Merlin Forums

-Spoilers are not allowed.
-Bashing ships/characters is not allowed.
-Discussion is welcome, arguing is not.
-Trolls won't be fed and wars won't be held. They should be ignored and reported.
-Be respecful, keep it cool.

___________________

5x06 Masterlists:

Episode 5x06 magic and spells:
-Morgana conjures up a nest of snakes using a spell. Their bite poison Sir Leon and Sir Percival, planting visions in their minds to lure Arthur to her.
-Morgana knocks Gwen off her horse using her mind.
-The Mandrake roots give Gwen visions of Elyan, Merlin and Arthur as well as illusions of hair-rising screams and mocking laughter.
-Merlin feels the magic of Queen Mab.
-Merlin uses his mind’s eye to find the way.
-Merlin diverts the trajectory of an arrow aiming Arthur against a wall.
-Morgana has conjured a sword to fight anyone attempting to free Gwen.
-Morgana controls Gwen’s mind after the Queen has been rescued.

Episode 5x06 RIP list:
-Elyan.

Episode 5x06 Lives Saved list:
-Elyan and Gwaine save Leon and Percival’s lives bringing them back to Camelot and Gaius making a potion for them to heal.

What Arthur calls Merlin:
-

What Merlin calls Arthur:
-

Times Sir Leon says “Sire”:
-None.

Liar, liar:

Arthur's attributes to being the great king of legend:
-Despite his will to carry on he listens to reason when Merlin and then Leon tell him to stop for the night.
-He comforts Elyan in his distress and tries to make him not to feel guilty over Gwen’s kidnapping.
-He decides to go to The Dark Tower alone since it’s a place of many horrors.
-He is heartbroken when he realizes that Elyan has died.

Arthur is knocked unconscious or prevented from knowing about Merlin's magic:
-Arthur is sleeping when Merlin feels the magic of Queen Mab.
-Merlin is has his back turned to Arthur when he is using his mind’s eye to find the way.
-Arthur has his back turned to Merlin when he diverts the trajectory of an arrow.

What Arthur says about magic:
-Nothing.

Potions made by Gaius:
-A potion to heal Gwaine and Percival (one dram of hollyhock, two drams of dianthus and three grains of lungwort).

Gaius's smacks:
-None.

'I have faith Arthur makes a great king' statements:
-None.

Merlin and Great Dragon meetings:
-None.

Great Dragon's riddles:
-None.

Aithusa meetings:
-None.

Morgana's premonitory dreams:
-None.

Morgana's smirks of doom:
-

Arthur and Gwen moments:
-After realizing that the knights have been attacked, he scans the room for Gwen and freaks out when he can’t find Gwen. Once he learns what happened he addresses some sorrowful looks to both Elyan and Gwen and goes away. He instructs to ride at dawn to go find her.
-At the perspective of losing Guinevere for a second time Arthur is barely able to talk and wants to be on his own.
-Morgana is certain that Arthur loves Gwen over anything and will come after her even though being aware that he is walking into a trap.
-He wants to press on in the search after dark.
-He is not afraid to go to The Dark Tower despite it’s a place of horror.
-He explodes in a hurtful and irate cry when he realizes that they’ve walked in circles and wasted an entire day.
-He pushes the knights to the limit as they can’t afford to rest until they find Gwen.
-Arthur never gives up, presses on at night, refuses to rest, doesn’t want to even pause and is determined to find a way through the impenetrable forest.
-Arthur puts a comforting hand to Gwen’s shoulder during Elyan’s funeral.
-Arthur and Gwen sleep cuddled together in bed.

Chestporns/Bodyporns:
-Percival’s footpornt and bicepsporn.

Dungeon time:
-Gwen.

Fashion:

Merlin:
-Blue shirt and red scarf (day 1).
-Blue shirt, red scarf and brown jacket.
-Blue shirt, red scarf and brown jacket (day 2, 3 and 4).
-Blue shirt, blue scarf and brown jacket (day 5).

