Episode II.IX – The Lady of the Lake
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7th July 2022 @ 7:54 am
Hello there! I may be a fews years too late but just wanna say that I’m really enjoying this podcast! It’s so interesting to listen to the deeper discussion on the show and learn/notice things I hadn’t before. It’s currently my favourite show and latest obsession, I’d marry Arthur (the shiniest thing to ever shiny) and Merlin (the most precious!) in a heartbeat if I could. I love hearing Michelle geek out about Arthur hahah because I can definitely relate and love how Ruth notices all the minor details and gets me thinking. (I feel like this is a weird spot to be introducing myself but oh well)
Now to this episode (I only recently found your website and may at some point re-listen to the earlier episodes if the was something I wanted to say but otherwise I’ll just be commenting every now and again for the sake of it) My favourite thing about this episode has to be
1. Colin Morgan’s acting in the episode and lake scene because I ugly cried so much when watching the episode the first time and he truly has the ability to make me feel whatever he wants. Specifically the hesitation before sending the boat out and I’m also a sucker for single tears.
2. The Arthur and Merlin scenes were incredible, and everything you said about them made then so much deeper then the obvious humour and I really appreciated that 🙂
3. Merlin just being adorable, even though I’m not super into Freya and Merlin romantically I think this episode just showed Merlin being amazing in the way that he is being so caring and kind, risking so much (albeit strangely) to help someone in need. Well Merlin makes the rose I think I just cooo
7th July 2022 @ 7:58 am
I promise to not make my future messages soo long in the future lol
Love the podcast!
– (Another) Hannah
6th December 2022 @ 3:29 pm
Hi yet another Hannah! We’re collecting you, like stamps haha
you may be a few years late, but now I’m like half a year late, so I think we’re in good company together!
–1. Colin Morgan’s acting in the episode and lake scene because I ugly cried so much when watching the episode the first time and he truly has the ability to make me feel whatever he wants. Specifically the hesitation before sending the boat out and I’m also a sucker for single tears.–
100% all of the above! yes! the single tear is a thing of beauty, especially when it feels so bloody natural, as it always does with Morgan. urgh. so talented!!!
So happy to hear that you’re enjoying the podcast and welcome to the ‘would marry Arthur’ team. it’s HUGE but we all have excellent taste, meaning the uniforms are suuuper stylish! heh.
Michelle Xx
8th March 2022 @ 5:55 pm
Ok I know this is almost a whole year late, but I just wanted to make a comment for… idk, reasons.
At the risk of being obnoxious and unnecessary by making this comment, I will say I think I give the writers of Merlin less credit than you do re: the idea that Merlin’s draw to/relationship with Freya is less romance and more his wanting to make up for his “monstrous” actions from the previous episodes.
When I watch these episodes it sometimes feels like they’re made independently of each other, and are made so that you could watch them out of order without reference to the other episodes preceding them. Not all of them of course (I think it’s probably less like that the further seasons you go), and this might not be true at all of course – they put a “next time on Merlin” trailer at the end of each episode after all – but you guys have mentioned before some episodes/character behavior feels strange after having come after whatever previous episodes.
Going back to Merlin’s motivations/feelings in this episode, I feel like him saying “monstrous” was indeed just him referring to being a magical creature, as I feel like him having this puppydog love of Freya is simply the writer’s wanting to give Merlin a love story (as well as make the origin story of the Lady in the Lake). I mean I would love to read it as you do, and tire of idea that we have to have a “Merlin gets a love story too” kind of storyline that of course is a “love in 3 days” kind of situation, but I personally am skeptical that the writers were intentionally implying that kind of nuanced reading of Merlin’s actual feelings on the matter. This is obviously not critical of your analysis – I would love to be wrong about it, and if I ever watch this episode again I’ll try to watch it with your angle in mind!
Regardless, I love love love this podcast and your (the royal “you” bc it’s easier lolol) analysis of Merlin (as both a show and a character)! It brings a lot of joy into my workdays and reignites my love for Merlin.
Thanks so much, cheers!
