selenak

Catching up with my tv missed for book fair reasons, here I go.

Firstly, Gaius might have said that Taliesin lived several centuries ago, and yes, he coooooouuuuuld remember Arthur not dying via a crystal vision of the future, but between the blue eyes and the facial structure, methinks we're dealing with old Merlin here, helping out his younger self (and choosing a handy pseudonym; also, in some legends Taliesin and Merlin are the same though in others they're seperate). Which incidentally AUs any "Merlin won't age" scenarios and confirms he will end up in that cave.

Making a prophecy come true by trying to prevent it isn't just a genre trope but something Arthurian (Mordred killing Arthur in the version that involves a lot of dead babies comes to mind), so it's not surprising they'd go there. Best episode of the season so far, and without things to nitpick. Though she has only one scene (brief glimpses aside), Morgause reaffirms her place as my favourite antagonist in the way said scene underscores the difference between her and Morgana. Morgause might have good reason to hate Uther, but she seems to think first and foremost politically; her first attempt in Sins of the Father was to get Arthur (aka the future king) at her side, the second was via an alliance with Cendred; hearing the genetic news this episode, she sees the political advantage (Morgana having a claim on Uther's throne; apparantly the Merlinverse does allow for female succession, which is nice to know) at once. While Morgana is all about hurt feelings: Uther not acknowledging her openly means he doesn't love her enough means he deserves to die again. It ties right with last season's reply as to why she didn't kill Uther in To Kill a King ("I thought he cared for me, but he only cares about himself") and emphasizes Morgana's increasing self-centredness. By now, her perspective has narrowed down to a spectacular degree. It's not any longer about Uther's tyranny, it's utterly and completely about herself.

Re: the paternity news: since the season opener and its heavy hints, I've been waiting for that shoe to drop, though before that I hadn't thought

zahrawithaz was right about Morgana being Uther's daughter. Uther, of course, being another case of "the universe revolves around me and my feelings and when I feel bad, I'm going to make everyone suffer for it", with more genocidal consequences (so far). Incidentally, I'm worried for Gaius now because I think Uther's current gratitude for the supposed magical healing of Morgana is going to make way for good old paranoia again, and he'll inevitably blame Gaius for corrupting his anti-magical principles. Never mind that he was the one who asked for magical help (as he did re: Nimueh and Ygraine, of course). Note that Gaius, who knows Uther, did at no point either attempt to heal Morgana magically or to ask Merlin to do so. Methinks he has his reasons, and they're not Morgana's potential future deeds.

Merlin throughout was nicely shades of grey - he hadn't intended to kill Morgana (this time), and the "for the greater good" line didn't work for him evidently even while he was saying it afterwards, but I also didn't get the impression he saved Morgana for either her own sake or solely because of his own responsibility for her state, though that was a factor. Mostly he saved her for Gwen's and Arthur's sake. And the scene with Kilgarrah was another case in point (I so love their scenes, and my, haven't we moved from the days when the Dragon was solely there as a clumsy exposition tool?), because this was the first time Merlin used the power he had over him strictly against Kilgarrah's will. (True, telling hiim to stop the torching of Camelot last season was superimposing his will, too, but in that case he asked to stop something, not to do something, and arguably the Dragon had mixed feelings about his revenge path anyway. Calling him for help in 3.02. was fine with Kilgarrah.) As with Uther assuming Gaius cured Morgana by magic, I think there will be a backlash. Oh, and speaking of Kilgarrah, if he's known Morgana is Uther's daughter, it helps a bit to explain his unrelenting hostility towards her, though why he managed mixed-to-positive feelings about Arthur if that's the case is another issue. (Obviously I like my own fanfiction explanation, but speaking strictly in show terms.)

Arthur and Gwen comforting each other was a lovely little scene and a good example of how you can show a relationship progressing despite little screentime due to the focus of the episode being elsewhere. (It also helped that the episode remembered to let Morgana say something nice to Gwen earlier.) Also, the Merlin and Arthur interaction this episode was without the painfully unfunny incidents in earlier episodes this season and well balanced, from Merlin's version of a "don't die" speech via the "I'm the one giving the orders" - "Yes. Let's go!" exchange to Arthur praising Merlin in front of Uther. And to round it off, Arthur's fondness for Morgana came across very well, too, from his choice of gift to the reaction to her (nearly) dying. I just wish we'd gotten any indication how Morgana feels about him, because even with the increasing self-centredness, I would be disappointed if she simply switched from "kill Uther" to "kill Arthur" without batting an eyelash, precisely because she's never about the big picture and all about personal feelings, so what would make sense for Morgause would not do so for her.

Lastly: Alice Throughton came up with some gorgeous imagery for this episode, didn't she?