It's time for another recap of the BBC's Merlin!
The episode opens with a work crew laboring with pick axes
in the tunnels deep beneath Camelot in the dead of night. Because the dead of
night seems like a great time for hard labor. As a side note, this whole things
seems like a terrible idea because A.) aren’t they worried about weakening the
foundation until the castle, and B.) Isn’t anyone in charge worried about them
finding the dragon down there? In case you’re wondering, the answer to both of
these questions appears to be no.
One of the workers busts through a wall and a terrible
stench is released. He continues heaving his pickaxe until he makes the hole
big enough to crawl through. Inside is a crypt – hence the smell. Meanwhile,
upstairs we see Arthur tossing and turning in that giant four poster bed while
the sounds of pickaxes are echoing from beneath the castle. He immediately
yells for Merlin, who comes running because apparently he sleeps in Arthur’s
room now? (Ow! I think Jess just cuffed me across the back of the head from MN.)
He tells Merlin to go down there and tell the workers to stop.
Meanwhile, the workers are checking out all the gold and
gems in the tomb, and one of them triggers a trap and dies. The rest of them
run screaming from the burial chamber just as Merlin makes it downstairs and finds
the body.
The next scene opens with Merlin and Gaius inspecting the
tomb when Gaius triggers the trap and almost gets hit with a small poisoned
dart, but Merlin saves him with magic. And a silver platter which falls to the
floor and Arthur and Uther nearly trip over it which prompts Arthur to bitch
about Merlin’s clumsiness. Uther is all pleased with himself because there’s
treasure to be had and orders Arthur to secure the tomb and guard it.
At the local pub, we see one of the workers heavily and
telling this weasely looking dude about the tomb. The weasely dude is the
wildling warg from Game of Thrones, by the way, but anyway, the weasel is
pumping him for information about the giant heart shaped gem that was inside
and who has the keys to get down there. It’s Arthur. Arthur has the only damn
set of keys. How is this possible? What if he loses them? What if someone
steals them? What then, Camelot?
The next morning, we see the weasely looking dude watching
while Merlin is helping Arthur onto his horse. The saddle slips right off and Arthur goes with it. The
weasely guy, or Cedric as we find out, brings Arthur’s horse back with the
saddle properly secured and confesses that he’s come to Camelot looking for
work, so Arthur hires him to be a beater on the hunt. Merlin is jealous.
While the hunting party is gathering, Gaius is doing
research on a signet ring found in the tomb and determines it to be the burial
chamber of the great sorcerer Cornelius Sigan. And he also makes notes about
some rune type letters found around the giant gem on the sarcophagus.
Back in the forest, a giant boar comes rushing through the
trees at Arthur who readies his spear. His shot glances off the boar and it
continues charging them. While everyone is freaking, Merlin slays the beast by
magically whipping a fallen spear into the side of its head, saving Arthur’s
life.
He wants to know who threw the spear and saved him. When no
one fesses up, Cedric steps forward and claims to have done it. Arthur rewards
him by giving him a position in the royal household. Merlin returns to Gaius’
chambers all morose because that cute boy at school that he has a crush on
doesn’t know he’s alive he saved Arthur’s life and someone else took the
credit. Again.
He asks Gaius what he’s doing and Gaius, in a burst of
explanatory dialogue, gives Merlin the rundown on Sigan aka The Greatest
Sorcerer Who Ever Lived. Also, he was pretty evil. Gaius goes to warn Uther
about Sigan and ask that they seal up the burial chamber and all its contents.
But Uther is all don’t be ridiculous! You warn me of dire magical shit ever
week, and I ignore you and terrible things go down and I act as if it’s a
surprise every fucking time. So, let’s go with that again. That night, Morgana dreams of a raven and
wakes up screaming. Gwen runs in to comfort her, because apparently, she’s
sleeping in Morgana’s chambers.
