Director: Jeremy Webb
It's taken awhile, but Merlin finally begins to realize its potential with Howard Overman's "The Beginning Of The End"; an excellent episode that delivered strong mythology, moral dilemmas, great performances, big confrontations, a few laughs, and a very creepy little boy...The boy in question is abandoned in Camelot, after his father is reported by a shopkeeper as a Druid and captured by armed soldiers. Fortunately, the boy has magical powers and telepathically cries to the similarly-gifted Merlin (Colin Morgan) for help, who smuggles him to safety inside Morgana's (Katie McGrath) chamber. However, with the castle crawling with soldiers, under instruction from King Uther (Anthony Head) to kill the missing child, they must find a way to smuggle the boy to safety without arousing suspicion. But who can they trust to help them, and is Uther's order of execution entirely unwarranted?
The simple stories are often the best, as it's easier to hang interesting diversions on the spine of a relatively straight-forward situation. The castle-wide search for the boy causes a lot of tension and soul-searching for the characters – Morgana finds herself developing maternal feelings for the boy, Merlin sees himself reflected in the boy's predicament, Gaius (Richard Wilson) will look hypocritical if he allows the boy to die after sheltering Merlin, while Prince Arthur (Bradley James) once again walks the line between disobeying his father and staying true to his own beliefs.
Now, the big reveal of the boy's identity isn't difficult to fathom if you know your Arthurian legend (although, Merlin is taking more liberties with accepted "facts".) If you're unaware of Arthurian legend, the last-minute reveal of the boy's identity will leave you none the wiser – but it's still obvious he'll have a significant role to play in the future. Throughout this story, his presence burns with an Anti-Christ vibe, and the Great Dragon (John Hurt) makes it crystal clear that the boy's survival will ultimately lead to Arthur's death. This fuels a satisfying predicament for Merlin in the latter third of the episode -- as he considers the morality of allowing a child's death to achieve the greater good. Rather juicy stuff for Saturday tea-time family entertainment, no?
Katie McGrath finally gets a significant amount of screen-time under her belt and, as I long suspected, she proves to be something of a revelation. Beyond simply looking the part as Morgana, her reaction to the boy's plight worked very well (especially if you know your Arthuriana), and her wilfully disobedience of Uther kept the story edgy and unpredictable. McGrath also has a clear rapport with Colin Morgan and Bradley James, so when the three eventually come together as a team the dynamic works exceedingly well. They're the Harry, Hermione and Ron of the series, you might say. It was also nice to notice Merlin's growing affection for Morgana, when he realizes her pro-magic sentiment ("you don't choose magic, magic choose you...") means he's perhaps found someone who will keep his secret.
The magic still isn't particularly exciting, but the "conjuring tricks" were quite funny this week – with Merlin animating a pair of shoes into walking, then stealing keys from Arthur by levitating them around his head. The discovery that people with natural magic can communicate by telepathy was also a great idea, as the mental conversations between Merlin and the boy were riveting. A moment when the voiceless boy mentally screams at his father's courtyard execution, destroying mirrors in Morgana's chamber in the process, was particularly disturbing and a delicious jolt of darkness.
Asa Butterfield plays the boy (check the credits below for his character's name, if you love a spoiler), and he's definitely a young actor to keep an eye on. You may have seen him already in this episode of Ashes To Ashes, or in holocaust drama The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas just recently. His role in Merlin doesn't require much beyond simply looking cute and disquieting, but he does it extremely well. I certainly hope he'll return with a speaking part some day soon, although considering what we know of the legend, I suspect he'll be recast and suddenly age years overnight. Or will the series jump forward in time by a decade to tackle the Arthurian legend itself, once it's exhausted the possibilities a "young Merlin" prequel provides?
Overall, "The Beginning Of The End" is an enriching, tense and exciting story with plenty of character moments to enjoy and mythology-building to savour. Like the recent "Lancelot", this episode ultimately takes its significant piece of Arthurian legend out of play by the end, but I'm hoping the writers have a plan to tie everything together in the future. Regardless, the performances continue to delight (McGrath was excellent, Head was back to his callous best after some diluted writing recently) and this episode didn't really put a foot wrong.
8 November 2008
BBC1, 7.20pm
Cast: Colin Morgan (Merlin), Bradley James (Prince Arthur), Richard Wilson (Gaius), Anthony Head (King Uther), Angel Coulby (Gwen), Katie McGrath (Morgana), Asa Butterfield (Mordred), Christian Bradley (Guard), Jamie Kenna (Guard), Alun Raglan (Cerdan), Trevor Sellers (Iseldir) & Michael Burgess (Stallholder)
