“You’ve lost that loving feeling” aka my thoughts on Merlin 4x10
I don’t know, you guys. This is the 3rd episode in a row that leaves me more “meh” than “YAY!!!”, and this close to the end of the season, that’s NOT ON! Especially not after the great start we had.
Last week’s episode was heavily tainted for me due to the cop-out with Fake!Lance and Enchanted!Gwen and killing Lancelot off again (I never thought this incarnation of Gwen would cheat on Arthur, but surely they could have left a modicum of temptation in instead of eradicating it for good?), and sending Gwen away due to a stupid, completely fabricated misunderstanding that can be easily cleared up with one small conversation/piece of evidence - that’s not how you create real drama. The ep was only saved thanks to Bradley’s and Angel’s superb acting during their final scene together, followed by a very nice Merlin-Arthur interaction that gave us hints of how Arthur might react to a reveal in the hopefully near future - now THAT piece of drama will work magnificently, because that topic has been simmering beneath the surface from the very beginning. But I digress - back to 4x10.
This one was… not exactly tainted, but I didn’t feel it like the first few eps of the season. I don’t understand it, really, because the episode itself wasn't bad. It was a direct follow-up from last week, with references and visible consequences, and all, which is always nice to see on “Merlin”. Plus, it contained a decision that will hopefully have some lasting and very important impact on future episodes (Druids will no longer be prosecuted and will be “treated with respect” - yay for magic folks!). The cinematography was great and it set the mood perfectly. The ghost story itself could have been fleshed out a bit more, but it was actually pulled together nicely and coherently (they even had things like hints and foreshadowing!) - storywise, it was probably the most coherent ep we saw this season and had a clear arc surrounding Arthur’s past and his further development as a king. The acting by the characters the story focused on was great all around, it was just that... almost everybody was kind of acting for themselves instead of with each other? You know it’s bad when the only interactions that worked for me for most of the ep were those between Merlin and Gaius (and they are really not the backbone of the series for me). That feeling of everybody being their own island was painfully obvious in the Merlin-Arthur interactions. I could understand Arthur pushing Merlin away and creating a distance because he'd done something so shameful and didn't want Merlin to find out. But up until the final 5 minutes (the confession and atonement), something was definitely missing in their interactions. I just wasn't feeling it as much as I usually feel it. It reminded me too much of S3, only back then, Arthur insulted Merlin viciously but with real relish, and Merlin was in return bitchy to the point of putting me to shame when I’m at my worst PMS-ing and have no chocolate around. It was bad, but at least their hearts were in it and the bite was real and stung. In this ep, even their regression to their S3 personas was halfhearted, which threw off the whole episode for me - which only goes to show that if the Merlin-Arthur interactions don’t click, the whole episode doesn’t work out, no matter how well the concept.
Some more observations and fanwanking:
- after Gwen's banishment, Merlin was surely the one to bear most of the brunt of Arthur's moods. His little tirade that he's “done trying to be nice to Arthur” was nice to see, so I could blame his frustration with Arthur for some of his catty behavior in this one. I would have loved to see a bit more of him being torn up about not being able to help Arthur, though, or showing his frustration in a more effective way, like trying to confront him about his feelings more insistently, not with some petty acts (waking Arthur by slamming his hand on the desk and not even telling him about the stew in his hair - and WTF was that about teasing him for crying? Merlin cares too much about Arthur to be so callous)
- I’d like to think that Arthur ordering Merlin to polish his armor was just a means to occupy/distract him so Arthur could sneak out of the castle unnoticed, because he *knew* Merlin would be worried and was unlikely to leave him alone. It would have worked slightly better if they had shown Merlin return to Arthur’s chambers shortly after because he’d forgotten something and that was the moment he noticed him sneaking out.
- I did love their little “sneaking in the woods” scene, though, once again Arthur was a bit off and cold - just compare this scene to Arthur discovering Merlin following him in 4x05. Both times Arthur tried to right a wrong he’d done, both times Merlin followed him to keep him from making a mistake and to protect him, but Arthur’s reaction was a lot more emotional in 4x05, even though it was a similar situation. How much better would this scene have been if they had incorporated some of that passion?
