Merlin Season 4 Finale

The Sword in the Stone Part 2


Spoilers, now and forever more.

I cried so hard...

...when Isolde died.

I don't know why. I wasn't even that fond of her, not too attached to the character either. But I really did cry when she fell, especially when she said "Hold me," to Tristan. That just blew up the tear ducts so bad. She was an OK character at best but... Well, perhaps it was because it's Christmas and people shouldn't die on CHRISTMAS!!!

Anyway, beginning of the episode... blah blah blah... they're running away from Agravaine. It was nice, especially since Merlin got to kick some serious ass and there was Dragon FIRE!!! Have I not said how awesome dragon-fire is? Yes, it is awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Agravaine found out that Merlin is Emrys but he promptly died minutes later. Yep... there goes the big reveal.

Then Tristan starts insulting/taunting Arthur and he's pissed. He's really pissed and I... like it, surprisingly. I never thought it would be that amusing to see Arthur pissed, especially since he decided to become an utter clotpole, telling Gwen, "Everything I cherished between us, everything we had, it's gone", when she was trying to comfort him. It almost felt good to see him losing hope and thinking he wasn't the rightful king of Camelot.

Stupid Arthur. I wanted to hit him.

And so to prove to him that he's the rightful king, Merlin made up a story about the Sword in the Stone, saying that only the rightful king could pull it out. I actually expected that part, so I wasn't too surprised. Merlin totally made it up! It's been in my mind ever since I watched Disney's Sword in the Stone.

This reinvigorated Arthur and so they set on to retake Camelot, but before everything else, Merlin sneaked into the castle disguised as Old Merlin to cast Silence on Morgana (tsk, the only way to have countered that, possibly, was an armor with a Golden Thief Bug Card). So, at the confrontation scene the next day, she wasn't able to use her magic against them. She tried to kill Gwen but was thwarted by Merlin, and she fled, dying.

I personally would have wanted Morgana to end up like Jory Cassel when he was stabbed in the eye by the Kingslayer...

...but I know that's just wishful thinking.

Helios gets killed by Isolde but he manages to land a blow just before he falls to the ground. Isolde... dies in the arms of Tristan, which prompts Arthur to realize that he doesn't ever want to lose Gwen. He asks her to marry him again and she says yes... and then she's crowned Queen of Camelot! Huzzah for Gwen! I was right about the picture of Merlin in my other post! It was for a coronation!

Last scene: Morgana stumbles through the forest, falls and almost dies, but was healed by... dum dum dum... Aithusa, Merlin's white dragon. I cannot believe it myself... I just can't. Is Aithusa going to be Morgana's dragon now? I thought dragons were supposed to follow only dragonlords? What the hell is going to happen next season then? Why do we have to wait so long?! I'm dying here.

So, some of my predictions regarding the dialogue teasers were spot-on, others were... not quite. I enjoyed the season finale though. It really was intense, but I just thought that the bit about Arthur and Gwen was rather... rushed? But maybe's that just me.

I was disappointed that they didn't reveal Merlin's magic to Morgana. But I was extremely glad that Merlin's magic was not revealed to Arthur. I want that to happen at the very last episodes, because that's what's keeping this show interesting. Will he find out? When? Will he ever? It's like unresolved sexual tension. It's so fun to watch.

It was a gleeful season. It had lots of ups and downs.
Bravo to everyone who made Merlin possible!

I cannot wait for season five!