The season finale opens with a bang as Camelot is on fire and Arthur is commanding his knights to hold strong. “I know you’re tired but we must make every shot count.”
They steele themselves against the castle walls with flaming arrows loaded in their crossbows. The dragon descends upon them and their arrows do no damage.
Camelot is in dire straits.
The hospital is overflowing with the wounded and they’ve run out of fresh water. But Guinevere goes out to get some despite the dangers and Arthur is forced to save her but he gets slashed by the dragons claws in the process. The feelings between these two are coming back to the surface even though she is just a servant and King Uther would never allow them to be together.
Finally, Gaius suggests to King Uther that there is one Dragon Lord left and he is the only hope to stop this dragon.
His name is Balinor.
Arthur and Merlin are dispatched to find him but before they go Gaius reveals a secret. That’s the cool thing about season finales is that cool information is revealed and secrets are brought to light.
The way in which Gaius looks at Merlin gives you the feeling that Balinor is Merlin’s father. This is the link which allows Merlin to be so magical because his mother is so normal but his father had magic in his blood.
Their journey does not produce the information they seek. At least not right off the bat.
They do get valuable Intel that Balinor lives in a cave. He will not welcome them because he’s been so persecuted he now hates everyone. Merlin is apprehensive and yet slightly giddy with anticipation about meeting his father.
They have some enemies on their tail as they are on their way to the cave. The wound is devastating Arthur’s energy and he is greatly fatigued passing out.
Their peril only increases.
Merlin puts Arthur’s unconscious body on the horse and rides toward the cave. He arrives face-to-face with his father and hesitates. Balinor demands that he goes to bring his friend who is ill in to see him.
As you might suspect the initial request to Balinor goes poorly. He is angry at Uther for hunting him down and banishing him from Camelot. He is even further infuriated that Uther continued to hunt him despite him being outside of Uther’s kingdom and far outside the realm of Camelot.
He’s been hunted like a dog and obviously has no desire to help the one who hounded him seemingly to the ends of the earth.
Merlin and Arthur are dejectedly headed home. This is when Merlin plays the Gaius card.
Balinor recognizes the name of Gaius and decides to help them. This is when Merlin reveals to Balinor when they are alone in the woods that he is Merlin’s father.
The secrets are going deeper because Arthur was moving around in the woods so we don’t know for certain whether he heard or not.
I believe Arthur did hear in this information but will keep it a secret.
Then we get the story of how “being a Dragon Lord is a genetic thing handed down from father to son for thousands of years.”
And the old “you never know if you have the power in you until you’re faced with your first dragon” thing.
So we are led to believe that Merlin will come face-to-face with the dragon who helped him for so long but who has now become his antagonist. It seems like it will come down to a death match between Merlin and the Dragon.
At least that’s what the foreshadowing is wanting us to believe.
Will there be a surprise?
So far it’s been disappointing in terms of surprises. They are attacked by soldiers of this realm because this realm is enemy of Camelot. Predictably Merlin is in great peril and his father Balinor jumps in front to save him. Of course he takes the sword in the stomach and dies.
Before taking his last breath he imparts valuable knowledge about the dragon’s heart being on the right side of its chest and how the Dragon Lords powers are passed down from father to son.
Arthur believes Camelot is doomed so they ride back dejected. He convinces his father that they should have one last great stand. Instead of cowering behind Camelot’s walls waiting for doom. He says they should ride out on horseback on open ground to meet the Dragon. This way they will be much more maneuverable.
King Uther says it is pointless then Arthur asks “should we just stay here and cower to our deaths?”
So he gets King Uther’s blessing. Gaius now knows that Merlin is the Dragon Lord who can save them. Does he have what it takes inside him?
I don’t know whether they will leave this off as a cliffhanger or resolve it with Merlin defeating the dragon.
Merlin comes face-to-face with the dragon in a death blow stare down. I won’t give away the ending so definitely watch this episode.
The episode goes off the air saying “Merlin will return soon.” Guess there will be a season 3.
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The Knights of Medeer have been awoken. Long ago 7 knights of Camelot were seduced by a great sorceress. They wreaked havoc and destruction leaving death in their wake.
They were only stilled when the sorceress was killed.
