The Final Showdown

It has got to that time of the year when the highlight of my day is going to be centred around what is on the box. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the box is broken - well sort of anyway, it has a nice red line just off centre that runs down the top half of the screen all the time and sometimes down the whole length of the screen. Thankfully though Saturdays mean Merlin and although it was the last ion the series, it was probably one of the best episodes so far and it has been confirmed that it will return for a third series!

At the end of the last episode, we see the Great Dragon attacking Camelot as revenge for Uther keeping him locked up in the dungeon for so long. After every attempt to stop it by non-magical means fail, Gaius tells Uther that one last dragonlord may remain despite him supposedly sentencing them all to death during the purge considering their talents to be too close to magic. Gaius tells Merlin that he knows this man exists because he helped him to escape and it is then revealed that he is Merlin's father. Merlin and Arthur set off to find this dragonlord and after Arthur falls ill from an infection in his wound inflicted by the dragon, Merlin finds the cave where he lives and convinces him to assist in saving Arthur.

After much negotiation, Merlin convinces him to come back to Camelot and help to defeat the Great Dragon. Unfortunately they are attacked whilst in an enemy kingdom and the dragonlord is killed trying to protect Merlin (he now knows that he is Merlin's father). He tells Merlin that now that he is dead, the dragonlords power has been transferred to him and that it is now up to him to defeat the dragon. Merlin goes with Arthur and the other knight for one final push at destroying the dragon and as Arthur is knocked down, Merlin finds the power to communicate with the dragon. He convinces it to stop destroying Camelot and threatens to kill it. The dragon pleads with Merlin to spare his life as he is the last of his species and Merlin takes pity on him, sparing him but promising that if he ever returns he will be killed. The dragon tells Merlin that their paths will cross again and that he will remember what Merlin did for him. The episode ends with Arthur waking up and Merlin convincing him that he defeated the dragon rather than the truth.

The only thing that ruined this episode was when my step-dad came in half way through and kept asking silly questions every other minute like "why is Victor Meldrew in it?". Next time I will ban him from the lounge when I'm trying to watch something.