Merlin 4.07 "Who is Emrys?"
Can you believe we are already seven episodes in? Where is this season going?!!
CONTINUITY ALERT! CONTINUITY ALERT! Sound the bells! I feel I’ve actually got to recap the episode last week, because this one follows on from last week in so many ways. How can that be? It doesn’t have ‘part two’ in the title, does it?? What’s wrong with the show this season, it’s actually starting off stories and developing them. I’m aghast. So last week, Agravaine started spreading rumours about Gaius, and Merlin (as Dragoon) battled and won against Morgana. That leads us to the start of this episode…
Back at Hovel HQ and Agravaine is caressing the knotted, black weave of a hairdo off of an unconscious Morgana’s face. Not creepy at all. I’m hoping he hasn’t changed her into a white satin nightie and isn’t lingering on the end of the bed in nothing but his birthday suit and black gloves. The show is finishing after the watershed this week, after 9pm. I’m guessing it’s because everything was put later because of the footie, but I’m quite hoping it’s because someone’s going to get some action in the last five minutes of the show. I haven’t quite worked out which pairing it’ll be, maybe we’ll get some clues over which pair will start going at it in the council chambers, throughout the episode. I’ll keep you updated.
The camera pulls back so thankfully we see Morgana’s still fully be-cloaked and Agravaine hasn’t taken advantage of her. At the moment, they are the favourites to have sex in the five minute post watershed blow out (so to speak). Although I’m not sure Morgana’s that interested. She took Merlin back to her shack and tied him up last week, I think Agravaine was secretly quite jealous. There did seem to be a lot of missing scenes when Merlin was hanging out (literally) at Morgana’s hut. She’s been living in exile for a year, all alone, and there he is tied up, all wet and cute. What’s a sociopathic young witch to do? I know what I’d do…
It’s actually almost a little bit sweet, the care Agravaine shows her. The Hovel is looking quite tidy and the cauldron’s on, so he obviously tidied up after the mess left last week. I feel just adding those little bits of caring from Agravaine in last episode and the beginning of this one has worked wonders for his character. I actually understand his motives for betraying his sister’s child. You could understand him blaming Uther for Igraine’s death and being mad at him, but it never quite fitted that he would be so against Arthur. However, with the indication that it’s because he’s in love with Morgana, it makes perfect sense. He’s not committing betrayal because he is against Arthur, it’s because he is for Morgana.
Morgana is making little moaning sounds and her eyes are rolling back in her head. Calm yourself, Agravaine dear, she’s just dreaming. Unusually for Morgana, she’s not having a flashforward premonition, but is actually flashing back to the events of last week. How fortuitous that her dreams inform new viewers of last week’s events. My last dream consisted of giraffes, Sir Paul McCartney and a blue house I couldn‘t get into.
As Agravaine’s stirring whatever monstrosity he’s cooking over the cauldron, Morgana wakens. Agravaine asked what happened to her and she informs him that Emrys knew all their plans. Here, begins something which worked beautifully and became some what of a theme of this episode. There is a “He knows that they know, but they don’t know that he knows that they don’t know, that she knows that he doesn’t know that they know that he knows that they don’t know” theme to this episode, but for short hand I’m going to refer to it as ‘secrets and lies’. The first part is that now Agravaine thinks it’s Gaius who informed Emrys. He is of course half right, but he does seem to have an obsession with Gaius. Could they be our post watershed couple?? No…no they can’t, I’m nipping it in the bud now.
…..And opening titles! I still don’t like the new ones. If they were gonna change them, they should have really changed them, but they’ve done it half arsed.
Time for Bingo, everyone! Has everyone got their ‘Merlin and Arthur Groping’ Bingo Cards at the ready? I’m well aware we may have new players, so for the benefit of them, here’s a recap of just some of what we’ve had out the machine so far;
-The Embrace
-Half naked Wrestle
-Merlin jumping on Arthur in Bed
-Piggy Back
-Firemans’s lift
-General dragging around
-Throwing to the ground
-Eye groping (lots of eye groping)
Right eyes down, markers at the ready for the episode. Call out Full house if you win and present your card to George in exchange for a free polishing lesson. The first Grope out of the machine tonight is……….Merlin wresting Arthur out of Bed. Anyone have that?
So I think Merlin and Arthur are now leading my ‘post watershed sex couple’ stakes. Pretty much by a country mile. They’re already practically in bed together and Merlin’s asking Arthur to open his mouth (which he does accordingly) and ramming something in it. By the way, I don’t know if it was scripted, directed or even intentional, but Merlin poking Arthur in the eye, while he was giving him his breakfast, was a thing of beauty. It was a nice contrast to the huge banquet breakfast that George laid out last week. Arthur only got a mouldy old scone this week.
“I don’t know anything about polishing”
“Fortunately I do.”
Oh I bet you do. The way that line was said was wondrous too! Merlin starts listing all of Arthur’s jobs for the day. Odin’s sending an envoy? Are we speaking to Odin after he tried to kill Arthur twice? Are we not worried the envoy will, in fact, be another assassin? I feel that the Garland Competition must be a new event. I really couldn’t see Uther sitting there with a garland around his neck, mingling with the local peasants. Contrasting to the pulling Arthur out of bed, comedy moment, there’s actually a sweet little exchange where Merlin tells Arthur he’s doing very well. Arthur doesn’t think so. This may seem like a throw away line, but it actually has a lot of importance to the episode.
