Merlin 207
Points of interest and enjoyment, in no particular order...
- Colin Morgan was completely awesome in this ep. Yay Colin \o/ I am just going to embrace my somewhat disturbing enjoyment of seeing him distressed, I think. It happens so often that I just can't take the denial!
- Team Gwen+Merlin FTW! That whole sequence where they worked together was wonderful.
- I'm not quite sure where Gwen's confidence that she could successfully appeal to Arthur came from. He's been giving her such mixed signals she can hardly be confident of his regard. It feels once again like something has happened off-screen that we don't know about, and it seemed unlikely that Merlin would be so hands off when the stakes are so high. BUT, I did like that she brought up her father -- someone remembers Tom, at least.
- I never actually felt as though Morgana was in danger. If they had shown her over the last few eps as having little magical accidents, say, so that there was something manifest, then maybe. But since the Druid ep, she hasn't done anything accept have nightmares, and I can't see Uther burning her for that, because presumably he already knows (to some extent, at least).
- Go Gaius! His lack of ethics is still skeevy, but the way he spoke his mind to Uther at the end rocked my socks.
- Arthur dragging Merlin out of the hall. Say no more. Seeing as he was so anti-hug last week, he certainly didn't mind getting his arms around Merlin this week (hur hur hur). I also like to think he caught Merlin's hug with Gaius in the cells, to see how it's done properly. What's possibly the most interesting bit for me, though, is that he openly admitted that he's willing to break the law for Merlin, even if just for something small like letting him say goodbye.
- It's official that Gaius used to practise magic, and that Uther knew about it. I really, really wanted Arthur to probe more about that, because that kind of inconsistency from Uther is fascinating. Uther and Gaius's relationship in this whole ep was intriguing, actually. We've seen Uther refer to Gaius as a fool (ep 104 I think), and he can be both dismissive and surprisingly open when it comes to accepting his advice, but in this ep he was undoubtedly emotional about the old git, and I was amazed that he let Gaius speak to him like that at the end without any comeback -- he felt that guilty.
- Morgana completely and totally dropped Gaius in it. The last time Aredian stopped her leaving, she clearly stopped to think, and she could have lied and said "yes, my nightmares are better," or, if she was worried about someone not corroborating that, she could have just said "no, they're about the same as always, poor old guy don't tell him his potions don't do anything." Instead, she made the conscious decision to say the most damning thing she could about Gaius in the hope, I think, of protecting herself. Very self-serving, and very in character for this season so far.
- The toad in the throat. Ewwwww. I was eating my dinner during that and almost choked. I do actually love it when Merlin wins with his magic, though. Wouldn't Gwen have questions when she hears about it, though? Oh show, please let someone at least start to get suspicious. Pretty please?
In conclusion, another really enjoyable ep, hooray! :)