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Oh, Merlin...or should I say Oh, Arthur...since this episode had poor Arthur having to marry a lady he does not love, for his father's sake.
Let's get right to it :)
**Spoilers Below**
Little fairy blessing or cursing a princess...I love Sleeping Beauty...oh, wait...this is Merlin! We start at a castle, where we see a sleeping baby, and one of the blue Avalon creatures, the Sidhe, I believe the same one from series 1 (which wanted Arthur) comes flying through the window. He says something in what I am guessing is his language, and the baby glows blue...blessing? curse? We shall see...
20 years later we see the same castle, the same room, and we can only guess that it's the same princess...only this princess is not very lady like--burping, farting, messy hair. Princess Elena and her father Lord Godwin are off on a trip with who seems to be Elena's servant, Grunhilda (Miriam Margoyles). Where are they off to? Why, Camelot, of course!
Right as they are arriving, literally, they are walking through the doors, Uther (Anthony Head) tells Arthur (Bradley James) that he is expecting him to marry the princess--wow...guess he didn't want Arthur to have a chance to protest. Later they chat, and then Arthur reveals he has no feelings for Elena, Uther tells him he must find some, because this union would be good for Camelot. Obviously, Arthur is taken back, and not too happy about it. In fact, when he is talking to Gwen (Angel Coulby) he makes a clear point to say that he will not be marrying the princess. Gwen tries to play it off like she doesn't care if Arthur were to get married, but we all know she does.
That night, Princess Elena seems to be having nightmares, and Grunhilda comes to her aid. While Elena is sleeping she tells her that this shall soon pass, and then she sprinkles golden dust onto her head...and Elena shows her possible true self...one of the Sidhe. My guess at this point is that she is unaware of what she is. Grunhilda then goes into the forest to the lake, which I assume is the same place we saw the entrance to Avalon in series 1, she's in on the plan that started 20 years ago! She says some sort of spell and then the Sidhe put on a light show, which she seems entranced by. And then, we see her real form, a pixie:
Lovely, isn't she? She chats with the king of the Sidhe, and it is revealed that Elena is not a Sidhe, but she is in fact possessed by one, that is awaiting the right time to take over...when she is queen of Camelot.
The next day, Arthur takes Elena out on a ride and a picnic. Clearly he's trying to find something about the girl that he could like. Yet, it's clear that Elena has no clue how to act like a lady, let alone a princess, and the last straw is when Elena sneezes into his face. The poor girl. At the feast that evening, she is rather crude, and Arthur looks even more repulsed. There was an amusing part when Grunhilda starts making eyes at Gaius (Richard Wilson) from across the room and then goes and sits next to him so that he may take her in. Gaius was rather taken back...this could lead to some amusing happenings.
In Elena's room, Grunhilda is combing out Elena's hair, and the they are chatting about how she knows how much it means to her father for her to marry Arthur. Then there is a moment that rather repulsed me...Grunhilda pulls out a live frog, and Elena drops it in her mouth and eats it! What the hell?! This is one odd girl, especially since she is unaware that there is a Sidhe inside of her!
Next day, our friend Merlin (Colin Morgan) is collecting plants in the forest when he sees Grunhilda running through it. Of course, he follows her, at first, it was more interest than anything, but then he sees something rather disturbing. Grunhilda is eating flies...not like picking them up and eating them, but using her long, skinny, toad like purple tongue to capture them. And off Merlin runs, back to Camelot to tell Gaius...his response...I've seen some strange tongues in my time--just an odd saying--it's a bloody toad tongue...that's not just strange, that's not human...and no Gaius, it's not been caused by an infection! Why does he always seem to doubt or explain what Merlin has seen...
For once, Merlin is off the hook when going to find the evidence, Gaius goes up to Elena's room to try to figure out what sort of creature Grunhilda is. He finds the pouch of golden dust, but has to put it back quickly, as Grunhilda comes back. She is surprised to see him, he uses the excuse of wanting to offer to make a perfume for the princess, yet she assumes he's really there is see her. He tries desperately to leave, and then Grunhilda says, "we can make sweet perfume together," and lays on the bed...the look on Gaius' face is hilarious! We are actually left not know how Gaius got out of that room, as the next scene is him explaining to Merlin that the dust he found is pixie dust, so Grunhilda must be a pixie. He then reveals to Merlin that Grunhilda has taken a liking to him...and now Merlin is making the hilarious face, and saying how disgusting that would be! Since pixies are apparently known to be the servants of the Sidhe, Gaiusenhabited by a Sidhe from birth, until the Sidhe chooses to take over. He also figures out that the Sidhe goal must be to have a Sidhe queen. That's a lot of deducing just by finding pixie dust! Merlin then goes and spies on Elena and sees that she is in fact a changeling.
At dinner, served by Gwen, Arthur tells Uther that he will NOT be marrying Elena. Uther makes it clear that it will be happening. Morgana (Katie McGrath) notices the looks of despair between Arthur and Gwen...she then has figured out that they have feelings for each other and starts to play a little game, telling Gwen how horrible it must be to be Arthur, being forced to marry, especially when he has feelings for another...and that other has feelings for him. She lets on that she knows their true feelings for each other. Gwen denies it, and then says that nothing can ever come of it. She's acting like the friend that Gwen once had...but we know that Morgana is not a friend to anyone!