Gaius is telling big stories that has everyone in an uproar and worried for their lives. As usual Arthur, Merlin and the band of knights are off to investigate this tale. Arthur believes it is just bunk. But he’s going along with his father’s orders anyway.
As we know there’s definitely more than meets the eye going on here.
The blonde woman Morgose who defeated Arthur a few episodes ago in the sword battle has reappeared. Her vendetta against Uther has not subsided. She is the one who raised the knights of Medeer.
Morgana goes to a clandestine meeting with the mysterious blonde sorceress Morgose. The sorceress puts Morgana under a spell after Morgana vows her undying devotion to the sorceress and the greater cause of ending the reign of Uther who she now hates. She is tired of pretending to love a man she hates. Her rage seeths and boils over.
Meanwhile Arthur and Merlin are on their quest with the knights. They meet up with the knights of Medeer. Arthur thrusts his sword into the chest and stomach of two of them but they are undaunted. He is surprised that they do not die.
The legends were true. The stories Gaius was telling them about the fierceness of these knights and the destruction they wrought is all too real.
Merlin has to use some magic but Arthur does not notice.
It seems this will finally be the episode where Merlin is found out as the very powerful wizard that he is. In the last episode the crystal of Neatid showed Merlin using his magical powers against a dragon which we can presume is the Dragon that’s been helping him. Once he sets the Dragon free apparently all bets are off when the Dragon wants to destroy Camelot.
The havoc that Merlin saw is starting to break loose. The blonde sorceress Morgose has cast some sort of sleeping spell over Camelot. A clandestine meeting with Morgana allowed her to place a protection spell on Morgana.
So everyone else’s ill but since Merlin and Arthur escaped the knights of Medeer they return to Camelot. Since they were gone they were unaffected but find everyone in Camelot is asleep. They find Morgana who is the only one awake and they have many questions for her.
The barbarians are at the gates.
Or precisely the blonde sorceress is leading the seven knights of Medeer into the defenseless Camelot. The tension is tightening.
What will happen to Camelot?
Morgose is leading the Knights of Medeer right in to kill the king. Merlin goes back to the Dragon for more advice but the Dragon is unwilling to give it. He no longer trusts that Merlin will free him.
Merlin makes a daring swear on his mother’s life and this convinces the Dragon. It’s a simple thing to do the Dragon says because the magic that caused the entire Camelot to go to sleep is too powerful to just dispel with words. His power source is the Lady Morgana herself and she must be killed if it is to be broken.
Merlin is clearly torn because he has an affection if not an outright love for the Lady Morgana.
But the tide is rising and Camelot is threatened to be swept away by it. Merlin and Arthur are starting to be affected by the powerful spell. Morgose and the seven knights are closing in to kill Uther.
Arthur and Merlin have that moment of truth style Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid ending. They look at each other knowing that this is probably the end for both of them. Arthur charges out to fight the seven knights.
Merlin must make peace with what he knows he has to do. Even though he is torn and almost can’t bring himself to do it he gets Morgana to drink the poisoned water. She almost immediately falls ill.
The spell is broken and Morgose bursts in to ask Merlin what he has done. He says he will only tell her what poison he used after she puts the knights down. Morgose now knows the poison and she sweeps herself and Morgana magically away in a puff of black smoke. We can only speculate that she will save Morgana and the 2 of them will be powerful enemies of Camelot.
Morgose hatred for Uther still burns white hot. Morgana now has a burning hatred for Uther and a new hatred for the betrayal of Merlin who just poisoned her. These powerful vendettas must be satisfied or the ladies will die trying.
The big finish has Merlin freeing the dragon with no promise from the Dragon that he will leave Camelot unharmed. Uther has been keeping the Dragon prisoner so it has a vendetta against Camelot.
So Camelot is safe for the moment but the season finale is the next episode.
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The Desert Storm finds our Sliders upon a desert world that is suffering from severe scarcity and drought. The water is incredibly difficult to find on this world and therefore is incredibly expensive. To further complicate matters they don’t accept cash. They only trade in usable and useful goods.
The Sliders are out wandering in the desert and end up finding this town. They see a girl who is tied up and gagged and this black guy and a white guy talking between themselves. One of them says “We’ll settle on a price later”.
The Sliders assume that this is the slave trade but the guy says that he doesn’t deal in the slave trade. “Too much bad karma”.
