Merlin 4x07 The Secret Sharer
Continuity and consequences. This episode is perhaps the best example so far of how much more serialized in format the show has become. It’s not just the way we begin, immediately after Morgana’s battle with Emrys and with flashbacks to it, or that the previous episode set up the traitor plot playing out within Camelot as well as her and Agravaine’s need for revenge.
Their plan-and in fact the entire episode-is as much a sequel to the closing scene of “The Darkest Hour,” in which Agravaine asks Gaius about Emrys, and Gaius warns Merlin that Morgana can never know his true identity.
At the time, this seemed like a fairly weak closing line, but it true purpose was to create mutual suspicion between Gaius and Agravaine. Agravaine, a truly talented villain, immediately understood that Gaius was lying and suspected him-and at this point Agravaine is as obsessed with Gaius as his adversary as Morgana is with Emrys.
Moreover, Arthur is responding to the events of “The Wicked Day,” which (as stands to reason) still cast a shadow. The connection Agravaine makes between Gaius and the sorcerer whom Arthur blames for his father’s death leads directly to Arthur turning on his oldest family friend.
The idea that Gaius might take the fall, and lose Arthur’s trust, as a result of Merlin’s plan in that episode is a great example of unintended consequences.
Family heirlooms. Of course, Arthur really shouldn’t allow Agravaine to undermine that trust, especially so soon after having suspected Agravaine himself, but he does. Bradley James’s excellent performance hints that this comes not only from Agravaine’s skill, but Arthur’s own hunger for family ties. Agravaine provides him not only with a substitute father figure, but with a rare connection to the mother he never knew.
Take for example the way Arthur, defensively clad in chain mail, spends Agravaine’s interrogation of Gaius. Ashamed but complicit, he hides in the back of the council chamber and refuses to respond when Gaius appeals to his authority. He previously equated Gaius’s loyalty to himself and to his father (listen to Bradley’s delivery of the line in the dressing scene), and the scene is ostensibly about whether Gaius has betrayed that trust.
But the entire time Arthur is playing with his mother’s rings, which are similar to the ones prominently displayed on Agravaine’s fingers as he strokes the unconscious Morgana’s face. Likewise, both Gwen and Merlin, who know Arthur better than anyone, comment that Arthur trusts Agravaine above all because he’s his uncle. And Agravaine managed to convince his nephew of his own innocence by professing devotion to Ygrain.
Against this tantalizing family connection, Arthur fails to adequate value the found family he has known for years. As Gaius himself points out (“You should have known I love you far to much to ever betray you.”), their years together should have been enough for Arthur to rank the bonds of friendship with those of family.
It’s not coincidental that Arthur repeatedly refers to Gaius as both servant and friend; in this show, family bonds reinforce ties among the nobility and their monopoly on power, and contrast with Arthur’s cross-class connections to Gaius, Gwen, and Merlin.
Arthur still feels the shadow of Morgana, whom we see as another example of his treacherous family. But from Arthur’s perspective, she is also someone he knew his entire life who turned on him without warning when magic was involved.
And this episode is partly about how much the half-siblings still have in common. Morgana also has some significant jewelry that symbolizes her family ties, and bad instincts when it comes to choosing her allies.
We can see when she offers the bracelet Morgause gave her, which bears her family crest, to Alator, that the loss of her last tangible link to her kin pains her. But so great is her obsession-wonderfully portrayed whenever she so much as mentions her enemy-that she is willing to sacrifice it-in fact, to sell it-to find Emrys.
But she fails to realize its true significance. Alator’s affinity to magic leads him to accept her price-significantly, the healing bracelet is a purely positive charm-and motivates him to work with Morgana in the beginning, but the same trait leads him to betray her in the end.
Given a choice between Morgana and Merlin/Emrys, he correctly wagers that the latter will lead to a better world for magic users. Morgana has only considered such terrain when she lied to distract “Emrys” in their last battle, and it hasn’t occurred to her that she could win Alator’s loyalty any way beside buying it. So once again, her quest for allies and an equal magical partner fails.
