Analysis of Merlin 207: The Witchfinder

[nyxelestia]

Okay, so, this isn't quite so much of a review as an analysis on the episode, and its role in the larger scheme of things.

So, the beginning: we get to see Merlin using his magic very stupidly. BUT, I do believe that the writers are playing on something a bit bigger, here. So far, we have been seeing Merlin being overworked and underappreciated throughout the show. Maybe it's building up to something, maybe it's not, who knows. However, the poor boy's lonely - as we heard in 203, he was extraordinarily isolated in Ealdor, and from the looks of things, not much has changed. All he did - or thought he was doing, at any rate - was make a smoke!horsey to cheer himself up. It reminds him that he's more than just Arthur's manservant, and despite his loneliness, it makes him smile. By the looks of 110 The Moment of Truth, it seems Merlin has been making animals shapes out of the elements around him for quite a while, and usually when he needs the comfort.

So, the woman 'warns' the king, Aredian comes, and the investigations begin.

Gaius is the first one he talks to, and it's clear the two men know each other, especially from the way Aredian is suspicious of him straight from the beginning. The way he questions Merlin seems slightly arbitrary, but it does set up suspicion on Merlin, yet is vague enough that it's easy for Aredian to spin on Gaius.

Okay, sidetrack: was anyone else going "The Crucible! The Crucible!" with the court scene, or was that just me? Seriously, the I'm never sure whether the writers are trying to make funny little nods at other random movies/shows/book/ect, or whether they are drawing inspiration from them and badly incorporating them in. I hope it's the former, but I won't be surprised if it's the latter, either.

Back to the show! :D

So, Aredian accuses Merlin, and something I notice is that Arthur's first reaction, if you study his face carefully, doesn't immediately seem to be disbelief, but tense. However, if you blink, you miss it, and it slips to Arthur throwing doubt on the accusation. Now, there has been much debate as to whether Arthur knows about Merlin's magic or not, but I think that the writers are biding their time, here, and waiting for our reactions. If we favor a sudden revelation, then that's what'll happen, and all the previous clues can be a case of us looking too hard. On the other hand, if it's clear the fans favor him having known all along, these clues can be pointed to as evidence of such.

The cruelty and harshness of Aredian's methods is immediately seen, along with the brute-force nature of the knights, as Gaius's chambers are ransacked and basically destroyed during the search. All his life's research just tossed into the air, along with all the medicines for the castle's inhabitants. But, hey, it works! Magical amulet in a freakin' jar.

Side note: it's clear Arthur is defending Merlin here, too, and again, yet another than can work both ways - he really doesn't believe that Merlin's magic and just wants to protect him and Gaius, or he knew and was trying to stop Aredian from finding anything.

Now, back on track, Gaius doesn't immediately take the blame for the amulet - he has to think about it for a moment. Only a moment, sure, but just something to cast upon this whole "they'd defend each other without a second thought". It's been bugging me, how absolutely pure of heart ALL the characters have been in fanfic. Gaius is not perfect, and neither is Arthur for that matter, and Merlin kind of is, but this is less due to his actual heart and more towards his naivete. The only character who cant truly be overtly noble with good background characterizatin is Lancelot (and seriously, be grateful that the show gets a canon Gary Stu).

Also, we get the first hint that Aredian isn't just an anti-magic zealot like Uther - he looks FAR too smug when Gaius says the amulet is his. It's clear he's trying to get to Gaius, whether by hurting the man directly, himself, or hurting his "assisstant" (and back then, it was never quite professional - apprentices and assisstants would've been family).

I digress: Yay for that image of Merlin waiting nervously in the dungeon! (Literally twiddling his thumbs!) And, yay for more of Arthur's longcoat!

I undigress: Merlin is clearly heartbroken at Gaius's arrest, as we see from his reaction of Giaus being shackled and to Gaius's ransacked chambers. The guilt he is feeling must be enormous. And I must say, marvelous acting on Colin's part, being able to look like he's about to cry, like that, both in their rooms and when he later sees how Gaius is being treated by Aredian.

