(no subject)

[srin]

Very briefly: very well done, but incredibly difficult to watch. I'd been spoiled before, so it was all rather like watching a Greek tragedy - knowing where everything was going to go terribly wrong and being powerless to jump in and warn the characters. Turns out that's even tougher when you're already invested in them. I've also never enjoyed the awkward pretending-to-be-two-people-at-once plot, it always just makes me twitchy for the one trying to pull it off, so that combined with the inevitable doom made it a pretty un-fun viewing experience, even though objectively I do think it was generally a good episode.

On a different level, though, I do hate that this is the plot that they insisted on using. It's pretty clear at this point that they're just not interested in ever letting Merlin come clean. I have a feeling that this show's going to end with the implication that Dragoon's the Merlin of legend, while our Merlin's still just a servant in hiding. And I resent that; I'd much rather see the show that would have followed if Merlin had succeeded here. I also hate that the whole Dragoon business meant that Arthur had to think Merlin was being weird and useless again at a time when Arthur really needed him. The scene at the end, with Arthur actually calling Merlin a loyal friend, was lovely in isolation and something I'd be really excited about had it had a different context, but since the whole thrust of the episode was basically "there will never be a reveal, Arthur & Merlin will never be on the same page", it ended up feeling more like painful irony than the touching scene it should have been. Sigh.

On the plus side, Bradley was a bit amazing, and Arthur continues to own my heart.