Merlin "The Kindness Of Strangers": The Burden of Destiny

Can you believe that we're in our final run of Merlin here with The Kindness of Strangers? With 4 episodes left to the season (sob) Merlin is beginning it's end run with setting up the sense of doom and giving Merlin more destiny and burden on his shoulders. The Kindness of Strangers centered on it's central character this week as everyone else, including Arthur was sidelined to minor roles. Although Arthur was basking in his joy of having Gwen back to the way she was. So my theory of her pretending is thrown out of the window. I am happy though that Gwen isn't evil anymore (RIP Evil Gwen). Anyways, this week Morgana continues her hunt for Emyrs and decides to capture Alator (he previous appeared in The Secret Sharer), in order to find out who Emyrs really is. Looks like Merlin is the one in danger this week.

The Kindness of Strangers begins with off with the hunt for Alator as Morgana and her goon squad (love that name) hunt him down. Alator is eventually captured after Morgana basically firebombs the forest, and taken back to her lair. So when Merlin and the happy couple enter the forest for a picnic, he discovers these scorch marks and shows Arthur them. Arthur quickly dismisses them as animal marking, cause you know, animals damage trees all the time. Love how Merlin is the only one to mostly see trouble when it comes. Anyways, while Merlin is gathering flowers for Arthur, an old woman called Fiana appears before him warning him of a great battle coming soon. Curious about her and what happened, Merlin investigates what happened in the forest and discovers that Alator had been captured by Morgana. Not only that, but Fiana is in danger, so Merlin sets out to help her and get some answers. While Morgana is unsuccessful with Alator, and discovers that Finna has found Emyrs and begins the hunt for her.

The Kindness of Strangers was a really good episode as it really changed the dynamic of Merlin and took us along for the ride. The Kindness of Strangers was anything but predictable as the episode sometimes would throw us off from what we thought we knew. As a viewer, I have gotten a bit too comfortable at guessing what is going to happen next, and I'm glad Merlin showed me that I could be wrong. Like whether SPOILER was working with SPOILER. It also has been a while since we got a Merlin heavy episode where it just centered on our favorite wizard. Most episodes have been about people trying to kill Arthur and Merlin stopping this plot. This time, Merlin is the one in danger. On the Arthur side of things, it great to see him happy that Gwen is back, and its amusing to see him pull out all the stops for Gwen. Lucky for Merlin that Gwen knows Merlin was doing all the behind the scenes work. 

Now with Merlin in the spotlight, most of the characters were thrown in the background. There were no combat scenes in The Kindness of Strangers other than with Merlin as the knights were sidelined to scout parties looking for Morgana. In addition to, I feel that the knights are really being treated like a plot device to stop Merlin and hinder him in his missions. I also really miss the episodes that showcased the knights, like back in season 3. They have really changed since then, and it doesn't feel the same. I also think it's safe to say that Merlin has graduated from it's family appeal this week as a lot of people got dead and it was a bit depressing. Like nothing could go right. So for families watching Merlin, you might not enjoy it as much.

So Merlin is feeling his destiny like never before as The Kindness of Strangers rolls out the final chapter in Merlin. This is so depressing talking about the end of Merlin, and I really kick myself every time I mention it. It's true though, and now there is like only 3 episodes left. Bright side, everything that has been building up is probably just gonna explode at some point soon. Like the ever teasing destiny of Arthur's death and Mordred being the one to do it. We'll see what happens. Speaking of Mordred, next week's episode will feature him and his love life with a dangerous woman. When I say dangerous, I mean a wanted woman in Camelot. Before I go, would like to thank the UK fans from spoiling it for us, and to keep doing so. We're almost there guys!

Did you like The Kindness of Strangers?