, or is that it?

The next morning, we’re still going around that forest. It’s literally the same 3 foot patch of twigs. My garden is harder to navigate round and that consists of a bird house, a half dead shrub and a broken patio chair. Maybe if I gave them fancier, adjective riddled names, they’d seem harder too. The Winged Ones Dwelling, The Decaying Green Life and The Seat of Misfortune. Hey, that works, I now shall not enter my garden without a sword and magic at my fingertips. By the way, I wouldn’t like to say that this sequence of the Knights traipsing around the forest has gone on too long and got very repetitive, but I am thinking of twinning this episode with ‘Groundhog Day’.

Merlin speaks up and says he believes he knows how to get them to the tower. That he knows what Gwen means to them all. How many people is Gwen sleeping with? I can pretty much buy that she’s sleeping with all of them. Except Arthur of course. It would actually make me like her a bit more if she was sleeping with all of them! Is that Excalibur that Arthur is using? It’s forged from dragon’s breath and he’s using it like a compass from a Christmas cracker? Nice. Really worth pulling that one out the stone.

Oh yeah, I was going to talk about the Merlin/Arthur dynamic this episode. Let’s do that now shall we, while The Knights go for another 15 minute trek around the twigs. You know how I hark on about how the best episodes are about Merlin and Arthur? Yeah well this isn’t one of them. They are very much in the background of this episode. That doesn’t automatically make it a bad episode, just that it always seems a bit weird. It’s like sitting in the same seat at school everyday and then one day you have to sit up front of the class. It just doesn’t feel right, your body and brain are telling you it’s not quite natural. I don’t think they were bad in the episode. It just wasn’t about them. That automatically makes an episode problematic, because if it’s not about them, then I don’t really know who it’s about.

The interactions between them in the episode weren’t bad, they just didn’t have any depth to them. It felt a little bit rushed. The promise by Merlin, was quite sweet and showed his focus, but other than that it was a little painting-by-numbers. I can’t really say anything bad about it, it was just insignificant. Especially with Arthur. Although it was his wife that was taken, I think this episode was the least about him. Anyway, back to the forest…again…and Merlin’s using his Google Earth magic to find the best path for them to take.

We’re back in the Tower, which is only becoming slightly less repetitive than the Forest of Never Ending Circles. I will say that I thought Angel played all the scenes very well though. She sort of reminded me of what she did in episode 3, she really made the tension tangible. It was filmed well too. I don’t think there was a lot of psychological terror within the script or story, but the performance and the filming production definitely made up for it. I thought the scenes with Gwen and Morgana were oodles better than the Knights, which is something I didn’t think I’d ever say. I thought Katie played it very well too. She’s created something so completely lonely about Morgana. So very lost. It’s something that’s not always in the script and can get hidden under too much moustache twirling sometimes, but it definitely created a nice balance within this episode. A really disturbing mix of anger, vengeance, power, compassion and loneliness.
"You probably don't even know what an Oubliette is."
"Do you?"
"Yes. It's a place you put people to forget about them."

I do feel that Morgana is lost in her own little Oubliette. She almost delights in Gwen’s company, she is that desperate for some. She just wants someone to take her side, unconditionally and unreservedly. She doesn’t want to be forgotten about. That’s a lot about what her fighting for the throne is for. It’s kind of interesting that she is living in a very Miss Havisham style, as ultimately that’s what she’s doing. She’s lost in her own little world. Forever tormented by past actions of betrayal and loss, but unable to get past them.

"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want.”
Morgana says pretty much the same thing to Gwen. That she will give her whatever she pleases. Although Morgana’s intentions here are murky; is she doing this just to kill Arthur, or does she genuinely want Gwen’s loyalty. I think it works as both. I can believe both.

The Knights are heading towards the tower…still. Percival’s stopped though because he’s got a blister on his foot. I’ve seen him walk for miles after being beaten to a pulp, but apparently a blister slows him down. It must be those boots. He should bring up ordering some comfortable insoles for footwear at the next Round Table Meeting. The money they save on not providing him with sleeves can surely pay for them.

Pale!Arthur has made an appearance with Gwen. She freaking out big time now and when she get’s back to Camelot she’s going to force Arthur to have a spray tan right away. Morgana rushes in and comforts her. She tells Gwen that she’s the only one she can trust; that the other taunt her. Gwen almost goes along with it, but resists at the last minute. It must be the thought of going back out there to those cobwebs.

Merlin remarks how easy the boys are finding the tower than the forest. It could be because of the subtext there…or because it’s not that easy. Elyan rushes ahead, because Arthur slow plod to find Gwen isn’t quite fast enough for him. The boys follow and enter a room that is booby-trapped. Percival gets an arrow in his leg, but doesn’t complain half as much as that as he did with the blister on his foot. Merlin directs an arrow away from Arthur, which nearly impales Leon and Gwaine. It’s actually a nice little scene, with all the arrows shooting about everywhere. Elyan pushes on ahead; he thinks it’s his responsibility that they’re there. He finds Gwen in a room with a sword guarding her. Cool, I want one. That’s Christmas sorted. Elyan attempts to fight it, but it catches him. Before keeling over though, he manages to get rid of it. Gwen is willing Elyan to go and save himself.

ELYAN!!! No! The scene where he died was really lovely, and really well done between Adetomiwa and Angel. What a ridiculous shame that not only did they fail to develop this brother-sister bond, beyond them saying hello to each other, but that this was one of the only times they gave Adetomiwa anything to do. It a shame because both he and Angel worked nicely together and he always gives a great performance, much higher than what’s written for him on paper.

