In Review: Merlin – The Witchfinder (Season Two – Episode Seven)
Written by Ian Cullen on November 8, 2009 – 2:27 pm -
Synopsis: When a citizen of Camelot witnesses a magical mist of smoke that produces a horse Uther calls in the Witchfinder to unearth a suspected sorcerer in his court.
The Review: After weeks of episodes focusing on individual characters. This episode gets back to the ensemble storytelling, which was a key to the shows success during the first season. The story picks up due to some stupidity on the part of Merlin who is practicing some magic for the fun of it on the grounds of Camelot and is spotted by a villager. Which leads to the Witchfinder being called in.
Initially the Witchfinder goes after Merlin because he is the only other witness to the magic, and because Merlin is unable to prove that he is not a sorcerer he is arrested. At the news of Merlins arrest Gaius steps forth and says he is the sorcerer in order to protect his friend.
As the episode develops we see just how far the Witchfinder is willing to go in order to get a confession from Gaius, and it is only the loyalty and friendship between Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and Morgana that they are able to prove Gaius is innocent and expose the Witchfinder as a fraud and a sorcerer.
This is perhaps one of the darker episodes of Merlin to be broadcast, and there is little humour to lighten the tone, which is appropriate for this particular story. The episode features one death and one near – death and does so quite graphically for a pre watershed television series.
There is a hint of a past between Uther, Gaius and the Witchfinder, which is more of a subtext as apposed to any prolonged conversations, and it works best you not knowing what that past is. We see Uther get totally wrong footed in the episode, and witness him having to swallow a bitter pill when Gaius explains that his hatred of sorcerers has blinded him who his friends and closest allies are.
Charles Dance was perfectly cast as the Witchfinder and the scenes where he is interrogating Gaius are amongst the most compelling of the episode as we witness two of the UKs best actors go toe to toe with each other and deliver two cracking performances.
We see Merlin visit the dragon in the episode. Only the dragon not being to up on human interaction admits that he is qualified to help. Leaving poor Merlin to fend for himself and enlist the help of those that he has been using his magic to secretly protect.
Some humour comes at the close of the episode when the Witchfinder sees his plot backfire on him, and the episode closes out with a fun scene between Merlin and Gaius.
It will be interesting to learn how the events of this episode effect the future relationship between Uther and Gaius.
For me. This is the strongest episode of the season.
Score 9/10
Related posts:
- In Review: Merlin – The Nightmare Begins (Season Two – Episode Three)
- Review: Merlin – A Remedy To Cure All Ills
- In Review: Merlin The Curse of Cornelius Sigan (Season 2 Episode 1)
- Review: Merlin – Le Morte D’Arthur
- Review: Merlin – Excalibur
Tags: Anthony Head, Charles Dance, Colin Morgan, Merlin, review, The Witchfinder
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