Disclosure: I fell asleep watching this episode last night, and then spent the entire day trying to watch it but getting interrupted and distracted. My orginal notes were lost/ deleted by tumblr, so this is a full do-over. If I sound cranky, that's why.
I love everything about this intro sequence. The slow-mo shots cutaway in time with the heartbeat, the ambient sound removed so all you hear is that heartbeat and the breathing, the swing around to the oncoming horde chasing after Arthur and Merlin, the increase in the heartbeats speed till full audio fills in as the shot's sped back up to real time and the music kicks in full of suspense and adrenaline as Arthur and Merlin absolutely book it through the same 15 feet of forest over and over 😂
No but it really is a lovely shot. I also love that they just never even bother with an explanation for why they're being chased, where they were, what they were doing, why they were there alone and without horses. Like.... ok then.
Bradley and Colin both in this shot with their mouths hanging open but there's clearly a swarm of gnats like right next to his Bradley's face and I just
As for the crystal cave itself - you telling me Morgause didn't know about it? Like I understand Alvarr but Morgause?? Kind of makes the crystal of neahtid seem a lot less important than it was made out to be.
Ppl hate Arthur for being mean to Merlin but Merlin seems to give as good as he gets to me. Not *just* in retaliation, either, but like even this scene he's just being rude because he's moody over the cave - Arthur doesn't even actually deserve it here. Not that I'm saying Merlin isn't justified, he 1000% is. I just really don't see anything abusive in their dynamic.
This entire episode is just Merlin entering rooms
They made Arthur a new crown and he still looks like a child playing dress up in it
The shot of Arthur holding Gwen while she sobbed was the most awkward thing ever. Gwen didn't seem to know what to do with her hands and Arthur looked like he's got no idea how to hug a person. Idk if it was deliberately awkward to signify the awkwardness of THEIR situation, or if it was just a shot they didn't get a better take of.
"Merlin: Have You Learned Nothing?!" Sundays on BBC One*
*I have no idea what day or channel this series aired on, I just think that line from Kilgharrah nicely fits as a tagline for the series.
FTR I think Merlin commanding the dragon to give him the power to heal Morgana after he's explicitly refused to do so IS a gross abuse of his power.
Morgana hears Uther say he's her father but she doesn't hear Merlin speaking that enchantment to save her 👌
I still don't understand why Merlin is so desperate to keep Uther alive. I think the party line is, "don't let Uther get killed by a sorcerer because Arthur will hate magic so much he'll be as bad as Uther was" but frankly I just think that's dumb, tbh.
On I'm falling asleep shook I'm gonna call it. More tomorrow.
I actually did fall asleep just before the end of this episode (again) but the music jolted me awake enough to be worried about losing this draft (again) so I added an incoherent sign off and posted, because that's just who I am, as a person. Now that I'm wide awake at 3am I'm just going to polish off this post properly, because I never got to the main point of it: the plot device.
I do appreciate that Merlin is self aware enough to realize he shouldn't be given messages of the future. A big part of this show is old magic beings telling Merlin prophesies about himself, things that amount to him being told the future and then working to either prevent or encourage it. The future-telling crystals are really just a neat plot device to get Merlin into position to prevent a thing from happening. In this case, he's trying to prevent Morgana from killing Uther. Aside from that though, the story here is really about the choices Merlin makes in order to prevent the future from happening, and how they actually contribute to the future happening rather than preventing it, as though it were inevitable. This really ties in to the Mordred story, and Morgana's, and honestly just overall Merlin and Arthur's.
It's a really big, sort of heady theme, the way that future knowledge shapes Merlin's choices and the effect on those choices could have on his character when they're at odds with who he is as a person. The way Merlin is manipulated by prophecy is a really big thing within the series, and the events of this episode both foreshadow events to come, and reinforces the defiance of prophesy that we've already seen from Merlin. It's much more important thematically than in terms of the specific events of the episode.