Even Uther protested these treatments, and this is the guy who would've burned a child without a second thought. Lovely instance of both not showing too much detail, as this is a kids' show, and yet at the same time hinting - with all the torture equipment we see in the background and Gaius's physical condition - that there's a lot of physical interrogation/torture going on in the background contributing to it.

Also, love the dragon finally showing a bit of sympathy towards Merlin's emotional state - actually, this entire episode is great in terms of characterization.

Now, with Morgana, I'm quite iffy - I agree with most others on how she's being ridiculously passive, as of late. In a sense, part of it plausible - after all, she's essentially being forced to choose between her own life and Gaius's, and quite frankly, she's terrified for them all.

And damn - I've never seen/heard of Charles Dance before, so I don't know anything about him. I must say, the way he plays such cruelty when he blackmailed with Gaius is quite impressive. Good acting on Richard's part when confessing to Uther, that desperate look with Merlin, and the way the guards dragged him out was well done.

Now, Merlin attacking the witchfinder was also a great development - his clear love for Gaius is well done. Attacking the man was well done in terms of being a grief-stricken young man. Much love for Arthur immediately leaving his seat and holding Merlin back, and dealing with Merlin himself. I'll be honest - I squeed. Like the mad, mad little thing I probably am deep inside my soul. :D

But back to the point, the grief in Merlin is evident - he even throws a punch at Arthur, something we haven't actually seen since the first episode. We also see Arthur's more empathic side - he even says he knows that Merlin's upset and angry...and that it was alright, and he wasn't going to throw Merlin into jail for it. He even breaks the law for Merlin to let him say goodbye to Gaius.

Now, the wording of that particular line struck me - breaking the law. I can't help but wonder if this is some minor foreshadowing of how loosely Arthur is starting to regard Uther's laws? If he were so stricken to follow him, he might have mentally danced around the fact he was breaking the law and simply thought of it as letting Merlin speak to Gaius, say goodbye. But instead, he's breaking the law - and perhaps implying he might be able to do so just as easily in the future.

Back to the main focus.

Merlin and Gaius immediately embrace. If nothing else, Gaius doesn't seem to immediately resent Merlin - because yes, as much as we might pity the poor boy for his loneliness and desolation and isolation, this is all still his fault - so I suspect that Gaius is heaping a significantly larger portion of the blame on Aredian. I'm officially naming his more evidence of some kind of deep history involved, here.

Now, afterwards: wow, poor Gaius - all his troubles and Merlin and Morgana are still likely to be incriminated. Something to note, here, that Aredian actually seems quite good at this job - he pinned Merlin and Morgana almost instantly. However, he seems to have some vendetta against Gaius, and was blinded to it, or at least severely misprioritized them. Sound like anyone? Maybe the ending where a certain king is told off for his blindness should be a clue.

Gwen's role in this story is actually quite good - not only does she help Merlin out in coming up with a way to prove Gaius's innocense, but she manages to talk Arthur into stalling the execution, as well. She looks through the books with Merlin, and she is the one to take him to the shopkeeper, and the one to stop Merlin so as to make sure they have the most solid case against Aredian.

Her talking to Arthur seemed to show a new side to her - how low she is willing to stoop, and yet her abilities as the future Queen to talk to Arthur honestly and to hold him to the high standards befitting his rank. Neither of these should be underestimated. We see the start of her being able to manipulate, using her own father against Arthur, but we also see that she is not a manipulative person - she did not do this for her own personal gain, and it was only brought out as a last resort. Remember, in the legends, she did love Arthur, but she ultimately betrayed him for Lancelot. Considering how much of a sweet and honest character she has been so far, the show is going to have to do some serious foreshadowing to bring her in line with the legends. And despite their slump in 202: The Once and Future Queen, they are doing much better now.

During Uther's plea, we see Uther a.) notice Merlin even more (not good for a sorcerer!) and b.) interesting moment where yet again, Merlin forgets that he is just a servant to everyone else. Lovely how that works, and it's how I suspect Merlin will eventually be brought into a negative light that may or may not get the ball rolling against him.

