Merlin “The Coming Of Arthur Part 2”

Wait…are we finally getting, like, actual Arthurian legends?

Woo hoo!

I mean, we got a lot of stuff going on here.  Arthur, Gwaine, Elyan, Gaius, and Merlin are hiding out in a cave.  Morgana is trying to make the Knights of Camelot, specifically Sir Leon, pledge their loyalty to her because…wait, why?  She has an immortal army.  Why does she need, like, another six guys?

And why does she think shooting crossbows into the crowd will change their minds?

And why did she think Gwen was being loyal?

At least she figured out Gwen wasn’t loyal to her, and then she and Morgause fed Gwen a potion that…allowed them to follow her after she used her father’s blacksmithing skills to release Leon from the dungeons.

So, OK, immortal soldiers are coming for Arthur and Co.  Sure, Leon and Gwen are there and that…means two more people against hundreds or thousands of men or something along those lines.  And there is one thing that can destroy one of these immortals:  a sword forged from dragonfire.

Wait, that’s what Excalibur was made from!

And Merlin’s…uh, girlfriend…Freya contacts him through some spilled magic water to tell him he can have it back since he tossed it in a lake, and the Great Dragon even gives him a ride.

So, yeah, Merlin has Excalibur, so he gives it to Arthur, right?  Arthur is the great swordsman, right?

Nah, he’ll hold onto it himself.  And he knows enough to make bad guys explode when prodded.

And he also called Lancelot for help.  Lancelot, the only guy besides Gaius who knows Merlin’s secret.  And Lancelot brought his big, muscular friend Dickon Tarly…I mean Percival.  They block a road with rocks, and our heroes flee to an abandoned castle where there’s…holy crap, the Round Table!

Arthur’s new plan now is to bust into Camelot and save his father and the knights somehow.  If someone can tip over the Cup of Life, that would instantly kill all the immortals.

That’s a lot of potential corpses.

Anyway, Merlin and Lancelot volunteer to go take care of the Cup while the others rescue Uther.

By the by, I know we’re supposed to think Morgana is evil, but when she confronts Uther, and he points out she killed innocent people, she responds that he did too.

Yes,  Yes, he did.  He’s a bad dude.

Oh, and Arthur knights all the guys with him except for Merlin, Gaius, and Leon, and at least in the case of one of those guys it was because he was already a knight.

OK, so, things go down.  Lancelot and Merlin get to the Cup,  Lancelot is injured.  Arthur and the others do manage to get the other knights out, and even unlock Uther’s cell, but he’s kinda…catatonic.

So, it all comes down to Merlin, since it’s his name in the title of the show, and all he has to do is tip the Cup with Excalibur…wait, why does he need to use the sword to do that?  Never mind.  Morgause tries to stop him, but then Gaius shows up and casts the one spell he knows, allowing Merlin to tip the Cup.  The immortals all explode.  Morgause is hurt.  Morgana shows up and causes a large explosion, so she’s probably a stronger witch than she was before, and then the sisters disappear.

So, everyone ended up helping out…except for Gwen, I suppose.  But she gets to make out with Arthur now.  And since Uther is just sitting there, it looks like Arthur may be king very soon.

So, yeah, that was something big and cool and neat.

And then it ends when Merlin keeps a promise he made to the Dragon and sinks Excalibur into a stone.

So, we’re back to monsters of the week in Series Four, right?