The rest of the Knights come bursting in, after having spent several minutes in the Dark Tower gift shop. Merlin got Gaius some chocolate in the shape of the tower and a mandrake keyring. I would have liked to have focused on the other three Knights a bit more actually, because they had been a strong fab four (five? Lancelot mew!) for what was about 5 years within the show’s timeframe. They were clearly closest too each other. Although Merlin did interest me at this moment too. He was given a prophecy that one of them would not return home and this quickly became true. He’s got another prophecy in his larder too. The one that haunts him. If the one about Elyan can come true, so can the one about Arthur. I think it made it a bit more real for him.

Right, so now we get a big old confrontation scene between Merlin or Arthur and Morgana, yeah? Where they say “Through dangers untold…and hardships unnumbered…I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city…” Oh. We go straight to Elyan’s funeral. I feel that’s a bit of a missed opportunity there. They could have had a bit of a confrontation before Morgana’s flying monkeys flapped her away to her next creepy location.

I have a feeling Merlin arranged this funeral. He likes his boat shaped coffins. Thankfully the House of Cleavage also does funeral wear, so Gwen is dressed in a low cut black number. Arthur puts a friendly arm around her shoulder, kinda like he did with Elyan earlier. He’s got a bit of a brother/sister fetish apparently. Later that night, Gwen and Arthur are in bed. Arthur’s a lot more dressed than he used to be. Not quite chain-mail, but Gwen’s got her Chastity Nightie on, so there is more material in that bed than at London Fashion Week. It is kind of sweet. It’s like when you’ve brought your dog back from the vets and you let him hop up on the sofa with you while you doze. Is this supposed to tell us that Arthur likes snuggling with Gwen as well as Merlin? I can live with that.

Gwen sneaks out and goes to meet Morgana! She’s got on her replica Disir cloak and everything. So, apparently Gwen’s on Morgana’s side now. I’m a little confused. Are they doing what I think they could do, which would be quite good, or are they doing what I think they probably will do, which will be crap? I really like the idea that Morgana has managed to manipulate Gwen over to her side, sort of like Morgause did with Morgana herself. In a weird Stockholm Syndrome sort of way. Well a half arsed attempt at it anyway. More Swindon Syndrome. If it is genuinely Gwen feeling frustrated and convinced by Morgana, that will be great. Excellent *pats show on the back*. I think they could have done it better, maybe started it slowly at the beginning of the season and crescendo-ed it in this episode. They could also have done away with the ’rescue the princess from the tower’ trek too, and made Arthur more culpable in Elyan’s death, so it would have been more convincing, but I can deal with that.

However, if this is all because Gwen is enchanted then this is going to annoy me. Firstly they did that last year. They had Merlin properly enchanted to kill Arthur. That was brilliant, I enjoyed that episode, it was swell. Then they had Gwen enchanted in the Lancelot episode. I liked enchanted Gwen, she was so much more interesting than normal Gwen. However, she was enchanted. That wasn’t part of her character and any interesting traits were wiped clean. Is that what’s happening here? Is Morgana enchanting her? Will she suddenly snap out of it and go back to normal, dullard Gwen? I really hope not.

So I’m having a bit of a dilemma really. I don’t know if this is a really interesting story twist (albeit slightly shoddily done), or if it’s a dull, repetitive, frustrating and uninteresting plot. I guess I’m going to have to hold fire on that one till next week.

So I didn’t hate the episode. I actually enjoyed it. It definitely made me jump a lot and kept me gripped through the production of the tower scenes. The worst part for me was Merlin, Arthur and the Knights. That never happens. Even then, that wasn’t bad, there were some interesting parts to it, although that hacking down the forest over and over again got very repetitive. It was nice to have a little more focus on the Knights, however slight it was. I think the tone of those scenes needed to be a bit lighter. I know Gwen was missing, but it would have evened out the show a bit more if the forest scenes had been a bit more interesting and comedic to watch. Watching six slightly morose men hack through some twigs let it down slightly, when the scenes could have been really good. The dialogue just needed to be a bit punchier on those scenes too. I will say though, that again they've kept up with the continuity of the equality of Merlin and Arthur, and how vast Merlin's influence over Arthur is. I appreciate that.T

he stars of this episode for me were Angel, Adetomiwa and Katie. I thought that was where the interesting parts of the story lie. They gave Angel something a bit more meaty to get her teeth into. I’d just prefer it if they spread it all out over a season though, rather than make her character as dull as dishwater for five seasons and then shove it all into one episode. This storyline would have worked a lot better if it had started at the beginning of the season. Instead of having Morgana have a ridiculous ‘Evil Plot of the Week’ every episode, why not have her slowly manipulate Gwen. A little bit every episode, nice and subtlety?

I think that would be better for Morgana’s character as well, although I do think she has a lot more scope and a lot more depth than Gwen’s character. I thought the slight ambiguity of Morgana’s true intentions in this episode worked really well. It was a good bit of light and shade in her character, which isn’t evident in every episode. It’s sad to see Elyan leave. I was critical over the past seasons, that the character was the least developed Knight, and he was. However, Adetomiwa was always amazing and incredibly under used. I think the Gwen-Elyan relationship could have been really special and created a powerful sibling bond. It’s disappointing they only managed to convey this in his final episode.

Next week…Gwen tries to kill Arthur…hmmm…

Oh, before I go. Apologies for the Labyrinth references. I slightly quoted it last week, so maybe it was on my mind. This episode did have aspects that reminded me of it though. Also, as much as I've loathed any sort of Arthur/Gwen relationship and the vomit inducing nausia that goes with it, I actually think it would have been interesting to have had a scene between them at the beginning. Created a little conflict that was evident in Gwen's 'Arthur doesn't tell me anything' comment. I think this episode had the potential to be really good, it just needed a really good kick up the arse. Anyway, that it all.