Merlin 5.02 Arthur's Bane II
Oct. 15th, 2012 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOkay, now, that's interesting.
I still have several nitpicks and want to list them first before getting on to the good stuff, as is my custom, but I have to offer one praise first because it's right at the start of the ep and because I want to: Morgana's dream/vision and the short scene thereafter was wonderfully handled, and one of the best vision sequences the show ever did, from the slow reveal that the claustrophobic moving mass engulfing her is her being locked with Aithusa to the image of Morgana and Aithusa at the bottom of a well in chains to Morgana waking up and talking to the real Aithusa, showing more tenderness to any living creature than we've seen her display since Morgause died and arguably even before that (not least because the power balance between Morgause and Morgana was always, even when Morgause was sick, with Morgause as the older, dominating and care-taking sister). It's a great sequence within the strict context of the Merlinverse but even better when put in a larger mythological context because it goes right back to the legend of the two dragons, white and red, a young Merlin, and Vortigern. The white dragon has always been taken to symbolize the Saxons whom we first hear of this season; the red dragon, of course, is Pendragon. So the irony of Morgana's vision casting her in place of the red dragon is delicious and rife for interpretation.
Before I go on with the praise, though, have some complaints. I'm all for Gwen being clever and using Sefa to lay a trap, correctly gambling on the fact Sefa's father will try to save her, but, show, if one lays a trap there need to be some people around to make it spring. They tried to cover that by letting Gwen tell Gaius she can't tell anyone else because the could be a second spy, but still, she could have told Elyan and Leon at least so there would be someone waiting at Sefa's cell. As opposed to no one. This is elementary. (No pun intended.) I don't like Gwen being shown as incompetent, even if it's not intentionally.
Also: re: sorcery still outlawed, were there no practical consequences to Herald of a new Age at all, show? If it's because you didn't want to do it off screen, you should have found another way that three freaking years. Then again... but I'll get to that when I get to the good stuff.
Which I shall do presently. It seems that what I hardly dared hope for actually happens: we get a layered Mordred instead of a smirking villain Mordred. In addition to her scene with Aithusa, Morgana's other sequence in the episode where she got to show positive emotions was her reunion with Mordred, and here I'm really glad we got to see it on screen as opposed to being told that it happened at some point in the intervening three years. I also like the way the entire sequence shows Mordred and the audience Morgana transitioning her delight and concern to the obsessive hatred for Arthur. I mean, see last review, I did expect Mordred to switch sides in order to get him to Camelot in this episode, but I was three thirds resignedly prepared for it to be handled as a ruse from the get go with him as the new Agrivaine. If they'd only give him scenes with Merlin this could still be the case (Mordred has no reason to tell Merlin the truth, he could be lying all the way), but instead we get the lengthy scene with Morgana where the change from Mordred being glad to be with her again to increasingly disturbed goes unnoticed by Morgana but not the audience. The clincher, though, is the Not!Roswell Alien telling Merlin that Arthur is his own bane and worst enemy. (Mark: not Morgana, not Mordred.) In many though not all versions Arthur's flaws are indeed crucial to bringing down his own creation. Now obviousy in the Merlinverse Mordred is not Arthur's son by his sister (because No Actual Incest On Family TV as the show's viewers declared), but he has a mystical-emotional connection to both Morgana and Arthur (who was the first to hear Mordred's voice and name at the end of the episode introducing the character, and here in this episode the sparing of each other's lives at different points comes with the same lengthy exchange of looks). Additionally Mordred as the druid boy who almost got killed but saved at the last minute by Arthur is paralleled/contrast with the druid boy who did get killed from Herald of a New Age (and the backstory other children, which associates the dark version of the tale where Arthur kills various other children in order to kill his bastard but doesn't manage the last). So if we get a Mordred who genuinenly feels drawn to Arthur as he does to Morgana, as opposed to plotting Arthur's downfall from the start, but who then does become Arthur's enemy because of Arthur's own too little too late magic policies, this would downright fulfill Aristoteles' demands for a tragedy (hero brought down by a combination of his own faults and circumstance). We shall see.
Mind you: the show's titular hero, unfortunately, is still mostly reacting to stuff and not making progress, either upwards or downwards, with the character development. Merlin's most interesting moment was the sequence starting with him seeing Aithusa (complete with dawning realisation of the implication), and afterwards his scene with the little dragon. Aithusa being unable to speak (as opposed to Kilgarrah) is an interesting storytelling choice; Merlin assumes this was done to Aithusa by a third party, but given the harmonious state of Aithusa-Morgana relationships shown to the audience both before and after, I doubt it was her, so there must be another reason. I do hope for a "what the hell?" scene between Kilgarrah and Merlin in the next ep, though. Otherwise, Merlin continues his uneasiness and distrust with Mordred but doesn't argue otherwise when Mordred points out their similarities; by letting adult!Mordred even have the same hair cut as Merlin and about the same height, the show emphasizes this even visually. (On a more flippant note, Mordred getting knighted at the end of the episode also underlines Merlin's lack of promotion chez Camelot again. The producers really love him in his servant's outfit, don't they.) It occurs to me that Mordred more than once has been played as a might-have-been - Merlin if he'd been raised not by Hunith but by other magic users, and then on the run instead of undercover at a place of power; like Merlin, he seems to have had magical abilities from birth (as opposed to mastering them much later, as Morgana did), so Mordred coming to the opposite conclusion to Merlin about Arthur eventually could be a road not taken as well.
