Merlin Episode 8: Deception for Non-Dummies
"That's the darkest thing we've watched in a while," my husband said. I agreed. This episode rivaled the darker episodes of Torchwood.
The beginning of this episode was very confusing, with the two characters the camera follows basically acting like idiots. Only much later did it occur to me that it was supposed to be iconic. It took a while after the initial viewing to realize what I was looking at, and when I miss a metaphor, the writers and the crew are definitely not doing their job.
We start off with a very nervous and very suspicious-looking pair consisting of a man and a child enter the town. Why in the world they wore those blue Tuareg cloaks (Yo writers, the Druids wore white cloaks. Get your cultures right.) into Camelot in the first place is beyond me. My family sat there going, "Where's the catch? Where's the decoy? Nobody could be that stupid. Especially not Druids." Predictably, the man gets captured after revealing himself a magic-user (told you those cloaks were a bad idea) and the boy gets injured and uses telepathy to call out to Merlin for aid. The feel of the scenes bothered me until I realized it was straight out of classic World War II movies. This is Camelot as Nazi Germany. Okay, I can deal with that, I'm an old Desert Peach fan. But the writers and the crew dropped the ball setting it up. And people, you don't configure the story to make the characters look iconic by showing them acting terminally dumb. That's bad writing. This is in sharp contrast to the rest of the episode, which has the best writing, acting, and directing we've seen to date.
Predictably, Uther publicly executes the man. Less predictably, he calls for the public execution of the boy. Even tyrants don't usually execute children in public. That typically happens behind closed doors or out in the middle of nowhere to avoid stirring public sympathy. The exceptions occur during the worst kind of civil wars and are aimed at wiping out bloodlines (like a deposed noble family to ensure that no "long lost heir" shows up later) or ethnic cleansing.
It's true that children as young as seven went to work in those days, and the boy does appear to be an apprentice. But in Shakespeare's Henry V the killing of apprentices during the heat of battle is denounced as a war crime. This episode does not take place during the heat of battle. No base passions have been stirred to lead soldiers to villainous acts.
20 years ago Uther was sparing the lives of children from magical families like Edwin Myrddin, but in spite of what he says he is no longer merely going after magic-users. He's out to execute all those with magical ability as well. He's out to commit genocide.
Under the circumstances it's especially chilling how little protest there is, how commonplace an act it is portrayed as.
It also emphasizes how much danger Merlin and Morgana are in, just by having magical and prophetic abilities, whether they use them or not. They don't have to do anything with them to be executed, being born with magic in their blood is considered crime enough.
"What if magic isn't something you choose? What if magic chooses you?"
Merlin's instinct is to protect other sorcerers. It kept him from saying anything about finding a spellbook on the witch in Episode 1 or about Edwin in Episode 6. It's also keeping him protective of both Morgana and the boy. (In some versions of the Arthurian Legends Morgana is Merlin's pupil and they have a short-lived affair. They could be setting up one or both of those, but it seems the lion's share of Merlin's attention is still on Arthur.) But he must empathize especially with the boy, who exhibits a natural ability so similar to his own (if less in power) that had the Druids not been persecuted by Uther they might well have found and trained Merlin. He might have grown up knowing who he was and what he could do, instead of having to stumble along half-blind as he has been forced to. The fact that the boy has heard of him and calls him a name he does not recognize only adds to the confusion and frustration that take the place of the self-knowledge and confidence he would have if only things were different.
We don't know if Morgana's empathy for the boy is being encouraged and manipulated by the child himself, although under the circumstances that would be a perfectly natural act of desperation. But Morgana's protective warrior instincts come to the surface for the first time. She is every inch a young queen in this episode, lacking only a crown.
It says something of how little Uther knows about teenagers that he doesn't take Morgana's calling him "My lord" with every breath and agreeing with every word he utters in their first scene together as the mile-high red-letter warning sign it is. It's an interesting scene all around. Morgana is dining with her adopted father Uther. There is no place set at the table for her adopted brother Arthur who comes in looking for all his finery hot and tired like the farmhand who's been working the fields. He's not offered food, drink, or sympathy by his closest kinfolk. When he reports a failure to find the child he's ordered to double his efforts, like a hireling more than a son. We know Arthur has been working for his father for a long time, but there seems something especially dismissive in the behavior of all three people in this scene. Later we see Arthur dining alone in his chambers being served by Merlin. How often does this happen? How fractured has this family already become?
Arthur protests he assignment. Morgana, in her assumed role of Uther's cheerleader, parrots back the line about the Druids being dangerous. Arthur questions how much she knows about Druids. Less than Arthur, who it turns out later has clandestine contacts with Druids. And these would be the same Druids who know about Merlin under another name and have stories written about him? So do those stories feature Arthur as well? What are the Druids up to here?
And what of Arthur? We learned in Episode 6 that the Great Purge of magic-users began at his birth. Notice how he looked away and to the floor when Uther said that. How much of the Purge is because of Uther's own protective instincts towards his son run amok? How many deaths has it caused? How does Arthur feel about them? Not happy, we find out from his increasing willingness to challenge his father in private on this issue. But how much does he hold himself responsible for the killings? How much do the magic-users?
Morgana hides the child from Arthur's more extensive search by pushing his buttons. These two are doomed as lovers. They know each other's weaknesses too well already.
Merlin tries to treat the boy, and when his efforts fail gets Gaius to help by pushing Gaius' buttons. I've given up trying to count how many buttons get pushed this episode. However, the Dragon totally fails at pushing Merlin's buttons when he warns Merlin not to help a child who reminds Merlin all too much of himself. There's no way that was going to work without putting out a really good reason.