Sharing secrets. The title of the episode is wonderful ironic monniker for Gaius, who has been the main secret-keeper of Camelot for decades. We see Gaius’s characteristic evasiveness in both his interrogations, and even when bound by more powerful magic, he responds to Alator much as he did to Agravaine-by ducking and dodging questions, giving answers that conceal the truth while trying to avoid outright lies.
The show does a great job dramatizing the pain of Gaius’s ordeal, and exploiting his frailty as an older man. Fire has always been linked to magic on the show, but Alator’s ring of flames (a scarier version of the candles) and monologue about them burning away Gaius’s privacy evokes torture without being explicit, and Richard Wilson knocks it out of the park.
(Incidentally, I took Gaius’s speech to Alator (or what we got of it) as a signal that the priests, like the druids, also have prophecies about the coming golden age, which Alator instantly connects to Merlin. He acts almost as though he recognizes the name. Though I suspect watching a frail old man who also has magic fight tooth and nail to protect Emrys is also inspires him.)
In the meantime, we see just how much of Gaius’s own hopes are invested in Merlin’s destiny. His great affection for Merlin as a foster-son usually takes precedence, but here Gaius boasts about Merlin’s power and what he will do.
There are two great ironies that inform Gaius’s arc in this episode. The first is that Gaius, who has always insisted on Merlin keeping his identity unknown, especially from Morgana, is the one who-against his will, and after a valiant struggle-ultimately betrays that secret.
But the second, more important twist, is that in telling what he knows, Gaius does not in fact endanger Merlin, but protects him. By sharing the news of Merlin’s great destiny, he wins over Alator as an ally, and motivates him to save Merlin and pledge his allegiance when they meet.
Honesty is not always as dangerous as Gaius, with his long history of protecting other magic-users through lies, believes. Lies may work as a defense, but they don't win anyone to your side.
And Gaius is wise enough to learn from his unexpected lesson. His final conversation with Arthur at the end shows Gaius being much more forthright and honest with Arthur than he ever has before, and in doing so, providing the basis for a more just future.
Although he begins with his usual half-truths-statements whose true meaning Arthur can’t understand without context-the conversation shifts once Arthur confronts him with his earlier lie about old!Merlin.
Arguably, Arthur ought to have approached Gaius directly about this earlier, rather than using Agravaine as an intermediary. But the fact that he presses this point after apologizing to Gaius and learning that his friend protected him under torture, shows just how obsessed Arthur still is with his father’s death, and how willing to disregard the needs of others in that context.
Once Arthur brings it up, Gaius admits lying and tells Arthur exactly why he did. And while there are omissions (like Morgana’s role in Uther’s death), Gaius tells Arthur the uncomfortable truth about Uther’s death that Arthur has been up to now unable to hear.
It’s inspiring, because while we are still waiting to see Arthur move more decisively out of his father’s shadow, Gaius has already made just such a transformation, loosening his grip on the framework of lies he has clung to for decades.
Master of knaves. Not so every character. We’ve had plenty of evidence before that Agravaine is a villain of real skill-catching onto Gaius’s suspicions in one exchange, intuiting that Gaius is in league with Emrys-but this episode offers much more.
He not only gets Merlin out of the room before he starts undermining Arthur’s trust in Gaius, but actually takes on Merlin’s usual duties, helping Arthur get dresses and thus participating in some of the intimacy of the master/servant bond. He knows exactly what buttons to press with Arthur, as usual, and the plan to incriminate Gaius is remarkably well-executed in its details. (We’ll leave aside the irony of planting books on sorcery in Gaius’s chambers for the moment; you’d think there would be enough there as is.)
Rather refreshingly, Agravaine doesn’t underestimate Merlin. He carefully distracts him on the night the plot against Gaius goes into effect-a ploy that works, despite the fact that Merlin knows he’s the traitor-and is clever enough to realize all that Merlin has deduced with one glimpse in a mirror and a thumb smudge on a boot.
