Merlin: A Remedy to Cure All Ills
With a new ‘Buffy Style’ Opening “one girl…” and all that we jump in to a…
PRE CREDIT SPELL!
wooo I’ve missed you. We welcome Edwin and his enchanted chattering bugs. Edwin is a burn scared up nasty man (brilliantly played by the wonderful Julian Rhind-Tutt) and he sends a bug to nibble on Morgana’s brain, oooooh dear.
Edwin stands in a deserted Camelot while it happens, no one ever seems to be about at dusk maybe if they patrolled a little bit we’d stop all this nonsense oh well on to the….
CREDITS
Poorly lady, lovely Gaius can’t fix her, Uther mad. Cue creepy Edwin’s entrance at first dismissed by the prince but soon he’s there with his cure all ills nonsense, deary me. Up he goes to fix Morgana by taking out the bug that he put there and yay she is alive. Uther is pleased and Edwin sticks the knife into Gaius’ back by infering that he is incompetant.
Merlin finds the bugs in his room and magics them (there really isn’t a better verb ;o)) Edwin sees and they do some ‘Alex Mack‘ magic, fun, but it’s “our little secret”
Gaius goes to the new book man we met last week and asks for the records from the Time War… sorry GREAT PURGE, he discovers that Edwin was the son of some sorcerers that were burned and that is where he got his scaring after he tried to rescue them from the flames, horiffic. Gaius threatens to tell Uther but as Edwin knows about Merlin there is blackmail afoot.
Edwin then sets out to become court physician by saying that Gaius is old and dangerous.Gaius has a difficult decision to make so who does he go to see…
JOHN HURT
as the voice of the dragon
Amazing. We learn much about Gaius in this episode and this moment is amazing, it deserved OOOOOHs from all and now I want to visit Camelot’s past.
Uther calls in Gaius and… that’s it Gauis is out and Edwin is in (after a ‘should any persons here present’ scene) Gaius says nothing, thus scarificing the king but ‘Turning a Blind Eye!’ (he’s so going to die soon in place of Merlin!) He politely leaves. Edwin does mean guy smirk.
Gaius packs up and he and Merlin share a wonderful scene, dramatic yet underplayed.
Edwin’s plot begins and he perscribes something new for Giles’ poorly shoulder… oh dear.
Gwen has a run in with Gaius on his way out of Camelot and awakens doubt within him, Richard Wilson really is awesome.
Uther takes his new medicine and is blurily awoken by Edwin, he has paralysed him and he wants his face to be last one he sees, he places bad CGI beetle down and lets Uther know what is going to happen to him, it’s fantasticly gross and creepy, this is intercut with a thoughtful Gaius at a campfire.
Gaius is back! He tries magic at Edwin but he has forgotton, Edwin traps him in a ring of fire, cue MERLIN. The slowest magic fight ever, but it shows how powerful Merin is compared to other magic folk. Off they go to save Uther with, you guessed it, magic! lovely. Lots of golden eye closeups and celtic language and the beetle is gone, huzzah.
All his happy in Camelot once more and Gaius is now a Freeman and the one person Uther can trust in the fight against magic… oooooh.
This episode is Gaius’ and as such benifits from the advanced skill that Richard Wilson has. He is spectacular. The kinship between him and Merlin is wonderfully played making the inevitable even more heartwrenching
I am enjoying Merlin more and more week on week and I really hope that even though it is not getting the press attention it deserves and it is shunted about the schedules that an audience is building for this intelligent and interesting family drama series.
Next week creepy fairy things.
oh and the prostetics in this show are amazing, is Uther’s scar Anthony Heads or a prostetic?!
