Merlin: Series 5 - The Kindness Of Strangers

This episodes saw the build up to the two-part finale start.

This episode saw Morgana stepping up her campaign to found out the identity of Emrys and soon it turned into a cat and mouse chase as Merlin was given the knowledge of the Old Religion by Finna that is needed for the coming battle. Within this it was good to see Merlin and Gaius's relationship, like that of a father and a son, come into focus, which shows the amount of growth that the characters have gone through together.

There was a good contrast between the loved up scenes between Arthur and Gwen and the capture and later death of Alator of the Catha by Morgana, who previously appeared in series 4. It helped to give shades of light and dark to the episodes. Also the use of Alator again adds to the strength of Morgana's conviction to find Emrys, as Alator had been previously employed to haunt down Emrys by Morgana.

It was also good how the script made it unsure whether Finna's loyalities were initially with Merlin or Morgana, but this soon turned out to be the former. I was thinking that with the mention of Saxons, not just in this episodes but in others seemed to be the show trying to tie its historical narrative into established history. It very much felt like a build up of the continuity and narrative as Mordred's importance in future events start to pick up, Finna's warning to Merlin about 'the druid boy' and Morgana's declaration of war.

Gary Lewis makes a good return as Alator and Sorcha Cusack gives a great performances as Finna.