Perhaps I don't understand the knight's code, but something bothered me with this episode of Merlin. Imagine someone burst into your house, slayed your family until she reached you, then challenged you to a duel.
Do you:
a) Allow the person to stay freely, and satisfy the duel request
or
b) Allow the police to kill her right there and then?

Let's put this in the context of Merlin. A mysterious knight shows up at Camelot and kills a number of guards before busting into the Great Hall and challenging Arthur to a duel. Surrounded by guards and knights, everyone just lets this proceed. Hello?! This knight, later revealed to be a woman, Morgause, just cut your guard payroll in half. You're going to let this stand? Apparently, yes.

Surprisingly, Morgause wins the duel and spared Arthur's life (but not his dignity, I gather) in exchange for a clandestine meeting. Of course, Uther forbids Arthur to go meet up with her, believing she's a sorceress. Hey, he's right for once. Arthur and Merlin sneak out anyway and Morgause conjures up Arthur's mother Ygraine. Ygraine tells Arthur that Uther was so desperate for a child, he sacrificed her life to Nimueh in exchange for a child born of magic. Arthur is pretty upset at this point...but I'm not sure why. He goes back home and threatens his father to a fight. Some sword fighting ensues until Merlin breaks it up, convincing Arthur that it was all a magic trick designed to drive a wedge between father and son and topple the kingdom. Arthur and Uther agree and stop. Morgause, who was watching this through a magic crystal, is not pleased.

Sure, this episode had some neat sword fighting but it was largely filler. Why couldn't Morgause just show up and tell Arthur this story about his mother from the start? Because it wouldn't fill the hour, that's why. No, she has to ride in, commit some wanton murders, and beat Arthur to a duel just to convince him to meet her in some deep forest so she can raise the specter of his dead mother to him. It seems a bit convoluted, don't you think?

And then there's Arthur's rage. Why is he so angry? Is it because his father lied to him? I suppose that can lead to some anger, but enough to want to commit patricide? I'm not so sure. Is it because he believed himself to be the product of magic? Why, just this episode, Arthur told Merlin that perhaps not all magic users are evil. So then what? Why this devotion to his mother, anyway? He's never met her, since she died when he was born, so it's not like he has a connection to this woman. They're not even related by blood at this point. His rage is completely unfounded.

There were some interesting developments in this episode, though. Firstly, we learn that Morgana is Morgause's half-sister, but this info is to be kept from Morgana, lest she divide her loyalties between her family and Uther. I wonder what the big story is behind that. I suppose the family relation is the reason why Morgause cured Morgana's nightmares. Next, as mentioned earlier, Arthur's stance on magic users is softening. By the episode's end, Merlin did himself a disservice to convince Arthur that Morgause was evil, in order to save the kingdom. This probably set Arthur's sympathies for magic user back a little, but I'm sure it will bubble up again.

While there was some forward progress with the characters, the logic of the story itself was highly suspect and severely reduced my ability to enjoy this episode as much as I could have if someone took a once-over on the script.

Score