Is it wrong that I’m now more shocked at the sight of Bradley in clothes, than out of them now? The act of Arthur being topless is pretty much a pastiche of itself a few seasons ago. It’s so often now, it has to be deliberately put in as a chuckle. Not that I'm complaining. Agravaine enters and asks to speak to Arthur alone. They discuss how they know there is a traitor and Agraine begins to question who Arthur thinks it is. Perhaps the Knights, he queries. Arthur, we know, only gossips with Merlin about the Knights, so he dismisses that idea. Agravaine again suggests Gaius, pointing out his past dealings with magic as a red flag. Agravaine has a brilliant aura of Iago around him, really playing in the trust Arthur has in him, and being able to manipulate Arthur by appealing to certain aspects of his character.
Morgana’s ventured out her hovel and gone on holiday. Her summer wardrobe seems to be missing though, as she strolls though some bright market streets in her regular black garb. Way to fit in, sweetheart. Some guy in a blue headscarf merrily dances around her. He really has no sense of his target customers does he? She barges past some half naked dude saying that the Catha is expecting her. How?! Did she phone ahead? Did she send some woodland animal around with a message?
“You are Alator of the Catha; warrior and priest.” You are Morgana of the Hovel; smirky and obsessive. Well no, he doesn’t say that. He does say something about being the last of her kind. That’s an interesting little titbit that we’ll stick in out pocket for a later episode. Hmm, a bit curious about that because I just happen to know someone else who is the last of their kind too. Morgana asks Alator to abduct someone from Camelot. He replies that Camelot isn’t a friend of theirs because the Young King follows Uther’s ways. No! You’ve got Arthur all wrong! He’s not that bad once you get to know him! He walks around topless a lot, and given your close personal friend’s state of dress you might like that! Ask Queen Annis, she’ll give a good reference for Arthur!
In exchange for his services (maybe it’s Alator and Morgana as are post-9pm couple), Morgana offers him a bracelet. I think she bought it for £2.50 from that dancing guy outside. She claims it’s from the Isle of The Blessed Gift Shop though, so we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I wonder how that boat keeper’s doing with the regeneration of the Isle. I’m expecting to see all manner of attractions the next time we go there.
Um, now I don’t like to be too pedantic about these things, but how did Alator know who Morgana wanted him to kidnap? She never actually said. Was is engraved on the bracelet?
“Dear Alator of the Cathra.
Please abduct Gaius of the Crappy Medicine.
Address; Flat 1 Camelot Castle, Camelot Road, Camelot.
Thanks and Kisses,
Morgana of the Hovel”
I positively love the next scene. Nathaniel Parker is an unexpected surprise for me in this cast. I really like him. It opens with a beautiful Arthur playing with his silver rings in the palm of his hand. I guess Merlin finally relented and gave him back that one from a few weeks ago then. I don’t exaggerate with the word beautiful, by the way, he’s completely bathed in light. It’s a nice touch having him concentrate on the items that I believe were his parents. It really helps cement his frame of mind and why he takes the actions he does in the episode.
Arthur is remarkably passive and divided in this scene. He is caught up in the ‘secret and lies’ dynamic that runs through all the other characters. Even those who are lying to him with good intentions, are still keeping things from him and he can’t even begin to fully realise it. Arthur’s not stupid though. He may not fully know what is going on, but he does know something is going on. We’ve always been shown that about Arthur and thankfully they’ve always come back to that.
He has no reason not to trust Agravaine. He’s his loving uncle, essentially. However, you get the sense that although Arthur believes his Uncle’s intentions are true, he is not convinced by what he says all the time. The same way that Arthur has always had a sense of something about Merlin, you feel he senses something isn’t quite right with Uncle Aggie, he just cant work out what. This is a really good little scene where Agravaine is weaving Gaius’ words to manipulate Arthur into believing he is the traitor. He’s trying to get Gaius to lie, which of course he has to. He has to lie to protect Merlin. This is going all the way back to the third episode. Merlin’s reckless actions back then are still having huge ripple effects. In this game of ‘Secrets and Lies’, Merlin is at the very epicentre.
Agravaine seems to have invited Merlin to his chambers. Please don’t let it be them who sleep together. That’s just wrong in so many ways. Merlin wanders in suspiciously, as he probably should, what with Uncle being a crazed Morgana fan and all. Agravaine shows him a very sparkly dagger, which Merlin looks very nervous about. However, once Uncle Aggie mentions that it is for Arthur, Merlin goes all twinkle eyed and completely forgets the man in front of him is a traitor. “ Oooooh pretty dagger, I must shine it all bright and new for Arthur. He’s so dreamy.” Seriously boy, concentrate! It’s like Agravaine’s holding a toy above a kitten to distract it. He completely knew what to do, to get Merlin out the way.
Alator and “friend” free a white horse from the stables. Hey, wasn’t that Lancelot’s horse? Run, little horse, run and fetch Lancelot from the evil bad place! Do horses fetch? They then proceed to Gaius’ chambers where Alator and his friend quickly hypnotises Gaius in a “…And sleep” Paul Mckenna way. I’m hoping they don’t just do boring stuff and try and get information from him. If you’ve got that gift, you’ve got to get people to act like chickens when they hear certain words. That’s a perk of the profession surely?
While they steal Gaius, Agravaine plants evidence in his chambers. Ever the subtle one, he plants a book called “Witchcraft, Sorcery and Magic.” Then right next to it he sticks a copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone’, just in case Arthur doesn’t get the hint. We didn’t see it, but I think in the closet he’s planted a wizard’s hat and a litter of pure black kittens with blue eyes. If they had a fridge, I’m sure he would have planted a Post-It with ‘Handy Spells: Bibbity Bobbity Boo’ written on it.
Of course, Merlin doesn’t hear this because he’s creeping around Arthur’s room when he’s asleep again. Merlin and Agravaine really should write a ‘ To Love a Pendragon: Heartbreak and Sleep Stalking’ book together. I love the cute little smile Merlin gives when Arthur wakes up.