The next morning Merlin brings Arthur’s breakfast to him,
only to find that Cedric already brought him a bigger, better breakfast. Then
Cedric apologizes for not have had time to clean out the stable and Merlin gets
sent to do that. Meanwhile, Gaius is examining Morgana and asking about her
dream. She tells him it was about a raven – the symbol of Sigan. Instead of
offering her any real comfort, he just goes ahead and let’s her think she’s
going crazy and offers her stronger drugs. Real nice, Gaius.
While Merlin’s mucking out the stables, Cedric tosses a
smoke bomb that’s apparently filled with some sort of sleeping compound,
because Merlin falls asleep on the job and ends up passed out face first in a
pile of horse shit. Cedric sneaks in and sets all of Arthur’s horses loose. Arthur
sees the horses tear through the town and goes to the stables to confront
Merlin and finds him asleep in the manure.
He berates Merlin and is threatening to punish him, but
Cedric suggests that Arthur give him the night off because he’s exhausted and
volunteers to take on his duties for the evening. Merlin tried to point out
that Cedric is just trying to get rid of him and also calls Arthur a “clotpole” - by far my favorite insult of the entire
show.
Merlin returns to his chamber all dejected because Arthur
doesn’t trust him or see him for who he is, and Gaius cleans him up and comforts
him. Gaius warns him that Camelot is in grave peril because Sigan’s soul is in that glowing heart shaped
gem and whoever removes it from the setting will set the soul of Sigan free. That
night, as expected, Cedric steals Arthur’s keys and goes down to the tomb,
steals the gem and gets possessed by Sigan. You can tell because his eyes turn
black.
Merlin is woken from a sound sleep by the cry of a raven and
the next morning, Arthur, Gaius and Merlin discover that the heart stone is
missing from its setting. Arthur leaves, the warning bell is sounded (DRINK!)
and Merlin figures out that the only one who had access to Arthur’s keys the
night before is Cedric. He races off to warn Arthur. He tries to tell Arthur
that Cedric is possessed by an evil spirit and it goes over about as well as
you’d think it would. Arthur doesn’t believe that Camelot is in mortal danger.
Merlin attacks Cedric and a super awkward fight commences between two really
gangly guys. Finally, Arthur jumps in to stop it and has Merlin thrown in the
dungeon.
That night, accompanied by the sound of ravens cawing, the
camera pans over all the gargoyles on the castle’s parapets. Now, I could be
very, very wrong, but I don’t remember ever seeing gargoyles on the castle
before. It’s true that I might have just been distracted by Arthur in that long
leather riding coat. Look…it happens. But I really don’t recall seeing
gargoyles.
Anyhoo, we see Cedric out in the courtyard and he’s sporting
a spiffy new raven feather cape because apparently you get a wardrobe upgrade
when you get possessed by a long dead wizard. He incants a spell and all of the
gargoyles come to life and start terrorizing the villagers of Camelot, who, I’d
like to point out rarely ever seem to venture out after dark, so it’s quite odd
that they’re all going about their business now, but whatevs.
Gargoyles attack people. People panic and scream. Including
Gwen who runs back into the main courtyard while lots of other people are
fleeing the town. Uther orders that the creatures are hunting down and killed,
because, you know…that’s his answer for everything, so Arthur and his men head
out to the courtyard to battle the monsters.
Merlin hears the screaming from the dungeon and freaks out,
but not as badly as Uther who’s completely flipping shit and being irrational.
Gaius does manage to get a little “told ya so” in there, so good for him.
Arthur and the knights battle one of the gargoyles, but it has no effect.
Meanwhile, we see Gwen in a makeshift infirmary inside the castle tending to
the wounded and Gaius tells her that they need more bandages. Morgana is
helping tend to the injured, too.
Merlin, knowing that Arthur needs his help, uses magic to
blow the door off his cell. Seriously, dude. Don’t you think someone is going
to wonder about that later? One of the gargoyles in the courtyard has Arthur almost
pinned, but Gwen pulls him away from danger. They stand and the creature swoops
in again and Gwen knocks him down and lands on top of him and Arthur takes that
opportunity to flirt with her. Like you do...