8th March 2022 @ 6:07 pm
Hi Fez
Not at all obnovious, don’t worry! Honestly, I think you’re probably right, if we’re looking at the cold hard facts, which is that the BBCM writer’s room wasn’t the most cohesive or well organised, and sadly don’t seem to put an awful lot of stock in overarching story development. It’s intersting that you mention that some episodes feel like they are unconnected to the one before or the one after, and almost written as standalone, and could be shuffled about… because while there isn’t cold hard factual confirmation of this, there is an awful lot of evidence that suggests that there are episodes that have been shuffled about between filming and releasing. I can’t off the top of my head remember which ones (though I know we do discuss it on the podcast, so eventually you may come across it haha) but there’s episode numbers that don’t match up with audio commentaries about those episodes. and it’s not just one person misspeaking, but I seem to remember all four mains refering to one particular episodes as a different episode, clearly suggesting that they were originally planned to be aired in a different order. and when you look at it, it totally could go either way and not make very much difference.
I think sometimes our discussion and speculation does tend to lean towards wishful thinking. Certainly I know that’s the case for me. I want things to make sense and find the magic key that unravels all the illogical bits and has them all come together to form a perfect whole. BBCM was NOT written like that, so any attempt to ‘make it all make sense’ is pretty fruitless lol but speculating around interpretation is still fun 🙂
so glad the podcast is bringing you joy tough!! thank you so much for writing in to let us know 😀
Michelle Xx
11th May 2020 @ 11:05 pm
Sorry I’m not leaving more of a comment but I’ve been listening to your podcasts while I’ve been sewing masks for hospitals/care centers so I don’t get around to writing things down as I’m listening. Just know that I’m really enjoying the podcasts!
28th May 2020 @ 10:53 am
very happy to hear our podcasts are keeping you buy while you are doing something so valuable!! Xx
22nd April 2020 @ 10:08 am
I meant the episode as a whole not Colin Morgan’s performance having issues. Sorry if that was unclear
23rd April 2020 @ 10:37 am
that was absolutely what I took from your comment, don’t worry!!
your lesson is beautiful and I think something that all of us need to bear in mind, and possibly tell ourselves on a regular basis. about our own faults and mistakes, and other peoples.
22nd April 2020 @ 10:07 am
Hi! Apologies I know this is late. I really enjoyed this episode and your commentary, and though it has many faults I agree, Colin Morgan’s performance stood out to me. The first time I watched it I cried because I really felt his joy and his heartbreak. LESSON it’s a small one but I think Freya learned at the end of her life the important lesson that even if you’ve made mistakes you’re still worthy of love and I think even if impractical it’s really sweet how special Merlin treats her.
14th April 2020 @ 3:20 pm
I really, really like listening to your podcast, I’m a huge Merlin fan and I haven’t been lucky enough to meet other Merlin fans, so listening to this podcast really makes me happy. I actually heard about this podcast from Bradly James’s Instagram live.
Lesson: Merlin learns probably a extremely hard lesson that people are going to have to die for Arthur’s destiny to come true. Even though if Freya lived it might have not changed Arthur’s destiny, if Merlin did indeed run away with Freya, Merlin wouldn’t be there to help Arthur become king, so Freya had to die in order for Merlin to stay.
Everyone else’s lessons and comments have been so great, I don’t want to sound dumb 😂
13th April 2020 @ 4:16 pm
A LESSON!
(Sorry, me again, I just thought of a lesson after replying to Mary’s comments and rethinking something I’d written)
I said that Merlin chooses Arthur over being with people of his own kind, but maybe actually he chooses against the idea of “his own kind” entirely. He thinks he and Freya are alike, but really they’re not; he isn’t like Mordred, he isn’t like Morgana, he isn’t like any of the magical people he’s met so far, and they aren’t alike to each other either. I don’t know to what extent Merlin learns this consciously, but I think the overall lesson of the episode is that magic isn’t something that binds people together inherently. Shared experience – sometimes, yes, the shared experience of being persecuted for having magic in Camelot – is what binds people together, as well as shared values and ideals and humour. Those latter things are what Merlin and Arthur share, and that’s why they belong side by side. Their friendship grows as they experience things together, good and bad, and as their influence each other on a moral level too. Merlin’s initial reaction to Morgana having magic was partly “that means she’s like me!” but here he is learning that that isn’t necessarily the case, and that not having magic doesn’t mean someone can’t understand you. Arthur understands Merlin on a human level.
