The knights and Arthur (Bradley James) come across an attacked convoy and find it to be the work of Saxons. Mordred (Alexander Vlahos) notices one in the forest and gives chase, catching up with Kara (Alexandra Dowling) someone he used to know. He lets her go as Arthur catches up to him and tells him he thought he saw someone, but Merlin (Colin Morgan) knows better. Merlin once again tells Gaius (Richard Wilson) about this and believes Mordred is up to something but Gaius wants him to give Mordred the benefit of the doubt. As they leave with medicines, Mordred enters Gaius's chamber and takes some bottles.
He finds Kara with the use of telepathy and heals her wounded leg. They speak of his role as a knight and he talks of Arthur as being good and his friend, but she doesn't agree. Mordred returns and Merlin is waiting for him, in a scene reminiscent of Gwen (Angel Coulby) when she was under Morgana's (Katie McGrath) spell and she returned after the meeting with her, Merlin was waiting in that same spot, sensing she was up to something. Mordred admits he was out helping Kara and she is one of them. He begs for Merlin's promise that he won't betray him or Kara to Arthur and Merlin hesitatingly gives his word.
Later Arthur and Merlin travel to the forest and come across the same attacked site. Arthur teaches Merlin how to track and Arthur notices the broken plant. Merlin thinks it's a deer and there is one there, but Arthur finds a shoeprint. This leads them to a cave and to Kara. She comes out of hiding, why if he didn't know anyone was there did she reveal herself? She says she doesn't want to hurt him. Then pulls out a dagger and tries to stab Arthur. He arrests her and takes her to Camelot, where she is tried and is unwilling to show remorse for her actions. She's a Druid and she believes Arthur and his father are responsible for all the misery caused to the Saxons and to those with magic.
Arthur tells her she's not on trial for her sorcery but for her betrayal and sentences her according to the law, death by hanging. Gwen was rather silent in all of this and didn't speak up to stop Arthur as she has experienced the same sort of 'judgement' and justice under Uther when he killed her father. Oh and what about the girl, Sefa, Gwen let go in episode 5.2 Arthur's Bane, no one heard from her again. Point being she had committed treason, though if it was under the encouragement of her father. Arthur tells her of her wounds and how someone helped her, someone from Camelot, but she refuses to name this person.
Mordred goes to see her and we get lots of emotion and tears from this former Druid boy who left here and grew up to fall in love. Well that was a blast from the past for him but not for us, as this Kara appeared out of nowhere just to add fuel to the fire and force Mordred to reassess his loyalty to Arthur. Oh and the guard didn't notice the tears in Mordred's eyes when he put the pot down for her.
Mordred is grateful she did not betray him to Arthur, but he will talk to his friend and get him to change his mind. He also accused Merlin of going back on his word but realizes Merlin didn't betray him, it was his own stupidity of leaving behind his footprints. Once again the knights, don't have much to do. Mordred gets on his knees and confesses to Arthur how he helped Kara, the love of his life, whom he has known since childhood. He truly believes he can help her change if he spares her, but Arthur is adamant he can't change his mind. Even Merlin tries to persuade him but he refuses.
Merlin confronts Mordred who now knows Merlin didn't tell Arthur where to find her but he will escape with her. He wants Merlin to keep his word and not tell. However he tells Gaius this is not something he can do. Merlin tells Arthur and when they arrive at the cell, they're too late. Kara meanwhile stabs a guard as he is just a soldier of Camelot, well what was Mordred then. Mordred is genuinely shocked she has done something like that. Alarm bells ring out and they get to the forest but the others catch them up. Arthur telling Gwaine (Eoin Macken)and Leon (Rupert Young) to put all friendship with Mordred aside when Leon asks if Arthur wants them caught alive.
Kara attempts to persuade Mordred to use magic and kill them but he doesn't. He aims to plead with Arthur to let them go but he doesn't. Mordred looks as if he's about to relent and turn to magic when Percival (Tom Hopper) knocks him out from behind. The two now find themselves in cells. Merlin one again tries to be the voice of reason and convince Arthur to change his mind but he can't.
The scene where Mordred asks for Arthur's forgiveness was compelling and poignant as Arthur believes him completely, thinking he's come to his senses, but how can he when it involves the woman he loves, even if she is bad. Arthur would do anything for Gwen as we have seen so many times. he says the same to Mordred: "You know there's nothing I wouldn't do for you." Oh and lots of soppy romantic music in this episode too, ha.
Leon takes Kara before Arthur but she still refuses to repent and would do it over again. Arthur has no choice but to carry the sentence out and Mordred uses magic to shake the objects outside his cell and his "nooooo" reaches out to blow the cell door down. He escapes and heads straight for Morgana. This time he wants to help her, though eh tried to kill her last time and does this by betraying Merlin, who kept his word and did not betray him, no matter how much he wanted to speak out against Mordred, well that's what you get for listening and trying to do the right thing. Mordred tells her about the man she is looking for being inside Camelot and how Emrys is really Merlin. Ooh secret's out!!
It had to come anyway since we know this is the final series of Merlin, but Morgana the useless sorceress couldn't work that out for herself, it took betrayal from Mordred for this to happen. First thing Morgana asks when Mordred arrived there is about Arthur's death. Arthur blames himself for trusting Mordred to begin with and Merlin can only try to assert it wasn't his fault, no Merlin should have spoken out as this episode leads us to the inevitable battle of Camelot: between Merlin and Morgana and Arthur and Mordred. How the trouble began all for the love of a woman! The episode was cleverly played and written since in the early part we side with Mordred, even if we know Kara isn't any good for him and nothing good will come from their meeting as Merlin waits for Mordred to put a foot wrong. Mordred: "Everything I do, you think the worst."
Merlin doesn't, not until Kara reveals her true colours but even this doesn't perturb Mordred as he still wants to save her. Love is blind and he asks Merlin if he wouldn't do the same for the woman he loves. Merlin has also lost his love, Freya through fate and circumstances but did not turn to betrayal. Merlin telling her, "I don't think you realize how special you are." She became the lady of the Lake but she wasn't outright bad to begin with.
As we get several references to Arthur not being any better than Uther, yet Merlin still holds out hope that things will change. He even had Mordred believing this until now. Yet Kara speaks out of the atrocities performed by Uther, not Arthur who has not done anything like that. Her mentions are of the past and doesn't look to the present or the future that's how much she's set in her ways and the hatred just eats at her.
Merlin mentions the knight's bond here but clearly it means nothing to Mordred and especially not when a woman is involved. If she was his childhood sweetheart and the love of his life, how come he hasn't seen her or been in touch with her until now, conveniently. Once again the cast, specifically Colin, Bradley and Alexander were excellent in their respective roles. Mordred keeping his emotions to himself and not revealing much at all, except to Kara. He's not overly emotional either when he begs Arthur for her life but you can tell the pain is there. Merlin is caught between the two as usual and try as he might he can't help stop the impending doom to come.
Mordred was ambiguous in his loyalty right until the last moment, throughout all this time he was loyal to Arthur, one of the knights of the Round Table and up to that point Merlin didn't have anything to fear, though he was weary. But as it was bound to happen, Merlin is finally proved right in not trusting Mordred as he does the very thing he said he would not. It's a shame the show got to find its brilliance and sense of character in the final series since after getting to this high, the show will be now more. Yet at least there's plenty to come in the final two episodes!
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