Leon (Rupert Young) finds Arthur's saddle had been re-stitched and this leads to Leon and the knights questioning Arthur's steward Tyr Seward (John Bradley). Well he's just an extra, as we know so he'll be disposed of pretty quickly. A search of his house leads to Percival (Tom Hopper) locating the red twine and Tyr is arrested. Of course he'd have twine at home, he looks after the saddles and horses doesn't he?! Questioned by Arthur, he claims he didn't do it and pleads his innocence only to fall on deaf ears. He refuses to tell Arthur who may have put him up to it, or more importantly who actually did the dirty deed. No prizes for guessing who is actually was, er, someone by the name of Gwen.
Arthur doesn't believe he had the intelligence to act alone, has no choice but to sentence him to death for treason. Merlin tries to plead his case but Arthur resorts to the laws of Camelot, even reluctantly, as Gwen once did. Of course no one has noticed that Gwen is different, surely she would have wanted Tyr's life to be spared and would have accused Arthur of acting hastily. Yet there's no chance of that, as she is the one who is behind it.
Merlin brings Tyr food and questions him, eventually Tyr says he was threatened his mother would be killed so he can't say who it was. He saw someone when he was in the stable. Merlin having to tell Arthur in front of Gwen, prompting her to talk Arthur out of confronting Tyr until the morning. She can then take care of the loose end and stabs him to death, without so much as a ruffle of her hair extensions! Arthur blames himself when Tyr's DB is found so he should have questioned him sooner.
Merlin suspects Gwen has changed and tells Gaius (Richard Wilson) about this change who puts it down to her losing Elyan, her only family. Merlin thinks it's more and can't put his finger on it. Gwen takes a stroll to the woods to meet Morgana (Katie McGrath) and breaks the bad news that Arthur is alive, but she's taken care of the only witness who saw her mess with Arthur's saddle. Well Gwen's been busy, managing to find the time to plant the twine at Tyr's house. Gwen is almost caught by Gwaine (Eoin Macken) as the two scarper, Gwaine gives chase and Morgana throws him off his horse using magic. Did you see Gwen's hood fall on and off again in several shots whilst she was running?
Gwen arrives back at the castle to be met by Merlin and he tells her of the patrol being ambushed in the woods. Arthur sees that Gwaine is okay and he and Merlin speak about Arthur and his life being in danger. Gwaine must look after him closely, all the while Gwen listening to them in secret. Arthur sends out Gaius and Merlin to search for clues in the woods and Merlin comes across a dead branch, showing the magic is at work. Surprised he didn't send the knights to do that bit of investigating as the did at Tyr's house! Also they find a rag on some twigs. Merlin searches Gwen's closet and Arthur catches him in the act, which is what I said. Oh Merlin looking for a dress to match your eyes! Ha. He tells Merlin he should be doing his laundry. Finally Merlin finds Gwen's cloak in the basket which matches the rag he found, Gaius identifying it as an expensive piece of embroidered silk.
Once again we get evidence against Gwen, yet Gaius and Merlin can do nothing with it, cos this time they'll be accusing the queen, as in the past it was Morgana and Agravaine.
Morgana buys some poison henbane from the apothecary (Tony Guilfoyle) and has to pay him double for him to keep his mouth shut. One drop of valerian will make Arthur unconscious and a drop of henbane in his ear will render him dead. Thus Gwen gets a chance to do exactly that. Having made the cloak connection, Merlin rushes to help Arthur but he's too late. The deed has been done and Gaius can't do anything for Arthur. Once again a replay of sorts of the scene with Uther last season, when Morgana ensured magic would not save Uther. Here Gaius tells him only Merlin's magic can save him. That was what Merlin also tried to do with Uther but Morgana getting the better of him cos of Agravaine spilling to her.
Before all that though, Gwen being busy once again accuses Merlin of poisoning Arthur. Of course Arthur's in no position to speak up for his loyal servant. Thus it's Merlin's turn to be thrown into prison. Morgana having told Gwen that she has to act like her wholesome self as the knights must trust her and ensure she'll be the one who will rule after Arthur's death. Which is exactly what Leon tells Gwen. First we used to get face pulling from Morgana and now we get it from Gwen, as she smirks when Gaius tells her there's no hope for Arthur. Niggle, Gwen accuses Merlin of poisoning Arthur and yet she implies he ingested it, he only drank the valerian but that wasn't the poison; yet Gaius says there's signs of a tincture near Arthur's ear. No one picked up on the mistakes she's been making. This was straight out of Hamlet, as his father was killed in this way.
Gaius helps Merlin get out by giving him his potion to turn into Dragoon and after making a fool out of the guards he manages to leave his cell. Yet he changes back too quickly and the knights give chase. Merlin, his eyes lighting up now as he uses magic, blows out all the torches and lights in Camelot. Oh look, Mordred's (Alexander Vlahos) made an appearance now that Elyan's gone and gets a line.
Merlin climbs up the building to Arthur's chamber and works his magic, eventually Arthur recovers after Merlin chants some magic over him, touching his chest. Which doesn't sound right, no it was like resusitating him, Arthur has Merlin released and tells Merlin he didn't believe it was him for a second. Also the cook confirmed his alibi, that dreaded cook who was abused by Dragoon.
Arthur: "I also told them you simply weren't bright enough to organize an assassination attempt."
The apothecary tells them it was Morgana. Merlin watches Gwen and she him. No signs of a smirk there.
Some parts of this were a repetition of what has gone before, as already mentioned, but with different characters. Such as Gwen meeting Morgana in the marketplace, Morgana once again disguised as an old woman, which is exactly what she used to do when she met Morgause. Only it was Morgause who used to disguise herself. It's good to see Gwen being so darkly evil, cos then we get an excuse to boo her and shout at the TV, ha. Would have thought Arthur would have noticed those little mannerisms of hers have changed and the way she spoke to Merlin when he caught her coming back from her 'stroll.' It wasn't normal, confident Gwen, but she seemed rather uppity and arrogant. She's a queen now, it's a wonder she's left to wander alone outside.
Also it just happened to be Gwen who found the bottles were from the apothecary and the knights all applaud her, "long live the queen." Merlin doesn't though, which is good, especially not after she tried to kill Arthur, making Merlin's task of ensuring Arthur doesn't die that much more difficult as he now has an enemy working inside Camelot. That should read, another enemy inside Camelot once more.
So the grate in the cell ceiling can be used to send stuff in, why has no one thought of that before, so probably merlin could have gotten out through there using his magic, it looked large enough. Can also be used to eavesdrop too. No signs of Aithusa either, what has Morgana done with him?
No comments:
Post a Comment