MERLIN, 4.3 - "The Wicked Day"

Considering the major occurrence at the heart of this week's episode, you'd expect a more positive reaction, but "The Wicked Way" didn't handle the death of King Uther (Anthony Head) in a particularly thrilling way, although the way it transformed Arthur (Bradley James) into an anti-magic extremist was handled nicely and appears to have extended the longevity of this series.

"The Wicked Day" opened with a familiar upbeat tone of grinning faces and whistling music, as a travelling circus arrived at Camelot to help celebrate Arthur's birthday, and you immediately expected another of Merlin's more lighthearted escapades to counteract the downbeat premiere. But once the circus's Gleeman (Whitechapel's Phil Davis) turned deadly assassin, managing to plunge a sword into the king's chest before dying, things turned darker and mostly stayed that way. As the king lay dying from internal bleeding, Arthur realized that only magic can save his father's life, so Merlin arranged for the prince to visit... himself, magically disguised as a cantankerous old wizard, living in a woodland hut. I'm not a fan of Morgan's performance as the Older Merlin, which is too broad and silly for my taste, but his gurning geriatric undoubtedly gave the episode some much-needed levity. It was particularly good fun seeing the aged sorcerer abuse his position to force Arthur into giving him a piggyback around the castle, as manservant Merlin got some sneaky payback on his demanding master.

The real surprise of this episode was to have Old Merlin fail to remedy Uther on his death bed, thanks to an enchanted pendant Morgana (Katie McGrath) had Agravaine (Nathaniel Parker) place around the king's neck to reverse any curative magic. While all this was ultimately a fairly disappointing way for Uther to exit the show, as it didn't feel grand enough considering the king's significance over four years, what did world was how Arthur's been soured against the notion of sorcery ever becoming legal. Morgana's plot has cleverly ruined the possibility of a more tolerant Camelot now Arthur's crowned king, and Merlin's chance to stop hiding his secret under this new rule has gone up in smoke. The only slight issue with this story is quite why Gaius (Richard Wilson), after discovering Morgana's enchanted pendant and correctly deducing what went wrong with Merlin's spell, didn't bring his theory to Arthur's attention. After all, it would make perfect sense to Arthur that Morgana would want to sabotage an attempt to heal his father's wound with magic. It's another example of how Merlin tends to require you give the show less thought, because a lot of things underpinning the series falls apart if you do.

I was surprised "The Wicked Day" was written by Howard Overman. He was one of the show's best writers in its early days, and it's nice to see he's still willing to return for the occasional episode since his career took off with Misfits, but I expected something a little better from him. The episode had some juicy things to cover, and Arthur's coronation is arguably the biggest development of Merlin since it began, but the handling didn't impress me. Why have Uther mortally wounded by a mere guest star assassin we've never met? Surely it would have been more dramatic and emotional if Morgana had been directly responsible? It was also frustrating that Uther's two death scenes (the one following his stabbing and the one after receiving Merlin's corrupted spell) didn't stir any deep emotion in me. Maybe I'm alone in that response, but for whatever reason the performances of Head and James didn't touch my heart at any point, which was a pity.

Overall, "The Wicked Way" was certainly an important and notable episode in the evolution of a series that usually struggles to move beyond its original setup--especially because Athur might actually be more intolerant of magic than his father was. It's altered the show's central relationship, which is welcome, but it remains to be seen if these changes are for the better... or if Arthur will just become a youthful echo of Uther, meaning the writers have simply merged the two Pendragon characters into one.

written by Howard Overman · directed by Alice Troughton · 15 October 2011 · BBC1