By Will Barber – Taylor

As the great battle rages, Merlin faces his moment of destiny. Can he find the strength to save the man he helped make king?

Finally, we reach the climax of Merlin and to be honest it does not disappoint in some parts. I have criticised the recent series a lot and with good reason. Some of the episodes have not been as good as they could have been but this is improved by the finale. The first four minutes have some of the best the series has ever produced. Arthur and Morgana’s army clashing with each other at Camlan is incredible cinematography. When we see Merlin in his Emris guise with the lightening backdrop, we all feel goose bumps. This is the Merlin we have been promised since the beginning of the series. After a great sword fight between Arthur and Mordred, we see Merlin carry Arthur off the battle field. This is however, when things begin to go downhill; though there are good scenes later which consist mainly of Merlin and Arthur talking, the rest of the episode does not really reach expectations. Apart from the scenes between Arthur and Merlin, the rest of the scenes are both slow moving and pointless.

Instead of looking on the bleak side (which I have been doing in these reviews for most of the series) I will instead look at the scenes between Arthur and Merlin. Both Colin Morgan and Bradley James play the scenes excellently. It is finally nice to see that the writers are giving the characters the heart-warming interaction they have deserved since series one. Once again, Colin Morgan and Bradley James really are the stars of this show. Even if the ending is a let-down, the two stars manage to keep the audience interested with some of the best scenes the show has seen. The scene in which Merlin tells Arthur he has magic is particularly poignant. We really feel for the characters in these scenes and this is half down to the writing and half down to Morgan and James’s great acting. Arthur’s acceptance of Merlin as being a sorcerer is also well executed.

It is great that the producers have taken the bold step to follow the original legend to the letter concerning Arthur’s demise but it would have been nice to have a happy ending. At the end of the episode we are left with Arthur and Gwaine dead, Gwen is left mourning Arthur and alone as Queen. Merlin, in the oddest epilogue of all, is left walking around Avalon for about 900 years. In fact, for a series that had as much light hearted humour and jokes as “Merlin”, it feels too dark even for a season advertised as “Darker than ever”. I feel that after all the darkness and bad writing, Merlin could have been given what it truly deserved, a good ending. We don’t even discover if magic is okay in Camelot now after Merlin’s many sacrifices, this is strange; it is as if the key to the heart of the series has been forgotten.

Well that’s all folks; the final episode of Merlin is done. It was a good series but lately it had been poorly written and directed. It’s a shame that we didn’t get a good ending to Merlin, it had a lot of potential to really go out with a bang but instead it went out with a whimper.

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