Merlin: A Doomed Romance

Freak-outs, assassins, and romance – oh my! Is this really only the second episode of the season?

Prince Arthur finally begins to realize how sheltered his life is as the future King of Camelot. His servants will only tell him what he wants to hear and even his knights let him win all the jousting tournaments. Talk about a blow to Arthur’s ego!

Determined more than ever to prove he’s a worthy warrior, Arthur fabricates a tale to King Uther that will send him away for a few days. The real plan here, however, is that Arthur will sneak back into Camelot as a “peasant” and compete in Camelot’s jousting tournament using a decoy and pseudo identity.

In a neighboring kingdom, however, King Odin hires the notorious assassin Myror to kill Arthur in revenge of Arthur killing his own son in an earlier battle. But Myror has a bit of a hard time tracking Arthur down since no one seems to know where he’s disappeared to.

Just because Arthur is now a “peasant,” it doesn’t mean Merlin is off the hook. Quite the contrary! Nothing much at all has changed about Arthur. He still demands to be treated like a Prince and makes no effort to live like a peasant. Merlin continues running around and doing his chores. He even finds a farmer (nicknamed “Sir William”) to stand-in for Arthur at the jousting tournament. Sir William won’t actually joust, though. He’ll show his face before and after the event while the actual jousting will be done by Arthur who will be cleverly covered up by a helmet. If he wins the tournament, Arthur will reveal himself to the crowds and prove once and for all he is a damn good jouster and doesn’t need any special treatment.

But in the meantime, where does one hide the future King of Camelot? Why, at the home of the lowly servant Guinevere, of course!

As you can expect, Arthur is not the most pleasant house guest. He wrongly assumes that Gwen’s bed is actually meant for him, so she must resign herself to sleeping on a few sacks on the floor. He prances around as if he owns her little home and begins grating on Gwen’s nerves until she can’t take it anymore. She snaps and scolds him, and it’s probably the first time somebody has ever told Arthur the harsh reality of his behavior. He realizes he needs to be a bit more humble and genuinely feels some remorse for his actions.

The next day, before Arthur goes off to compete in the final leg of the tournament, he and Gwen share a moment.  And in one of the cheesiest scenes ever aired on television, Arthur and Gwen lock lips with a giant sunbeam illuminating their features. Where did this romance come from?! Some might argue their relationship wasn’t given enough time to mature, but I think Arthur is just really turned on by Gwen’s direct honesty with him. And Gwen knows deep down he’s a good person. But of course their romance is doomed since she is a servant and he is Prince. We’ll see how this works out for the rest of the season!

Myror manages to track Arthur down by following Merlin around (oops, a flaw in the plan!). Myror takes the place of Arthur’s competing Knight in order to get a clear shot at killing the Prince. Merlin figures out what’s going on before it’s too late and with his magic, unhooks the saddle leaving Myror tumbling off the horse and vulnerable to a deadly jousting blow courtesy of Arthur.

Instead of revealing himself to the crowds as the real winner, Arthur lets the decoy, Sir William, take all the glory. He proves to Gwen that he did learn a bit of humility. Awwww!

Season 2, Episode 2: The Once and Future Queen (aired April 9, 2010)

For more on Merlin, click here.

Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal and SyFy.