Arthur:
-Red padded shirt and chainmail (day 1).
-Red shirt.
-Red padded shirt and chainmail with voiders (arm armour piece) and hauberk (chest armour piece) and Camelot cloak (day 2).
-Red padded shirt and chainmail.
-Chainmail with voiders (arm armour piece) and hauberk (chest armour piece) (day 3).
-Red padded shirt and chainmail with voiders (arm armour piece) and hauberk (chest armour piece) and Camelot cloak .
-Red padded shirt and chainmail.
-Red padded shirt and chainmail with voiders (arm armour piece) and hauberk (chest armour piece) and Camelot cloak (day 4).
-Red padded shirt and chainmail with voiders (arm armour piece) and hauberk (chest armour piece) and Camelot cloak (day 5).
-White shirt.

Morgana:
-Black dress and black cloak (day 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Gwen:
-Dark pink dress with maroon bodice and blue cloak (day 1).
-Dark pink dress with maroon bodice (day 2, 3, 4).
-Black dress (day 5).
-White nightgown with golden embroidered leaves.
-Black dress and black cloak.

Gaius:
-White shirt and brown pants (day 1).
-White shirt and brown pants with brown robe.
-Green robe (day 5).

I feel like I'm always the buzz kill, but this episode was over hyped and done very simplistic considering the subject matter. Sometimes I wish the people who wrote the reviews and the episode synopsis each week were the ones to write the actual program. It wasn't terrible, but it was pretty boring. Screams and laughing Arthur, Merlin, Elyan jumping out and screaming is the image of fear and dread? How traumatizing. Gwen's meeting with Morgana at the end was very difficult to believe. I'm from the States so maybe I'm a bit ignorant to how it works over across the pond, but that there would be any question this episode would be rated anything but G perplex's me. There's more drama, danger, and suspense to be had on most cartoons.

The cast has always pulled it off, but they're starting to struggle. I can't even get upset with TPTB anymore, I just wish the media and reviewers would stop over hyping episodes to the point when you watch them it's a huge let down.

/rant

Question is Gwen under a spell

Well, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I've long settled in my mind that the writing is lacking on this show, but I thought the directing and performances by all to be outstanding. I thought Bradley was perfect in his reaction to his missing wife. He could hardly express what he was feeling. If he'd said too much it would have been overdone. I liked that he played it as one who was deep into himself on the issue and that Merlin was feeling it with him to the extent he was. The way Merlin would look at him from time to time, knowing Arthur's hurt and sorrow, feeling it with him because of THEIR connection. I thought that part of the story was beautifully done. How anyone couldn't feel Gwen's torment and confusion is beyond me. I have no words for the depth of Angel's delivery of what the queen was going through, but yet showing the glimpses of that inner strength. You hate Morgana; you detest her in fact. We're supposed to, so they're doing their job on that. And the two women's scenes were phenomenal. The whole thing had this mature, haunting sense to it. For me, I wouldn't want my younger kids to see it. Older kids perhaps, but not younger.

Obviously, you didn't see chemistry and interaction between Arthur and Gwen in this. They're going through the whole thing separately, but the connection they have drove them both, him through the danger, her to hold fast against Morgana until the very end. By Morgana's face in that last scene of the two in the tower, it's evident that she, Morgana, hadn't won the battle over Gwen's fortitude. I choose to believe Gwen's love was too strong for that. I don't know what exactly the witch did to overcome her, but surely it was magic of another sort since she didn't win.
***SPOILER***

A/G finally get reunited the very moment she's holding her dead brother in her arms. I would say however they could have had him put his arms around her after checking and seeing Elyan was gone, like he did at the funeral. I guess we're to assume he did eventually, but they probably should have shown it. But anyway, the king and queen scenes have been scarce, but the little touches that have been sprinkled throughout, though sparingly, show me a loving relationship with sweet husband/wife chemistry. Though she was out of sorts, sleeping cuddled against each other like that is an indicator of what goes on between them. At this point we don't need, nor would it be appropriate, for them to be engaging in passionate stuff as the story lines have been such that Arthur has been going through one tough situation after another and she's been there to support. But to repeat what I've been saying, I think the little kisses and hand holding scenes have been quick, but if you pay attention you see the loving looks that pass between them.

________________

Note: Entry edited by the editor to conceal spoilers.

Great atmospheric episode.

Oh poor Elyan. They really did kill hm off .

The Stockholm Syndrome thing with Gwen & Morgana was oddly sweet and extremely disturbing. I miss their friendship, though this was so twisted. Rather smart of Morgana though.

