Mark of Nimueh

Guest(s): Seb

Like the previous episode, 'The Mark of Nimueh' begins with an extremely short 'previously' trailer voiced by John Hurt.

"...rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name? Merlin."

Seb: In series four and five, he says 'young man'.

John Hurt also mentions that it's a time of magic.

Me: But it's not a time of magic.

Seb: Yeah it is.

Me: No it isn't. Magic's banned.

Seb: Good point. 

The episode starts with a woman in a scary, dark cave-thing.

Seb: She's the ultimate villain for this series.

Me: Who?

Seb: Her.

Me: Who?

Seb: Her.

Me: Yeah, but who is she?

Seb: Nimueh. But after this series, Morgana becomes the main villain.

Me: Wait... What?

Seb: Morgana's evil, you know.

Me: Really?

Meanwhile, an egg flies through some water.

Me: Finding Nemo!

Seb: In the original stories, Lancelot was evil. But you haven't met him yet... And so was Gwen.

Me: What? I can believe Morgana being evil, but Gwen?

Seb: She's not evil in this, and neither is Lancelot.

And in Camelot, a man is rubbing his face with water from a tap. Clearly, Nimueh has infected the water.

Seb: Don't drink the water, dummy!

But the man carries on drinking the water, unawares of the damage it will do.

Me: Was this made at the same time as 'The Waters of Mars'?

And we're into the opening titles. Strangely enough, as well as the normal sword-fighting scenes, the time vortex from Doctor Who's 2013 opening titles makes an appearance.

In Camelot, Merlin and Gaius are inspecting a dead-

Me: Voldemort.

-lying on the ground. They agree to take him inside.

The writer for this episode is Julian Jones.

Me: People on this show like to have names starting with 'J'.

Seb: Yes. Julian Jones, Jake Michie...

...Julian Murphy, Johnny Capps...

Seb: That's Gwen's dad. He's the blacksmith.

Me: Oh. He's not a main character, is he? 

Seb: Yeah, he's not very good. He's a main character in the penultimate episode.

Me: Oh.

Merlin and Gaius wheel the man towards Camelot. Under a medieval tarpaulin, of course. Don't want to create panic.

And then Gwen arrives.

This is going to be-

Me: Awkward.

And it does get-

Seb: Awkward.

And even more-

Me: Awkward.

And it seems that-

Me: Every conversation!

-between Merlin and Gwen is-

Me: Awkward!

Back in Gaius' room, Gaius says he's never seen something like this before...

Seb: He says that in every episode! He's never seen anything before.

Arthur arrives and tells Gaius that Uther wants to see him.

Me: Another one?

Yes, another Voldemort.

Uther and Gaius have a quick chat, and suddenly they're all in a state of panic.

Me: They rushed into this pretty quickly.

Gaius and Merlin find another victim of this mysterious illness...

Me: Was Colin Morgan in this scene twice? 

This new Voldemort duplicate does look suspiciously like Colin Morgan with a lot of make-up on.

Gaius believes that science will find the cure, so they head back up to his room with a bottle containing the contents of Colin Morgan/Voldemort's stomach.

But Arthur arrives to search the room with his guards. They're looking for evidence. 

Me: Oh no, Merlin's magic book!

And when Arthur tells his guards to search Merlin's room, Gaius is understandably worried.

Fortunately, all Arthur finds is a cupboard. 

More people continue to take water from the tap-

Me: No! Don't do it!

-and the square is filled with dead bodies. 

Me: Is the cemetery full?

Uther goes all Sherlock Holmes and decides to impose a curfew.

Merlin's no Sherlock Holmes, but with a bit of prompting from Gaius, he works out the cause. Water.

Me: And those two haven't been drinking water all this time? They must be very thirsty.

Seb: Not from that tap.

Me: Oh. Why doesn't she do it to all the taps?

And Gwen's dad is turning into a Voldemort!

Seb: Nooo!

Me: Wait, does that mean this is the last we see of him? I hope he dies.

Seb: Not yet. He gets stabbed later on.

Merlin takes his magic book out from under a floorboard in his room.

Me: That's only ripping off about ten movies.

Merlin sneaks out after curfew...

Seb: They only did the curfew to make this scene more dramatic. There isn't a proper reason for it.

Merlin breaks in to Gwen's room and cures her dad! In his sleep! Gwen's dad's sleep, not Merlin's.

Me: So he can cure him just like that?

Seb: Yes. But Gaius doesn't want him to.

Later on, Merlin goes to visit Gwen. And guess what? Her dad's recovered! How about that.

But how did Merlin know? 

He tells Gwen he's psychic. 

So what's she thinking? 