14th April 2020 @ 3:20 pm
loving the all caps A LESSON! very good hahaha
13th April 2020 @ 2:10 pm
I’m so glad you guys are better and back and I think it’s quite admirable that you have got straight back on schedule and have done two IG lives as well. Not sure where you get the drive and energy but I really appreciate it!
Just before my longer comments…about Colin’s horse: I think it was named Cora not Chiara. See if that might help in your research.
Also, talking about re-using the witchfinder’s cage: is Freya wearing a more shredded version of Nimueh’s dress?
Now, about this episode: even while watching it the first time, I remember thinking that story-wise and also in terms of timing there was a lot that didn’t make sense in this episode. (How can Gaius and Merlin be talking in his room with daylight coming through the window and the next scene we get is Freya running away from the guards at night and turning into the Bastet at the stroke of midnight?) However, apart from the inconsistencies, this was probably the very first episode of Merlin that made me ugly-cry and still makes me ugly-cry every time I watch it. And, apart from the (in my opinion) most beautiful musical theme in all of Merlin, this is due to the performance during Freya’s death scene. I agree with what you said: this is the episode where everyone watching Colin Morgan suddenly perked up and thought: Wow, he and his acting talent are really something else! And going forward, without spoiling anything, the writers and producers gave him a lot more scope to showcase this which is, in my opinion, one of the driving motors that helped to mature the show over its five-year run.
Thank you for discussing Merlin and Freya’s romance at such length during your podcast. I do agree that it isn’t quite as straight-forward as, say, Arthur and Gwen. Generally, I don’t think the show does love and romance very convincingly at all. Arthur and Gwen have to romance because they are THE Arthurian legend romance but even their relationship develops at a weird pace and character motivations aren’t particularly clear or believable. Concerning Freya and Merlin, I always perceived their romance to be mainly one-sided, initiated by Merlin. This is stressed in the scene by the lake when Freya says that Merlin has saved her, made her “feel loved” and that she will repay him. That doesn’t sound like she actually reciprocated his feelings of adoration but she appreciated them and feels beholden to him for it.
I actually buy the speedy development of Merlin’s feelings for Freya not just because he might seek redemption for his betrayal of the magical community in the last episode but also because, as he says to Freya, “With you, I can be just who I am.” I think that shows how honourable, sweet and wise Merlin really is: he will not commit to a relationship unless he knows he can share everything about himself and trust the other person with his deepest secret. He believes he has found this in Freya because she has at least lived with the druids and he assumes will accept his magic. What I don’t buy, however, is that Merlin does not at any point ask Freya about her magical powers if magic is the thing they bond over!
Also, on a personal note (and please don’t hate me, Michelle), I really don’t like Freya’s and Merlin’s first kiss. She generally looks too old for him, in my opinion, and that one tear sliding down Merlin’s face is just too perfect. Instead of intensifying the sadness and beauty of the moment, it created emotional distance for me as it was so clearly a directing/ acting choice to elicit tears or sympathy in the audience. Sorry – but it was just a little too much!
Additionally, apart from Freya’s curse making no sense whatsoever, there is a disconnect between Freya’s past (very sketchily presented unfortunately) and her relationship with Merlin. In my head, Freya was just a girl, living with her family by a lake. She does not appear to have any magic or magical connection apart from her later curse, so, I assume, if she lived in Camelot, she must have grown up hearing stories of evil sorcerers and having at least a distrust of magic bred into her. When her family died, she walked through the world alone until one day a man attacked her. In my head, he tried to rape her but whatever it was, Freya clearly has had a traumatic experience with men. (Halig is just another on the list!) Then an evil sorceress cursed her so whatever her stance on magic was before, she definitely has reason to fear sorcerers now. Somehow, she ended up with the druids who, as she implies, betrayed her to Halig or at least abandoned her because they were fearful of her curse. Again, that should make her absolutely terrified of anyone with magic. Now, she is in a cage and a man appears in the middle of the night, using magic and dragging her down to a dungeon. Yes, I know, Merlin saves her and he is kind and gentle so their trust grows. But I think Freya should be a lot more terrified of him and his magic at the start than she appears to be due to her past experiences.
