Merlin
“A Remedy to Cure All Ills”
BBC One, Saturday 25 October 2008, 5.50PM
Written by Julian Jones
Directed by Ed Fraiman
Warning: this review contains some spoilers. If you’d rather not know what the story is going to include, bookmark this page and read it after viewing.
After last week’s CGI-heavy, action-filled fight against a giant griffin, it’s a return to a talk-heavy story that shuns onscreen spectacle for character development, along with some excellent acting from the older cast members.
When the Lady Morgana (Katie McGrath) is struck down by a mysterious illness, court physician Gaius (Richard Wilson) is at a loss for a cure—so she seems doomed, until a young, badly scarred physician called Edwin (Julian Rhind-Tutt) turns up claiming to have devised “a remedy to cure all ills”. Having managed to bring the King’s ward back from the brink—not that difficult, of course, since it was his own magically created bug that struck Morgana down in the first place—Edwin proceeds to charm his way further into Camelot’s court, winning over everyone from Uther Pendragon (Anthony Head) to Merlin himself. Left increasingly isolated and doubted, Gaius eventually uncovers who Edwin actually is—the son of two of his friends who were burnt at the stake for practicing dark sorcery.
Such is the success of Edwin’s plan, that Gaius is unable to protest his own enforced retirement, for fear that in revealing Edwin’s identity, the revenge-inspired sorcerer will disclose Merlin’s own magical powers—a scene, it should be pointed out, which brilliantly benefits from Richard Wilson’s immense skill and subtlety as a performer. Effectively kicked out of Camelot, there’s a big surprise when Gaius goes down for a chat with the John Hurt-voiced dragon underneath the castle—which, if nothing else, proves that it’s perfectly possible for this character to have an understandable conversation with somebody.
Toward the end, of course, Gaius decides to return to Camelot in order to save Uther Pendragon, who he realizes is the ultimate target of Edwin’s revenge. As it turns out, of course, he’s no match for the sorcerer, who in turn forces Merlin to kill Edwin (in self defense, and admittedly off screen) and subsequently use his own magic to save the paralyzed Uther from Edwin’s little brain-eating bug.
If there’s one glaring fault in the episode, it is the decision to give the villain of the piece a physically scarred face. In terms of plot, it’s how Gaius recognizes him—the injury being the result of the young boy’s attempts to rescue his parents from execution—but surely a powerful sorcerer would have been able to at least hide it from view? And, while none of the characters react particularly badly to the injury, the simple fact is that within the series, physical injury and ugliness are again linked directly to evil and villainy—a dramatic shorthand that these days is now, frankly, unacceptable.
Interestingly, at least in terms of longer-term story arcs, this is the first time that the series actively focuses on the fact that for Arthur and Merlin to succeed in their dragon-promised destiny—which is to unite Albion, blah, blah, blah—Uther Pendragon himself must die; indeed, the dragon goes as far as suggesting that Gaius himself will have some say in when that will be. Which is both interesting and a shame; Anthony Head remains one of the main reasons for watching the show, and it would be a far lesser production without him. And, indeed, without Richard Wilson.