After stepping in to save a woman accused of magic, Arthur (Bradley James) is given a gift, the Horn of Cathbad and despite both Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Gaius (Richard Wilson) warning against it, uses it to contact his dead father, Uther (Anthony Stewart Head). The meeting doesn't exactly go as planned and after breaking the key rule of not looking back (nice bit of Greek mythology mashing up there), Arthur accidentally invites the unrestful spirit back to Camelot. Uther isn't exactly best pleased at how Arthur is running things and goes on a bit of rampage, sending furniture and Gwen (Angel Coulby) flying around the castle.
With the excellent two-parter that kicked off the series, Merlin could have gone rapidly downhill, just through sheer comparison to Arthur's Bane and in previous years, it probably would have done. We would have had a guest star doing an uncanny troll impression who everyone apart from Merlin believes to be a good guy. There'd be lots of sneaking about, exasperated explanations and probably an ill-conceived fart joke to top it all off. Not with this episode though thankfully as the writers decided to pitch Merlin into a good old-fashioned ghost story. Rather than the expansive storyline of the opening two-parter,
It was handled well and the budget clearly went on a lot of the special effects for the episode which benefitted greatly. Technically, the episode has been one of the strongest I've seen for the entire series and really helped to sell the ghost story aspect. There's always the risk that a floating axe can look a bit comical but the construction of those scenes was such that the tension was so great, you didn't really notice the axe flying but were trying to guess on whom it was going to land. It was also genuinely quite creepy, something that the new later time on a Saturday has allowed to happen with jump scares used for both comic and horror effects. The use of sound was particularly noteworthy in Gwen's chase scene; there was a complete absence of music allowing the visuals to create that tense atmosphere. And Uther looks damn scary in blue.
The return of Anthony Head is most welcome; his Uther was always an intriguing study of suppressed rage and paranoia, here brought to the fore in the scene with Bradley James. The theme of the episode was very much about escaping your parents' shadow and carving your own way, encapsulated in the first meeting between father and son. The balance of the scene was perfectly pitched with the seething anger of Uther matched with the reserved calm of Arthur, standing up to his father with his own beliefs. With Uther's almost-revelation just before he disappeared, does this mean we're getting closer to Arthur finding out? After all, the episode repeatedly referred to Arthur's tolerance and his compassion with the old woman at the beginning of the episode demonstrated that he might be ready to hear the truth about his closest friend.
The big confrontation though, was between Uther and Merlin in the big showdown and what a satisfying battle it was. Uther's complete and utter rejection of magic and any persecution of anyone who practised it was the reason behind Merlin's dual life so when it came to the two facing off, you just knew that magic was going to appear. Colin Morgan's performances don't tend to be of the showy variety, often acting as the foil to the other actors, but here he completely stole the scene away from Anthony Head in just a one line rebuttal to Uther's 'You are nothing but a serving boy' - 'I am much more than that'. I'm not going to lie, I cheered a bit.
It was an important development for the character, having his revenge on his would-be oppressor and Morgan did a fantastic job of conveying both the relief and vindictive joy of sharing his secret. With Uther's almost-revelation just before he disappeared, does this mean we're getting closer to Arthur finding out? After all, the episode repeatedly referred to Arthur's tolerance and his compassion with the old woman at the beginning of the episode demonstrated that he might be ready to hear the truth about his closest friend.
Both Morgan and James gave truly commendable performances this week, both excelling in the comic scenes (did I spy a Prince of Thieves reference with the spoon threat?) and the more emotional moments towards the end. Their two confrontation scenes with Uther were sublime, allowing their respective character arcs to become more apparent than before. Merlin finally gets his revenge on the King who forced him to transform his identity while Arthur realises just how cruel and vindictive Uther could be and how different from his father he actually was.
All in all, it was a pretty stonking episode of Merlin, focusing on the central pair and their respective abilities to move out of the shadows of those that oppressed them. We only got a brief look at new knight of the Round Table, Mordred this time and Percival (Tom Hopper) was the only Sir to get any major screen time after a particularly odd encounter with an axe. Next week sees the return of Morgana, who's probably still very angry.
- Becky
You can read Becky's review of Merlin - Arthur's Bane Part Two here.
Follow Becky on Twitter @beckygracelea
Or follow her blog beckygracelea.wordpress.com
No comments:
Post a Comment