I’ve tried to reason that perhaps she believes herself to be a murderess and deserving of whatever bad thing might happen to her. Also, although this is never textualised, I was wondering whether she recognised Merlin as Emrys and thus trusts him immediately? She lived with the druids and so far, they have been the only ones to recognise him. Not even Nimueh or Morgause have managed that (which, considering that they are high priestesses, doesn’t make a lot of sense) and their plans have failed because they didn’t count on Merlin and his power and influence. But all this is simply conjecture as who or who doesn’t recognise Merlin as Emrys and why does not seem to follow any logical pattern.
Finally, I agree that ‘The Lady of the Lake’ is a very weird title for this episode so, just for reference, I looked up some versions of this title in other languages. Most seem to use a direct translation of it; however, in German and French, the episode is simply named ‘The Druid girl’ or ‘Merlin and the Druid girl’ which suits the story a little better, I think. But then even the title makes more sense than the fact that a random, cursed girl that died by a lakeside, somehow, without any obvious explanation, becomes the Lady of the Lake that we know from the original legend. This makes me wonder: Is it because Emrys presided over her funeral or did Freya have some innate magical power or destiny we are never told about? Personally, I think we can once again blame destiny for this!
You’ve also pointed this out but I think the amount of Arthur-Merlin scenes in this Merlin-Freya focused story is really quite significant: Even though most of them are comedic to off-set the tragedy and romance with Freya, I think we are shown so much of the two relationships to present us with the two choices that face Merlin in this episode: romance with the girl, or service/destiny/ friendship with the prince. Of course, as it turns out and as the final scene very much brings home, Merlin doesn’t actually get to make a choice in the end because destiny won’t allow him to choose anyone but Arthur. Merlin tries to make a different choice but then destiny kills his one and only love, tells him off and sends him back home to scrub Arthur’s boots. Your comment that Merlin was ‘tailor-made’ for the prince and to serve his story is, unfortunately, very true and that goes right back to Merlin being a tragic hero.
Lessons:
I think my main lesson for this episode is that Halig is the worst bounty hunter ever. 1. How did he not notice Freya’s transformation into a Bastet during the nights she spend in his cage before they came to Camelot? There is a lot of screaming and noise involved so either Halig has the deepest sleep ever and always goes to bed before midnight like a good boy, or we must assume that he has spend the last few nights sleeping in a tavern while leaving his magical bounty unwatched and unguarded outside in a cage. He clearly does so when he arrives at the Rising Sun without thinking that, possibly, Freya could magic her way out of the chains and cage. But if the tavern theory is correct, how did no one else notice?! The only other semi-plausible theory I have is that Halig DOES know about Freya’s curse but won’t give that away to Uther because he’s hoping to use that as a bargaining tool to get more money for her. 2. When Halig follows Merlin down into the underground passages, he gives up way too quickly, especially considering that the entire ground is soft sand and footprints should be clearly visible. Of course, Merlin might have obscured their tracks but I watched the scene twice and Halig doesn’t even look on the ground for clues. He’s a terrible bounty hunter!
Final lesson is about love and its effect on Merlin: it basically makes him so terribly ineffective and silly: he steals Arthur’s food and Morgana’s dress instead of going for any of the more rational options. Also, stealing Arthur’s food makes even less sense when Merlin declares later on that Freya can wish for anything she likes with the massive loaf of bread he brought. This means he at least believes he can make food with magic – so, why didn’t he go for that in the first place? Or, is it the worst excuse in the world in order to ‘fail’ and present his love with a flower? Anyway, I think we’re learning that love makes Merlin adorable but is ultimately very bad for him as it makes him reckless, irrational and ineffective.
