The Hollow Queen with a romantic interlude between Gwen and Arthur as Merlin rushes out of the room. In the kitchens, Merlin is approached by a young Druid boy, Daegal. Daegal begs Merlin for help for his sick sister, but Merlin says no due to his duties. Daegel pursues this and Merlin eventually says yes (Merlin always helps) and agrees to a meeting point. Merlin tells Giaus this and tells Giaus he should only be gone a day at most. In addition to Arthur not noticing him gone (WRONG). When Arthur does come looking, he once again Merlin has gone to the tarven (that never gets old lol). Merlin and the boy travel to the valley of the kings (I think that is what it is called) only to discover Morgana waiting. Merlin realizes he has been tricked but its too late and Morgana gets the upper hand knocking Merlin out and poisoning him. Back in Camelot, the castle prepares for a visit from a king from another kingdom who is known for his violence and kidnapping of Morgana. This is when Gwen gets the idea of getting the King to do her dirty work and kill Arthur. A bargain is struck and Merlin is still miles away down for the count.
Merlin is on a roll as it moves into the second half of the final season. The Hollow Queen did repeat some elements from previous episodes, but it recycled them in a way that made it more fresh and new. Like with Gwen, we know shes evil now, but we also want her to be good as well. We want Gwen to come back to the side of good. She is quite the villain as well as she was able to manipulate people in order to assassinate Arthur and gain control of the throne. She and Morgana also played Merlin quite nicely into a corner he couldn't magically get himself out of either. It doesn't happen very often that Merlin gets trapped and needs assistance from a third party (ie Great Dragon and Daegal). Who thinks of taking Merlin out before executing the plot? I found myself liking this new character of Daegal, and I had kinda hoped he would stick around for a little longer. He would have been a great ally to Merlin and to Camelot. Oh did I mention Arthur made Giaus do Merlin's job? Arthur stop the elder abuse.
Now what about The Hollow Queen didn't meet the Merlin standard? Once again, this whole theme of servant verses royalty has been done before in previous seasons. Merlin seems to like to play with "my word verses her/his" and develop it's story around it. You'd think that there wasn't someone in Arthur's inner circle who doesn't want to kill him (except Merlin)? I am glad that it isn't an exact copy. I also love how sure Gwen is that the knights will follow her after Arthur's death. I would also like to know what Gwen's end game is other than killing Arthur? Is it just to give the throne to Morgana and serve her? Sounds like an awesome deal no? There was also little to none attention to the knights this week as they were basically wallflowers. They are very manly wallflowers though. Finally, for a king, Arthur seemed to be overwhelmed by that warrior pretty easily. What was Camelot teaching Arthur?
I enjoyed The Hollow Queen as the villains finally had a half decent plan to kill Arthur. I'm pretty sure we all were waiting for Merlin to show up and save the day in the nick of time. I think it is time though that Arthur becomes aware of Gwen's treachery and apparently Merlin does too since that is what next week's episode preview promises us. There are like only 5 more episodes left to the final season of Merlin! So Merlin fans, enjoy it while it lasts.
What did you think of Daegal? Didn't you love Arthur making Giaus help him dress?
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