Merlin's tearful confession and Arthur's reaction - ranging from incredulity, to shock, to disbelief at his own ignorance, to anger at his friend - are perfectly judged. Now, the reveal scene itself is everything you could want. Then, when Arthur wakes, Merlin finally, FINALLY confesses the truth about his magic. Merlin finds his friend, limp and lifeless, and carries him away from the battleground.
Yes, a wounded Arthur finds the strength to stand, striking down his tortured foe, and the battle is won, but the King has sustained a serious, possibly fatal, wound. Mordred's death is suitably dramatic but rather abrupt.
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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. 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. 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. 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.īut the battle is far from won.
Looming over the scene, 'Emrys' unleashes his most powerful magic to date. 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. 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.