The Merlin episode “The Sins of the Father” is a very appropriately titled one. Before the end of this episode we will discover the treachery and terrible secret that King Uther has been hiding from his son Arthur regarding how he became and what became of his mother.
The episode opens with some crazy action going on.
King Uther is having a ceremony where he is crowning or dubbing a new batch of Knights. It seems innocent enough but then the camera zooms out to the outside of the castle and you hear sword clanging going on. There’s this crazy armored knight who is hacking up the guards.
This mysterious knight takes out 5 guards before making her way into the knight’s ceremony room.
She throws down one of her gloves at Arthur’s feet which is a symbol for a knight’s challenge for a duel to the death.
Arthur picks up this glove accepting her challenge and says that before he does so for the knight to reveal their identity. It turns out to be a beautiful woman named Morgose. We would later learn that she is an enchantress and very powerful magician with an equally powerful agenda for Camelot.
Why she is against Camelot we do not know but the plot is building.
Arthur is having difficulty with the fact she’s a woman. The Kings historian goes through over 400 years of law and could find nothing to discount a woman’s ability to lay down a knightly challenge. So Arthur is now stuck.
He has accepted the challenge and so if he backs out all the knights who believe in him will have to take pause. If he does not have to uphold the ideals of knighthood how are the knights supposed to live up to them. What will cause them to want to live up to them if Arthur doesn’t?
The fight goes down the next day with much ado. King Uther declares it a duel to the death.
It goes down about as we would expect.
They are both very good with the sword and have a stalemate for the beginning part of the battle. It is almost like two boxers just feeling each other out with jabs before the real fight begins. Neither one tires out. Arthur gets the upper hand and slashes Morgose’s right bicep.
She falls to the ground and loses her sword with a bleeding cut open.
Arthur hesitates and allows her to regain her sword. The fight continues for a little while longer when Arthur makes a massive sword strike that misses its mark and cuts the wood fence that acts as the barrier around the arena where they are fighting. She uses this to gain the upperhand and kicks him in the leg almost MMA style. He falls to the ground and she now has the upper hand with her sword point right over his heart.
He is defeated but she shows mercy on him. She pauses offering him a deal for his life.
The sorceress Morgose says that he is to come visit her 3 days hence and accept whatever challenge she sets for him. If he agrees she will allow him to live. He nods in agreement reluctantly.
So the stage is set. What crazy mysterious “challenge” will she foist upon our hero Arthur?
Before Morgose leaves she is visited by the Lady Morgana. Morgana senses some sort of connection to her but Morgose is playing her cards close to the vest. She doesn’t reveal to Morgana that they are half sisters. She offers her a bracelet to help her sleep but Morgana refuses the gift.
Later that night and before she has left Camelot the sorceress Morgose comes into Morgana’s chamber watching her toss and turn in a very light sleep. She casts a spell and leaves the bracelet on the chest. It is at the foot of her bed. The Lady Morgana has the best sleep she has had in years and Guinevere has to come in to wake her up. It is all the way at midday.
Arthur sets out on his quest even though he does not know what he’s walking into. He and Merlin are attacked along the way to get to where the sorceress Morgose lives.
When they first get to her dwelling place there is this wooden block with an executioner’s ax hanging out. It’s very ominous and then the lady Morgose starts walking down the steps. She tells Arthur to put his head on the block.
He looks at Merlin with a quizzical look because if she was going to kill him why did she do it yesterday?
He relents and drops down ready to accept his fate with honor. She raises the axe as if she is going to bring it down and right when Merlin is about to cast a spell to stop her she lets it down. He has proven his honor to her once again even in the face of death.
She offers him the ability to have knowledge of his mother which he of course cannot resist.
So they do that whole dog and pony show that night with lighted candles and a crazy wind blowing. Arthur’s mom appears but we are unsure if only he is seeing her or if Merlin has seen her as well. We are also unsure if a regular person would be able to see her because Merlin is a magician.
A terrible secret is revealed that King Uther went to Nimue a very powerful sorcerer in her own right because his wife could not conceive. He begged Nimue to let his wife conceive even though she told him that for a life to be given then one must be taken away. The woman who was taken away turned out to be his wife Egrain which is Arthur’s mother.
So Arthur was born out of magic which cost his mom her life.
He now goes back to Camelot with a vendetta against his father.
There is a tremendous sword battle between them and then Merlin inserts himself into the room where the two of them are having their death clash.
I won’t ruin the big finish but I will just say that this is a must-see episode of Merlin.
This episode of Merlin is a continuation from last week’s Beauty and the Beast. A troll has made her way into the inner circle of the king’s heart using black magic and love potions.