A second brilliant scene coming up. Arthur has now found the planted evidence. Agravaine is doing a mock-shocked speech about discovering this about Gaius. Within this, there is a fantastic line from Agravaine, where he says;
“It’s not even the fact of discovering he’s a sorcerer is it? It’s the lies…the lies and the years of the betrayal.”
While we are hearing this, we are seeing Merlin. Gaius may not fit Agravaine’s description, but Merlin certainly does. There are so many things going on in this scene, the first being that because Gaius is being accused of doing exactly what Merlin has done, we are seeing a sort of diluted version of how Arthur would react if he found out about Merlin. But it is diluted, as Arthur knows about Gaius’ connection to magic and although the two have history, it is ultimately not as deep a connection as between Arthur and Merlin.
The second thing going on in this scene is Arthur. You can tell he’s not convinced, despite Agravaine’s compelling performance. He doesn’t get mad, he let’s Gaius go. We heard him proclaim a war against magic after his father died, but he doesn’t have the same vengeance as his father. He has been shown proof from someone he trusts, so he has to go along with it, but he doesn’t relish in it. Then another thing we have in this scene is Merlin, who is not only the cause of the trouble (and he knows it), but he’s also having to face the premise that when Gaius was accused of sorcery he ran off without saying goodbye.
It could seem unlikely for Arthur to have so much faith in Agravaine, but it is exactly the same faith Merlin shows in Gaius. There is a parallel between the two boys and their father figures in this scene. Both believe that the people they respect and love, would not betray them. It’s a brilliant little stand off between Arthur and Merlin. They can both relate to how the other feels, but they both believe the other is wrong.
“Merlin! I’ve has my heart broken enough today, I don’t want to loose another friend.” That’s a really good line, because ultimately what Arthur is trying to repress is his closeness to Gaius as well. The show and this episode in particular has a theme of ‘Blood isn’t always thicker than water.’
Back to old Derren Brown and Paul Mckenna and they are in a cave shoving Gaius down on, what look’s like, my dentist’s chair. That’s what you get on the National Health, I’m afraid, Gaius. Although I must say, I may start going to the Catha Dentist if they can put me to sleep that easily while they drill away at my teeth. Unfortunately, Dental Hygienist from Hell, Morgana, turns up. “Get on with it Morgana, whatever you want to do, do it now. I’m not afraid to die.” Actually that sound exactly like going to my Dental Hygienist.
Merlin’s sitting on the floor of Gaius’ chambers, rocking his blue scarf/blue shirt emo combo and going through some papers. The door opens and he turns around with a half smile on his face, until he sees it is only Gwen and his face drops. I don’t think you were the only one with that reaction, love. I actually forgot about Gwen again until this scene. I think it was the only one she was in. It did seem a bit like, ‘where can we shove her in this episode’ appearance. Apparently after three seasons of not speaking to each other, Gwen’s finally remembered Merlin is her friend, and she actually quite fancied him a few years back. I would speculate them as my post watershed couple, but Gwen goes through enough men as it is, I think we should slide Merlin out of the equation.
Back to Catha Dentists and good old Derren Brown is doing a live performance of a Stop Smoking self help tape. Gaius tries to put up a fight with a little bit of magic. Derren looks surprised by this. Did Morgana not include it in her biography of Gaius?
Back at Camelot and Merlin isn’t about to sit ideally by and wait for Gwen to lecture Arthur (thankfully neither do we), and decides to get proactive and raid Agravaine’s chambers. I’m expecting him to find locks of Morgana’s matted old hair and what not. He tries a few drawers and cupboards, but everyone knows that anything of importance in Camelot is hidden under people’s beds! Merlin finds a secret box where Agravaine’s got the remaining six books of the Harry Potter series hidden. Apparently Merlin finds books on witchcraft and wizardry perfectly legit, but mud on Agravaine’s boots is suspicious. It does raise the question though of what is Agravaine currently wearing on his feet, if he’s not wearing his boots? I’m suspecting some fluffy, bunny slippers coming up.
Merlin’s been rumbled! Agravaine comes back and start’s changing behind a screen. Prude, there’s no one else in the room! He see’s Merlin’s reflection in the mirror though, that naughty little pixie. I’m not sure if Agravaine is outraged that Merlin was in his chamber or that he left when he started to strip off. ‘Hawkeye Uncle Aggie’ spots that Merlin was looking at his boots. Now unless the boy wrote ‘Merlin loves Arthur 4eva’ in the dust on them, I’m not sure how he noticed.
Merlin heads back home to find Gwaine waiting for him. Wow, Merls is all angst today, fighting with Arthur puts him in a right mood and he is a little off with Gwaine. The Knight is ‘bored of playing soldiers’ so has come looking to Merlin for a bit of fun (post watershed sex anyone?). Gwaine is being very sweet here, I do like that in the past two episodes they’ve shown that actually Gwaine was Merlin’s friend before anything else. He offers his help and Merlin asks him if he knows what the dirt crap he got off Agravaine’s shoe is. Apparently Gwaine’s specialist subject on Mastermind would be ‘Dirt Crap From Shoes’, because he comes up with the answer very easily. They ride out together. I hope they told Arthur, he’s gonna be well jealous otherwise.
Back at the NHS Stop Smoking Advice group and Derren Brown’s methods are finally working on Gaius. He’s weakening. Agravaine saw Gwaine and Merlin head out and goes to Morgana to tell her. She apparently wasn’t happy with how Agravaine cleaned up her hovel, so she’s adding lumps of dead wood to the décor to really bring out that decaying plant life look.