Meanwhile Uther has to deal with Morgana's flagrant violation of his most deeply held code, and does not take it well. Morgana has to deal with getting a direct death threat from Uther, and the knowledge that her home is no longer a safe place for her to live. Arthur has to decide whose side he comes down on. His natural inclination combined with Morgana's button-pushing tips him over to the boy's side.
When Merlin finds out that Arthur has been recruited to the cause he immediately wants to call a halt, claiming that things have gotten too dangerous. He says it's for Morgana's sake, but it's clear from his face that it's not the king's ward he's trying to protect. It's Camelot's Champion and Prince he doesn't want risking his neck, the person most able to defend himself and least likely to be executed by Uther.
Arthur, though, shows no hesitation about asking Merlin to risk his own neck. This action is in marked contrast to how protective Arthur was of Merlin in the early episodes. Arthur may still call Merlin a "lazy idiot', but it seems Merlin has earned Arthur's respect. And note that there is no question in Arthur's mind about the lengths Merlin is willing to go to in order to help him save a magical child.
Arthur also knows that putting himself in danger is the button to push to guarantee Merlin's compliance.
Arthur comes up with a plan which only has two glaring holes and speaks it with enough authority that his sorta-sister Morgana doesn't question it. Pity, because anyone could see that while Morgana needed an alibi the king really wasn't going to buy it.
Merlin wants to know more, and seeks the Dragon again. The second time Merlin goes to see him the Dragon does a better job of pushing Merlin's buttons -- saving the boy will ultimately kill Arthur. Both Arthur and the Dragon know which button to push on Merlin, and both are pushing it to get him to act in opposite ways.
Each episode has had a moral dilemma. Usually it's some form of "Do I break the law/conceal the truth to save a life?" All the Camelot Four have faced this by now -- Merlin since Episode 1, Arthur and Gwen since Episode 4, and Morgana last episode. All of them will face it again in this episode. But for Merlin this is old hat now so his stakes are raised to, "Do I break the law to save a life, knowing that that action will one day cost Arthur his life?"
So far Merlin has been portrayed as a two-legged Marley, a gawky, well-meaning, undisciplined, enthusiastic, endearing Lab puppy of a youth whose "helpfulness" causes as many problems as it solves and leaves those who don't know him well to question his mental competence. This is the first time we've seen him face a moral test that has some teeth to it.
And let's not forget that Arthur is expecting Merlin to help him save the child. So either Merlin can save Arthur but make it look like he has failed Arthur and Morgana; or he can save the child, save Arthur from immediate danger only to lose him down the line. It's lose Arthur's trust now or Arthur's life later.
We can safely say by now that Merlin loves Arthur. It doesn't seem to be a possessive love, as evidenced by his willingness to help Arthur win Sophie. But it lights up Merlin like a flame lights up a lantern. Arthur has gone from being someone Merlin couldn't stand to the center of his life. But this is not just about his love for Arthur. It's about his very reason for being.
When Merlin came to Camelot he suffered a great deal of anguish over having no purpose for his gift, no meaning for his life. This anguish drove him to rash and impulsive acts, one of which nearly got Gwen killed. The Dragon's talk of Merlin's destiny to protect Arthur has filled that purpose and given him meaning. Merlin may grumble about it, but he has accepted it. His faith in this destiny is almost a religious one. So far it has been a relatviely easy burden, save the life of another young man, one who over time he has come to love. In order to do that he's had to lie, break the law, and kill murderers in the defense of himself and those he cares for. But now he is told that his destiny commands him to do a much darker deed, to stand aside and allow a child to be killed. At the same time this child knows things about Merlin that no one has ever told him. He's not only being asked to participate in the death of a child, but to close off a potential source of information about himself and his destiny.
Merlin decides to turn a blind eye and let the boy die, because Arthur's death is "unthinkable". Turning a blind eye is a major theme in this series. It's what Arthur can't do for Gwen but what Uther tells Arthur to do when Merlin lies dying, what Arthur does for Lancelot to allow him to leave the cell, what Lancelot does for Merlin, what Gaius does for Morgana and what Edwin Myrddin tries to get Gaius to do for Merlin and Uther. It's what Gaius has done about Uther's ban on sorcerers and it seems likely that it's what Uther has done about Gaius being a sorcerer. It appears to be what Arthur is doing about Merlin being a sorcerer. Fascism can only flourish when people turn a blind eye to problems. So how well does Merlin do at the Great Game of Camelot?
He's a complete failure at turning a blind eye. He gives it a good try, but the child telepathically screaming for help at him breaks his will. But it's enough that Merlin the ultimate innocent begins to lose a bit of his own innocence.
Merlin's is not the only loss. It's the beginning of the end for a lot of things. Before the story is over Arthur will be willing to draw a sword on his own soldiers. Morgana will complely lose Uther's trust and vice versa. And it's doubtful is any of the Camelot Four will be able to turn a blind eye again. All for a Druid boy named, we learn in the final reel, Mordred. Mordred who according to the Arthurian Legends in the future will destroy Guenivere and Lancelot, sow chaos at the Round Table, bring down Camelot, and fatally injure Arthur. He's only Morgana and Arthur's son in the later stories. In the earlier stories he's not related to them. But I wouldn't rule out his being Arthur's son just yet, especially if there's a long-term plot at work here. It could be that the Druids set the whole thing up in the first place, sent the guy in as a sacrifice, all as part of an elaborate revenge against the Pendragons for outlawing magic and massacring them. We can't rule that out. As dark as this episode is already, that's entirely possible.
Episodes 1 - 3
Episode 4 Review: Innocence at Camelot
Episode 5: (The Once and Future) Lancelot
Episode 6: (Death Is) A Remedy to Cure All Ills.
Episode 7: Deception for Dummies
Episode 9: What Color is Your Fairy Tale?
Episode 10: The Practical Exam
Episode 11: Today is a Good Day to Die