Merlin: Review: Series 2 Ep 9: The Lady of the Lake

Merlin falls in love with a cursed Druid girl who he helps escape from a bounty hunter…

Oh dear – the run of good episodes had to end at some point, but this really does bring the series crashing back down. More hole than plot, it presents the main characters in the most two-dimensional clichéd form we’ve seen them this year and sees Merlin perform more magic openly than in the rest of the show to date combined.

It doesn’t help that there’s not much on screen chemistry between Colin Morgan and guest star Laura Donnelly. Morgan does his best with the material he’s given but the attempts to give this more depth by comparing Merlin’s plight with that of the girl just don’t work.

How come no one thinks of following Merlin into the catacombs where he hides the girl until at least 10 minutes after the audience has guessed that will happen? And while the final scene between them may be touching, it makes absolutely no sense bearing in mind Camelot’s state of alert.

Having set up Nimueh as a separate villainess in the series, the writers needed to set up a backstory for their own Lady of theLake. It should have been much better than this.  3/10

Paul Simpson

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Don’t miss our season two set visit report here or our interviews with Colin Morgan, Angel Coulby, Richard Wilson, Bradley James and Tony Head.