nyxelestia | Analysis of Merlin 209: The Lady of the Lake

Okay, so, I only have a quick review, today, mostly in response to all the issues people have been raising over the episode. It all boils down to one key factor:

This episode was NOT about Merlin and Freya - it was about Merlin.

Normally, I like to do these things in a chronological fashion, but this episode's too complicated to review it linearly. So, here it is in a listing format:

Freya - The Lines and What's Between Them

1.) The Curse and Her Character: She was an innocent girl who was attacked by a man, killed him, and cursed by the mother. To start with, there isn't actually all that much going on here in terms of what the show is trying to say about women. Quite frankly, they're just focusing in on the guys as that's all the fangirls used to care about. BUT: To all the raging feminists out there, this story should actually sound painfully familiar - the girl who gets raped and then is coined as "asking for it". We've all heard dozens of stories of men being acquitted of a rape charge because the girl was drunk, or dressed slutty, or just out at night. We've all been pissed off as hell, especially in hearing that the only stories that ever get major media coverage are the ones about women who 'were asking for it'.

Whether or not Freya was meant to be a parallel between Freya's history and every rape victim who could never get justice, or it was just a sweet story line to make Merlin feel even sorrier for her, the message is generally a good one for kids to receive either way. Now stop complaining.

2.) Too Passive?: She's terrified. She's been in a freakin' cage, for god's sake, for days, which would be even worse for her at night when she's stuck cramped inside it as a Bastet (on which I've got some things to say, too). Considering her situation, she's actually not too bad - I mean, really, she's got no food or clothes or anything to speak of - all she really can do is wait for Merlin to get back with the food and candles that she'd need. When he is there, she's even willing to start conversation, asking him about his home and what it's like and telling him about her own. Quite frankly, I think she actually takes a fair bit of initiative nearing the end, where she runs away before Merlin gets back in order to protect him.

3.) Her Name, and Her Creature: Okay, we all know that Nimueh was one of the names for the Lady of the Lake - and that she's now dead. Most commonly in the versions where the Lady of the Lake is Merlin's love interest, she's usually named Ninian or Vivian - but in these cases, she's also usually the daughter of a Northumberland (Northumbrian) King, and quite frankly, these are all variations on the same name, anyway. This isn't the first time the show has filled in an already existing character position with an original character or an original name.

This leads me into my second point: using her name, and the creature she turns into, they already hint that she's going to come back as something. Freya is a Norse goddess, and Bastet is actually an ancient Epyptian goddess. That, combined with the fact she has some Druid history and that her funeral is in the same lake as Excalibur (I think) makes me think that she's going to come back somehow and revive her role, this time as a spirit of some kind - possibly in the form of giving Merlin back the sword, or Arthur. (Which should be doubly interesting, considering he killed her - to which end, the relationship between the Lady and King Arthur is rather all over the place, as well, so who knows where this will lead, as Arthur did kill her, but they both understand why, even if Freya would not have liked it).

Incidentally, I looked into just what these two goddesses represented. Freya is the Norse goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, while also being associated with war, battle, death, magic, prophecy, and wealth. Bastet is an ancient Egyptian goddess of the sun and war, and later on, was considered the goddess of perfumes, and after that, she was associated with fertility. She has also been equated by the Greek historian Herodotus to Artemis, the Greek goddess of nature, childbirth, virginity, fertility, and the hunt. The only things these three goddesses have in common is that they were all associated with fertility and war/hunting - in other words, indirect connections to the beginning and the end of life.

I don't know whether this was intention. It IS is entirely possible that Freya was just picked as a nice name that may have been reasonably common back then, and Bastet chosen as a cool creature. Maybe this entire thing is intentional. I really don't know. But it's worth taking into consideration, here.

Also, the girl in the next episode that Arthur falls for is going to be named Vivienne - the other name for the Lady of the Lake. Intentional? Coincidence? I'm honestly not sure, anymore. This could just be the writers attempting to throw us off - I don't know. But it's also worth taking into consideration when looking at the names.

