Review: Merlin 4.13: The Sword In The Stone (Part Two)

I hadn't expected much, but the finale of this series was absolutely brilliant. It stroked the mythology in lots of brilliant ways, the writing was smart and advanced the characters... I'm in a state of wonderment. While it all panned out in a particularly predictable way, it was incredibly enjoyable and I loved every minute. Truely this is a salve for all of my worries this season, which through sheer persistance has managed to trounce its predecessor in lots of wonderful ways.
      As Agravaine and his army followed the troupe of Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and the legendary Tristan and Isolde through the woods, Merlin used his Dragontongue to order Kilgharrah (John Hurt) to decimate Agravaine's forces. As they were stalked through a cave, Merlin hung back and used magic to kill any stragglers, including Inspector Lynley himself (I enjoyed his death perhaps a little too much). They need to head back to Camelot, but Arthur is having a confidence crisis due to comments from Tristan, and believes that he isn't the true King of Camelot.
      Merlin, in the time honoured series tradition, called Kilgharrah for advice. With no help from the Dragon, Merlin came up with the fabled Sword In The Stone tale, and gathers all of Arthur's remaining forces to watch him triumphantly remove Excalibur from the boulder Merlin stuck it in this time last year. With this confidence boost, Arthur prepares to raid Camelot. To make sure there aren't any problems, Merlin sneaks into the city (which obviously by now has the worst security in the world) and does some voodoo beneath Morgana's bed.

      The forces for Good raid Camelot easily, and in the final confrontation with Morgana she is unable to use any of her magic. As his last act, Helios offs Isolde which is treated with the appropriate sadness. Arthur and Gwen kiss and make up, and she is crowned Queen of Camelot. Finally, there's a vague cliffhanger where an injured Morgana finds Aithusa in the woods, hinting that she might have a draconic buddy next year.
     My only complaints? What didn't happen. Merlin didn't reveal his magic to anyone but Inspector Lynley, who died. Morgana didn't find out that Merlin is Emrys, which was sort of her arc this series. Hopefully this means that next series will be packed with mythology to make up for the lack of it in this series, but I know Merlin and so my hopes aren't high.
     Merlin's finale was downright awesome and despite it not progressing the general mythology as much as I would have liked, it was a brilliant 45 minutes and left me with the highest hopes for next year. Perhaps I'm just taken up in the spirit of Christmas cheer, but I really hope that next year's final ever series of Merlin will be just as good as the last three episodes of this series have been.

Thanks. Merry Christmas.