- I have to say Bradley once again hits the ball out of the park with his acting during the atonement. He played Arthur’s hidden guilt simmering under the surface well (and I thought it was clever they used Gwen’s absence as the obvious explanation for his mood when it was something so much more terrible and shocking) and made it very clear that Arthur was haunted by his actions when his confession finally burst out of him. It was shocking to see him give himself over completely to the mercy of the spirit, and his plea for forgiveness was heartbreaking. His face when the spirit forgave Arthur and the way his eyes followed the spirit as it was released left me breathless and a blubbering mess. If Bradley keeps going like this, he’ll be some serious competition for Colin in the “break my heart, why don’t you” top ten moments of the series
- Arthur’s history before Merlin: it’s moments like this atonement scene that give you a picture of just what a job Uther must have done on Arthur. This attack on the Druid camp must have happened very early in Arthur’s life, and I believe it wasn’t the last (though hopefully, he learnt from that experience and was able to control his men better and to manipulate Uther to the point of not even attacking at all) - the attack we saw in 2x03 was only the last of many, I’d say, which is actually scary. I remember being shocked back then already that Arthur would willingly lead a hunt for humans like that - I shudder to think what he has done in his father’s name before.
- I can’t believe even Elyan gets to have a hug with Arthur before we get a proper Merlin-Arthur hug - and not just once, but (almost) twice! It was nicely lit, lasted long and we got to see a real close-up of Arthur’s emotional face that the camera held for more than 2 seconds. And that last shot of him cradling Elyan, resting his chin on his head with relief? Is it too much to ask for that with Merlin? Well, Merlin actually DID ask for a hug later on, LOL. The scene would have been lovely had it not been for Merlin’s teasing Arthur about completely opening up his emotions. I would have preferred if they had kept up with Merlin trying to gauge a bit more of Arthur’s plans on how he plans to treat magical folks in the future and how much he’ll stick to his word.
- Which brings me to my last point: this was such a beautiful opportunity to give us another tease about the reveal - and they missed it. I would have loved to see them approach the topic of magic a bit more, with Merlin leaving a hint or two and Arthur giving a vague answer that would give us a clue to how he would react to Merlin telling him his secret (think of Arthur's scene with Gaius at the end of "The secret sharer") - nothing explicit, but enough to get the audience going wild with theories about hidden meanings, just enough to get a slightly better picture on where Arthur stands and how safe Merlin would be telling him now, etc. I loved the joke about giving Merlin a hug and the assumed tackle (and in my head canon, it ended up with them chasing each other around the room and ending up on the bed *g*), but I mourn what the scene could have turned into - a revisit of the end of 4x03, just with a tad more hope.
That seems to be a fitting conclusion to my thoughts about this ep: it was good enough and executed well, but … it could have been more, you know? It could have really put some more things into motion, events that could lead us to a reveal within Series 4.
Last week’s episode was heavily tainted for me due to the cop-out with Fake!Lance and Enchanted!Gwen and killing Lancelot off again (I never thought this incarnation of Gwen would cheat on Arthur, but surely they could have left a modicum of temptation in instead of eradicating it for good?), and sending Gwen away due to a stupid, completely fabricated misunderstanding that can be easily cleared up with one small conversation/piece of evidence - that’s not how you create real drama. The ep was only saved thanks to Bradley’s and Angel’s superb acting during their final scene together, followed by a very nice Merlin-Arthur interaction that gave us hints of how Arthur might react to a reveal in the hopefully near future - now THAT piece of drama will work magnificently, because that topic has been simmering beneath the surface from the very beginning. But I digress - back to 4x10.
This one was… not exactly tainted, but I didn’t feel it like the first few eps of the season. I don’t understand it, really, because the episode itself wasn't bad. It was a direct follow-up from last week, with references and visible consequences, and all, which is always nice to see on “Merlin”. Plus, it contained a decision that will hopefully have some lasting and very important impact on future episodes (Druids will no longer be prosecuted and will be “treated with respect” - yay for magic folks!). The cinematography was great and it set the mood perfectly. The ghost story itself could have been fleshed out a bit more, but it was actually pulled together nicely and coherently (they even had things like hints and foreshadowing!) - storywise, it was probably the most coherent ep we saw this season and had a clear arc surrounding Arthur’s past and his further development as a king. The acting by the characters the story focused on was great all around, it was just that... almost everybody was kind of acting for themselves instead of with each other? You know it’s bad when the only interactions that worked for me for most of the ep were those between Merlin and Gaius (and they are really not the backbone of the series for me). That feeling of everybody being their own island was painfully obvious in the Merlin-Arthur interactions. I could understand Arthur pushing Merlin away and creating a distance because he'd done something so shameful and didn't want Merlin to find out. But up until the final 5 minutes (the confession and atonement), something was definitely missing in their interactions. I just wasn't feeling it as much as I usually feel it. It reminded me too much of S3, only back then, Arthur insulted Merlin viciously but with real relish, and Merlin was in return bitchy to the point of putting me to shame when I’m at my worst PMS-ing and have no chocolate around. It was bad, but at least their hearts were in it and the bite was real and stung. In this ep, even their regression to their S3 personas was halfhearted, which threw off the whole episode for me - which only goes to show that if the Merlin-Arthur interactions don’t click, the whole episode doesn’t work out, no matter how well the concept.