4.) Her Low Self Esteem: For those of you who didn't catch it, there is a strong implication that she killed her family. And even if not, she has likely killed dozens of other due to her curse. BUT, she doesn't want to and never wanted to, and is stuck with this because she killed the son of a sorcerer - who's death she also didn't intend. She kills innocent people and can't stop herself for it - she has every right and reason to hate herself.

Now here she finally has a guy who isn't scared of her and cares for her, and she's rightfully terrified that as soon as he knows the truth, he'll turn away from her like everyone else. She tries to push him away without telling him, so she can have this one 'memory' of a sweet guy without it being tainted by his reaction to her curse. And, of course, when Merlin finds out and still loves her, anyway, she probably would've been relieved if not for the fact she'd been dying.

5.) Merlin and Freya: Again, as I mentioned, whenever there is a love interest for Merlin, it's usually the Lady of the Lake. If you want to know, I happen to believe this episode was entirely centered around Merlin and his romance, and the title was just a reference to that, and not necessarily the character. If you take anything away from this post, take that.

Merlin - Everything That Has Changed, And Everything That Hasn't

1.) Using Magic So Freely, So Soon?: We know Merlin feels bad about nearly killing Gaius - hell, it was a bit hard to miss, at the time. But, he's still got a strong moral sense about what's right and wrong, and to him, freeing an innocent girl is most important. Besides which, she's already magic, and she's already on the run. Who, exactly, is she going to tell about Merlin?

2.) The Food and Where He Got It: ...okay, yeah, this was stupid. To be honest, I think this was mostly used to sneak in some comedy in between all the deeper scenes we have, here.

3.) Head over Heels over Freya: The entire season has been building up to this. So far, Merlin has been over worked, being Arthur's manservant, his protector, and Gaius's assistant all at once - and not only is he overworked, he is dramatically under-appreciated, even by Gaius who actually knows about Merlin's magic. He likely isn't even sure why he's protecting Arthur, as ever since the Dragon's betrayal, Merlin's been doubting everything the overgrown lizard's said.

On top of all that, the need to keep his magic secret has gone up by the dozens over the last two episodes, ranging from the entire episode with the Witchfinder to Arthur being ever the more convinced that all magic is evil because of Morgause. Now, here's a girl whom he can just be himself around, do things the way he wants. Notice how he keeps doing the little things by magic around her, like lighting candles and whatnot? It's because he can. She already knows, and she isn't scared of the magic, or even made nervous by it, and unlike Gaius, she isn't reprimanding him for it, either. And hell, she's even marginally impressed, but not in awe as if Merlin were a miracle worker or a god of some kind. Merlin gets to finally feel close to someone without having this layer of lies between them, and even impress the girl - a minor ego boost which'll make him like her all the more.

And when you also factor in his entire issue of Morgana and magic (again, more on that later), and it's no wonder Merlin would feel so damn close to her in such a short time. Now just add in the hormones, and the romance is obvious. Intimacy is easy between them, because of all the circumstances isolating them from everyone else and pushing them together as a byproduct.

4.) The Eloping: Again, the hormones. I know how stupid people can get when they're in love, or even just think they're in love. Hell, I have a friend who nearly eloped to Reno with her boyfriend when she was thirteen. Believe me, people do crazy things all in the name of "love".

Like I mentioned above, as much as Merlin does his duty to protect Arthur, and truly seems to love him, these days, whether platonically or romantically, he's losing his reasons after the Dragon betrayed him. Now, he also can't tell Morgana, both on Gaius's and the Dragon's words, and he doesn't even know whether not telling her anything would be the right thing or not, as he doesn't know where her loyalties will end up. He had found an entire basis and reasoning for his magic when he came to Camelot, but now has had that ripped out from him, and try as he might, he's having trouble getting his footing back. Now, he also has to deal with the fact Arthur hates magic again - and this time, he really hates it, instead of just following his father blindly, because of the whole Morgause thing and how she made it personal by using his mother against him and making him attack his father.