13th April 2020 @ 3:37 pm
I definitely agree with you about Freya’s attitude to magic being a little strange – I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it really does seem odd that, if she wasn’t born with any magic and then suffered harm at the hands of magical people, she wouldn’t scream or run away as soon as Merlin used magic. I can only assume that she spent at least some time with the druids before they kicked her out (and so saw magic being used for good, and perhaps there were druids who opposed her being kicked out and of whom she has fonder memories?) and that her gratititude and surprise at someone saving her life overrode the fear of the means he used to save her? She doesn’t seem to trust him all that much to start with, but that should probably have lasted a bit longer if she was raised in the same magic-hating world as the rest of Camelot… unless she wasn’t raised in/anywhere near Camelot? She could have been raised in a far off kingdom with no laws against it? But if that’s the case it wasn’t made clear…
Also, your views on love/romance in the show really ring true for me too. I don’t like romance in general, so I admit my bias there, but still… I love Arthur and Gwen as characters, but I never found that the show successfully made me care about their relationship, particularly. Merlin and Freya’s kiss was entirely neutral to me: I didn’t dislike it, exactly, as you did, it just didn’t do anything for me either way. I like that the show doesn’t focus much on romance, personally, but if they’re going to have romantic relationships then we need to really care about them, and with Arthur/Gwen especially I don’t think it lands all the time.
13th April 2020 @ 11:15 pm
I think I agree that I don’t care as much about Arthur and Gwen’s relationship. Possibly, this is simply because I KNOW they will end up together and although the writers keep up the will-they-won’t-they and ‘look at all these terrible obstacles in their way’ farce for the next three years (cue the next episode), it often feels very half-hearted because even they know that we know and the only threat to the Arwen relationship (Lancelot) is, as we have observed before, very swiftly removed each time he could possibly disrupt anything. I also think that the audience tire a little bit of their relationship because it is dragged out for so long and even towards the end of (spoilers!) season 4, they still somehow half-believe that they can make us believe that Arthur won’t end up with Gwen, only to immediately go back on decisions, sometimes within the SAME episode! At those points, I definitely told my TV to just hurry up and get them married already because their relationship is foretold and destinied just as the golden age of Albion and magic users being free is predestined for Merlin and Arthur…Oh wait…
All that being said, the reason I do care about Arthur and Gwen’s relationship is pretty much rooted in the performances of Angel Coulby and Bradley James whenever they have a scene together. Some particular scenes in later seasons immediately come to mind where, although I don’t really like the long-term development of their romance, I care for these two people and their feelings in the scene or the moment because Bradley and Angel are wonderful and brilliant and manage to breathe life and emotion into such an old tale.
In terms of Freya, I just find it deplorable that we are not given any specific background history – although we do know about the wildflowers growing near her home in the summer. Wrong priorities, perhaps? I would assume that she is from somewhere in Camelot as Halig seems so well-known to Uther, so he has to be quite a frequent supplier of ‘bounty’ at court, meaning he wouldn’t have the time to travel far into other people’s kingdoms and find random magic users, especially since Freya seems to have been betrayed to him. So, I don’t think he looked for her necessarily but picked her up on the way, must have been close enough to Camelot though not to pick up more magical people as he would have on a longer journey back to Uther. Anyway, even if Freya was not born in Camelot, being cursed by a sorceress to transform into a murderous beast every night would definitely put people with magic on the top of my ‘avoid at all costs’ list!
Re your reply to my reply about Hunith: You remembered correctly about the campfire dragon scene. Hunith does smile and she seems to be loving Merling for who he is – doesn’t mean she isn’t afraid for him and cautioning him against people who do not know and love him. So, while I don’t think Hunith ever meant to imply that ‘special’ meant something abnormal or monstrous, Merlin would have read her protectiveness of him and his secret as such. Perhaps he even hated himself simply for causing her to worry which might have made his move to Camelot easier for him as he didn’t want her to constantly fret about him.
