S01E05: The Joining

[kieyra]

Quote

Morgana urges Nimue to use the sword for leverage, Father Carden faces a bitter humiliation, and Uther loses patience with Merlin.

Airdate: 07/17/2020

[thuganomics85]

Ah, the old "natural hot tub in a cave" sequence!  Popular staple in the fantasy genre lately.  Judging from the content, it seems like Devon Terrell was "Yeah, I will show my ass" about it, while Katherine Langford was "Ha, nice try, but no" when it came to any nudity.  But it was mainly there to confirm that Nimue and Arthur totally have the hots for each other, then reconfirm it with the kiss as the joining, only for everything to go up in the air due to a possible good old-fashioned love triangle!  And the other guy is not only the "Green Knight" who is protecting the fae, but none other than Gawain himself.  Twist!

Great, there is some other faction in this religious organization that oversees the Red Paladins.  Not really all that fascinated by the politics here, even if it was at least fun seeing Father Carden being on the defense for once.

Pym has now been captured by the Vikings, which is a thing now.  I did enjoy the actress playing their leader: remember her as Astrid on Humans.

The face-off between Merlin and Lady Lunete probably had the most sparks yet on this show, but then again, it would take real effort to make Gustaf Skarsgard and Polly Walker together be unentertaining.

Merlin might be Nimue's real dad!  Another twist!

[tennisgurl]

Dead eyed fanatic nun is creepy, but she is already a more interesting villain than the rest of the red cloak squad, if only because she is actually kind of creepy and not just an annoying dick or just another religious fanatic who speaks in bastardized bible quotes. Its time to learn a valuable lesson about sexism, woman are just as capable of being murderous psychopathic fanatics as men are thank you very much!

Nimue and Arthur have officially moved past the bickering part of their relationship and into almost kisses. She even asked him to be her date for a wedding, which is of course a big step, but of course, the greatest threat to any Arthurian story then arrives...a love triangle! Gawain has arrived, and apparently had/has some kind of thing going with Nimue, so thats kind of awkward, but now she has bigger worries, because Merlin might actually be her bio dad! As much of a sketchy drunk untrustworthy hot mess Merlin is, he still comes off better than Nimues other dad, so theres that I guess. Certainly a change up from their usual backstory. 

The scene between Lady Lunete and Merlin, where he let her know that he knows her secret, was probably the best scene the show has had so far, having their two best actors just go at each other. So what family did she buy Uther from? Is this how they are going to eventually get him and Arthur to be related somehow? 

Edited July 29, 2020 by tennisgurl

[iMonrey]

So there's Vikings now? Really? I mean, I haven't read the book so I maybe that was just a part of it, but Vikings aren't usually part of Arthurian legend. It's not like we don't have enough going on right now.

I continue to be amused by Pym and her wacky side story. The rest of the show isn't bad, exactly, but that whole hot springs scene was so damn cheesy.

Edited July 31, 2020 by iMonrey