This week, Merlin (Colin Morgan) became infatuated with a young girl called Freya (Laura Donnelly), the withdrawn prisoner of bounty hunter Halig (Richard Ridings), a man who apparently stalks the kingdom capturing practitioners of magic for King Uther (Anthony Head) to burn. Admittedly, those specifics were kept vague for family-viewing reasons, but I doubt life imprisonment was in order for the girl. Anyway, Merlin takes pity on kindred soul Freya and helps her escape to some secet tunnels beneath the castle. Naturally, he falls in love with a beatiful girl he doesn't have to lie to about his magical abilities, and is soon smuggling food to her stolen from Arthur's (Bradley James) plate.But, heaven's above, what's this? There's a strange beast stalking the grounds of the castle and killing innocent peasants, which Uther's convinced must be of magical origin given the strange wounds found on the dead bodies. I wonder if this ferocious beastie and sweet Freya are connected somehow... well, actually, no I don't wonder. They are. Indeed, a huge source of irritation was how the episode felt utterly unsurprising, humdrum and tedious. The whole audience could guess Freya had been cursed to shape-change into a "winged panther" at the stroke of midnight, compelled to kill anyone who crosses her path. Yes, even the seven-year-olds watching called it.
For anyone with half a brain, this episode constantly presented us with obvious developments full of plot-holes that became impossible to ignore. Why didn't the bounty hunter know Freya turns into a monster, if that's her sole magical ability? If he did, why didn't he tell anyone to prevent Uther and Gaius running around in a panic? Why didn't Freya tell Merlin the truth, so he could perhaps chain her up to prevent people dying? She made no effort to stop her killing spree at any stage, and instead spent her time moping around and being vague about her condition. Why didn't she escape the castle grounds when she was prowling the courtyard in creature form every night -- I mean, she has wings!
What made it worse was that Morgan and guest-star Donnelly were visibly trying very hard with the weak material, and both achieved some success in their scenes together. They made for a quite a believable, touching couple, and I liked the idea of Merlin getting a girlfriend he can relax around. This fact actually led to a few amusing scenes of an upbeat Merlin whistling merry tunes, raising eyebrows in his quest to steal food from Arthur, and even being accused of crossdressing when caught pinching one of Morgana's dresses for Freya to wear. Considering the fanbase's affectionate teasing over Merlin's sexuality because of his "homoerotic" relationship with Arthur, this was arguably an episode of some significance -- clearly defining Merlin as a heterosexual boy (well, maybe bisexual?) and portraying Arthur as a jokey "big brother" type (he even does that headlock, knuckle-rubbing thing on Merlin's scalp at one point.) But, a few good moments were ultimately wasted thanks to a very unconvincing script from writer/co-creator Julian Jones...
I have no idea how Freya (in giant flying-cat form) could flee back down tunnels even gaunt Merlin had to squeeze down. I don't know how Merlin eventually managed to smuggle her out of Camelot the next morning, to die from her injuries (as surely everyone would have been scouring the castle looking for this girl now?) But hey, it was all handled off-screen, so just forget about it -- m'kay? We just had to get to the denouement where Merlin took Freya to a lake similar to the one she told him about, to die and be given a Norseman's funeral in a rowing boat full of foliage. It could have been a very touching moment, too... were it not for the fact I was transfixed by a droplet of snot(?) dangling from the end of Merlin's nose during his heartfelt speech.Overall, "The Lady In The Lake" was a hugely disappointing and worringly incompetent episode -- wasting the idea of giving Merlin a love-interest, and offering no storytelling support for Morgan and Donnelly's valiant efforts. The title cynically alluded to a prominent aspect of Arthurian legend, but this didn't feel relevant to the myth. I assume the idea is that Freya will somehow be "resurrected" as a water spirit to repay Merlin's kindness toward her some day soon, and possibly retrieve Excalibur from the depths of the lake her body was cremated in... but, oh how I wish we'd been given a stronger emotional connection to her. As it was, this was just a ridiculous, illogical, dull mess.
21 November 2009
BBC1, 6.05pm
written by: Julian Jones directed by: Metin Hüseyin starring: Colin Morgan (Merlin), Richard Wilson (Gaius), Anthony Head (King Uther), Bradley James (Arthur), John Hurt (Dragon, voice), Laura Donnelly (Freya), Richard Ridings (Halig) & Angel Coulby (Gwen)