Some more observations and fanwanking:
- after Gwen's banishment, Merlin was surely the one to bear most of the brunt of Arthur's moods. His little tirade that he's “done trying to be nice to Arthur” was nice to see, so I could blame his frustration with Arthur for some of his catty behavior in this one. I would have loved to see a bit more of him being torn up about not being able to help Arthur, though, or showing his frustration in a more effective way, like trying to confront him about his feelings more insistently, not with some petty acts (waking Arthur by slamming his hand on the desk and not even telling him about the stew in his hair - and WTF was that about teasing him for crying? Merlin cares too much about Arthur to be so callous)
- I’d like to think that Arthur ordering Merlin to polish his armor was just a means to occupy/distract him so Arthur could sneak out of the castle unnoticed, because he *knew* Merlin would be worried and was unlikely to leave him alone. It would have worked slightly better if they had shown Merlin return to Arthur’s chambers shortly after because he’d forgotten something and that was the moment he noticed him sneaking out.
- I did love their little “sneaking in the woods” scene, though, once again Arthur was a bit off and cold - just compare this scene to Arthur discovering Merlin following him in 4x05. Both times Arthur tried to right a wrong he’d done, both times Merlin followed him to keep him from making a mistake and to protect him, but Arthur’s reaction was a lot more emotional in 4x05, even though it was a similar situation. How much better would this scene have been if they had incorporated some of that passion?
- I have to say Bradley once again hits the ball out of the park with his acting during the atonement. He played Arthur’s hidden guilt simmering under the surface well (and I thought it was clever they used Gwen’s absence as the obvious explanation for his mood when it was something so much more terrible and shocking) and made it very clear that Arthur was haunted by his actions when his confession finally burst out of him. It was shocking to see him give himself over completely to the mercy of the spirit, and his plea for forgiveness was heartbreaking. His face when the spirit forgave Arthur and the way his eyes followed the spirit as it was released left me breathless and a blubbering mess. If Bradley keeps going like this, he’ll be some serious competition for Colin in the “break my heart, why don’t you” top ten moments of the series
- Arthur’s history before Merlin: it’s moments like this atonement scene that give you a picture of just what a job Uther must have done on Arthur. This attack on the Druid camp must have happened very early in Arthur’s life, and I believe it wasn’t the last (though hopefully, he learnt from that experience and was able to control his men better and to manipulate Uther to the point of not even attacking at all) - the attack we saw in 2x03 was only the last of many, I’d say, which is actually scary. I remember being shocked back then already that Arthur would willingly lead a hunt for humans like that - I shudder to think what he has done in his father’s name before.
- I can’t believe even Elyan gets to have a hug with Arthur before we get a proper Merlin-Arthur hug - and not just once, but (almost) twice! It was nicely lit, lasted long and we got to see a real close-up of Arthur’s emotional face that the camera held for more than 2 seconds. And that last shot of him cradling Elyan, resting his chin on his head with relief? Is it too much to ask for that with Merlin? Well, Merlin actually DID ask for a hug later on, LOL. The scene would have been lovely had it not been for Merlin’s teasing Arthur about completely opening up his emotions. I would have preferred if they had kept up with Merlin trying to gauge a bit more of Arthur’s plans on how he plans to treat magical folks in the future and how much he’ll stick to his word.
- Which brings me to my last point: this was such a beautiful opportunity to give us another tease about the reveal - and they missed it. I would have loved to see them approach the topic of magic a bit more, with Merlin leaving a hint or two and Arthur giving a vague answer that would give us a clue to how he would react to Merlin telling him his secret (think of Arthur's scene with Gaius at the end of "The secret sharer") - nothing explicit, but enough to get the audience going wild with theories about hidden meanings, just enough to get a slightly better picture on where Arthur stands and how safe Merlin would be telling him now, etc. I loved the joke about giving Merlin a hug and the assumed tackle (and in my head canon, it ended up with them chasing each other around the room and ending up on the bed *g*), but I mourn what the scene could have turned into - a revisit of the end of 4x03, just with a tad more hope.
That seems to be a fitting conclusion to my thoughts about this ep: it was good enough and executed well, but … it could have been more, you know? It could have really put some more things into motion, events that could lead us to a reveal within Series 4.