“He is the most powerful sorcerer who ever lived. His name is Merlin.” Eek!! Gaius!!! He just asked for his name, not his online dating profile! You don’t have to give up all the information about him! Gaius can’t shut up about him now. ‘He’s destined for greatness, he likes his eggs scrambled with toast and he will create Albion.’ Derren Brown looks extremely turned on by this new information. He’s thinking how amazing Merlin sounds. Obviously looks aren’t everything, but if he looks half as good as he sounds, he gonna brainwash Gaius into setting them up on a blind date.
Meanwhile, Merlin and Gwaine have stumbled across Paul McKenna in the Reception. Instead of booking them in for teeth whitening, he decides attacking them would be the best course of action. The business is never going to take off the ground with that attitude. I so thought Gwaine was going to find out about Merlin’s magic here, but bless him, he doesn’t seem to notice. He can sniff dirt out from a hundred paces, but can’t see the large topless guy being flung towards him by magic.
Morgana doesn’t seem to know Gwaine, is that accurate? Did their paths not cross when they were both in town? Ladies and Gentleman, I think I’ve found my couple for post-9pm sex. Agravaine gets out his dagger to kill Gaius, when Gwaine interrupts. Agravaine feeds him a line about checking to see if Gaius was breathing by using the dagger. Living in Camelot with Gaius as the physician, I can see why Gwaine so easily believes that poking someone with a dagger is a reputable medical technique. Also Agravaine has very shiny hair, I think Gwaine is enticed by it.
In a different part of the Batcave, Morgana stumbles across Merlin and sends him flying. I can see her point. He has been a pain in the arse to her and that’s without her knowing the half of it. I still really like Merlin’s reluctance to so quickly use magic in front of her. He really would put it off to the last second, if he used it at all. You get the sense that maybe he wouldn’t use it to save himself. Morgana is just thinking up ways to torture Merlin, when Derren Brown enters. ‘Derren, this is Merlin. He is just a serving boy, but has big aspirations for his future.” Derren can’t believe his luck. Not only is he the most powerful sorcerer, but he’s good looking and young too!
Derren uses his magic stick thingy to send Morgana flying. He then looses any of that cool, calm exterior he had earlier, by completely fangirling around Merlin. “Wow. I can’t believe it’s really you. I KNOW how you feel. We’re so alike, isn’t that the coolest thing? I mean, I’m maybe not as good as you, but we, for sure, share the same hopes and dreams. Gaius told me all about you, we had the best chat over mind control and a circle of flames. He’s a hoot isn’t he? So…um…are you dating anyone right now”
He does mention that he and his kind have been persecuted by all Five Kingdoms (um there’s at least 9, count ‘em), and I notice how Arthur’s name never crops up in conversation. “So you’ve been hunted by Kings, huh? Well, funny coincidence, but you’ll never guess who I work for and plan on uniting the land with!” That was a really lovely moment for Merlin, actually, to let him know he’s not alone and that his Kin do support the fact he’s trying to work with the Muggles to build a better land. He got bowed to!
Oh no, look, there’s Gwen again. Or her breasts at least. They appear to be the only thing in shot. Did Agravaine just refer to Merlin as Arthur’s boy?! He is such a Merlin/Arthur shipper, I knew it at heart! He’s doing quite a good job at the whole ‘oh shucks, was I wrong? What a fool, do I feel sheepish now’ speech. Don’t think Arthur’s quite buying it though.
A lovely little scene to end with. We firstly get a nice moment with Gaius and Merlin, where Gaius feels guilty about involuntarily giving away Merlin’s secret. Merlin couldn’t care less about that though, and is more concerned about Arthur. Gaius says they can’t tell him about Agravaine as they have no proof. Yes they do! Get Gwaine to sniff his boots! I’m sure that’ll do something, perhaps he can identify some plant life from Morgana’s Hovel.
Speak of the devil, Arthur enters. Merlin’s got a right face on him again. He ain’t happy with Arthur. They do however make up very quickly over a bit of light banter. I don’t think they were ever really mad at each other, just caught up with people they care about.
I very weirdly said last week, how much I like Gaius and Arthur scenes and this week they gave me a fantastic one at the end. It’s so very sweet when he tells Arthur that he loves him far too much to ever betray him. I really liked how Gaius now told Arthur that it wasn’t the sorcerer that killed his father, how he knew that he needed to bide his time to have that conversation until he was in the right frame of mind. This episode reminds me a lot of episode five, was it? The one with Queen Annis, because it is a lot about Arthur’s thought process and changing state of mind. He is evolving into his own King. I also thought the part where Gaius told him that he wasn’t alone in support for the land he is creating, echoing what Alator said to Merlin earlier. They are both characters who feel desperately isolated at times and it was nice how the show paralleled this connection again. It does end however, with Gaius giving a very sneaky, but iccle clue, that perhaps there are things and people that Arthur has more to know about.
I’m getting sick of saying it, but I loved this episode again. That’s seven in a row this season. I’ll still waiting for a dodgy one. Not many laughs at all this week, but it still had lighter moments in tone towards the end. It wasn’t an unhappy conclusion. I thought it was a very quiet episode in terms of action and sound. Like I said, the theme did seem to be ’secrets and lies’ and it had a very tense, ’on-edge’ feel to it because it felt like any one of those deceptions could unravel at any minute. There were some wonderful dynamics shown and brilliant performances. I’ve always said that the show is best when it’s got Merlin and Arthur at it’s heart. Although this may not have appeared an episode about them, the secret between them is the biggest in the show. The scene where Arthur is sitting at the head of the table and Merlin is standing way back by the pillar was beautifully shot. They are closer now than they have ever been, but Merlin’s secret keeps a huge gulf between them.