He is also careful to remain unseen by Gaius the first time he appears in the mine, and (unlike Merlin, who resists Gwaine’s help at first) smart enough to recruit Morgana before chasing after Merlin. And in a real tour-de-force, he manages to convince Gwaine of his innocence when the latter catches him with a knife at Gaius’s throat.
The beauty of this scene is that it shows Agravaine taking his own advice. He’s just warned Morgana about Gwaine being a hothead, and knows the knight wouldn’t scruple to cut him down where he stands if he thinks he deserves it.
So he scrambles to cover his misdeeds. Every excuse he comes up with spur-of-the-moment works-though Gwaine makes him sweat-and he takes enough control of the situation to keep Gwaine from finding Merlin, who would instantly blow his cover, until he’s back in Camelot with his position reconsolidated.
And in a extremely clever gesture, he tells Arthur that they should both apologize to Gaius. That last coup-de-grace shadows the conclusion, because although it’s in character for Arthur to apologize, doing so shows that he’s still following Agravaine’s orders. Particularly since Arthur apologizes formally to both of them together, just as Agravaine advised.
Kudos. The cinematography of the show is always gorgeous, but there are few shots that deserve special mention: the white horse running wild through the nighttime streets of Camelot; Morgana riding to Alator’s island city; and Arthur sitting alone, drenched in light, at the head of the long council table-the very antithesis of the Round Table with its fellowship and equality.
Merlin. The second scene in the council chamber is also about isolation, or the breaking of bonds. Obviously the conversation between Agravaine and Arthur about Gaius’s supposed treachery applies directly to Merlin’s own secret and many lies. Merlin forcibly holds himself in, waiting for Agravaine to close the door to speak, but barely able to make it.
The ensuing quarrel is about Gaius, about Arthur’s belief in Agravaine’s evidence compared with Merlin’s knowledge of who Gaius is. But it’s also about Arthur’s willingness to throw over loyal friends when evidence of sorcery appears.
Arthur in fact calls Merlin a friend, as he did Gaius earlier, but the context is threatening: “I don’t want to lose any more friends.” And his decision not to pursue the search for Gaius is both merciful and cowardly, akin to his skulking in the back of this chamber while Agravaine questioned Gaius, rather than confronting him directly. Hurt, Arthur doesn’t want to hear Gaius’s side of the narrative, and thus plays into Agravaine’s hands.
And although Arthur clearly feels for Merlin’s distress, he shuts down any hint of critcism of Agravaine instantly, as he used to when Merlin questioned Uther. The rupture between them shadows Merlin for the rest of the episode.
Forgotten friends. Merlin does have other friends, however. Both Gwen and Gwaine seek him out to offer support. Gwen comes after hearing Arthur’s side of their quarrel, which implies that Arthur too is more upset than he can allow, and only shows such vulnerability with her.
But Merlin can’t take her support directly-he turns away, seemingly holding in tears, and turns the conversation at once away from his personal loss to Agravaine’s plot. Gwen is wise enough to follow his lead. As Merlin’s friend, she is there to console and support him with her friendship, but she is also trying to heal the breach between Merlin and Arthur-a very Gwen, and very queenly, move.
To that end, she is careful not to choose decisively between their versions of the events, but she implies that she believes Merlin and mistrusts Agravaine, while recognizing his very great power over Arthur. She pledges to do her best to convince Arthur, no doubt because she too is too close to Gaius to believe him a traitor.
Merlin betrays a certain bitterness when he agrees with her statetment that Arthur trusts Agravaine more than anyone. In a sense they’re bonding over the fact that Arthur has elevated his uncle over both of them-and that is the crux of his break with Merlin.
Gwen demonstrates her devotion to Gaius again when she tends his injuries, but we can also see her eavesdropping and thinking about Arthur and Agravaine’s conversation in the background. She may reconsider her position on Agravaine when he presses Arthur to apologize. But this is far too little Gwen for one episode, and makes one long for more.
