Merlin “With All My Heart”

Well, we’re almost done with this entire series, so maybe it’s time to cure Evil Gwen.

Kudos to the series for going this long with the idea.

First off, we start the episode with Merlin finally telling Arthur that Gwen’s is kinda evil now.  It only takes watching Gwen hand some plans to Morgana in the woods late at night to do that.  Of course, a sniper might have come in handy then.  Morgana certainly wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention.

But then I start to wonder why Merlin didn’t say anything to Arthur before.  Knowing his wife was maybe trying to kill him could have been information he could have used.

Still, he knows now, and Gaius has a theory on what happened.  See, there’s a certain root that Morgana probably used to enchant the Queen.  Essentially, it takes out of Gwen all that is, well, Gwen, and then Morgana can fill Gwen up with some Morganaishness.  Now, there are two sorceresses knowledgeable enough on that stuff to fix the queen.  One is Morgana herself, so that one’s out.  The other is an ancient witch named the Dochraid.  She’s probably not going to be helpful either, but she’s more likely to be helpful than Morgana.

OK, question:  where did Morgana get all this knowledge from anyway?  I seem to recall the Great Dragon laughing off her power level early in the show’s run.

Well, never mind all that.  Merlin needs to use the spell that puts the actor in the old age make-up again to convince the Dochraid to help.  And that doesn’t work, so he cuts her with Excalibur, a dragon fire-forged weapon that can hurt the Dochraid.

Why does Merlin have what I thought was Arthur’s sword?  I don’t know.

Point is, there is a way to fix Gwen.  They’ll need to take her to a certain lake, summon some primal power, and have her willingly enter the waters.  They can’t carry, push, or trick her.  She has to go on her own.  That sounds simple enough.  And by that, I mean it sounds complicated because Gwen isn’t going to go anywhere willingly.

So, they drug her.

Arthur and Merlin set off, and Mordred follows because he’s the only knight with a high perception score.  Mordred following comes in handy.  First, the Dochraid gets some revenge by dropping Merlin down a chasm.  Then Arthur decides to impersonate a James Franco movie and gets his arm caught trying to get Merlin back.  Mordred pops up then.  I guess he knows how to climb rocks safely.

Next, we have Morgana attacking the party because she ain’t letting her best pawn go without a scuffle.  Merlin can tell Aithusa to go away, and then Mordred can use the standard spell for this show of simply tossing someone backwards.  Morgana is now unconscious, so it’s Merlin’s turn to pose as another old sorcerer.

Except this time, he isn’t just using the old age spell.  No, he’s using the old age spell and going out in drag because he’s a female sorcerer now.

Anyway, Arthur repeats Gwen’s response to his marriage proposal and she enters the water and everything’s good.

You know, until Mordred goes evil as everyone who knows Arthurian legend knows he eventually will.