Next week - Knights galore! Hurrah! Where’s Arthur though?
CONTINUITY ALERT! CONTINUITY ALERT! Sound the bells! I feel I’ve actually got to recap the episode last week, because this one follows on from last week in so many ways. How can that be? It doesn’t have ‘part two’ in the title, does it?? What’s wrong with the show this season, it’s actually starting off stories and developing them. I’m aghast. So last week, Agravaine started spreading rumours about Gaius, and Merlin (as Dragoon) battled and won against Morgana. That leads us to the start of this episode…
Back at Hovel HQ and Agravaine is caressing the knotted, black weave of a hairdo off of an unconscious Morgana’s face. Not creepy at all. I’m hoping he hasn’t changed her into a white satin nightie and isn’t lingering on the end of the bed in nothing but his birthday suit and black gloves. The show is finishing after the watershed this week, after 9pm. I’m guessing it’s because everything was put later because of the footie, but I’m quite hoping it’s because someone’s going to get some action in the last five minutes of the show. I haven’t quite worked out which pairing it’ll be, maybe we’ll get some clues over which pair will start going at it in the council chambers, throughout the episode. I’ll keep you updated.
The camera pulls back so thankfully we see Morgana’s still fully be-cloaked and Agravaine hasn’t taken advantage of her. At the moment, they are the favourites to have sex in the five minute post watershed blow out (so to speak). Although I’m not sure Morgana’s that interested. She took Merlin back to her shack and tied him up last week, I think Agravaine was secretly quite jealous. There did seem to be a lot of missing scenes when Merlin was hanging out (literally) at Morgana’s hut. She’s been living in exile for a year, all alone, and there he is tied up, all wet and cute. What’s a sociopathic young witch to do? I know what I’d do…
It’s actually almost a little bit sweet, the care Agravaine shows her. The Hovel is looking quite tidy and the cauldron’s on, so he obviously tidied up after the mess left last week. I feel just adding those little bits of caring from Agravaine in last episode and the beginning of this one has worked wonders for his character. I actually understand his motives for betraying his sister’s child. You could understand him blaming Uther for Igraine’s death and being mad at him, but it never quite fitted that he would be so against Arthur. However, with the indication that it’s because he’s in love with Morgana, it makes perfect sense. He’s not committing betrayal because he is against Arthur, it’s because he is for Morgana.
Morgana is making little moaning sounds and her eyes are rolling back in her head. Calm yourself, Agravaine dear, she’s just dreaming. Unusually for Morgana, she’s not having a flashforward premonition, but is actually flashing back to the events of last week. How fortuitous that her dreams inform new viewers of last week’s events. My last dream consisted of giraffes, Sir Paul McCartney and a blue house I couldn‘t get into.
As Agravaine’s stirring whatever monstrosity he’s cooking over the cauldron, Morgana wakens. Agravaine asked what happened to her and she informs him that Emrys knew all their plans. Here, begins something which worked beautifully and became some what of a theme of this episode. There is a “He knows that they know, but they don’t know that he knows that they don’t know, that she knows that he doesn’t know that they know that he knows that they don’t know” theme to this episode, but for short hand I’m going to refer to it as ‘secrets and lies’. The first part is that now Agravaine thinks it’s Gaius who informed Emrys. He is of course half right, but he does seem to have an obsession with Gaius. Could they be our post watershed couple?? No…no they can’t, I’m nipping it in the bud now.
…..And opening titles! I still don’t like the new ones. If they were gonna change them, they should have really changed them, but they’ve done it half arsed.
Time for Bingo, everyone! Has everyone got their ‘Merlin and Arthur Groping’ Bingo Cards at the ready? I’m well aware we may have new players, so for the benefit of them, here’s a recap of just some of what we’ve had out the machine so far;
-The Embrace
-Half naked Wrestle
-Merlin jumping on Arthur in Bed
-Piggy Back
-Firemans’s lift
-General dragging around
-Throwing to the ground
-Eye groping (lots of eye groping)
Right eyes down, markers at the ready for the episode. Call out Full house if you win and present your card to George in exchange for a free polishing lesson. The first Grope out of the machine tonight is……….Merlin wresting Arthur out of Bed. Anyone have that?
So I think Merlin and Arthur are now leading my ‘post watershed sex couple’ stakes. Pretty much by a country mile. They’re already practically in bed together and Merlin’s asking Arthur to open his mouth (which he does accordingly) and ramming something in it. By the way, I don’t know if it was scripted, directed or even intentional, but Merlin poking Arthur in the eye, while he was giving him his breakfast, was a thing of beauty. It was a nice contrast to the huge banquet breakfast that George laid out last week. Arthur only got a mouldy old scone this week.
“I don’t know anything about polishing”
“Fortunately I do.”
Oh I bet you do. The way that line was said was wondrous too! Merlin starts listing all of Arthur’s jobs for the day. Odin’s sending an envoy? Are we speaking to Odin after he tried to kill Arthur twice? Are we not worried the envoy will, in fact, be another assassin? I feel that the Garland Competition must be a new event. I really couldn’t see Uther sitting there with a garland around his neck, mingling with the local peasants. Contrasting to the pulling Arthur out of bed, comedy moment, there’s actually a sweet little exchange where Merlin tells Arthur he’s doing very well. Arthur doesn’t think so. This may seem like a throw away line, but it actually has a lot of importance to the episode.