Speaking of Arthur: in good form this week, with the chit-chat with Merlin not slapsticky jarring but feeling comfortably friendly, still refusing to hate on Morgana (which frustrates her to no end), getting himself out of captivity like a pro (which by now he is), with the knights following suit once he provided them with the first sword. The not killing of Mordred mid episode could simply be because Arthur isn't into killing for killing's sake and as he points out to Merlin, they had escaped already, or it could additionally be motivated by the memory of child!Mordred (and the children whose deaths he did cause). Either way, the show does its parallels and contrasts with Arthur and Morgana again; contrasts, obviously, with Morgana early on when getting the news of Sefa simply telling her ally that his daughter won't die in vein but making no move to help her while Arthur risks all to rescue his knights (one reason why Morgana really makes a bad leader is that she doesn't do loyalty except to a very very few - Morgause and previously Mordred, now arguably also Aithusa - but doesn't see herself obliged to anyone else, something that was true of Morgana long before she left Camelot, with ep 2.03. where she reacts to the news that Uther is executing people for her supposed abduction with basically "not my problem"), but also parallels because Arthur continues to not see (or see and wrongly attribute the reasons) the distress in Merlin as Morgana misjudges the reactions of Mordred, not to mention of course that he continues to uphold an unjust law and she continues to see anyone but herself in need of change. And let's not forget Morgana when hearing her ally repeatedly declare that all the Pendragons would die completely ignores the fact she claimed that name for herself four years ago. (Not to mention, as I said in the beginning, that her vision gives her the place of the red dragon to Aithusa's white one.)
Lastly: I didn't think it possible, but the way the entire Mordred and Morgana sequence played out actually made me buy the fact Mordred didn't tell Morgana the truth about Merlin. Not just because he's increasingly disturbed by how out of balance she is but also because it's valuable information and something he can use instead of squandering it all at once.
I still have several nitpicks and want to list them first before getting on to the good stuff, as is my custom, but I have to offer one praise first because it's right at the start of the ep and because I want to: Morgana's dream/vision and the short scene thereafter was wonderfully handled, and one of the best vision sequences the show ever did, from the slow reveal that the claustrophobic moving mass engulfing her is her being locked with Aithusa to the image of Morgana and Aithusa at the bottom of a well in chains to Morgana waking up and talking to the real Aithusa, showing more tenderness to any living creature than we've seen her display since Morgause died and arguably even before that (not least because the power balance between Morgause and Morgana was always, even when Morgause was sick, with Morgause as the older, dominating and care-taking sister). It's a great sequence within the strict context of the Merlinverse but even better when put in a larger mythological context because it goes right back to the legend of the two dragons, white and red, a young Merlin, and Vortigern. The white dragon has always been taken to symbolize the Saxons whom we first hear of this season; the red dragon, of course, is Pendragon. So the irony of Morgana's vision casting her in place of the red dragon is delicious and rife for interpretation.
Before I go on with the praise, though, have some complaints. I'm all for Gwen being clever and using Sefa to lay a trap, correctly gambling on the fact Sefa's father will try to save her, but, show, if one lays a trap there need to be some people around to make it spring. They tried to cover that by letting Gwen tell Gaius she can't tell anyone else because the could be a second spy, but still, she could have told Elyan and Leon at least so there would be someone waiting at Sefa's cell. As opposed to no one. This is elementary. (No pun intended.) I don't like Gwen being shown as incompetent, even if it's not intentionally.
Also: re: sorcery still outlawed, were there no practical consequences to Herald of a new Age at all, show? If it's because you didn't want to do it off screen, you should have found another way that three freaking years. Then again... but I'll get to that when I get to the good stuff.
