Merlin 4.06 A Servant of Two Masters
Nov. 6th, 2011 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe season 4 writers are on fire, seriously. Though the trailers continue to be cunningly misleading.
Here I thought we'd be in for an hour of slapstick, with Brainwashed!Merlin being stopped and returned to his old self (err, former self, given how the episode actually went) at the last minute, but no. That the show started on quite a serious note with the Merlin and Arthur scenes being straight from fanfiction, what with the mutual life savings and Arthur's praise for Merlin (though if I were Merlin, the sheer amount of praise would have made me suspect Arthur thinks I'm about to die any second!), and it didn't feel over the top. The scenes between Merlin and Morgana were terrific (and played straight) as well, especially Morgana's response to Merlin's remark about loyalty - "just because I have no one left to be loyal to" was really heartfelt on her part, and so was "since you condemned my sister to a slow and agonizing death". Yeah emotional continuity for pointing out Morgana is still grieving for Morgause, though, in classic Uther's daughter fashion, she does so by blaming anyone but herself.
Then the Controlled!Merlin-as-assassin part started, and yes, there was some slapstick, but done in a fashion that showcased how much the show improved on using humour. Not least because the next pleasant surprise was that Gaius and Gwen realised something was seriously wrong with Merlin from the get go - just these two people of all should - and teamed up to foil assassin!Merlin until they could figure out how to return him to himself without Arthur noticing. Every time this show uses Gwen in detective fashion (hooray, Witchfinder episode) I am extra thrilled. And wishing I had found the time to write that Gwen mystery story where she investigates a murder Morgana frames Merlin for even though it would have been jossed by s3. Anyway, detective Gwen was great to see, as was her pragmatic method to take bespelled Merlin out of action.:)
Also very well used, again: the knights. The comraderie, the jesting early on about that "no one sane", Leon geeking out about weapons (handwaving anachronisms here, because, well, Merlin) and taking Merlin's annoucement that he wants to kill Arthur as a joke (which tells you about the level of familiaritiy the knights have with Merlin and Arthur interacting), Gwaine going with Arthur on the search for Merlin (and Gwaine freaking out a little about Old!Merlin's hint)... it was all lovely and with brief screentime still continued to make sure the knights come across as people, not props.
Speaking of the art of detection: somewhat surprisingly, Arthur figures out Agravaine is the prime suspect for traitor in Camelot on his lonesome and based on logic. Unfortunately, Agrivaine, still no one's fool, then pulls the Ygraine card and tries to make Gaius as suspect, but still, it's interesting that post-Morgana's-betrayal-Arthur no longer automatically assumes family members just wouldn't betray him. (BTW, my suspicion that the reason why Agrivaine has it in for both Pendragons, not just Uther, power aside, still is that he blames Arthur for Ygraine's death as well.) Agrivaine had a genuinenly surprising character moment later in the episode, when he finds not-quite-dead Morgana. Given there are no witnesses and she is unconscious, his distress has to be real, which means he cares for her beyond the mutal benefits level of their alliance. Which perhaps also explains his acceptance of the way she chastises him: "My lord, you can do better."
Morgana and Merlin, Take II, The Emrys Variation: for the first time in a long, long while, Morgana (when confronted with Emrys her prophecied doom instead of young Merlin) brings up solidarity among magic users, and claims rights for magic users as a goal for her reign, and you can see that despite all, Merlin isn't immune to this, but he can't quite believe her, and for good reason: when Morgana actually had the power, ensuring anyone's rights was not what she did with it. As opposed to her words to young Merlin about Morgause and loyalty, where I thought Morgana herself believes what she says 100%, I think in this case she was consciously lying, though it was a truth she used to believe. But if there was a time where she wanted power for other reasons than herself, it has long gone. The other great aspect of this confrontation was that Morgana started out genuinenly scared but still trying to battle; just like everyone else, she is written far more subtle and more dimensional this season and it's just great to see.
Plothole of the week: Controlled!Merlin not using magic in any of his attempts to kill Arthur. Which would not be a plothole if we'd gotten one sentence to the effect that he doesn't because Morgana is still not aware he has magic, and he is literally carrying out her wishes, or something like that. Ah well.
Humour and how to use it, or, how the scriptwriters learned: just contrast and compare the use of George in this episode with the use of Cedric in the s2 opener. The George and Arthur and George, Merlin and Arthur scenes were genuinenly funny as they required no one to behave over the top or out of character. In conclusion: rock on, show, rock on!
