Merlin 5.05 The Disir

[selenak]

I was tempted to summ up this one with "Merlin causes the downfall of Camelot", though he's of course not the only one. But it does strike me that basically Merlin has the role that some versions of the myth give to Guenevere and Lancelot; triggering the end of the kingdom not by malice but with their passion. In Merlin's case, his loyalty to Arthur, which blinds him to the greater good. Arthur isn't the only one given a last chance here: Merlin has the ideal possibility to end the banishment of magic in Camelot, and decides against it because he believes it will mean Arthur's death, realising too late these were never the alternatives. Though even if they were, he'd have made the wrong choice; ironically enough Arthur, who makes his share of mistakes, doesn't commit this one. He, too, is put in a scenario where the apparant alternatives are the life of one friend versus the welfare of the entire realm, and where he can't offer his usual solution, substitute himself and his own life for the threatened friend, but in the end picked the safety of the realm (as he saw it).

Mind you, if Arthur had restored magic in Camelot simply to save Mordred's life it would have been very dissatisfying dramatically from a Doylist pov and from a Watsonian one also bad if he'd done it still at least half convinced it meant unleasing doom on his people; but had Merlin used the chance he'd been given to finally come clean and plead magic's cause on an open basis, he might have done it out of conviction.

A parallel occured to me while watching, between Merlin and mid s3 - 5 of Angel Wesley: a character by now so used to seeing himself as "the one who makes the tough/morally ambiguous/dark choices" that are painful to him so others can benefit that he can't see anymore there are alternatives. In this episode, Merlin as he has in the first Mordred episode consults both Gaius and Kilgarrah and listens to Kilgarrah advising the ruthless course (btw this brings Kilgarrah back to embodying the dark side of Merlin and the advisor of doom, also something he first did in The Beginning of the End), instead of Gaius who sensibly and not for the first time points out the danger of being guided by future visions instead of the present. Seriously: in this show nothing good ever comes of acting on a vision, for anyone. Including and especially Morgana. You almost invariably end up creating the very thing you fear. Though rarely with such final damnation as here. When Gaius asks "what happened to the young boy who came into my chambers?" and Merlin says "he grew up, and learned the meaning of duty", the problem is that he didn't, actually; or duty only defined as personal loyalty and love. Of course, ignoring personal loyalty and love is just as wrong (the show presented several such scenarios as well, at the latest last season when Agrivaine almost persuaded Arthur into giving up Gwen for the supposed greater good), and all too often the good of the realm can be used as a pretext for doing what you want anyway (if you're Uther Pendragon), but this episode really hammered it down that by choosing personal loyalty over the big picture, by going through with what he pulled back from at the very last moment in The Beginning of the End when still younger, taking a life because of a possible future, Merlin makes the catastrophically wrong choice and seals the tragedy.

Other observations: speaking of s1 episodes, as far as Arthur is concerned this is an interesting counterpoint to The Labyrinth of Gedref. In both cases, he has offended the old religion not least due to his arrogance and later is willing to make amends so that others won't (continue to) pay the price for it. The realisation comes a lot faster her (he's grown up, after all), but he also, as I mentioned, doesn't get the out he was given in the earlier episode; offering his own life for appeasement. Merlin thinks it's Arthur's life versus Mordreds and freedom for magic; Arthur doesn't see his own life at stake (except in the general sense of judgment being passed on him as a ruler), but the dilemma being either the death of a friend he owes his life to several times over or a radical change of law for the entire realm which could be a catastrophe - or not. In tandem with the general vicious irony of the episode, his final choice isn't made in arrogance (unicorn) or out of hurt feelings, as Arthur's previous wrong choices were (banishing Gwen last season comes to mind), but made in humility, after listening to advice and with the conviction this is for the good of the realm - and it's still, like Merlin's, catastrophically wrong.

I continue to appreciate the way the show handles Mordred instead of making him Agrivaine Mark 2. Incidentally, I wonder whether he heard Merlin refusing to heal him magically when Merlin and Gaius talked about it; but even if he hasn't, the Merlin-treating-him-as-Arthur's-death-thereby-making-him-into-it path is obvious, made made genuinenly interesting by building up the growing affection between Arthur and Mordred. (Sidenote: since the show doesn't do incest and the age gap isn't nearly large enough anyway, the fact that Arthur increasingly treats Mordred in a son fashion doesn't make logical sense but emotionally, it works for me because with the exorcising of Uther, Arthur has left the "son" category behind for good and now has to occupy the "father" position.)

This is a bit late, show, to bring in the triple goddess, but okay. Also thanks for not making the priestesses villains in any manner.