Three Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: This review contains plot-spoilers for the “The Gates of Avalon” episode of Merlin.
The problem with last night’s episode of Merlin is that there were absolutely no surprises.
Morgana has a dream that Arthur is going to be enchanted by someone who will try to drown him. Okay, fine, anyone who’s ever watched a fantasy movie or TV show knows that such a vision is pretty likely to at least start to come true.
But then the visitors to the castle, Aulfric and his daughter Sophia, are immediately identified as evil (we soon also learn they’re immortals seeking to capture the soul of a prince, so they can sacrifice it to get back inside the gates of the immortal land of Avalon).
The point is, any slight tension or mystery there may have been about Arthur’s sudden love for Sophia is gone: we know there’s a plot against his life.
The rest of the episode then becomes a a totally by-the-numbers illustration of exactly what we assume at the beginning was going to happen. There’s even a scene where Gaius explains to Merlin something we, the audience, already know about Morgana — a classic, very basic writerly mistake.
Okay, there was one surprise in the episode. At the beginning of the episode, Morgana has that premonition. When Gaius ignores her, she says to Gwen, defiantly, “I’m going to have to stop it [from coming true] myself.”
And this was music to my ears, as the female characters have been completely, totally peripheral to the action of the show up until now.
So what surprised me? That Morgana still ended up being totally peripheral to the action! She didn’t “stop” anything! As usual, she merely had a scene or two where she watched all male characters on the show actually, you know, do stuff.
I’m also back to being annoyed by the show’s open-ended view of Merlin’s magic. He’s exactly as powerful as the scene, or the episode, calls for him to be. He can’t break Aulfric’s charm spell — or maybe he doesn’t even try, instead trying to talk Arthur out of it? — but later, he can summon Aulfric’s staff to him and use it to destroy both him and Sophia?
What did I like about the episode? Well, the humor was nice, with Merlin’s inability to lie ending him in the stockade again and again, being pelted by fruit. And I’m enjoying the whole Bewitched or Superman/Clark Kent element, where Merlin must pretend to be a humble little nobody even though he’s really the important person in Camelot.
But, uh, that’s pretty much all I liked about the episode.
Although, in fairness, it still wasn’t nearly as bad as last week’s episode, “A Remedy to Cure All Ills.”
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Right? I got so excited in the episode where Morgana accompanied Arthur and Merlin on their quest to kill Nimue’s monster, and that sequence when Gwen faked her way into Arthur’s prison cell, but aside from those two moments, all the powerful women so far have been evil sorceresses.
Not very progressive. But it would be cool if Morgana has a slow, involved magical awakening, like Willow did on “Buffy.”
It just seems so weird, especially since Buffy and Xena were TEN YEARS AGO.
One other good thing I would say about the episode was the special effects of the Seidh. I thought they were pretty cool looking, especially with the close up they did.
Don’t you worry, Morgana’s days of awesomeness will come. Far too slowly, I agree, but still. I have high hopes for her in Season 2.
“I’m also back to being annoyed by the show’s open-ended view of Merlin’s magic.” YES. Sure, I can wank it via the idea of Merlin being kind of clueless and/or bumbling at this point, but I shouldn’t have to. I’d like to see more of exactly what Merlin is teaching himself, or exactly what use Gaius is as a mentor, other than a provider of dubious ethical standards. If this whole show is about how Merlin becomes a great warlock, why can’t we have a little Merlin’s Continuing Magical Education montage once in a while? Too high school?