While Gaius and Merlin are on a fact finding mission about the changelings and the Sidhe--to find a potion to remove the Sidhe from Elena, Gwen goes and visits Arthur. This scene brought tears to my eyes. They both know how the other feels, they both want to be together, and yet because of their stations in life, they cannot be. Arthur asks Gwen, if he does go through with marrying Elena, what will she do. She answers with watch you grow into the great king you are meant to be. You can tell that she is holding back tears, and the absolutely touching moment is that Arthur is crying. He is seeing that there is no way out of marrying Elena, though his heart clearly belongs to Gwen. These Arthur and Gwen moments are getting more and more heart-wrenching!
With all the court watching, Arthur is forced to propose to Elena. The speech seemed painful to give, but he knew he had to do it. Uther and Lord Godwin look rather happy, the princess, looked take back...Gwen and Arthur, look heartbroken.
That night, Grunhilda goes to the lake, and tells the Sidhe king that she thinks that Merlin knows what Elena is. He gets pretty pissy, and rants about Merlin. Next thing we know, he's a little blue light flying through the castle (and no one notices, but what else is new). He goes into Merlin's room, while he's sleeping, and right as he's about to attack Merlin with his magical staff, Merlin awakes, rolls off the bed, and grabs the staff that Aulfric (who was banished from Avalon) had in series 1, which is convinently hidden under his bed. They then get into a magical shooting match. Merlin wins, and shoots the Sidhe king, and he disappears into a blast of light. In the clean up of the fight, they realize that the potion (which had very hard to find ingredients) has been split, but luckily, Gaius is able to make more.
Gaius then uses his charms on Grunhilda to get her to leave Elena's room--another amusing moment, and get her down into the vaults so that they can imprison her there. This does not make Grunhilda happy, telling Gaius he doesn't know what he's missing. Too funny. Alas, Grunhilda is able to use her magic to escape the vaults, and goes to stop Merlin and Gaius. Merlin uses his staff against her, and she is thrown backward. As she gets up, he tells Gaius to go give Elena the potion, and he'll hold her off. As Gaius is telling Elena that he brought her a tonic to calm her nerves, we hear blast and yells, which we know are Merlin and Grunhilda, it's kind of amusing, really, but how many blasts from the staff does it take to kill a pixie?! Gesh!
Finally, Merlin has turned Grunhilda to dust, and comes bursting into Elena's room, thinking that the Sidhe would be out of her, and he is ready to fight it. Well, Gaius is still struggling to get Elena to drink the entire potion, she keeps just sipping it. Merlin steps in, and in a very non-Merlin like way, says, "this will make you feel a whole lot better." And then pinches her nose and pours the potion down her throat. The Sidhe (little blue light) comes out of Elena, and in one shot, Merlin takes it out. Elena is now looking much more with it, and says she hasn't felt that good in years.
Merlin then goes to Arthur, who is looking rather sad, and Arthur says Merlin can't possibly understand what he's feeling, to have a destiny that is already planned out for you, that you have no control of. But, alas, Merlin does know this feeling, all too well. He shares some of his insight with Arthur who questions where it came from, and Merlin says he read it in a book. Then we see Arthur ask Merlin for advice on if he should marry her or not, which could be the start of Arthur trusting Merlin more and more, until he becomes what we know he will, King Arthur's trusted advisor. Merlin shares his thoughts and reminds Arthur that though he is destined to be king and rule Camelot, he has a choice in how he does it. Arthur has clearly taken it in, and you can see in that moment, his respect for Merlin has heightened, for the wisdom, of the Merlin to come, is starting to show through.
With the Sidhe out of her, Elena looks like a princess and is no longer tripping and burping (and other things). It seems that the Sidhe threw her off. He father walks her down the aisle. A sad Gwen watches as the love of her life is about to wed another...for convenience and politics. As the ceremony begins, Arthur turns and looks at Gwen. Elena catches the look. When asked if it is his wish to marry Elena, Arthur responds with yes--to Uther's delight. And to her father's happiness, Elena does the same. As the priest continues, Arthur looks saddened and in pain...he stops the wedding! He says that there is something from the heart that he dared not speak...OMG!!! Is he going to announce his feelings! Is he finally going to tell the world of his love for Gwen?! Alas, no...he just tells Elena that he is not in love with her, and she confesses that she is not in love with him, the wedding is off. Wow, does that make Uther look pissed and Gwen's eyes fill with tears of joy.
Arthur stands his ground with his father, and then has a sweet moment with Gwen. They are back to their flirting banter. I guess that's all we'll get for now...what a great episode!!!
Torchline.com: Facebook Recap: Merlin 3.06 "The Changeling"
Here's a sneak peek at next week's episode...looks like we're back to the Morgana story arch...and that info that Morgana found out about Gwen and Arthur's feelings, is coming into play:
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