On the other hand, Hunith, in ‘The Moment of Truth” also encourages Merlin to trust Arthur, saying that he likes him and is protecting Ealdor for Merlin. She also doesn’t believe that Arthur would have Merlin killed if he knew of his magic even before Merlin does so himself. (Then later she goes and tells Merlin that she has ruined everything for him, because he plans to use magic in the fight against Kanen and Arthur will find out amd he can’t – Hunith seems a little conflicted…which is understandable, I guess.)
Then at the end of the episode, she is encouraging Merlin once again to stick with Arthur in Camelot (and, clearly, to continue living a lie), saying that he is so proud of him. Again…if we knew more about this, it might feed into your question about how proud Hunith might have felt of Merlin throughout his life. Is it only now, in connection with Arthur and in following this new-found destiny, that Merlin notices his mother taking pride in him and his abilities?
Also, I love your lesson: I think while this show is about magic and knightly virtues and adventure and heroes and villains and all this kind of good stuff, I think it was such a hit because at its deepest level, it stresses everybody’s humanity and, in many ways, their shared human experience, as the bond everyone shares and the inborn human dignity and value everyone possesses no matter whether they are king or peasant, magic or non-magic . I think, in considering the shows exploration of people’s motivations, circumstances and emotional development, it might even be said to stress this basic humanity in many of its more successful villains.
Also, if we say that Merlin ultimately chooses Arthur the person even over Arthur the king, certainly over Camelot or magic’s cause, then it is because Arthur sees and values the human and friend in Merlin, marking this as more important to him than being valued for his magic. So, basically, Merlin chooses Arthur because he doesn’t feel like a monster around him. Whether that monstrosity resides in his magical ability or his low status as a peasant/ servant is, in this case, somehow immaterial.
14th April 2020 @ 4:31 pm
Yeah, the development of Arthur and Gwen’s relationship definitely dragged considering that most of the audience already know they’ll get together (though the show doesn’t have a great track record of delivering on promises, even destined ones, as you said :P) But their performances are absolutely what holds it together.
Yes, that’s a good point about Freya needing to live relatively near Camelot for Halig capturing her to make sense – now I think about it, he can’t have found her far from there because he surely would have seen her transform into the Bastet at some point if he’d travelled for more than a night with her.
It’s kind of a weird failure to worldbuild effectively (/evidence of a lack of forethought and multiple different writers who just write whatever works for their individual episodes) that the bounty hunters aren’t mentioned in previous episodes (Gaius should really have warned Merlin that they existed!) and as far as I remember they don’t feature later. Same with the Witchfinder actually – why isn’t Merlin constantly afraid that another bounty hunter or witchfinder will come to Camelot? Why doesn’t Gaius warn him “be careful, don’t forget that the bounty hunters frequent these parts?” …
Hunith definitely seems conflicted, and that’s understandable as you said. I guess after seeing Arthur interact with Merlin she begins to be less fearful for him? And after Merlin’s been gone for a while she’s likely to have missed him and therefore to express her pride in him more readily, versus as a reckless kid when maybe every day she seemed to have to tell him “stop doing that, you’ll get us both killed.” Hunith may well have been proud of Merlin all his life and expressed that to him, but as a kid all you remember are the times your parent/s told you what not to do and seemed angry 😛 and a parent raising their voice out of worry can sound to a child like anger, so… yeah. I can see where a disconnect would form, and where Merlin may develop shame around his magic.