While Merlin can’t entirely accept Gwen’s comfort, he does open up to her about his thoughts. In contrast, Merlin is cold to Gwaine, and so dismissive as to be hostile; even after he accepts Gwaine’s help, he refuses to tell him where the iron ore came from, and thus that he believes Agravaine to be behind the plot.
Arguably this is the biggest mistake Merlin makes. Had he shared his suspicions, Agravaine would never have been able to argue his way out later on, and Gwaine would have revealed his treachery to Arthur. Likewise, telling Gwaine to leave without him if he finds Gaius also backfires, though it’s clear Gwaine wouldn’t obey if Agravaine hadn’t played his cards just right.
Why is Merlin so loath to accept the help of a longtime and useful friend? On the one hand, this recalls the way Merlin pushed Lancelot away in the opening two-parter, and may be partly about the way Gwaine has found a role as a knight, which must hurt all the more at a moment when Merlin has lost his much more informal role as Arthur’s advisor.
On the other hand, it seems far more likely to be a projection of his feelings toward Arthur in light of their disastrous conversation in the council chamber. Arthur has just shown that he can turn on close friends if he believes them sorcerers; Merlin may expect Gwaine to be no different, and be pushing him away before he can be hurt again.
It’s no coincidence that the direction parallels Gwaine with Arthur by opening scenes with close-ups of each man, clad in chain mail, fiddling with something in his hands. (There are some very nice small parallels like this throughout the episode. In addition to the rings, it’s interesting to see that Agravaine has picked up Uther’s habit of drinking alone at night. Perhaps he’s also thinking of Ygrain’s death, to different purpose.)
In focusing all his energies on Gaius, Merlin is clinging to the one person in his day-to-day life who knows his secret and still loves him. But of course, in rejecting a loyal friend without cause-and it’s clear that Gwaine genuinely cares for Merlin and wants to help-Merlin is in fact replicating Arthur’s mistake.
In light of this turmoil over his magic and inaibility to keep friends, it’s interesting that the first thing Merlin says to Alator after the latter has revealed he has tortured Gaius, knows Merlin’s identity, and has knocked out Morgana, is “You have magic.”
They bond about the burden of being “shunned, persecuted, and sometimes even hunted”-a detail that implies Camelot is not the only one of the Five Kingdoms where magic-users suffer. Alator offers his loyalty, with his full-bodied bow to Merlin contrasting with the coy half-bow Morgana gave him.
And he does not make the offer alone: “I and others like me have dreamt of the world you will build.” So their conversation lays the groundwork for a larger coalition of with many others, and a future both brighter and less lonely for them both.
Loose ends. In contrast, though Arthur does apologize, Merlin doesn’t seem to totally forgive him at the end. Arguably the tension between them won’t be resolved until Merlin’s magic is revealed, but for the moment, I think Agravaine is the larger issue. He has managed to supplant Merlin as Arthur’s trusted advisor, and Merlin knows it; no wonder he’s so eager to reveal him to Arthur, though Gaius wisely points out it won’t work without proof.
He and Arthur do manage to re-establish normalcy, with their usual banter. But Merlin’s embrace of his usual jocular tone with Arthur seems very much put on as a performance for Gaius. I don’t think things between them will be put right from Merlin’s perspective until Arthur realizes Agravaine is a traitor and casts him out.
Then there’s that curious phrase that Gaius uses in his final speech: “Contained within this great kingdom is a rich variety of people with a wide range of beliefs.” It’s a call of sorts to multculturalism, or diversity of thought. Alator, with his accent and his home amid Orientalist scenery, exemplifies just that-a clumsy attempt to show the diversity of both magic-users and residents of this imaginary land.
And Gaius offers Arthur the same reassurance Alator did Merlin, telling him that he and others believe in him. One day you will understand…
Arthur thinks about it, and nods.
Next time. The trailer for next week looks fabulous. Gwen, Merlin, and the knights off alone adventuring in the woods? Yes, please. Gwen growing suspicious of Merlin? Yes! Yet another evil magical woman, this time not even human? Eh, whatever. But if the premise is that the lamia can only control men’s minds, I will expect Gwen to save the day.