THIS SHOW, THIS SHOW

[sophieisgod]

ACH, I CANNOT EVEN.

THIS SHOOOOOW. It's supposed to be all cracky and slashy and delicious, and then every so often it just kind of winds you with the reminder that HEY, REMEMBER HOW NOBODY REALLY GETS A HAPPY ENDING AND EVERYTHING GETS REALLY GREAT AND THEN REALLY SHIT? I love it when that happens, but it hurts so much. AND THAT WAS BASICALLY THE WHOLE OF THIS EPISODE.

First off, freaky child is freaky. He had such amazing eyes, but man alive, he was just otherworldly. I like the way the show is bringing in other magical characters, like Edwin, for Merlin to interact with; I really like the idea that all these people know who he is and what he's destined for and have given him crazy mystical names because HE IS JUST THAT IMPORTANT.

Something else awesome? Merlin and Morgana being all BFF and kind of sussing out each other re: magic shiz and caring for the devil child. I'm kind of torn as to how powerful I want her to be; on one hand, I want her to be as fierce as possible, but on the other hand, I feel like having another series regular be magic kind of diminishes Merlin's status, or something stupid like that. But fierceness! Yes! COME ON, THOUGH, WHO ELSE WANTED THE 'ARTHUR SEARCHES MORGANA'S CHAMBERS' SCENE TO SOMEHOW END IN HIM FINDING MERLIN BEHIND HER CURTAINS AND GETTING JEALOUS?

Okay, so we were kind of expecting this week to be heavily plotty after last week's slashy slashy delightful madness, but still! Hardly any Arthur/Merlin scenes at all. BUT THEN:
"Would you let something terrible happen, if it meant you'd stop something even worse happening in the future?"
"I suppose it depends what the terrible and the even worse things were."
"One of them's bad - really bad. And the other, it's... unthinkable."

OH MY DAYS, THE LOVE, THE LOVE. And from the love, comes the plotty issues stuff, which is also legitimately excellent. I love the choices the characters on this show are forced to make. I love that they had Merlin weigh up letting a small (admittedly rather creepy) child die, right now, versus Arthur possibly dying at some vague, unspecified time in the future, and he initally came down on the side of child!death. Ach, that scene at the end, where he's lying on his bed and Mordred is being creepy inside his head and he's trying his hardest to block it out and fucking hell, Colin Morgan really is aces. And, for the first time, we really got into the destiny vs free will shebang ('SUP, ONE OF MY VERY FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT BSG) and, just. Wow. This is gnarly stuff for a family show! Again, I LOVE IT.

... Uther/Morgana. Am I wrong? It feels so very wrong, but also kind of disgustingly awesome. ASH is so hardcore, and Katie McGrath is so very beautiful. And cleaveage-y! Ahem. ALSO, when she went for her fakeout!apology dinner with him, did anyone else get serious 'Satine going to the tower to seduce the Duke so they can keep Christian's original ending' Moulin Rouge! vibes? Just me? Fabulous. Pshaw, I am such a shipping ho for this show.

SOMETHING SILLY: I have a theory. It is twofold.
1) Arthur is really, really bad at finding people. Remember in 1.06 when he ran off to find Edwin and... was never seen again? Yeah, like that.
2) Uther has a subtle punishment for Arthur's finding-based failure, and it is not letting him eat dinner with the grown-ups.

And a small piece of fail in an otherwise epic episode: FOR FUCK'S SAKE GIVE GWEN SOMETHING TO DO. ANYTHING. THANK YOU.

So, in conclusion, I am kind of a wreck. Merlin has made me a wreck. THIS WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN, WTF. Having Arthur say "Good luck, Mordred" is just so twisted and ugh, I love it so much when the legend gets fucked with, but everything is still in place for the devastating conclusions, and this show just needs to run for, like, decades, so I never have to see Arthur die.

Who saw Bradley James and Angel Coulby doing the Lottery? I get such a kick of seeing him in normal clothes (like on Strictly Come Dancing, wearing a tie!), it is ridiculous. Also, he is kind of adorably endearingly lame and goofy. Like, when it was time for him to press the Lottery Plunger Of Wealth Creation he said, "May we have a deserving winner", and Angel was kind of smirking like "LOL you're an idiot" and I don't know, he is just sort of lovely. Also, this.

LOL Robin Hood. ♥ Kate Beaton!

You know what's adorable? Colin Morgan plus one non-creepy adorable small child.