Merlin - The Hollow Queen
Nov. 28th, 2012 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcWatched this one when I got back from work.
Merlin leaves Arthur and Gwen to aid a druid boy who noticed there was a vacancy for "creepy druid boy" since Mordred grew up. And the running gag of "he's in the tavern" gets used for I think the first time this season.
While Merlin and Daegal go and find his sister, Arthur proves to be as incapable of dressing himself as Prince George in Blackadder the Third. He's meeting the Sarum of Amata, a fearsome dictator who once captured Morgana. A nice reminder that there's been five years of stuff happening since the last season and it'd be nice to know some of it. The Sarum turns out to be a fanatical magic hater who makes Uther look reasonable, and he's responsible for the condition of the White Dragon. So that's that question answered. And it's interesting to see that Gwen despises the Sarum for much the reasons she would normally, just skewed somewhat by Morgana's mind control.
Speaking of Morgana, it turns out Daegal is a dupe (and his similarity to Mordred wasn't a coincidence. That was a nice touch.) The first clue to this (apart from it being obvious he's hiding something) is when he can't hear Merlin's mindspeach when the bandits show up, and before long even Merlin twigs: It's a trap!
It appears that Morgana still hasn't figured out Merlin has magic, despite my assumption it was blindingly obvious in "Another's Sorrow". But she's got other things on her mind, like getting Gwen to convince the Sarum to kill Arthur, something which proves incredibly easy, what with him being a psychopath.
Kind of amused that Daegal's suspicion that Morgana plans to kill the king is treated as important intel. Morgana's always plotting to kill the king. It's what she does.
Mitch "Proud of the BBC" Benn threatens Merlin and Daegal and gets hurled backwards by magic, the Merlin equivalent of Star Trek guest stars getting to pretend the ship is shaking. He also uses his Marcus Bentley voice from The Now Show's Big Brother parodies, so that was weird.
Meanwhile the Sarum and Gwen have the classic villain team-up where the question is who's going to double-cross the other first. And of course, it doesn't matter because the heroes win before either of them have a chance, with Daegal making a Heroic Sacrifice.
It looks like the Evil Gwen plot is going to wrap up next week, so they can spend the second half of the season building towards the Proper Arthurian Era before the series ends.
Mythwatch: Sarum is an archaic name for Salisbury, "Old" Sarum (which Arthur calls him at one point) is now used to refer to the site of the old town. Salisbury Plain, of course, is the site of Arthur's final battle in the legends, so the fact the Sarum threatens death for Arthur is very appropriate.
Merlin leaves Arthur and Gwen to aid a druid boy who noticed there was a vacancy for "creepy druid boy" since Mordred grew up. And the running gag of "he's in the tavern" gets used for I think the first time this season.
While Merlin and Daegal go and find his sister, Arthur proves to be as incapable of dressing himself as Prince George in Blackadder the Third. He's meeting the Sarum of Amata, a fearsome dictator who once captured Morgana. A nice reminder that there's been five years of stuff happening since the last season and it'd be nice to know some of it. The Sarum turns out to be a fanatical magic hater who makes Uther look reasonable, and he's responsible for the condition of the White Dragon. So that's that question answered. And it's interesting to see that Gwen despises the Sarum for much the reasons she would normally, just skewed somewhat by Morgana's mind control.
Speaking of Morgana, it turns out Daegal is a dupe (and his similarity to Mordred wasn't a coincidence. That was a nice touch.) The first clue to this (apart from it being obvious he's hiding something) is when he can't hear Merlin's mindspeach when the bandits show up, and before long even Merlin twigs: It's a trap!
It appears that Morgana still hasn't figured out Merlin has magic, despite my assumption it was blindingly obvious in "Another's Sorrow". But she's got other things on her mind, like getting Gwen to convince the Sarum to kill Arthur, something which proves incredibly easy, what with him being a psychopath.
Kind of amused that Daegal's suspicion that Morgana plans to kill the king is treated as important intel. Morgana's always plotting to kill the king. It's what she does.
Mitch "Proud of the BBC" Benn threatens Merlin and Daegal and gets hurled backwards by magic, the Merlin equivalent of Star Trek guest stars getting to pretend the ship is shaking. He also uses his Marcus Bentley voice from The Now Show's Big Brother parodies, so that was weird.
Meanwhile the Sarum and Gwen have the classic villain team-up where the question is who's going to double-cross the other first. And of course, it doesn't matter because the heroes win before either of them have a chance, with Daegal making a Heroic Sacrifice.
It looks like the Evil Gwen plot is going to wrap up next week, so they can spend the second half of the season building towards the Proper Arthurian Era before the series ends.
Mythwatch: Sarum is an archaic name for Salisbury, "Old" Sarum (which Arthur calls him at one point) is now used to refer to the site of the old town. Salisbury Plain, of course, is the site of Arthur's final battle in the legends, so the fact the Sarum threatens death for Arthur is very appropriate.
