The episode was quite interesting, in fact it was the best one so far. Gawain trains Arthur's men and Arthur himself in sword-fighting, using real weapons during the training; he is really good with blades and shields and fights a bit like a witcher ;) He teaches Arthur to better understand what it means to be a warrior and how one should fight, which is shown in Arthur's duel with Leontes later in the episode, which is very emotional as we cannot be sure whether he would slay Guinevere's husband after all. However, Arthur also understands what it means to be king.
Morgana suffers from some magic-induced disease, perhaps these are the consequences which Merlin had warned her about. She is helped by the nun whom she initially rejects and orders to be thrown out from the citadel. The nun motivates Morgana to survive her disease and live in spite of its life-threatening qualities by reminding Morgan of her aim to get the throne.
Merlin's storyline is the most interesting by far, as it plays with the original story of Excalibur from the Arthurian legends. Here, Merlin gets the sword from a weaponmaster Caliburn, whom he kills in a brawl by magic (we also see Merlin doing real magic for the first time) and then as his daughter takes the sword and runs away from Merlin, he uses his sorcery to freeze the lake to capture her. There is the iconic scene with the sword held by a woman's hand above the water; Merlin takes the sword however the girl drowns as the ice freezes over her. This is what really "happened", while the tale we know from the legends are lies told by Merlin to Arthur when he returns to Camelot with the sword. It was rather an interesting twist on the old story.
Review by ladysherlockianBlockedParentSpoilers2020-09-28T17:06:11Z
The episode was quite interesting, in fact it was the best one so far. Gawain trains Arthur's men and Arthur himself in sword-fighting, using real weapons during the training; he is really good with blades and shields and fights a bit like a witcher ;) He teaches Arthur to better understand what it means to be a warrior and how one should fight, which is shown in Arthur's duel with Leontes later in the episode, which is very emotional as we cannot be sure whether he would slay Guinevere's husband after all. However, Arthur also understands what it means to be king.
Morgana suffers from some magic-induced disease, perhaps these are the consequences which Merlin had warned her about. She is helped by the nun whom she initially rejects and orders to be thrown out from the citadel. The nun motivates Morgana to survive her disease and live in spite of its life-threatening qualities by reminding Morgan of her aim to get the throne.
Merlin's storyline is the most interesting by far, as it plays with the original story of Excalibur from the Arthurian legends. Here, Merlin gets the sword from a weaponmaster Caliburn, whom he kills in a brawl by magic (we also see Merlin doing real magic for the first time) and then as his daughter takes the sword and runs away from Merlin, he uses his sorcery to freeze the lake to capture her. There is the iconic scene with the sword held by a woman's hand above the water; Merlin takes the sword however the girl drowns as the ice freezes over her. This is what really "happened", while the tale we know from the legends are lies told by Merlin to Arthur when he returns to Camelot with the sword. It was rather an interesting twist on the old story.