Review: Merlin 4.10: A Herald of a New Age

Sir. Elyan cares for the Tormented Spirit.

Ah, Howard. You and I are bedfellows once again. I'm sensing a pattern here. Howard Overman's Third Episodes have generally been ridiculously bad, while his tenth episodes have been brilliant and revolutionary. This week set the pattern down, and Overman used his idiosyncratic skill with characterisation to make the episode worthwhile. While initially cynical, I found myself loving it by the climax for an episode that skirted around the formula and gave us something slightly more coherant than usual.
      After disturbing a Druidic holy site, Gwen's knighted brother Sir. Elyan found himself bashed by this week's Mind Control hammer, possessed by a tormented spirit that manifested itself as a drenched little boy. Like the usual villains on this show, the spirit wasn't after freedom or wealth, but instead wanted to... kill the king! What a surprise. As Gaius and Merlin tried to find out about the Spirit - actually telling Arthur about the spirit for the first time in the entire damn series - Sir. Elyan tried to kill Arthur in the way that every villain this series has been able to do - waltzing up to him and swinging a sword.
      With Agravaine there just to be a dick, Elyan ends up at large, fully posessed by the Spirit. With Gaius' help, Arthur realises that the Spirit is pissed because Arthur led a raid, commanded by his Dad, to kill everyone in the Druid camp. That night, he goes to the shrine and give a beautiful, heartfelt speech promising to respect the Druid's role in Camelot.

Arthur bore all.

     What this episode did that made it feel like something of a relief was to really use its characters. It's a damn shame that Elyan didn't actually get any development, seeing as he's a somewhat semi-major character, but that's the flaw with the posession plotline. While it was fleeting, there were a few references to Gwen which helped to prevent Merlin's trademark obliviousness to continuity. It was this, plus little things like Merlin actually cueing Arthur in on the Magic and Arthur actually believing his trusted servant that made this so much better on a basic level. Oh, and a strange absence of Katie McGrath. I'll just leave that there.
     I was reluctant, but this episode was a tad better than usual. It was by no means perfect, but a recovery effort from Howard Overman meant that on a fundamental level it was a lot more enjoyable. This series has enough problems on its plate already, and for now this semi-formulaic episode circumvented enough irritance to make me love it. Just stay away from that third episode spot, eh Howard?

Thanks.

P.S. No episode gallery. Not impressed. "gets to capping"
NEXT WEEK: The end of this stupid Gwen arc.