Review: Merlin 4.7: The Secret Sharer

Morgana. This picture isn't relevant.

Ah, status quo. How very much we seem to love you so. So much, in fact, that poor Julian seemed to have been struck down with amnesia this week. A lot of the events of last week were ignored profusely, and simple elements of previous episodes were retconned to reinforce points which not only didn't make sense characterisation wise but also didn't amount to anything by episode's end. Sure, it's not the usual formulaic rubbish, but this series has invented its own formula to mix in with some "old favourites".
     Morgana, intent on finding out the identity of Emrys, decides that Gaius is bezzie-mates with him and needs to be tortured. To this end she has two ancient magical monks infiltrate Camelot to kidnap him as Agravaine (who Merlin has somehow forgotten is evil since last episode) convinced Arthur through some supreme bullshittery (which we'll get to later) that Gaius was the traitor in his midst. Merlin, despite his amnesia, was the usual voice of reason, and he and Gwaine easily rode off on horses to the villain's island. Morgana and Agravaine not far behind them, Gaius spilt the beans on the Merlin/Emrys relationship to the Monk, but nothing really happened because the Monk was too respectful of Emrys' legend. Morgana found out nothing, Arthur found out nothing and nothing has changed.
      Agravaine's key point of argument was that it was Gaius who knew the wizard Dragoon (Merlin. Again.) who "killed" his father. Firstly, it wasn't Gaius who told Arthur about the sorcerer; it was Merlin. That's a key point of the episode - Merlin recommended himself, Merlin did the deed, Merlin felt guilty about it. I know that Julian Jones didn't write that episode, but he probably wrote that detail of the story - you know, because of the whole "important development" thing? And also, disregarding the point made over and over again in the episode itself that Gaius has never, ever done anything suspect, if it was as Agravaine so described, why wasn't it brought up earlier? It's been a damn month since it happened. Oh, and Gaius finally told Arthur that it was Morgana's fault that Uther died. I'm sure the Magical community will thank you for your waiting, Gaius.

Gwaine's in this episode. Little more relevant.

      Luckily, this episode was at times hilarious! Well. Luckily for me, anyway, and not for the Mr. Jones - the humour in this episode came from the farcically bad script. It almost felt like a parody: Gaius was framed for using magic using a book titled, "Magic and Spells."; Agravaine was found out by Merlin because he had a book called, "Sourcery". You might as well staple the word to their foreheads and have done with it, instead of create these laughably uncreative book titles that belong more in the Beano than on primetime TV. And then there was Morgana being laughably ignorant as the Monk hinted at the identity of Emrys while staring directly at Merlin, and then saying, "Who is it then?" In internet lingo, I lolled.
       What else is there? Nothing. This week was yet another episode where characters' actions made no sense, where nothing that happened had any long-term consequences and where we got no closer to reaching the endpoint that we as viewers so deserve. It's the midpoint of this particular arc - what would have been the perfect time to let Morgana know about Merlin's powers after a year and a half of villainhood. But we drive stagnantly on, travelling on the back of the tortoise that is Merlin.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: More Filler. Happy Days.