And YES exactly, the show repeatedly shows Merlin putting human dignity and feeling over destiny – as opposed to the older sources for the stories, at least what I’ve read. Like, Kilgarrah will tell him to let someone die or get hurt because it’s destined, and Merlin utterly rejects that, even when it means acting in a way that benefits a ‘villain’ or future villain. I was reading something today about the pre-medieval role of Merlin’s prophecies as a ritual that lends divine authority to the succession of kings – it gets reflected in the legends as a whole with the prophecies of Arthur’s birth, that he is the divinely rightful king because he’s the one who can pull the sword from the stone and all that, I mean it’s a mythologised way to say “god says this dude should be king so stop fighting” which is what maintained order, in a sense. And our Merlin totally rejects all of that – he uses the prophecies about Arthur from the dragon etc to help Arthur where necessary but his belief in Arthur as a ruler comes from what he sees in Arthur as a person. And Merlin himself is at his best when he’s being himself as a person, not as a tool of destiny (which is how the dragon wants him to see himself, I think). And like you said it’s all because Merlin and Arthur value each other as humans, as friends – if the roles were reversed they’d care about each other just the same. Merlin doesn’t put much stock in divine kingship and birthright but he wants Arthur to rule anyway because Arthur’s a good person, and Arthur doesn’t know about Merlin’s magic but wants him around anyway and sees him as valuable without the one thing others in Merlin’s life see as his ‘useful’ trait. Oof, now I’ve made myself emotional about these dorks, oops 😛
11th April 2020 @ 1:40 pm
OK first off, the parallels between Merlin and Freya remind me of the parallels between Merlin and Mordred… Also Merlin’s sense that he has to save those who are innocent (Freya, Mordred, Gwen, Gaius) says something about him as a person, I think, both in terms of his own sense of morality and justice but also in terms of his feelings about himself – possibly Merlin harbours a certain amount of shame and guilt over his own magic and the choices he has made, and he (subconsciously?) *wants* to see himself reflected in these innocent people. It leads to his impulsivity whenever innocent people, especially those he cares about, are in danger. I’m not sure I’ve phrased that right.
This puts a different spin on the moments in the first season when Merlin asks when Arthur will see who he really is. At the time it sounded like he wanted glory and recognition – and that’s not untrue for him at that point – but in retrospect it could also be related to the need to have his magic recognised as a good thing, rather than as a shameful secret. Gaius seems to see his magic as useful, and Lancelot appreciated how useful and powerful it was when Merlin helped him slay the griffin, but Freya is the first person to say it’s *beautiful* – that feels like an important difference. When Merlin conjures the horse out of smoke in the Witchfinder episode, it feels similar – Merlin wants to experience his magic and appreciate it for its intrinsic qualities, not just to have it be useful. It’s not that he doesn’t want to be useful – he’s happy to be a servant, he wants to be helpful. it’s more like… he wants to be Arthur’s friend, not JUST his servant. He wants his magic to be a quality of him that is appreciated, rather than a useful tool. Does that make sense?
I kind of feel like that causes a nice arc for the episode to take Merlin on that starts with the potential aftermath of the previous episode: Merlin chooses Arthur, not Camelot, and the specific choice he makes, as you said, is one against magic, but also against his previous desire to be with people of his own kind.
I don’t think this is the first time he’s questioned his place in Camelot – the use of the word “monster” here parallels his first episode, for example, and as he explicitly compares himself to Freya (“it could have been me,” saying he knows how she feels, etc) I think his urge to run away with her comes in part from not feeling like he belongs anymore – the growing sense of belonging and home he had there was broken by what he felt he had to do to Arthur, and having Gaius just accept this girl’s fate breaks his connection to the place further. Merlin on some subconscious level sees an opportunity to escape Camelot without so much of the guilt that would come from ditching Gaius and Arthur; he can leave, and it’s because he’s doing a good thing, saving an innocent girl, rather than because he’s a coward. By the end of the episode, though, he’s returned to (and reinforced) his sense that regardless of whether or not he belongs in Camelot, he does belong with Arthur. Arthur uses the list of chores to signify to Merlin essentially “don’t worry, things are normal,” after he’s opened the door for conversation – he isn’t ending the conversation per se (he’s shown Merlin that he will listen if Merlin wants to talk) but he’s grounding it firmly in their usual routine. Arthur treats him as both a servant AND a friend, by being concerned for his emotional welfare (vs previous episodes where he’s saved his life) and being able to joke with and tease him. Like you said, they’re on a level with each other as humans.
The “man in a dress” joke is not my favourite, as a trans person, BUT I have to say that this was a lot less painful that other iterations in other media. It did genuinely make me laugh, and Arthur’s “I don’t care what a man does in his free time” felt real – mocking, sure, but mocking between friends. It’s like how the fat jokes are “got to keep you in shape as the leader of the knights” rather than “haha you’re going to get fat and ugly” – not perfect but much much less insulting than similarly-themed jokes in other shows. It’s just something I appreciate.
