Merlin: Dear Merlin What A Boring Party

I suppose my favorable comments from last week only guaranteed I’d be bored to tears this week.  Again, we are treated to the adverse consequences of Uther hating magic and Merlin’s defiance of the magic ban to save the day.  Let’s get to it, shall we?

Edwin Muirden, sorcerer and Phantom understudy in the touring company of The Phantom of the Opera, curses a beetle that crawls into Morgana’s ear like the Ceti eel of Ceti Alpha V.  Gaius, court physician, can’t cure her but mystery man Edwin conveniently arrives at court and “cures” Morgana . . . by undoing his own actions.

After Merlin is assigned as Edwin’s “manservant,” Gaius either suspects Edwin’s a fraud or just a threat to his job.  Either way, he gets the court archivist to unseal the records of the Great Purge (a/k/a Let’s Go Burn Some Witches Day).  While he’s doing that, Merlin discovers that Edwin is a sorcerer and they bond over their secret.  (And with the introduction of the second closeted sorcerer, I remind everyone of my earlier rambling about Merlin’s journey being a pretext for homosexuality.)

Gaius, armed with his history lesson, confronts Edwin about his past.  Edwin’s parents were dark sorcerers executed during Uther’s Purge.  Edwin tried to save his parents but was burned; Gaius was his treating physician until Edwin up and left.  He’s back now to exact revenge on Uther, and since he knows Merlin’s secret, he’s blackmailing Gaius to keep his mouth shut.  This not only gets Gaius to stay quiet but it gets Uther to send Gaius out to pasture and to appoint Edwin the new court physician.

Uther, of course, played right into Edwin’s trap, for once Gaius is gone, Edwin gives Uther a paralysis-inducing potion and slips a magic beetle in his ear.  And because it’s too soon for Uther to die, Gaius has a change of heart and comes back to stop Edwin.  Edwin, though, tries some magic on Gaius and Merlin walks in, illegally uses his magic, kills Edwin, and saves Uther.  Surprise!

But since Uther thinks Gaius saved him, he makes Gaius a freeman of Camelot and Merlin gets the shaft (non-homoerotic, that is).

Listen to The J Factor with J.B. and Jaimie here or on iTunes.

Season 1, Episode 6: A Remedy to Cure All Ills (aired July 12, 2009)

For more on Merlin, click here.

Sundays at 8/7c on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC, The BBC, and Todd Antony