Here I thought we'd be in for an hour of slapstick, with Brainwashed!Merlin being stopped and returned to his old self (err, former self, given how the episode actually went) at the last minute, but no. That the show started on quite a serious note with the Merlin and Arthur scenes being straight from fanfiction, what with the mutual life savings and Arthur's praise for Merlin (though if I were Merlin, the sheer amount of praise would have made me suspect Arthur thinks I'm about to die any second!), and it didn't feel over the top. The scenes between Merlin and Morgana were terrific (and played straight) as well, especially Morgana's response to Merlin's remark about loyalty - "just because I have no one left to be loyal to" was really heartfelt on her part, and so was "since you condemned my sister to a slow and agonizing death". Yeah emotional continuity for pointing out Morgana is still grieving for Morgause, though, in classic Uther's daughter fashion, she does so by blaming anyone but herself.
Then the Controlled!Merlin-as-assassin part started, and yes, there was some slapstick, but done in a fashion that showcased how much the show improved on using humour. Not least because the next pleasant surprise was that Gaius and Gwen realised something was seriously wrong with Merlin from the get go - just these two people of all should - and teamed up to foil assassin!Merlin until they could figure out how to return him to himself without Arthur noticing. Every time this show uses Gwen in detective fashion (hooray, Witchfinder episode) I am extra thrilled. And wishing I had found the time to write that Gwen mystery story where she investigates a murder Morgana frames Merlin for even though it would have been jossed by s3. Anyway, detective Gwen was great to see, as was her pragmatic method to take bespelled Merlin out of action.:)
Also very well used, again: the knights. The comraderie, the jesting early on about that "no one sane", Leon geeking out about weapons (handwaving anachronisms here, because, well, Merlin) and taking Merlin's annoucement that he wants to kill Arthur as a joke (which tells you about the level of familiaritiy the knights have with Merlin and Arthur interacting), Gwaine going with Arthur on the search for Merlin (and Gwaine freaking out a little about Old!Merlin's hint)... it was all lovely and with brief screentime still continued to make sure the knights come across as people, not props.
Speaking of the art of detection: somewhat surprisingly, Arthur figures out Agravaine is the prime suspect for traitor in Camelot on his lonesome and based on logic. Unfortunately, Agrivaine, still no one's fool, then pulls the Ygraine card and tries to make Gaius as suspect, but still, it's interesting that post-Morgana's-betrayal-Arthur no longer automatically assumes family members just wouldn't betray him. (BTW, my suspicion that the reason why Agrivaine has it in for both Pendragons, not just Uther, power aside, still is that he blames Arthur for Ygraine's death as well.) Agrivaine had a genuinenly surprising character moment later in the episode, when he finds not-quite-dead Morgana. Given there are no witnesses and she is unconscious, his distress has to be real, which means he cares for her beyond the mutal benefits level of their alliance. Which perhaps also explains his acceptance of the way she chastises him: "My lord, you can do better."
Morgana and Merlin, Take II, The Emrys Variation: for the first time in a long, long while, Morgana (when confronted with Emrys her prophecied doom instead of young Merlin) brings up solidarity among magic users, and claims rights for magic users as a goal for her reign, and you can see that despite all, Merlin isn't immune to this, but he can't quite believe her, and for good reason: when Morgana actually had the power, ensuring anyone's rights was not what she did with it. As opposed to her words to young Merlin about Morgause and loyalty, where I thought Morgana herself believes what she says 100%, I think in this case she was consciously lying, though it was a truth she used to believe. But if there was a time where she wanted power for other reasons than herself, it has long gone. The other great aspect of this confrontation was that Morgana started out genuinenly scared but still trying to battle; just like everyone else, she is written far more subtle and more dimensional this season and it's just great to see.
Plothole of the week: Controlled!Merlin not using magic in any of his attempts to kill Arthur. Which would not be a plothole if we'd gotten one sentence to the effect that he doesn't because Morgana is still not aware he has magic, and he is literally carrying out her wishes, or something like that. Ah well.
Humour and how to use it, or, how the scriptwriters learned: just contrast and compare the use of George in this episode with the use of Cedric in the s2 opener. The George and Arthur and George, Merlin and Arthur scenes were genuinenly funny as they required no one to behave over the top or out of character. In conclusion: rock on, show, rock on!
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Date: 2011-11-06 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-07 08:56 am (UTC)