The 4th episode of Merlin starts with the obligatory voice over from The Great Dragon played by John Hurt. Once again opens with Micheal Ryan’s character Nimueh creating another spell but this time she places the incantation on a small slither of a flower petal which she places on a chalice.

There is a great feast in Camelot to celebrate a peace treaty between King Uther and Prince Bayard but Nimue sneaks in as a servant of the visiting Prince. The evil witch swaps the poisoned chalice with the one Bayard gives to Arthur as a gift. She then tells Merlin that she believes Bayard is trying to poison the Prince and that Merlin must stop him. Merlin stops Arthur from drinking from the cup just in time. The boy wizard is then forced by the King to drink from the chalice to prove what he is saying is true. Arthur tries to stop him but its to late, Merlin falls unconscious and Bayard and his men are arrested.

Gaius discovers the poison is from magic means and that the only cure is from a flower only found in the darkest regions of a particular cave system that no one has ever returned from. Arthur disobeys his fathers orders as Uther believes that if Arthur dies trying to save a servant  there will be no one to rule the kingdom once he is gone. The King thinks he is doing the right thing as the good of Camelot is worth more than the life of just one man and tells him when he is King men will die under him and he just has to get used to it. Arthur disagrees and after speaking to Morgana, rides out to retrieve the flower. 

Nimueh revenge is going as planned, Merlin is virtually dead and Arthur is running right into her trap. Gaius believes the magic used for the poison was the work of Nimueh and once more he believes that Bayard’s servant girl that was speaking to Merlin was in fact her. This leads him to believe that Arthur is in danger.

The Prince finds the servant girl (Nimueh) beaten (she tells him it was her lord as punishment for revealing his plan to poison him) at the entrance to the caves. He is then attacked by what I can only describe as a sort of small stegosaurus/lizard like creature which he kills. Nimueh tells him that she knows where to find the flower of which he talks and leads him into the caves. Bit of a daft continuity error here, as we see Nimueh leading Arthur through the cave tunnels she is some how now wearing a gray cape with a hood which she didn’t have before. May be she found it at the entrance or Arthur had a Ladies cape with him! 

Anyway Arthur, like the brave but maybe a little naive (this servant girl  just so happens to know were this extremely rare flower is in this really dark deep cave that she just so happened to be at the entrance to when he found her. On top of all that she is the one that told Merlin about the poison!!!) follows her deep in to the cave where they come to a ledge over a ravine that Arthur must jump over to retrieve the petals for the cure. Nimueh destroys the walkway over the ravine leaving Arthur stranded on the ledge as she reveals herself as mastermind behind the plot and call on a large mystical spider to kill him. She tells him that its not her destiny to kill him.

To Minueh’s surprise Arthur defeats the spider. Then potentially hundreds of these spiders start to move towards him. Meanwhile Merlin starts to make enchantments in his semi-conscious and delirious state which creates a glowing blue orb near Arthur which leads him to safety after he heroically grabs some of the flowers.

On his arrival back at Camelot, Arthur is arrested and thrown into jail (actually spelled ‘gaol’ in English which I have just been informed but I will stick with the more internationally recognised spelling for ease). The young Prince pleads with his father to take the flower to Gaius to cure Merlin. Uther refused as punishment for disobeying him. Gwen delivers Arthur’s food to him in jail in the hope of getting the flower. They both pull off a clever rouse to get the cure out of the cell to Gaius.

Gaius discreetly uses magic to increase the power of the flower as he believes that as magic was used initially then magic must be used in the cure. This is the first time we see him use sorcery but we know from previous episodes that he at the very least has dabbled in magic before it was band and has a good knowledge of wizardry.

After the good doctor cures Merlin he visits Uther to tell him that he believes it was Nimueh and not Bayard so he is released but its never mentioned if the peace treaty still stands. We already know from last week that Gaius and the King have had dealings with her in the past which I think is probably why he banded magic 20 years ago. At the beginning of the episode I though it was odd that she is in the presence of the King and Gaius but they didn’t recognise her but it explained that she is very powerful and can deceive the eyes of man. Gaius asks the King if Arthur should be told the truth about Nimueh but the King refuses to comply.

In legend Merlin uses magic to make Uther appear in the form of King Mark of Cornwall at Tintagel castle to sleep with his wife, the Lady Igraine. In return for his help Merlin demands that the child that is born of there union to be his. The baby is Arthur. The lady Igraine already has a daughter called Morgana (in this interpretation she is the ward of King Uther) who, when she grows up, will seek revenge on Arthur and bring about the destruction of Camelot. I wonder if in this take on the legend, Arthur is the son of Nimueh but I may just be reading to much into Gaius’s word and he may just simply mean the truth about Nimueh being a powerful witch either way there is something of a mystery in there. Gaius reveals to Merlin that he thinks that Nimueh is after him and knows his power.

Above is a photo I found on the internet of the remains of the Castle and in the background you can see the remnants of the church. I have been several times and even though there isn’t alot left of the castle and the town is very commercial the views are breath taking.

Another good episode with some excellent action/adventure. The cast of characters are growing into there roles well. Arthur is now an excellent character who has a great bond with Merlin and is always joking about with him at every opportunity to break the tension. The scene with Arthur attempting to retrieve the flower wouldn’t have looked out of place in an Indiana Jones film except for the giant spiders. There are some leaps in logic that you have to take in the story telling but no more so than an episode of Doctor Who (Who we know was really Merlin from the Silvester McCoy episode Battlefield. The Doctor finds a note in the tomb that Ace is trapped in that reads something like “Dear Doctor, Arthur and Excalibur was real, everything else is propaganda, Your’s Sincerely The Doctor”. Its been years since I have seen that episode but it makes the point that Merlin was actually the Doctor which explains his powers of prophecy and magic or really his sonic screw driver and his big brain busting with knowledge).

I will give this episode 4 out of 5 Excaliburs.