Final point: Colin’s acting. I have no words. That moment when he goes to light the boat on fire, and has to stop and try again…
13th April 2020 @ 2:40 pm
Your comments all make perfect sense! I never even considered that perhaps Freya calling Merlin’s magic ‘beautiful’ might have been the first time anyone has said that sort of thing to him. To the dragon, his magic is a tool to further Arthur’s destiny (and often the dragon’s own agenda); Nimueh and Sigan just wanted Merlin on their side because of his raw power and Gaius also sees mainly its utilitarian purpose to serve the kingdom and any frivolous magic to conjure smoke horses or complete his chores is wrong!
That makes me wonder about Merlin’s mother and how she has treated her son’s talents. It is clear that she loves him and in the first episode, when asked by Gaius what Hunith has told him about his magic, Merlin answers that she said he was ‘special’. However, from his tone of voice, his expression and also Hunith’s letter to Gaius in which she clearly states that she wishes Merlin wasn’t special, we can assume that Merlin understood that special wasn’t something that Hunith celebrated or thought beautiful. Bounty hunters and what they could mean for her son clearly terrified her, so he had to never let anyone know or see his magic. Thus, she denied him even the utilitarian side to it as he couldn’t use it to any good purpose to help the people around him. Is it mean of me to say that I think Hunith is to blame for Merlin feeling like he was a monster?
I think you are right, Merlin continually seeks to have his magic appreciated for its beauty and potential to do good for others: he shows a soft spot for the underdogs/ innocent victims of society and, as the show progresses, veers more and more towards Arthur and distances himself from the magical community, old religion and the many evils of sorcery that would simply exploit him and his gifts. Arthur’s idealism, virtues and the promise of the kingdom of Albion in which magic can be free and used for good are what he commits himself to and the final scene with Arthur in this episode is aboslutely needed to remind Merlin that although he may not have a home in Camelot or even with his guardian, he belongs with Arthur.
If Arthur’s battle cry is ‘For the love of Camelot’ then Merlin’s is ‘For Arthur and no one else’ – I feel that’s very much the theme of the development Merlin’s character undergoes throughout the series which makes it so very, very tragic and horrible and unbearable when…but we can’t talk about that yet!
And the unspeakable will be even more enhanced by Colin’s acting which, I totally agree, renders us speechless and quite often, teary-eyed!
13th April 2020 @ 3:48 pm
I have mixed feelings re Hunith in this case – isn’t there that scene in the Ealdor episode where Merlin conjures a dragon from the flame and she smiles at it? I might be misremembering, but either way, I think that her fear for him probably had a greater effect than any appreciation she had for it. It reminds me of parents whose immediate reaction to their kid coming out is the worry that life will be harder for them – like, yeah, maybe it will, but if that’s all you have to say about it then they’re going to be ashamed and scared all their lives. It’s not that Hunith’s fear is unreasonable, and I don’t think Merlin believes for a second that his mum is ashamed of him or doesn’t love him, but I also wonder to what extent he actually feels like she’s proud of him. If given the choice, Hunith would probably want a non-magical kid, and while that comes from fear not hatred it’s still a really hard thing to accept when you can’t change yourself.
And yeah I didn’t even think when I was commenting initially about Merlin’s experiences with magical people and creatures so far – I intially wasn’t sure if he was actually turning away from magic in this episode, but actually, it makes sense that he would turn away from the magical community, because there isn’t really a magical *community* per se, except the druids, but I get the impression that you can’t just ‘become’ a druid that easily. All the sorcerers he’s met so far have either been actively murderous or they were power-hungry and willing to do immoral things to get power. To them, their own magic AND Merlin’s were mere tools. His one contact with the druids (with Morgana) doesn’t really go to plan, and now he’s heard that they would kick out Freya for something she has no control over. So of course Merlin would feel like he didn’t belong with them.