Our Sliders think they are doing a good thing when they take the girl away. And she wants to be taken away because she does not yet know her destiny. She believes she is part of the family of the desert people but the truth will soon be revealed.
Anyway she goes in a truck with the Sliders and they’re driving out into the desert. These Mad Max looking gang of desert bandits complete with motorcycles, go cart looking deals, and bows and arrows come after them. It has a real ThunderDome quality to it.
Once they see that the water witch is with them they agree not to harm them. She gets out of the car and goes into this weird trance and tells them there’s a ton of water right beneath their feet right now.
So they decide to make camp for the night.
During the night the original white guy who had attempted to take the water witch comes back and mistakenly kidnaps Wade. He thinks it is the water witch who is named Devon.
He discovers his mistake the next morning and starts to tell Wade the true story of where Devon comes from.
They start walking and talking and she decides that he is telling the truth. So the Sliders are now allied with this guy to get Devon back to her place, back amongst her people.
At first she is unconvinced but then she does this weird telepathic communication with her mother and then is on board. They get to where her family lives which on this world is called Eden. Most people think it’s just a myth like the lost city of Atlantis we have here. It isn’t a myth it’s just that her people choose to keep it a secret.
Upon touching the entrance to her real home she sees the truth of how the desert people killed her father and stole her when she was about five years old.
She is happy living with her people. But the desert people have followed them out there and gain entrance into Eden. Devon has the unique power to basically erase someone’s mind and so she does that and the desert people never find her again. It basically makes their leader sound like a lunatic saying that he is found Eden but he does know how to get back there.
The Sliders end up giving them the beautiful vortex show as they slide out of Eden and onto the next adventure.
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So we land on consumerism world with its political and socioeconomic message. This episode was all about the strong message and the anti-consumerism high-mindedness. It’s okay for a Christmas episode but other than that I would definitely skip over it.
Recently the sliders run out of the world that they were just in and nearly trample this nativity seen on this in the New World.
They are all in a huff and angry at Wade because she apparently smiled at one of the pygmy natives. In the world they were just in when a woman smiles at a man it means she’s willing to bear his children.
And they don’t take misunderstandings well. When it was cleared up and Wade said that she was only smiling and did not intend to have his children the natives got incredibly restless. Quinn and Rembrandt come through the vortex holding a shield each with five or six arrows in them. So clearly the natives have gone rogue and attempted to kill them because of this miscommunication.
The first two minutes were the most exciting parts of this episode.
The rest was basically a sermon raving against consumerism and subliminal advertising. I’m no fan of subliminal advertising but I’m also no fan of overarching sermons either.
They did make this a Christmas story in that on this world they have these crazy sky malls that are literally in the sky and they look like they’re floating on clouds. Wade’s father and sister Kelly in this world work at the sky mall and they meet up with the Sliders. They give the group a job because Kelly is the manager of the sky mall.
Some of the key elements though are that they will make $200 per day, $100 per day will go to their housing, the other $80 must be spent however they choose meaning they can only save $20 per day. This is how this world works. You have to buy stuff and buy lots of stuff.
They uncovere this scheme of the head manager over the entire mall how he is using subliminal advertising to artificially and illegaly juice profits. This is highly illegal even in this world but he has been getting away with it since no one has discovered it or called him upon it.
But the Sliders do call him to the mat for this once they discover it.
They go into his office to get the evidence and find all they need. They download the financing company data with his shady loans as well as the data on subliminal advertising onto a disc and then nail him to the wall for it.
One of the more unsavory victims he had was this young mother who at the beginning of the episode left her baby in a church with sliders. She did this because she did not want him to grow up in debtors prison the way she was currently. On this world if you can’t pay your debt on demand they own you.
They can literally put these bracelets on you that restricts your movement until your debt is paid off. The problem is the interest, loans, and the way they make you spend most of what you make that these kind of loans will never be paid back even over a lifetime. That means you are at best an indentured servant and at worst a slave.
So the Sliders free this young mother and reunite her with her son.
And they all spend Christmas with Wade’s dad and sister Kelly. It was a wonderful little family Christmas and a small little piece of home that the Sliders get to enjoy. Only Kelly knows the truth about Wade’s true identity.
They take a sappy picture and then walk out the back door opening the vortex onto the newest adventure.
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