“In a land of myth, and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young man. His name… Merlin!”



© BBC / Shine

So we’ve heard those that now-iconic opening spiel for the last time, but how did we feel by the time ‘The Diamond of the Day (Part 2)’ had reached its climax? In short, we were moved, more than a little surprised and mostly satisfied.

Merlin‘s series finale picks up exactly where Saturday’s episode left off – Arthur (Bradley James) and the knights are engaged in an epic bout with Morgana’s forces, while Merlin – in full-on Emrys mode – races to the battlefront…

Looming over the scene, ‘Emrys’ unleashes his most powerful magic to date. Forget the much-mocked ‘throwing enemies into a wall’ theatrics; here, Merlin (Colin Morgan) rains down a storm of magic that devastates the enemy forces, white dragon Aithusa and even Morgana (Katie McGrath) herself.

But the battle is far from won. Impressively dark scenes follow as Merlin trawls through the littered corpses of his fallen foes and allies, while – in a lovely moment from Bradley James – Arthur realises that Mordred (Alexander Vlahos) is stalking towards him…

We expected some sort of ‘out’ for Arthur’s death, so to see Mordred mercilessly run him through a mere six minutes into this episode blew our mind, just a little. It’s a decent shock moment, but the unexpected speed with which this scene arrives also means that actor Vlahos – who’s been fantastic this series and clearly has a bright future ahead of him – gets short shrift. Mordred’s death is suitably dramatic but rather abrupt.



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