Loved Merlin's use of magic in this episode.

Great to see so many scenes with the knights. Where's Mordred though?

I was kind of expecting the knights to get there and for Gwen to believe they weren't real. I was kind of surprised that never happened.

LOL at adorable but awkward spooning Arwen.

That was a seriously creepy episode, dark, disturbing but very good.

I enjoyed the team comradeship between the Knights and Elyan's and Arthur's utter determination to save Guinevere. I liked the quest element to the episode and there felt like there was more at stake here than in the normal quest episodes, I sat at home willing the Knights to go fast to rescue Guinevere quicker and save her form her terrors. Speaking of which, what Morgana subjected Guinevere to in the tower was horrible, mental torture, a very dark and honestly disturbing. It's a clever plan this one (one of Morgana's best!) to try and evoke the Stockholm syndrome between herself and Guinevere, it was almost like Morgana's been watching Homeland! This was a multi-layered plan from Morgana, that was going to succeed one way or another. Either Arthur and his knights would perish rescuing Guinevere or if they managed to succeed Guinevere would have been turned to the dark side.

I think that when, in that last scene between Morgana and Guinevere in the tower, when she rejected Morgana, Morgana turned to magic to seduce Guinevere to her way of thinking. It was a nice little twist at the end when Guinevere went to Morgana, it bought back memories of Morgana sneaking out to see Morgause. I hope there aren't to many similarities between the 2 relationships but i'm not overly hopeful! Having said that a little bit of me is looking forward to watching the girls working together again, even if it is for the dark side!

I loved Merlin's new magic trick! How cool was that! It was very good to see him do some new form of magic, especially now Morgana is a fully fledged witch. Queen Mab was interesting too, her words added a further element of danger to quest and her riddles gave the episode an even more magical and mythological edge.

And finally Elyan they actually properly killed him off Well he always was quite noble so there is something fitting about him dying to save his sister. His funeral was well staged, the burning boat was a nice touch.

I hope a funny episode comes along soon! My heart is breaking from all these sad episodes, and judging by the preview at the end of this episode, the next one looks sad too!

Like with the last episode I am not really sure what I should think about it.

The actors did a great job in this episode and I could really feel with Arthur and the Gwen torture scences were nice too but it still lacked something.

The walk to the tower was not that exciting. The only cool things were Queen Mab and Merlins eye skills (XD). I imagened a lot more different tasks before they can reach the tower, not walking around in circles in a forest and than going straight through the desert. The only real trap (next to the strange forest) was in the tower and not that difficult to solve. So in the end the quest itself was kind of boring for me. (And not enough magic =( ) I hoped that the knights would at least thank Merlin for getting them out of the forest, but nothing, not even a single clap on the shoulder.

I really hope that it is a spell that Morgana put on Gwen and not some brainwashing. Yes these mandrakes are horrible but I just cant see that they would change Gwens mind so fast. And we only saw Arthur, Elyan and Merlin laughing at her or scaring her. She was once a friend of Morgana but she also got nearly killed thanks to her, so I cant believe that she would fall for her trap. Its even too extreme to be a simple Stockholm syndrom for me. I can understand that such a situation could make you act in a complete opposite way, so it was okay that she took Morganas hand near the end, but she did not only feel some sympathy for her but she even changed side and seems to hate them? So for me, a spell would be the best way to explain her change. (even though it is overused) This would show Gwen in a good light too. She would have been strong enough to withstand the torture and have faith in her loved ones, so that Morgana had to use her magic to make her obey. This makes it also easier for Merlin, because a spell can be broken, a brainwashed mind is quite more difficult.

Poor Elyan I really felt sad when he died. He was not one of my favourite knights but still part of team. I was quite suprised (after watching the whole episode) that Gwen cried after he died. She was already under the "spell at that time. Was she faking it? Or did the "old" Gwen managed to break through? Or was Elyan the only one she did not hate afterwards?

The biggest question is: How did Morgana and Gwen reach the tower days before the others? Did she have powers over the forest? I mean Morgana waited with her journey till Gwen woke up. It was already morning and the knights and merlin were already on their way (all of them on horses with quite the speed). Yet even after they found their tracks they never were able to reach them. We saw that Morgana wasn�t that fast. What do you think about that?

(Getting my points across is really difficult with english )