Which I shall do presently. It seems that what I hardly dared hope for actually happens: we get a layered Mordred instead of a smirking villain Mordred. In addition to her scene with Aithusa, Morgana's other sequence in the episode where she got to show positive emotions was her reunion with Mordred, and here I'm really glad we got to see it on screen as opposed to being told that it happened at some point in the intervening three years. I also like the way the entire sequence shows Mordred and the audience Morgana transitioning her delight and concern to the obsessive hatred for Arthur. I mean, see last review, I did expect Mordred to switch sides in order to get him to Camelot in this episode, but I was three thirds resignedly prepared for it to be handled as a ruse from the get go with him as the new Agrivaine. If they'd only give him scenes with Merlin this could still be the case (Mordred has no reason to tell Merlin the truth, he could be lying all the way), but instead we get the lengthy scene with Morgana where the change from Mordred being glad to be with her again to increasingly disturbed goes unnoticed by Morgana but not the audience. The clincher, though, is the Not!Roswell Alien telling Merlin that Arthur is his own bane and worst enemy. (Mark: not Morgana, not Mordred.) In many though not all versions Arthur's flaws are indeed crucial to bringing down his own creation. Now obviousy in the Merlinverse Mordred is not Arthur's son by his sister (because No Actual Incest On Family TV as the show's viewers declared), but he has a mystical-emotional connection to both Morgana and Arthur (who was the first to hear Mordred's voice and name at the end of the episode introducing the character, and here in this episode the sparing of each other's lives at different points comes with the same lengthy exchange of looks). Additionally Mordred as the druid boy who almost got killed but saved at the last minute by Arthur is paralleled/contrast with the druid boy who did get killed from Herald of a New Age (and the backstory other children, which associates the dark version of the tale where Arthur kills various other children in order to kill his bastard but doesn't manage the last). So if we get a Mordred who genuinenly feels drawn to Arthur as he does to Morgana, as opposed to plotting Arthur's downfall from the start, but who then does become Arthur's enemy because of Arthur's own too little too late magic policies, this would downright fulfill Aristoteles' demands for a tragedy (hero brought down by a combination of his own faults and circumstance). We shall see.
Mind you: the show's titular hero, unfortunately, is still mostly reacting to stuff and not making progress, either upwards or downwards, with the character development. Merlin's most interesting moment was the sequence starting with him seeing Aithusa (complete with dawning realisation of the implication), and afterwards his scene with the little dragon. Aithusa being unable to speak (as opposed to Kilgarrah) is an interesting storytelling choice; Merlin assumes this was done to Aithusa by a third party, but given the harmonious state of Aithusa-Morgana relationships shown to the audience both before and after, I doubt it was her, so there must be another reason. I do hope for a "what the hell?" scene between Kilgarrah and Merlin in the next ep, though. Otherwise, Merlin continues his uneasiness and distrust with Mordred but doesn't argue otherwise when Mordred points out their similarities; by letting adult!Mordred even have the same hair cut as Merlin and about the same height, the show emphasizes this even visually. (On a more flippant note, Mordred getting knighted at the end of the episode also underlines Merlin's lack of promotion chez Camelot again. The producers really love him in his servant's outfit, don't they.) It occurs to me that Mordred more than once has been played as a might-have-been - Merlin if he'd been raised not by Hunith but by other magic users, and then on the run instead of undercover at a place of power; like Merlin, he seems to have had magical abilities from birth (as opposed to mastering them much later, as Morgana did), so Mordred coming to the opposite conclusion to Merlin about Arthur eventually could be a road not taken as well.
Speaking of Arthur: in good form this week, with the chit-chat with Merlin not slapsticky jarring but feeling comfortably friendly, still refusing to hate on Morgana (which frustrates her to no end), getting himself out of captivity like a pro (which by now he is), with the knights following suit once he provided them with the first sword. The not killing of Mordred mid episode could simply be because Arthur isn't into killing for killing's sake and as he points out to Merlin, they had escaped already, or it could additionally be motivated by the memory of child!Mordred (and the children whose deaths he did cause). Either way, the show does its parallels and contrasts with Arthur and Morgana again; contrasts, obviously, with Morgana early on when getting the news of Sefa simply telling her ally that his daughter won't die in vein but making no move to help her while Arthur risks all to rescue his knights (one reason why Morgana really makes a bad leader is that she doesn't do loyalty except to a very very few - Morgause and previously Mordred, now arguably also Aithusa - but doesn't see herself obliged to anyone else, something that was true of Morgana long before she left Camelot, with ep 2.03. where she reacts to the news that Uther is executing people for her supposed abduction with basically "not my problem"), but also parallels because Arthur continues to not see (or see and wrongly attribute the reasons) the distress in Merlin as Morgana misjudges the reactions of Mordred, not to mention of course that he continues to uphold an unjust law and she continues to see anyone but herself in need of change. And let's not forget Morgana when hearing her ally repeatedly declare that all the Pendragons would die completely ignores the fact she claimed that name for herself four years ago. (Not to mention, as I said in the beginning, that her vision gives her the place of the red dragon to Aithusa's white one.)
Lastly: I didn't think it possible, but the way the entire Mordred and Morgana sequence played out actually made me buy the fact Mordred didn't tell Morgana the truth about Merlin. Not just because he's increasingly disturbed by how out of balance she is but also because it's valuable information and something he can use instead of squandering it all at once.