Is it wrong that I’m now more shocked at the sight of Bradley in clothes, than out of them now? The act of Arthur being topless is pretty much a pastiche of itself a few seasons ago. It’s so often now, it has to be deliberately put in as a chuckle. Not that I'm complaining. Agravaine enters and asks to speak to Arthur alone. They discuss how they know there is a traitor and Agraine begins to question who Arthur thinks it is. Perhaps the Knights, he queries. Arthur, we know, only gossips with Merlin about the Knights, so he dismisses that idea. Agravaine again suggests Gaius, pointing out his past dealings with magic as a red flag. Agravaine has a brilliant aura of Iago around him, really playing in the trust Arthur has in him, and being able to manipulate Arthur by appealing to certain aspects of his character.
Morgana’s ventured out her hovel and gone on holiday. Her summer wardrobe seems to be missing though, as she strolls though some bright market streets in her regular black garb. Way to fit in, sweetheart. Some guy in a blue headscarf merrily dances around her. He really has no sense of his target customers does he? She barges past some half naked dude saying that the Catha is expecting her. How?! Did she phone ahead? Did she send some woodland animal around with a message?
“You are Alator of the Catha; warrior and priest.” You are Morgana of the Hovel; smirky and obsessive. Well no, he doesn’t say that. He does say something about being the last of her kind. That’s an interesting little titbit that we’ll stick in out pocket for a later episode. Hmm, a bit curious about that because I just happen to know someone else who is the last of their kind too. Morgana asks Alator to abduct someone from Camelot. He replies that Camelot isn’t a friend of theirs because the Young King follows Uther’s ways. No! You’ve got Arthur all wrong! He’s not that bad once you get to know him! He walks around topless a lot, and given your close personal friend’s state of dress you might like that! Ask Queen Annis, she’ll give a good reference for Arthur!
In exchange for his services (maybe it’s Alator and Morgana as are post-9pm couple), Morgana offers him a bracelet. I think she bought it for £2.50 from that dancing guy outside. She claims it’s from the Isle of The Blessed Gift Shop though, so we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I wonder how that boat keeper’s doing with the regeneration of the Isle. I’m expecting to see all manner of attractions the next time we go there.
Um, now I don’t like to be too pedantic about these things, but how did Alator know who Morgana wanted him to kidnap? She never actually said. Was is engraved on the bracelet?
“Dear Alator of the Cathra.
Please abduct Gaius of the Crappy Medicine.
Address; Flat 1 Camelot Castle, Camelot Road, Camelot.
Thanks and Kisses,
Morgana of the Hovel”
I positively love the next scene. Nathaniel Parker is an unexpected surprise for me in this cast. I really like him. It opens with a beautiful Arthur playing with his silver rings in the palm of his hand. I guess Merlin finally relented and gave him back that one from a few weeks ago then. I don’t exaggerate with the word beautiful, by the way, he’s completely bathed in light. It’s a nice touch having him concentrate on the items that I believe were his parents. It really helps cement his frame of mind and why he takes the actions he does in the episode.
Arthur is remarkably passive and divided in this scene. He is caught up in the ‘secret and lies’ dynamic that runs through all the other characters. Even those who are lying to him with good intentions, are still keeping things from him and he can’t even begin to fully realise it. Arthur’s not stupid though. He may not fully know what is going on, but he does know something is going on. We’ve always been shown that about Arthur and thankfully they’ve always come back to that.
He has no reason not to trust Agravaine. He’s his loving uncle, essentially. However, you get the sense that although Arthur believes his Uncle’s intentions are true, he is not convinced by what he says all the time. The same way that Arthur has always had a sense of something about Merlin, you feel he senses something isn’t quite right with Uncle Aggie, he just cant work out what. This is a really good little scene where Agravaine is weaving Gaius’ words to manipulate Arthur into believing he is the traitor. He’s trying to get Gaius to lie, which of course he has to. He has to lie to protect Merlin. This is going all the way back to the third episode. Merlin’s reckless actions back then are still having huge ripple effects. In this game of ‘Secrets and Lies’, Merlin is at the very epicentre.
Agravaine seems to have invited Merlin to his chambers. Please don’t let it be them who sleep together. That’s just wrong in so many ways. Merlin wanders in suspiciously, as he probably should, what with Uncle being a crazed Morgana fan and all. Agravaine shows him a very sparkly dagger, which Merlin looks very nervous about. However, once Uncle Aggie mentions that it is for Arthur, Merlin goes all twinkle eyed and completely forgets the man in front of him is a traitor. “ Oooooh pretty dagger, I must shine it all bright and new for Arthur. He’s so dreamy.” Seriously boy, concentrate! It’s like Agravaine’s holding a toy above a kitten to distract it. He completely knew what to do, to get Merlin out the way.
Alator and “friend” free a white horse from the stables. Hey, wasn’t that Lancelot’s horse? Run, little horse, run and fetch Lancelot from the evil bad place! Do horses fetch? They then proceed to Gaius’ chambers where Alator and his friend quickly hypnotises Gaius in a “…And sleep” Paul Mckenna way. I’m hoping they don’t just do boring stuff and try and get information from him. If you’ve got that gift, you’ve got to get people to act like chickens when they hear certain words. That’s a perk of the profession surely?
While they steal Gaius, Agravaine plants evidence in his chambers. Ever the subtle one, he plants a book called “Witchcraft, Sorcery and Magic.” Then right next to it he sticks a copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone’, just in case Arthur doesn’t get the hint. We didn’t see it, but I think in the closet he’s planted a wizard’s hat and a litter of pure black kittens with blue eyes. If they had a fridge, I’m sure he would have planted a Post-It with ‘Handy Spells: Bibbity Bobbity Boo’ written on it.
Of course, Merlin doesn’t hear this because he’s creeping around Arthur’s room when he’s asleep again. Merlin and Agravaine really should write a ‘ To Love a Pendragon: Heartbreak and Sleep Stalking’ book together. I love the cute little smile Merlin gives when Arthur wakes up.