Merlin's methods of framing the man are well done, if a little over the top. But with Uther, over the top is somewhat necessary (and the toad was just plain funny). However, it works - and now Gaius is saved. Merlin is getting bolder with his magic - and his ability to hide it - by doing it so close to the king and prince, saving Morgana's life and ending Aredian's.

And all is well...

...or not quite.

We see a dramatic change in personal power between Gaius and Uther in the end. We see that they have a much closer friendship than previous interactions would indicate - Gaius confronts Uther, and about magic to boot, so they are obviously somewhat closer than would appear...or were, anyway. But now, even though Uther has apologized - which we all know very well, including Gaius, just how painful for him this is - Gaius hasn't forgiven him, even after Uther promises to make sure nothing like it happens again. Even if he likely won't follow through with it, he's essentailly promising to be lenient on suspects of magic - a big leap for him. And still, Gaius clearly doesn't forgive him. You have to pity both these men, seeing how fractured they have truly become over time.

Two things to bring up in terms of relationships, in here. One, this makes it a ridiculously easy for slash fans to speculate on their relationship on however it was so long ago. Two, we see something else - what could easily happen to Arthur and Merlin. Uther, despite his absolute hatred of magic, turned a blind eye to Gaius's past for the man, which speaks volumes about how close they were - something akin to Arthur's first reaction to Catrina's accusations against Merlin being to send Merlin away from Camelot. Arthur and Merlin are close, now, yet may one day split apart, even if they still work together, becuase at the end of the confrontation, Uther goes back to being king, and Gaius goes back to being physician.

This episode was leaps and bounds in character development. Merlin becomes a little more wiser, both in how he uses his magic and how to handle the consequences, Gwen in her ability to talk to and stand up to Arthur, Uther in his ability to see things in a new light, be slightly merciful even in the face of magic, and Gaius in showing more of his past and his love of Merlin by his willingness to sacrifie himself. Morgana and Arthur are the only ones who don't get any major development at all - and yet, we still see some even from them! We see how Morgana may truly feel about her magic, and we see even deeper into Arthur's bond with Merlin.

Bonus - trailer dissection!
 

Comments

[foxie-trot.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I could go on and on about how fabulous an actor Colin is. *gushes* He's just amazing, totally turning that display of idiocy into something that you could really, really pity Merlin for. :'( Poor guy.

I think you're probably right, things always have to be made simply for children. If nothing else, it's great for the fanficers to sink their teeth into them and make up what we like. XDD;

LOL I know, it's kind of cute though. I love that Lancelot will always be regarded as the 'tagged on' Gary Stu of everything, since he is meant to be the description of perfect. [minus the affair, of course]. I'm kind of interested as to how they are going to roll with that this time round, but I know what you mean. Wouldn't it be great if they actually dissolved that Gary Stu version of Lancelot, only to have to build it back up again [like they need to with Arthur]? It would make for a real interesting story, if nothing else.
*getting fanfic ideas~*

Ahh yes, I was kinda of -.O wtf when Morgana admitted that the nightmares had gotten worse. I mean, if you're trying to protect a friend, why are you just announcing his guilt right there? Though you're right, I think the obvious relief was for children, so that they knew she was really worried about herself. Not that I think it was all that necessary, honestly, kids are pretty quick on the uptake. I don't think it's necessary to feed them all this like they're morons. But whatev's, I don't create the show.

Well I really do hope that they go into the Uther/Gaius/Aredian backstory a bit more later on. I bet it could be really interesting. Though I suspect it could just be lazy writing, and instead of actually explaining it themselves, they're just going to let everyone else make up their own theories. >_>;

I KNOW. Oh my god, I have been waiting for someone to rip Uther a new one since like, the first episode in season 1. About bloody time, for certain. LOL I giggle at your love of Uther though (to be honest I can't help but feel a little sorry for him. After 2x06, he's definitely become a favourite character XDD). I can't wait to read your fic, btw. Now that I'm back at home and not travelling around all over the shot, I'll actually have time to read it! ^^;;