Review: Merlin 3.13: The Coming of Arthur (Part Two)

Because that outstretched hand doesn't look silly at all.

This is it, folks. The end of Merlin's very turbulant third series, at which point we turn around and look at the mess we've left behind. The finale this week was similar in quality to it immediate predecessor, but unlike that it benefitted more from the obvious change in status quo. The episode seemed to focus most of its effort on leeching as much as it could from the original legend, leaving quite a few plot holes and some other unsavoury aspects that made the otherwise strong episode into a narrative minefield.
     Gwen, rather predictably, rebelled against Morgana's regime, to the delight of Morgause who used this to track down Arthur. Meanwhile, Merlin found that his plot device reward from the Fisher King was in fact a spectral message from his one-time love interest from a filler episode in Series Two, a girl named Freya. She turned out to be the Lady in the Lake, and Merlin (with help from The Dragon, of course) popped over to retrieve from her animated corpse the magical sword Excalibur, from back in Series One. This proved especially effective against the immortal army, whom it violently explodes into pieces of paper (a CGI nightmare.)

Medieval firing squad.

     So the Immortals attack, with Morgause in tow, and the group of stragglers (now, after some adittions, consisting off all the men in the upper right picture as well as Gaius and Gwen) have to hide in some ruins. There, they find a table. It's sort of circular... a Round Table, perhaps? Yeah, this whole ruins bit is about finally tapping into some of that juicy mythology, and so all of the able fighters are made Knights (presumably of The Round Table.) Merlin has a plan, and realises that the deus ex machina solution to their problem is to empty the blood within the Cup of Life. So, the gang bravely wade in rescue Uther (helpfully too weak to stay as King for long) and Merlin (with help from Gaius) kills Morgause and saves the day. He then takes the most powerful sword in existance and, I dunno, sticks it in a rock. A Sword in a Stone. It'll never catch on.
     Because of the level of mythological wow, the solution felt very rushed. This is supposed to be the resolution to an hour and a half's worth of drama, and it consisted of knocking a cup over. It also fell into a lot of pits already well dug by fantasy - army of immortals invade a castle using a magic cup and are defeated by a sourcerer and his entourage, one of whom is wielding a magical sword. It made good television, yeah, but there's nothing new here. Nothing exciting. The fun, innovative stuff shouldn't be kept to the sidelines - it should be the main focus of the damn story.

"smirk"

      The momentum of this episode was what really sealed the deal for me, taking a decent pace that nicely pushed along the plot without lagging or leaving Merlin's comfort zone. It was certainly nice to see some of those well-known features of Arthurian legend, but they felt more like a footnote to the main plot rather than a main feature. It's been an inconsistant year for Merlin, but I feel they managed to combine all of the great television and absolute swill from this year into 45 minutes of entertaining fantasy.

Thanks.