Can you really blame him for wanting to run off with a fellow magical creature? And not just that, but to the life which they talked about - "somewhere with mountains, a few fields, wild flowers, a couple of cows, and a lake." This is a chance for these two to just be. No worrying about looking over their shoulders, no concerns about hiding magic, nothing - just exist in peace. After they've spent their whole lives being feared in secret as beasts, creatures not even human, this is a dream come true for them, and quite frankly, a classic trope in the form of a simple life being made into paradise. Anyone who's read Shakespeare has seen this enough, I believe - rash love leading to rash decisions leading to rash actions.

5.) The Lying: Something I think they were trying to make a point of, here, is also how adept Merlin has become at lying. Not just to everyone else, like Arthur or Uther who has has to lie to every day, but even to those closer to him - like Gaius. "You used to think twice before lying to me." But now, Merlin's become so used to lying to everyone else, it's become incredibly easy for him to lie to Gaius, who he's never had reason to lie to, before.

6.) The Projecting: We already know Merlin's scared of his power. So far, pretty much every main sorcerer Merlin's run into has tried to kill him or Arthur, and he gained power from killing Nimueh. Seeing Freya's curse, he knows very well just how bad things could turn out - that he could become dark, evil: a monster. He sees Freya as terrified of herself even before the curse, and knows how she feels because he's been there. Remember Morgana? Why Merlin helped her? He's been terrified of his own magic, before, and now he's helping those around him accept their magic.

And All The Rest

Morgana

All right, I'm not quite happy with her, either. Apart from a few moments of badassery at the beginning of 204, she's been pretty weak this season - but with good reason, too: there's nothing else the writers can plausibly do. Whatever they're planning, the writers need to have her not knowing about Merlin's magic. But she's smart - if they give her something to do in the show, at one point or another it will likely result in a run-in with magic, which will mean her starting to figure things out. Separating her from the events at large keeps her present without involving her, saving her character for their plans for her later.

Am I particularly happy with how they're doing things? No, not really. But again, this isn't about trying to send any messages or or make any special points - they're just trying to keep her away from it all so that things involving her character will be more dramatic later.

Arthur

Believe it or not, this was also a development in his and Merlin's relationship, too. For one thing, we see how he's willing to use his status to protect Merlin, in the form of his intervention of Halig's torture. And in another, we see how informal his relationship is getting with Merlin. Not only is he back to the same way with Merlin as the end of Season 1, but now they're even closer.

Arthur trusts Merlin almost implicitly - after all, Merlin was there to see him talking with his mother, and kept Arthur from killing his father, and to him, Merlin helped him see the right way when an enchantress tried to steer him wrong. In this episode, he uses his status to protect Merlin from Halig without a second thought, and at the end, he breaks all rules about station and protocol to sit on the floor besides his working manservant, and even plays with him somewhat, in a "grown-up" boys' fashion, and cheers him up, even though he has no idea what's making Merlin so heartbroken in the first place.

Gaius

Stay with me, here - he's important, too.

Mostly, we see him seeing a new change in Merlin. He sees a deeper part of Merlin that the boy's kept to himself for so long: his fear of his power. He's terrified of who or what he could become, and Gaius is only just starting to realize this about Merlin. But at the end, he still loves and cares for Merlin, in the way he understandingly comforts Merlin about Freya, despite having been ready to turn her over to Uther.

And on that note: we don't like it. And she didn't want to kill innocent people. That didn't change the fact that she was killing innocent people, and needed to be stopped because of that. As much as we would like to say otherwise, if Merlin hadn't been planning on leaving the city with her, he would've been downright selfish on a nearly impossible level, both for those people who Freya would kill, and Freya herself from the guilt of killing them.

Okay, that's about it, for now.

Bonus Trailer Dissection Here