Cult Box Review 5x08 

With the desperate plea of a druid boy tugging on his heartstrings, Merlin is led into dangerous territory on a mission of mercy, leaving just as Camelot prepares for the arrival of a fearsome warlord. A testing moment for Arthur, the King’s usual bravado is absent as he wears his heart on his sleeve and leans heavily on both his wife and physician for support. He is clearly daunted by taking on the challenge of meeting his guest. Of course, one of those trusted confidants is only paying lip service.

After the failed attempt on her husband’s life, puppet queen Gwen managed to divert the blame on first an innocent stable hand, then Merlin and finally a potion seller. Her second attempt is a little more complex: knowing that Merlin suspects her, she has contrived to get him out of the way and use the visiting warlord to do the dirty work for her.

With Gwen continuing her role as Morgana’s agent, there is plenty at stake and this is a generally more serious endeavour. Her betrayal is all the more shocking as she still clearly enjoys her husband’s affections and it makes us wonder how their relationship can ever survive this once the truth is revealed.

Merlin’s absence escalates the tension and Gaius steps into his role of Arthur’s sometime counsellor and also Gwen’s sparring partner. It also offers the opportunity for some great work from Richard Wilson who thrives in delivering understatement and subtly raised eyebrows.

Visiting warlord ‘The Sarrum of Amata’, and we never quite discerned whether that was a rank, a title or actually his name, is a grizzled beast of a man. With a reputation built up from the start, it is a good thirteen minutes before he makes his impressive entrance on horseback, surrounded by his warriors.

John Shrapnel plays the character for all its worth. Calculating and sadistic, he delivers a terrifically monstrous performance and is more than a match for Gwen. Sarrum too holds an enmity for magic and a hatred for Morgana, which unlocks a pair of this series’ ongoing questions.

For Merlin himself, it is wonderful to see him out of the castle confines and acting as a lone agent, rather than fulfilling his subjugate role to Arthur. Uther’s long shadow falls over the boy, but Merlin easily wins his confidence and gets to enjoy genuinely heroic moments for his trouble, as well as demonstrating both his medical and magical talents.

Daegal (Alfie Stewart) is well cast and is quite the innocent, though there is something of a certain young wizard about him. As the elder in the dynamic, Merlin gets to espouse his views and his faith in Arthur, as well as properly enjoy his role of leading man. Despite the consequences on this occasion, and as much fun as the Clark Kent stuff is, he really ought to get out of Camelot on his own more often!

Once again pulling the strings of her puppet, Morgana operates on the periphery of the action. Despite tantalisingly promising a proper magical confrontation, the story does not quite deliver. However, the consequences of this encounter will surely raise questions that threaten Merlin’s secret identity further.

Out in the forest, there are some beautiful transition shots of dappled sunlight through the forest canopy. The episode offers a good balance of Gwen’s machinations at court and Merlin’s forest journey. Both strands get the time to breath and Colin Morgan fans should be thrilled with this more Merlin-centric episode.

Director Alice Troughton clearly knows how to get the best from the cast and although the episode promises more heartbreak for our hero, it also brings a renewed sense of purpose



I'm not sure I like this part .... "she still clearly enjoys her husband’s affections and it makes us wonder how their relationship can ever survive this once the truth is revealed."

I don't like that it makes it sound like Gwen is doing this of her own freewill when we all know she is not. I think that when the truth of the enchantment is revealed no one, except possibly Gwen, will blame her for her actions. The word betrayal connotates that she is willfully trying to kill her husband when we all know were it not for whatever Morgana did to her she would never harm Arthur.

I am slightly confused on this episode and the next few episodes?!? I wonder how they are going to do 5x09???? Can't wait!!!

I'm going to take whatever this person says with a grain of salt because this is the same reviewer who said that 5x07 was a light hearted episode. When clearly it wasn't.

Thank you, May. I have ceased to bother with these reviews other than to get the playing field. All are highly subjective and invariably have the wrong read. I have been watching the fail on most of the usual suspects throughout this season so far. So aside from getting the lay of the land, I don't bother with any of their interpretations. Sounds like a great episode actually.

This is just one persons view of the episode, I'm sure we will all see it slightly differently, thus leading to our comments on the Discussions after the Episodes so kindly initiated by HQ.

I too focused on the 'clearly enjoys her husbands affections' bit but this could just be that bits of her own self slip through the enchantment.

Not sure why we call it 'enchantment' because an enchantment is usually something nice so I would call it 'bewitching', Gwen has been bewitched by Morgana.

@Stacey: Exactly, I listened to this person about last week's episode and actually went into that episode thinking that I was going to have a good laugh. Tell me what was funny about last week's episode? Nothing. I'm only going to read these reviews just to get a gist of what's going to happen and not bother listening to their interpretations of the episode.

@BradAngeleyes: You're right, that bit could very well mean that the real Gwen is slipping through.

I am completely dismissing the 'clearly enjoys' comment. Chalking it up to Gwen's brilliance in her role as puppet and Arthur's continued dim-bulb nature that they seem to be pressing. Of course she would appear to enjoy his affection. If she didn't, that would be suspicious.

Exactly - she tolerates his affections and appears to enjoy them for the sake of appearances at court. She has already said to Morgana that she hates all of them, so to actually enjoy Arthur's affections wouldn't make any sense. Unless it's the real Gwen peeking through of course (which I definitely wouldn't be unhappy about!!)

Also, I don't think that anyone will blame her for her actions - all of Camelot know from experience that Morgana is a manipulative bitch who will stop at nothing to gain power - no one more so than Arthur, Merlin and the knights. Besides, no - one blamed Merlin when he made an attempt on the King's life. Personally, I think they're just teasing us for episode 9.

I've noticed lately in some reviews that it's worded in such a way that this is the type of person Gwen is now which would totally make no sense at all.

And I agree what was said about this reviewer last week. I definitely was one of those who thought the last episode was going to be much lighter than it was because of it.

Maybe she does enjoy her husband's affections. Maybe she's not that far gone if you get my drift. Having him as a husband might make that one thing rather difficult to bewitch out of a her. I mean, seriously. That's probably at a deeper level than all the rest of what Morgana did to her mind. "wink" Just kidding. Sort of.

And by the way. If this is a "spoiler free" review, I would hate to see a spoilery one.

Well I can't wait to watch this episode if only for the 5x09 preview....

It's Alice and Brangel! Can't be that bad!