Merlin "A Lesson in Vengeance": Bad Is The New Black

Merlin didn't leave anything to waste as it set out right away to use it's latest villain to destroy Arthur. Who would have thought that Gwen would be such an awesome villain too? Watching A Lesson In Vengeance was real good fun as Gwen manipulated everyone in her way and how easy it was for her to play the innocent card on herself. Other than Merlin no one suspected that it was her and framing people was no real challenge to her since Gwen was Queen. Gwen is no match for Merlin's powers of observation though as Merlin soon catches onto Gwen's plot. I swear Merlin is like a evil blood hound who can sniff out evil around Arthur.

So Gwen begins making her plays on Arthur from the very beginning of A Lesson In Vengeance with a picnic to celebrate their anniversary when Arthur's house becomes spooked. Soon they are ambushed with men, but Arthur (with help from Merlin) defeats them. Back at Camelot, they soon discover that Arthur's saddle had been tampered with and all suspicions are thrown on the royal stable hand. With all the evidence pointing him, Arthur sentence him to death for treason. This is when Merlin begins suspecting things aren't right and talks to the sable hand and discovers someone had threaten his mother for his silence. This person being Gwen, who finds out when Merlin tells Arthur. Gwen decides to clean up the mess and check in with Morgana. Being the lovely handler that she is, she provides Gwen with poison to render Arthur unconscious and dead. Gwen soon sets up her next fall guy, Merlin.

It's official, I love evil Gwen. She brings her own kinda of evil that Morgana couldn't compare to when she was the corruption inside Camelot. Morgana was this sinister evil while Gwen is this calm, collected, and innocent like evil. Other than Merlin, no one really suspects her and she can easily weasel her way out of it by throwing suspicion onto others. It's good to be queen right? So smart move on Morgana for turning Gwen into her ally. Which makes you wonder, does Morgana do this for everyone of her allies, or just Gwen? Merlin fell into a similar pattern though of he knows, she knows, but say anything due to my rank. We always need a character who knows whats going on. Merlin fans will also glad to hear that old Merlin returned and was awesome as ever. The old Merlin is always fun to see, because he will always do the things regular Merlin would not do. Like insulting people, knocking them out with pans, and using magic.

Much as I love evil Gwen, I do find her turn a bit sudden and fast. She spent years helping Merlin and Arthur stop Morgana. In addition to marrying the man she loved and thought she would never marry. Now she is willing to kill Arthur so easily? Not to mention throw Merlin, a fellow servant, out to the sharks? Gwen even underestimated the friendship of Arthur and Merlin. I would like to also point out that none of the knights stood up for Merlin despite knowing him so long and how he is with Arthur. Wasn't Gwaine Merlin's friend, but not a word in Merlin's defense? At least, Merlin has Giaus.

This is not the end of Gwen's evil plans as we can expect to see some more in future coming episodes. In addition to Merlin once again having to fight inside Camelot's walls to keep Arthur safe. Which is going to be a challenge since he is going up against the Queen. Going to be fun no? Merlin really likes to play with rank verses ranks with it's story lines. We saw this with Merlin against Morgana, and now Merlin verses Gwen. This is going to be fun. Although, I wish Arthur would stop using the excuse of Merlin being too stupid to pull this stop off, but  instead use the reason of Merlin is my friend. Arthur does trust Merlin more than anything no? Next week, Merlin finds trouble as usual.

Do you like Evil Gwen? Do you think that the knights should have stood up for Merlin?