A second brilliant scene coming up. Arthur has now found the planted evidence. Agravaine is doing a mock-shocked speech about discovering this about Gaius. Within this, there is a fantastic line from Agravaine, where he says;
“It’s not even the fact of discovering he’s a sorcerer is it? It’s the lies…the lies and the years of the betrayal.”
While we are hearing this, we are seeing Merlin. Gaius may not fit Agravaine’s description, but Merlin certainly does. There are so many things going on in this scene, the first being that because Gaius is being accused of doing exactly what Merlin has done, we are seeing a sort of diluted version of how Arthur would react if he found out about Merlin. But it is diluted, as Arthur knows about Gaius’ connection to magic and although the two have history, it is ultimately not as deep a connection as between Arthur and Merlin.
The second thing going on in this scene is Arthur. You can tell he’s not convinced, despite Agravaine’s compelling performance. He doesn’t get mad, he let’s Gaius go. We heard him proclaim a war against magic after his father died, but he doesn’t have the same vengeance as his father. He has been shown proof from someone he trusts, so he has to go along with it, but he doesn’t relish in it. Then another thing we have in this scene is Merlin, who is not only the cause of the trouble (and he knows it), but he’s also having to face the premise that when Gaius was accused of sorcery he ran off without saying goodbye.
It could seem unlikely for Arthur to have so much faith in Agravaine, but it is exactly the same faith Merlin shows in Gaius. There is a parallel between the two boys and their father figures in this scene. Both believe that the people they respect and love, would not betray them. It’s a brilliant little stand off between Arthur and Merlin. They can both relate to how the other feels, but they both believe the other is wrong.
“Merlin! I’ve has my heart broken enough today, I don’t want to loose another friend.” That’s a really good line, because ultimately what Arthur is trying to repress is his closeness to Gaius as well. The show and this episode in particular has a theme of ‘Blood isn’t always thicker than water.’
Back to old Derren Brown and Paul Mckenna and they are in a cave shoving Gaius down on, what look’s like, my dentist’s chair. That’s what you get on the National Health, I’m afraid, Gaius. Although I must say, I may start going to the Catha Dentist if they can put me to sleep that easily while they drill away at my teeth. Unfortunately, Dental Hygienist from Hell, Morgana, turns up. “Get on with it Morgana, whatever you want to do, do it now. I’m not afraid to die.” Actually that sound exactly like going to my Dental Hygienist.
Merlin’s sitting on the floor of Gaius’ chambers, rocking his blue scarf/blue shirt emo combo and going through some papers. The door opens and he turns around with a half smile on his face, until he sees it is only Gwen and his face drops. I don’t think you were the only one with that reaction, love. I actually forgot about Gwen again until this scene. I think it was the only one she was in. It did seem a bit like, ‘where can we shove her in this episode’ appearance. Apparently after three seasons of not speaking to each other, Gwen’s finally remembered Merlin is her friend, and she actually quite fancied him a few years back. I would speculate them as my post watershed couple, but Gwen goes through enough men as it is, I think we should slide Merlin out of the equation.
Back to Catha Dentists and good old Derren Brown is doing a live performance of a Stop Smoking self help tape. Gaius tries to put up a fight with a little bit of magic. Derren looks surprised by this. Did Morgana not include it in her biography of Gaius?
Back at Camelot and Merlin isn’t about to sit ideally by and wait for Gwen to lecture Arthur (thankfully neither do we), and decides to get proactive and raid Agravaine’s chambers. I’m expecting him to find locks of Morgana’s matted old hair and what not. He tries a few drawers and cupboards, but everyone knows that anything of importance in Camelot is hidden under people’s beds! Merlin finds a secret box where Agravaine’s got the remaining six books of the Harry Potter series hidden. Apparently Merlin finds books on witchcraft and wizardry perfectly legit, but mud on Agravaine’s boots is suspicious. It does raise the question though of what is Agravaine currently wearing on his feet, if he’s not wearing his boots? I’m suspecting some fluffy, bunny slippers coming up.
Merlin’s been rumbled! Agravaine comes back and start’s changing behind a screen. Prude, there’s no one else in the room! He see’s Merlin’s reflection in the mirror though, that naughty little pixie. I’m not sure if Agravaine is outraged that Merlin was in his chamber or that he left when he started to strip off. ‘Hawkeye Uncle Aggie’ spots that Merlin was looking at his boots. Now unless the boy wrote ‘Merlin loves Arthur 4eva’ in the dust on them, I’m not sure how he noticed.
Merlin heads back home to find Gwaine waiting for him. Wow, Merls is all angst today, fighting with Arthur puts him in a right mood and he is a little off with Gwaine. The Knight is ‘bored of playing soldiers’ so has come looking to Merlin for a bit of fun (post watershed sex anyone?). Gwaine is being very sweet here, I do like that in the past two episodes they’ve shown that actually Gwaine was Merlin’s friend before anything else. He offers his help and Merlin asks him if he knows what the dirt crap he got off Agravaine’s shoe is. Apparently Gwaine’s specialist subject on Mastermind would be ‘Dirt Crap From Shoes’, because he comes up with the answer very easily. They ride out together. I hope they told Arthur, he’s gonna be well jealous otherwise.
Back at the NHS Stop Smoking Advice group and Derren Brown’s methods are finally working on Gaius. He’s weakening. Agravaine saw Gwaine and Merlin head out and goes to Morgana to tell her. She apparently wasn’t happy with how Agravaine cleaned up her hovel, so she’s adding lumps of dead wood to the décor to really bring out that decaying plant life look.
