Nimueh (Michelle Ryan) may well be the "big bad" of the season, putting a face on Uther Pendragon (Anthony Head)'s fear of magic. She clearly has the power to bring destruction, and lacks any moral compunction to stop it. We also saw Uther's desperation to keep his kingdom stable, proclaiming that a cure had to be found before people turned to magic for answers. He has clearly seen far too much of the evil it can do to find any value in to good, and while, as Gaius (Richard Wilson) said, magic can be good or evil depending on the person using it, far more often it leans towards selfishness and evil.
I have to say that I find Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Gwen (Angel Coulby)'s relationship disturbing. We all know who she's going to end up with..well, actually, Guinevere has been paired with Arthur and Lancelot, as well as with Mordred, and perhaps Merlin might have attracted her attention at some point too...Regardless, knowing that Merlin and Gwen aren't going to live happily ever after together, seeing her affection for him is bizarre. His friendship for her, construed as love both by Morgana (Katie McGrath) and by Arthur (Bradley James), who prevented Merlin from confessing he was a sorcerer to protect Gwen since clearly Merlin would lie for the girl he loved, caused him to take silly risks. At least now Merlin seems to have finally realized the consequences for his easy use of magic. I hope that lesson stays with him.
The thing that amuses me the most is Merlin's inability to deal with riddles. It may simply be that he functions best when told exactly what to do (a fact that will not help him in the long run), or it may be that ever riddle prophesy he is told emphasizes that Arthur and he are linked, but every time he goes to the Dragon, he is annoyed that he doesn't get a straight answer. Though, really, as far as prophesies go, those ones aren't so complicated.
So, what are your thoughts? How much does the idea of Merlin and Gwen together weird you out?
Lol. I thought their relationship was a little strange at first too, but as you mention Guinevere isn't known for her loyalty where love is concerned. She just loves every one >_<
ReplyDeleteAbout the body count though, I agree thatit is good they add reality to it by having people actually die, but it goes to the point of reminding me of Star Trek. People die in Star Trek, but its always the people in the red shirts who you KNOW are going to die. In alot of episodes as soon as one of the knights stand out from the crowd, he's marked for death. In this episode what bothers me is that people are dying left and right but in the next episode its back to normal. With all their disasters how do they still have a population? I know why they do it, but it still seems kind of....like cheating.
I guess you aren't entirely wrong. I suppose they just aren't able to hire on many actors for multiple episode storyarcs so that they have them around a while before they kill them.
ReplyDeleteWe just have to imagine that their population is immense and that is why the deaths don't really make a dent.
But I'd rather have the knights getting killed, albeit like red shirts, than have everyone always survive, as I believe you do. Perhaps we just have to hope that a bit more consequence will be given to their passing.