Review: Merlin 4.4: Aithusa

While it wasn't perfect, Aithusa brought the series back to an enjoyable standard, balancing the farce so intuned into this series with some serious, dark drama that tickled the series' mythos. It didn't really feel right for Arthur to be so light hearted after his father's death, but that's a problem caused by the script editors rather than the writer of this episode. And, for the first time since Series Two, this episode did something mildly significant with John Hurt's Kilgharrah (The Great Dragon), and delivered an episode that didn't feel at all formulaic.

James Callis as Julius Borden

     Stranger Julius Borden (James Callis) arrives secretly in Camelot with the sole intention of stealing the last piece of a key that will allow him to enter an ancient tomb concealing the last Dragon Egg. Gaius refuses to trust him or help him retirve the key piece, but Merlin is drawn by his role as the Dragonlord to assist, and helps Borden to steal the piece. Left on his own, Merlin joins the party sent out with Arthur to stop Borden and destroy the Dragon egg. Along the way he is teased by the rest of the knights, as well as saving their lives on about three occasions. Eventually Merlin stops Borden in a tense confrontation, saving the last Dragon Egg. Later, he consults Kilgarrah and hatches the egg, which as a White Dragon bodes well for Camelot's future.
     James Callis was brilliant as the suarve, confident rogue that devolved throughout the episode into a desperate, underhand megalomaniac. Gaius was also more active than a plank of wood, actually imbueing the character with a sense of profound wisdom and mystery than usual. Everyone else was... as normal. The farce is starting to get me down; for example, the opening scene with the confrontation between Gaius and Borden was followed by one where Merlin steals a key from Arthur by using magic to pull his trousers down. These knights bully Merlin relentlessly and instead of being endearing or a sign of how much their bonds have developed over the past three or so years, it just shows that the writing isn't all that good.

The Knights search for the egg.

      And thus the sweep of brilliance has arrived to kill my review. It's often the problem that the majority of my average Merlin review is spent complaining, and thus this week I'm in a bit of a rut because I loved it. Other than the farce, which is in this show's DNA, I suppose that... erm... there was little to no background music? But that was good... getting rid of that sweeping orchestal sprawl allowed the atmosphere to seep from the actors themselves. So... the voice acting for Kilgarrah... no, John Hurt was spot on as usual. Oh well.
     This week did suffer from problems that Merlin really, really needs to sort out to do with tone - taking the family audience and not using it as an excuse to sink into farce. However, the efforts of Colin Morgan and James Callis made this a brilliant episode that added much to the mythos and actually developed some of our characters. In terms of Merlin's future, it was a step along the right path.

Thanks.