She's thinking that he's not psychic. Clever Merlin.

Me: I think I know what she was really thinking...

In fact, the conversation is quite normal, until we're reminded that-

Me: Every conversation!

-between these two is-

Me: So awkward!

Arthur is suspicious of Gwen's dad's quick recovery.

Me: They're going to blame him!

But Arthur wants to know who he was with when he recovered.

Me: They're going to blame Gwen!

And Gwen is arrested.

Seb: There's one where Uther falls in love with a troll.

And after that random comment, we see Gwen being dragged down a corridor to some really dramatic music. And...

Me: The camerawork is as dodgy as the last two episodes.

Morgana and Arthur try to argue Gwen's case to Uther, but it's no good. Uther doesn't like magic. He's 'suffered at its hand'.

Me: Oh, so did a witch shrink his head so his crown didn't fit? Is that why he hates magic? That would make sense, his crown really doesn't fit.

Uther decides that because Gwen has played by fire, she'll die by fire.

Me: No, she played by water. It's the complete opposite.

Gaius asks how many times he's warned Merlin of the dangers of using magic.

Me: Too many! It's getting boring!

And it seems that almost-

Me: Every conversation!

-between Merlin and Gaius is about the dangers of using magic.

On his way to see Gwen, Merlin passes Morgana.

Seb: Aw, Morgana loves her servant.

Me: I know! I was going to call this a love triangle, but it's more like a love... *Draws squiggly line in the air*

Merlin talks to Gwen. It's extremely sad, and Gwen's crying. But like-

Me: Every conversation!

-between Merlin and Gwen, it's-

Me: So awkward!

Gwen tells Merlin to remember her. So sad.

Seb: In this, all the magic people have names starting with 'M', Merlin, Morgana-

Me: Spoilers!

Seb: Oops.

Merlin bursts in to a meeting to declare himself guilty. But Arthur thinks he's just saying that so Gwen would be freed. He's in love. Duh. There's no way Merlin would be a sorcerer.

Merlin can't believe Arthur not believing him. He asks Gaius if he should wear a big pointy hat, but Gaius doesn't think he'll find one big enough.

Seb: Snap, Big Head!

And Merlin goes to visit the dragon. Merlin needs to know how to defeat a monster he just saw. The dragon gives him another cryptic riddle and Merlin goes in search of a basic science lesson.

Oh look, here's Gaius.

Merlin, Arthur and Morgana go into the cave to slay the beast. If I had any preconceptions of what Merlin would be like before I started watching it, then this was definitely one. And lots of sword-fighting. And that was in the second episode.

Arthur doesn't think Morgana should go on.

Me: Sexist Arthur. Actually, I don't think any of the episodes so far have passed the Bechdel Test. That's worrying.

They decide to split up.

Me: Don't split up! Have you never watched a horror movie?

And the beast reveals itself! Morgana screams!

Seb: Why did she scream? She never screams in any of the other ones.

Me: She's like a middle ages version of Amy Pond.

Seb: Yeah, but Morgana turns evil. But she is a lot like Amy... And she was before Amy. When was this? 2008. And Amy was 2010... 

Me: Steven Moffat was writing 'The Eleventh Hour' in 2008.

The beast attacks!

Me: Kill it! Kill it before we have to see the whole thing! 

Merlin tells Arthur to use the torch, and the beast catches fire!

Me: Wait, what just happened?

Seb: Merlin did magic.

The meeting Merlin interrupted is still having a good laugh.

Me: Are they reading the poems Merlin's been sending to Gwen?

Gaius shows Uther something he found in the cave. It bears the mark of Nimueh, someone Uther seems to have met before...

Seb: This bit's important.

Uther is angry, but there's something far, far worse...

Seb: Cyberman music!

Me: Yeah, I've been noticing that, but every time it's finished on a different note. But that was exactly the same.

Gwen is released, but just as the episode comes to a happy end, red fingernails splash a barrel of water.

"Merlin, you will pay for this!"

And then we have the 'Next Time' trailer.

Me: Oh! Two parts?

Seb: No, they've all got her in it.

Me: Like a story arc?

Seb: Yes.

And the 'Next Time' trailer finishes with a shot of Merlin lying sick in bed.

Me: So that fish Gaius gave him was dodgy.

Although this is just the start of a story that seems to continue for the rest of the series, this episode works by itself. I mean, it has a beginning, middle and end. We still haven't seen much of Nimueh though, so I'm looking forward to some character development for her. I mentioned the Bechdel Test earlier, and while I don't think Merlin is sexist, some more female representation would be nice. All in all, that was quite good, and if all the episodes are like this, I'll be happy. 7/10.

Join me next time for 'The Poisoned Chalice'