“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.
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I don’t even know why I reacted so violently to last week’s ep. I never cared that much about Lance (except for him being such a woobie around Merlin - I really, really loved their interactions and open talks) or the Gwen and Lancelot… thing. I never bought the “it’s tru wuv” bit (they barely spoke when they first met, he was her ticket to freedom when they met again under very dramatic circumstances, and suddenly he’s her “first love”? Oh, please), so I wasn’t as bothered with them upsetting their supposed love story as other people. I guess I had the biggest problem with the fact that, once again, they used a completely fabricated and contrived “conflict” to create needless drama and give Gwen a storyline that we could easily have done without. As if there aren’t enough things she should be struggling with already, like the fact that it will take a lot of adjustment for her to become a queen in fact, not in name only - she’ll have to face people bowing to her, watching her every step every single day, having to make tough decisions, facing the loneliness and isolation that position brings, always having that bit of doubt on her mind whether she’s “good enough” for the job, for Arthur. Or how about the fact that loving a man like Arthur will mean she’ll always have to take 2nd place with him, because Camelot (and sometimes Merlin) will always come first? Nah, better pull Lancelot back from the dead and enchant her - much better storytelling. *facepalm* And they really, really didn’t have to drag Lancelot into this farce - it did the character such a disservice. :( Oh, and thanks for making Gwen feel guilty about Lancelot’s death a second time when she finds out he killed himself, writers, because once just wasn’t enough.
… Yeah, I guess I’m still slightly upset over that episode… ;)
I think the interactions between Merlin and Arthur (excluding the final 2 scenes) were supposed to be grating and disconnected and different to the ones we've got most the season. It reminded me a little of episode 5
See, I saw the same parallel, and that’s why the disconnect grated so much. It was almost exactly the same situation, only back then, we had heart eyes all over the place, a very supportive Merlin who was persistently trying to get Arthur to see that he’s not alone, that people still loved him, faults and all, that he had it in him to change things - and we had an Arthur that was shaken by his mistkae and that visibly ached from having to push the people closest to him away. I can see what they did in 4x10, I admire them for the clever twist and how they set up the journey to it - but they shouldn’t have made the Merthur parallels to 4x05 so obvious (down to the Arthur sneaking out in the night and Merlin following him scene), because emotionally, that one was superior.
The episode itself was very well done - I believe it was actually the best put together ep we’ve had this series, with the whole build up and everything clicking into place in the end. I had a real “aha!” moment. But it could have been better. Can you imagine what this ep could have been like if they had shown Merlin have that same fervent faith in Arthur only to have it shaken after Arthur’s confession? Can you imagine what it would have been like if Arthur had been shown to be really torn up about being cruel to Merlin? They were really out to hurt each other in this one, and I didn’t like it. I wanted them to give me FEEELINGSS again, ya know?
Any distance in Arthur and Merlin's relationship is because of a lie (Merlin's secret) and Arthur's secret in this episode just made that distance increase dramatically.
Oh my God - I didn’t even notice that parallel - oh, boys! *mind explodes with emotional scenarios and plot-bunnies* Is it strange that I find this observation oddly beautiful and inspirational? I just want to hug them when I look at it this way - thanks for returning some of the feeelinggss! :)
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