With the second season winding down, I was hoping that some major storylines would start to appear. Luckily, this week, that is what happened. I wasn't expecting the (unfortunately) oft-ignored Morgana to be the catalyst to the story.

I've complained about the tone of Merlin for a while. I just can't get a handle on it, or rather the people behind the show can't get a handle on it. Sometimes, they go for a lighthearted episode that suddenly becomes much heavier than the material that just preceded it minutes ago. Such is the case in "Sweet Dreams."

Normally, in these Merlin reviews, I usually go on at great length about how astoundingly stupid Uther is in his pursuit of magic users. It usually leads him to terrible conclusions, usually for the purposes of plot advancement. However, this week, I found myself siding with the king.

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.

Finally, Uther gets reprimanded for his hypocritical ways. His slapdown really went a long way towards my enjoyment of this episode.

After watching this story about Uther marrying a troll unfold over two episodes, I am left wondering whether this tale needed two hours to tell. The answer is a definite no.

I often can't put my finger on the tone that Merlin wants to hit as a series. Most of the time, it's light adventure, but then sometimes we get true menace. Sometimes still we get an episode like this one that seems menacing on the surface, then becomes light, and then becomes almost cartoonish.

NBC ran the first season of Merlin back last summer, but it wasn't the biggest hit for them. So, instead of showing the second season - which our on Vrej is saying is overall a better season so far - they've moved it to their sister network by way of Syfy.

"Syfy will start repeating the 13 season-one episodes in April and run the 13 new second-season episodes over the summer."

Ah, Merlin. I nitpick and complain about you all the time, yet strangely I find myself constantly drawn back, almost looking forward to the next episode, even. I can't explain it, really. I suppose with so much "gritty" television out there, I like the lightheartedness of this show.

On the surface, regular readers of mine (if any) would think that this would be an episode that I didn't care for very much; another ho-hum Merlin saves the day with secret magic episode. Phooey I say to my fictitious followers! I actually liked this one and I'll tell you why. Sure Merlin pretty much saved the day again, but this time there was actual advancement in the overall story of the show.

The idea of royalty disguising themselves as commoners to see how the others live is nothing new (for some reason, I'm immediately reminded of Disney's Aladdin movie). That is the central idea in this week's episode of Merlin. Arthur realizes that everyone's letting him win at jousting because he is the prince and this wounds his pride. He comes up with a story that he's going on a trip for a while yet secretly remains in Camelot. He nevertheless enters the next jousting tournament under a fake name and hires someone to pretend to be him whenever a face is necessary to be shown to the public. Just as he suspected, Arthur is the best jouster in the kingdom, routinely besting all comers. At the same time, there is an assassin in Camelot, looking for Arthur. At first, the assassin is disappointed to hear Arthur isn't there, but later learns of his ruse. He enters the tournament as well and cheats in order to injure Arthur to weaken him for the joust. As usual, Merlin learns what's going on and foils the assassin's plot using magic.

Merlin season two came out of nowhere for me. I completely forgot about the series and then bam! There's a season two. As much as I complained about the first season, in hindsight I must admit it was a fun bit of fluff, an entirely revisionist program meant only to lightly entertain and not offend anyone. So it's with a measure of goodwill that I welcome back Merlin in its sophomore season.

In the last episode, Gwen's father was killed off the show and its impact was actually something real. I could feel that this meant the show turned a corner, when killing off a likable character became a possibility. But this week, faced with ample opportunities to kill off people, they backed out again, which frustrated me.

This week's episode marks a shift in tone for the series. Up till now, there hadn't been any major developments in the overall story for this show, but here in the penultimate episode, something with a definite finality happens. Gwen's father, a semi-regular character, is killed on Uther's orders. I can honestly say I didn't see a quasi-major death occurring.

With only three episodes left in the season, I don't know why this show is wasting time with throwaway episodes like we get here. I don't know why I expect more, though - the producers/writers haven't really provided a through line for the season, but I was hoping for more of a lead up to a critical season finale.

Instead, Arthur kills a unicorn.