She brings him to the infirmary seeing as how he’s bleeding
through his chainmail and Arthur thanks her. Uther comes in to quiz Arthur
about what’s happening outside, because god forbid he stick his royal head out
there. Gwen and Morgana wrap a bandage around the outside of the armor because
clearly they don’t understand how bandages or armor works and I’m not more
concerned than ever for the people of Camelot.
Uther decides to seal the citadel, but Arthur goes back
outside to save the people trapped on the drawbridge even though Uther forbids
it. Arthur tells him it’s his duty to Camelot and himself. Merlin is watching
this unfold and calls to Gaius discreetly saying he has to help Arthur. Gaius
tells him that the only one who can help is the dragon. And if you’ll recall,
Merlin broke up with the dragon in the last episode and vowed to never speak to
him again.
Sucks to say never. So Merlin grudgingly heads down to the
basement to talk to the dragon. The dragon is pissy, of course, but Merlin begs
for his help and he comes out. The dragon agrees to give him a spell if he promises
to free him one day. Merlin promises. The dragon breathes a super magic spell
on him and I guess it soaked into his brain.
Arthur gets separated from his men by one of the gargoyles and
he orders the knights to retreat inside the castle. Uther has a meltdown when
he realizes that Arthur is out there and has to be restrained by some of the
knights to keep him from going outside.
Merlin goes to the courtyard and finds Arthur unmoving. As a
gargoyle begins its descent, Merlin uses the nifty new spell the dragon
breathed into him and turns the gargoyle back into stone then smashes him into
rubble. Merlin runs to Arthur and makes sure he’s still alive while Cedric-Sigan
strolls out of the billowing dust.
Cedric-Sigan tries to convince Merlin to abandon Arthur and
join him, but Merlin won’t. But here’s the thing – they’re having this super
loud argument outside in the courtyard where things are all echo-y. It’s likely
that people are staring out the windows because previously they had been. Seems
like a questionable place to have a showdown. So anyway, Cedric-Sigan threatens to become
Merlin and harness his power for himself. Sigan’s soul begins to leave Cedric
who collapses to the ground. The soul winds its way up Merlin’s body and inside
him. His eyes turn black and a raven caws and we’re all worried.
Gaius comes outside and calls Merlin’s name. The way Merlin
looks at him is a little creepy and the viewer can’t help but wonder if he’s
possessed. But then he smiles and shows Gaius the heart shaped stone and it’s
glowing again. Merlin trapped Sigan’s soul back in the stone.
The tomb is walled back up with the stone inside, and Uther
lectures Gaius about how he was right all along and magic is evil. Please note:
there’s nothing in his speech about ignoring Gaius’ many warnings. Nope. Not
Uther. No way.
Arthur goes to Merlin’s chambers and admits that there was
some truth to Merlin’s accusations against Cedric. He also says that he hasn’t
forgotten that Merlin called him a clotpole. Then he dumps his armor on the
table and tells Merlin he needs to clean it. Poor Merlin doesn’t get any
appreciation in this episode either.
Okay! On to the questions!
1.
If I’d written this episode...I would have made it clear what happened to Cedric. Did he die? Escape? Get thrown in the dungeon? What?
2. The thing I loved/hated most
about this episode. In a word? Clotpole.
I hated that Uther once again, despite being proved wrong in every episode, doesn't listen to Gaius. Drives me nuts.
3. Something you’ve never noticed about
this episode before. All the damn gargoyles. (Of course, I'm still not convinced they were ever there before.)
4. Favorite Costume. Finally! A new costume! About freaking time. I just love this one. So pretty and springy. I just adore it.
5. Here is Proof of some random head canon
I’ve created. Sorry, it's another week of no real canon here – none that I’ve created, anyway.
6. What Merthur moment did Jess have the
naughtiest thoughts about? I think it's when Merlin is throwing down with Cedric over Arthur. Then when Arthur gets involved and throws Merlin in the dungeon, I'm convinced that that narrative in Jess' head involves Arthur going down to "visit" his prisoner.
7. What made Jen lose her shit (in a good or bad
way) in this episode – I'm thinking it's Uther dismissing Gaius' warnings AGAIN. Uther's an idiot.
Jess' take on the episode is
here, and Jen's is
here.
