Merlin - A Lesson In Vengeance
Nov. 28th, 2012 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcYes, I know. "The Dark Tower" evidently freaked me out more than I thought.
Gosh, Evil Gwen is much better at hiding her true feelings than Morgana ever was. I mean, given how unobservant all the characters are she doesn't need to be, but she is..
Tyr is a brilliantly realised character, a guy who knows he doesn't have any options and doesn't understand why he's in this situation. And if you know the truth it's clear that it's not just that his mother is threatened; who'd believe him if he accused the Queen? I can't believe Gwen killed him. (And I bet the ramifications of that are going to either be completely ignored, or handwaved with "hey, she was mind controlled".)
Two drops of valarian will render the victim unconscious? Given what the stuff tastes like, I wish! A whole pot of valarian tea will make it slightly easier to go to sleep. And Wikipedia says henbane was used as a hallucinogen and anaesthetic, as well as a poison, which suggests it isn't that deadly in small doses. Herbal concoctions are obviously much more potent in a magical world.
And you'd think a professional poison merchant would realise that blackmailing his customers (who are, after all, poisoners) is a bad career move. I'm amazed he got away with it this time, she must already be planning to use him as a fallguy[1].
And in the midst of all this, as Merlin realises Gwen is the traitor, we get the "looking for holes" scene. Talk about mood whiplash.
I pretty much saw Gwen accusing Merlin coming. I liked Gaius saying "You had no choice. You did what you had to do"; a perfectly ordinary phrase which has a completely different meaning to the apparent one.
And another comedy scene as Emrys bamboozles the guards, and gets into an argument with the cook. At first I wondered why Merlin then returned to his real appearance and started sneaking about as a fugitive instead of blagging his way in as an authoritative elderly figure who could heal the king. Then I remembered he tried that before, and it all went horribly wrong. Probably best not to remind people where they know Emrys from.
Oh, and I spoke to soon about Gwen hiding her feelings, by the end of the episode she's doing the Morgana Smirk.
Mythwatch: Tyr is named after the Norse god of war for no apparent reason. That's about it, really. Oh, and the henbane gets poured in Arthur's ear, just like Hamlet's father.
[1]Come to think of it, how exactly would failing to buy his silence work? I imagine any attempt to go to the authorities would result in a conversation pretty much like the one we had when the authorities went to him...
Gosh, Evil Gwen is much better at hiding her true feelings than Morgana ever was. I mean, given how unobservant all the characters are she doesn't need to be, but she is..
Tyr is a brilliantly realised character, a guy who knows he doesn't have any options and doesn't understand why he's in this situation. And if you know the truth it's clear that it's not just that his mother is threatened; who'd believe him if he accused the Queen? I can't believe Gwen killed him. (And I bet the ramifications of that are going to either be completely ignored, or handwaved with "hey, she was mind controlled".)
Two drops of valarian will render the victim unconscious? Given what the stuff tastes like, I wish! A whole pot of valarian tea will make it slightly easier to go to sleep. And Wikipedia says henbane was used as a hallucinogen and anaesthetic, as well as a poison, which suggests it isn't that deadly in small doses. Herbal concoctions are obviously much more potent in a magical world.
And you'd think a professional poison merchant would realise that blackmailing his customers (who are, after all, poisoners) is a bad career move. I'm amazed he got away with it this time, she must already be planning to use him as a fallguy[1].
And in the midst of all this, as Merlin realises Gwen is the traitor, we get the "looking for holes" scene. Talk about mood whiplash.
I pretty much saw Gwen accusing Merlin coming. I liked Gaius saying "You had no choice. You did what you had to do"; a perfectly ordinary phrase which has a completely different meaning to the apparent one.
And another comedy scene as Emrys bamboozles the guards, and gets into an argument with the cook. At first I wondered why Merlin then returned to his real appearance and started sneaking about as a fugitive instead of blagging his way in as an authoritative elderly figure who could heal the king. Then I remembered he tried that before, and it all went horribly wrong. Probably best not to remind people where they know Emrys from.
Oh, and I spoke to soon about Gwen hiding her feelings, by the end of the episode she's doing the Morgana Smirk.
Mythwatch: Tyr is named after the Norse god of war for no apparent reason. That's about it, really. Oh, and the henbane gets poured in Arthur's ear, just like Hamlet's father.
[1]Come to think of it, how exactly would failing to buy his silence work? I imagine any attempt to go to the authorities would result in a conversation pretty much like the one we had when the authorities went to him...