“He is the most powerful sorcerer who ever lived. His name is Merlin.” Eek!! Gaius!!! He just asked for his name, not his online dating profile! You don’t have to give up all the information about him! Gaius can’t shut up about him now. ‘He’s destined for greatness, he likes his eggs scrambled with toast and he will create Albion.’ Derren Brown looks extremely turned on by this new information. He’s thinking how amazing Merlin sounds. Obviously looks aren’t everything, but if he looks half as good as he sounds, he gonna brainwash Gaius into setting them up on a blind date.
Meanwhile, Merlin and Gwaine have stumbled across Paul McKenna in the Reception. Instead of booking them in for teeth whitening, he decides attacking them would be the best course of action. The business is never going to take off the ground with that attitude. I so thought Gwaine was going to find out about Merlin’s magic here, but bless him, he doesn’t seem to notice. He can sniff dirt out from a hundred paces, but can’t see the large topless guy being flung towards him by magic.
Morgana doesn’t seem to know Gwaine, is that accurate? Did their paths not cross when they were both in town? Ladies and Gentleman, I think I’ve found my couple for post-9pm sex. Agravaine gets out his dagger to kill Gaius, when Gwaine interrupts. Agravaine feeds him a line about checking to see if Gaius was breathing by using the dagger. Living in Camelot with Gaius as the physician, I can see why Gwaine so easily believes that poking someone with a dagger is a reputable medical technique. Also Agravaine has very shiny hair, I think Gwaine is enticed by it.
In a different part of the Batcave, Morgana stumbles across Merlin and sends him flying. I can see her point. He has been a pain in the arse to her and that’s without her knowing the half of it. I still really like Merlin’s reluctance to so quickly use magic in front of her. He really would put it off to the last second, if he used it at all. You get the sense that maybe he wouldn’t use it to save himself. Morgana is just thinking up ways to torture Merlin, when Derren Brown enters. ‘Derren, this is Merlin. He is just a serving boy, but has big aspirations for his future.” Derren can’t believe his luck. Not only is he the most powerful sorcerer, but he’s good looking and young too!
Derren uses his magic stick thingy to send Morgana flying. He then looses any of that cool, calm exterior he had earlier, by completely fangirling around Merlin. “Wow. I can’t believe it’s really you. I KNOW how you feel. We’re so alike, isn’t that the coolest thing? I mean, I’m maybe not as good as you, but we, for sure, share the same hopes and dreams. Gaius told me all about you, we had the best chat over mind control and a circle of flames. He’s a hoot isn’t he? So…um…are you dating anyone right now”
He does mention that he and his kind have been persecuted by all Five Kingdoms (um there’s at least 9, count ‘em), and I notice how Arthur’s name never crops up in conversation. “So you’ve been hunted by Kings, huh? Well, funny coincidence, but you’ll never guess who I work for and plan on uniting the land with!” That was a really lovely moment for Merlin, actually, to let him know he’s not alone and that his Kin do support the fact he’s trying to work with the Muggles to build a better land. He got bowed to!
Oh no, look, there’s Gwen again. Or her breasts at least. They appear to be the only thing in shot. Did Agravaine just refer to Merlin as Arthur’s boy?! He is such a Merlin/Arthur shipper, I knew it at heart! He’s doing quite a good job at the whole ‘oh shucks, was I wrong? What a fool, do I feel sheepish now’ speech. Don’t think Arthur’s quite buying it though.
A lovely little scene to end with. We firstly get a nice moment with Gaius and Merlin, where Gaius feels guilty about involuntarily giving away Merlin’s secret. Merlin couldn’t care less about that though, and is more concerned about Arthur. Gaius says they can’t tell him about Agravaine as they have no proof. Yes they do! Get Gwaine to sniff his boots! I’m sure that’ll do something, perhaps he can identify some plant life from Morgana’s Hovel.
Speak of the devil, Arthur enters. Merlin’s got a right face on him again. He ain’t happy with Arthur. They do however make up very quickly over a bit of light banter. I don’t think they were ever really mad at each other, just caught up with people they care about.
I very weirdly said last week, how much I like Gaius and Arthur scenes and this week they gave me a fantastic one at the end. It’s so very sweet when he tells Arthur that he loves him far too much to ever betray him. I really liked how Gaius now told Arthur that it wasn’t the sorcerer that killed his father, how he knew that he needed to bide his time to have that conversation until he was in the right frame of mind. This episode reminds me a lot of episode five, was it? The one with Queen Annis, because it is a lot about Arthur’s thought process and changing state of mind. He is evolving into his own King. I also thought the part where Gaius told him that he wasn’t alone in support for the land he is creating, echoing what Alator said to Merlin earlier. They are both characters who feel desperately isolated at times and it was nice how the show paralleled this connection again. It does end however, with Gaius giving a very sneaky, but iccle clue, that perhaps there are things and people that Arthur has more to know about.
I’m getting sick of saying it, but I loved this episode again. That’s seven in a row this season. I’ll still waiting for a dodgy one. Not many laughs at all this week, but it still had lighter moments in tone towards the end. It wasn’t an unhappy conclusion. I thought it was a very quiet episode in terms of action and sound. Like I said, the theme did seem to be ’secrets and lies’ and it had a very tense, ’on-edge’ feel to it because it felt like any one of those deceptions could unravel at any minute. There were some wonderful dynamics shown and brilliant performances. I’ve always said that the show is best when it’s got Merlin and Arthur at it’s heart. Although this may not have appeared an episode about them, the secret between them is the biggest in the show. The scene where Arthur is sitting at the head of the table and Merlin is standing way back by the pillar was beautifully shot. They are closer now than they have ever been, but Merlin’s secret keeps a huge gulf between them.
Next week - Knights galore! Hurrah! Where’s Arthur though?