She has a very powerful magic potion she drinks to maintain the illusion of being human. It takes away all her troll warts and her hideousness.
She has moved in quickly and is now the queen. So it is time for the wedding night to happen. King Uther there moves in to make it happen and she puts this crazy little love potion breath she has that puts him right to sleep.
So he does not get to consummate his marriage this night.
Awakening he is ready to go and consummate. The Queen is upset because her father’s seal has been stolen. She accuses Merlin because he knows her secret and is wanting to expose her. So she has to take this enemy out of the equation.
So Merlin is on the run however he must still see that the truth about the new queen comes out before she does any damage.
She is already using her love potion powers over the King. She is in this only for the power and the money. She whispers in the king’s ear that his subjects are too lazy and should have to pay more taxes. King Uther agrees.
He orders his son Arthur to start collecting the taxes from the people. Arthur goes out to do so but what he finds is very disturbing. He finds the people simply can’t afford these new draconian taxes because they’re just too high.
Right now the people favor the king, are loyal, and have much goodwill towards the royal family. If they continue with these ruinous taxes that goodwill will disappear.
He defies his father.
The Queen convinces king Uther that Arthur is too weak. If something is to happen to the king he must not inherit Camelot being so weak. The king being under her love spell agrees and asks if it would make her more comfortable if she were to be heir to the throne.
She heartily agrees.
So the king has a ceremony to tell Arthur that he’s been disinherited and Queen Katrina will be the heir to the throne.
Merlin is very crafty and he sees that she is maintaining this enchantment because of a potion. He sneaks into her room at night and grabs the potion. He instructs Gaius to make one that tastes the same as this but obviously wouldn’t have the enchantment. He sneaks back in in the morning and puts the new potion where the old one had been.
As you might imagine she drinks the placebo and during the disinherentance ceremony she starts to itch and the enchantment fades. Everyone can see her true troll nature now except for the king himself who is still under the love spell.
She is able to use this for quite a while still.
Merlin goes to the Dragon for advice. The dragon informs him that since troll magic is so strong the love spell will only be broken by the king crying a tear of true remorse.
So they hatch a scheme to have Arthur appear dead so King Uther will be able to cry. It’s something like the potion that we saw in Romeo and Juliet. There’s one potion to basically stop your life signs and then an antidote to revive you. And they have 30 minutes to get him the antidote.
So Arthur agrees to do so. King Uther cries tears of joy and realizes he married a troll. Merlin barely gets him a drop of the antidote in time.
But the trolls spell is forever broken and Camelot can be safe again.
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Merlin is a show that I’ve recently gotten into which highlights the early part of the adventure that Merlin and King Arthur shared.
On tonight’s episode the lady Morgana who is currently the ward and trusted and beloved child of Arthur’s father King Uther has set out on a journey. She is going to visit her father’s grave.
Of course, they set out on a path which is basically a little road surrounded by woods on all sides and you can just get the sense that the inevitable ambush is coming. This is due to Morgana being someone Uther highly values and so capturing her would obviously be of great value to whoever held her.
King Uther is quite fond of her and also quite wealthy so would definitely pay to get her back.
The bad guys know this and their ambush works. There are many losses on both sides but they capture both the lady Morgana and her servant Guenevere.
Their capture is short-lived though through a clever ruse lady Morgana concocts when she says that she wants to bathe. She has hatched a scheme with Guenevere where they will escape. When the time comes Morgana makes her escape but Guenevere twists her ankle and she is left behind.
The mercenary captors take Guenevere and masquerade her as the lady Morgana to their master. Their master of course wants to ransom the lady Morgana back to King Uther for a large sum of money.
The lady Morgana makes her way back to Camelot and tells this tale to King Uther. She demands and then begs that he send a rescue party but he says that it’s a heavily fortified castle. “How many men should I risk to save your maid?” he asks.
This leaves the lady Morgana distraught but King Uther’s son Arthur is quite in love with Guenevere and is set on mounting a rescue. He takes his trusty servant Merlin and they’re off onto the trail.
Lancelot enters as a sword fighter into the mercenaries lair not knowing that Guinevere is there. They had met earlier and a spark of love blossomed between the two of them. Destiny has now brought them back together.
We are anxious to see what happens and they’re these giant rat like creatures that make an appearance and make things interesting. This episode had cage fighting, the giant rats, and of course adventures on horseback with a daring rescue. Arthur and Merlin even scaled the castle wall.
All in all an episode you should take a look at if you like fantasy and magic because it is quite captivating.
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