Contributor: Gregg Wright
Written by Julian Jones
Directed by Justin Molotnikov
Just when I’m starting to grow more cynical than ever about “Merlin”, the show throws a curveball at me and proves that it can still surprise me. I’m still highly suspicious that the bulk of the season won’t live up to the promise found in this two-part premiere, but I find myself feeling unexpectedly pleased with the season so far. Even some of my problems with the previous episode were addressed. As always, my only worry is that the show will blatantly waste all of the potential here, as seems to happen on a regular basis.
It’s almost hard to believe, but Morgana has been the main antagonist of the show since the beginning of season 3. And I’ve always found her to be pathetically underwhelming as a villain. She stopped being interesting or believable after that year-long gap between seasons 2 and 3, where she went from three-dimensional character to mustache-twirling cliche. I was tired of villain Morgana virtually the moment she appeared. Enter Mordred.
Oh, Mordred isn’t a new character, of course. He’s been with the show since the first season, and it was obvious from the start that he was being groomed as an eventual Big Bad. But time has passed, and now Mordred has re-appeared as a young adult (now played by a new actor, of course, since Asa Butterfield is still quite young). Older Mordred is not just a better villain than Morgana. He’s a blatantly, laughably better villain than Morgana. And that’s because he’s not exactly a villain.
That dinner table scene between Mordred and Morgana marvelously makes this point. Morgana is ever the petulant whiny child; whereas Mordred is calm, calculating, unpredictable, and infinitely more dangerous than Morgana ever was. And he’s not a one-note, cardboard villain like Morgana. In fact, as I said, it’s hard to even think of him as a villain. He’s just a wild card. But he does seem to have principles. He may even be quite noble and honorable.
True, if one knows anything about Arthurian legend, then it’s pretty clear where this storyline is going. Mordred couldn’t just re-appear as a super-villain with a grudge against Camelot, because in terms of Arthurian tradition, Mordred has become synonymous with treachery. But it doesn’t matter, because the result is a much better, much more interesting character. And because is less a villain and more just a person with enigmatic goals and principles, he may well totally subvert my expectations yet again.
And as if one well-crafted villain/pseudo-villain wasn’t enough, we also get Liam Cunningham as the highly sympathetic sorcerer Ruadan. You know you have a good villain on your hands when you start to root for him over the supposed “good guys”. I’m a bit disappointed that his (successful) attempt to rescue his daughter resulted in his death. But the presence of Mordred goes a long way toward making up for that. And it seems likely that Sefa is meant to serve some purpose beyond being the method by which Ruadan was taken out.
I was glad to see that Gwen isn’t quite the cold-hearted monster that I thought she’d become. It turns out her ruthless attitude toward Sefa was just a ruse to draw in Ruadan. It’s fitting, given that Gwen has shown surprising cleverness in the past. The plan is a success, and now Gwen and Gaius know about the Druid prophecy: that one of their own will kill Arthur. Granted, it’s pretty unlikely that Arthur will actually die, but I think it’s pretty clear that the prophecy will come to pass in some form or another.
And I don’t believe for a second that what the Diamair said about Arthur’s Bane being Arthur himself means that Merlin’s vision isn’t going to come to pass. And Merlin doesn’t seem to think so either. But what it does mean is that Arthur is his own worst enemy, and he may bring a lot of what’s to come onto himself. Somehow, Mordred will lose faith in Arthur and betray him on the battlefield. Or, perhaps this betrayal will have been part of his plan from the beginning.
The writers/producers will probably find a way to quickly ruin the good thing they have going here, but I’ll allow a sliver of hope to shine in my thoughts; that the season ahead has the potential to improve on many of the show’s past faults. If this two-part premiere is anything to go by, then the writers are making great strides in the right direction. Really, the biggest problem I had this week was that Mordred didn’t actually succeed in killing Morgana. Though, I suppose I am a bit curious to see if recent developments may work toward improving the character.
Score: 8/10
