Merlin: Series 5 - The Dark Tower

This was a really good episode that felt fairytale like and had a great cliffhanger.

In this episode Gwen took more of a central role and it was good to see her getting more involved. It was also good to see Gwen's brother, Sir Elyan, being given a bit more development as well after Gwen was kidnapped by Morgana. Moreover, having two-hander scenes with just Gwen and Morgana worked well to show the change in their relationship and also an echo of the old friendship that once existed. I did like how Arthur and Gwen's relationship was highlighted well showing how much they care for each other.

The Dark Tower, where Gwen was imprisoned, seemed to feed on her fears and was done in a really creepy way, with close up shots on Gwen's face that worked well to create a sense of claustrophobia and make me sympathise with Gwen's situation. The use of night time for most of the episode and the prediction of a death helped to great suspense and tension throughout the episode.

The episode did feel very fairytale like, with the queen locked in a tower by an evil witch and her king has to fight through a thick and magical forest in order to save her. Only this fairytale ended in the death of Elyan and gave a bit of motive for the twist at the end of the episode which really was a surprise and left me thinking how this would then develop in the next episode.

There were great performance from Angel Coulby, Katie McGrath and Adetomiwa Edun, with a great amount of tension that led to a very surprising conclusion.