Another week, another bad decision by Uther. Caught holding a puck of gold that was neither heavy enough to be gold, nor hot enough (having only moments before being cast from a boiling crucible), Guinevere’s father Tom the blacksmith was accused of treason on account of his customer being Tauren the leader of a band of renegade sorcerers, and sentenced to death.

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…and executed when, with Morgana’s help, he escaped from the dungeon.

Morgana is mortified, and tears a strip off Uther, which doesn’t go down too well with the king. He’s very keen on appearing kingly, doing things kingly, and being treated like a king. This doesn’t include being told you’re an arrogant insensitive prig whose answer to every small problem is execution. Come to think of it, it’s a good job I don’t live in Camelot. I’d have been in the dungeons weeks ago. Still, at least I’d have had Morgana for company, as her hotheaded outburst results in her being clapped in irons.

When Tauren returns demanding Gwen finds his Maiden Stone on pain of death, Morgana (whose case has successfully been pleaded by Arthur) spots her chance of revenge, and meets with Tauren to plot the king’s demise. He doesn’t trust her at first, but manacle-damaged wrists are a useful tool to prove one’s motive for wanting Uther dead. Merlin, alerted to the plot by the use of the Stone which magically makes its presence known to him each time it glows, overhears their plans and spends a few minutes in an agony of indecision over whether he too wishes Uther were dead.

The dragon’s no help. It would be quite happy for Arthur to ascend the throne a few years early. Finally Guinevere, who has lost the most and should have the strongest desire for revenge, acts as Merlin’s conscience and tells him she would be no better than a murderer if she stood by and did nothing. So Merlin takes up the staff of Aulfric (I *knew* that would come in handy) and rushes after Morgana, who has arranged to travel with Uther to her father’s grave (and, coincidentally, to meet up with Tauren there).

The staff proves efficacious against Tauren’s men, but armed with the Stone Tauren bests Merlin and leaves him unconscious while he goes off to give the King a good seeing to. But while Merlin was distracting Tauren, Uther has been going all regretful and dewy-eyed on Morgana with tales of his best friend, Morgana’s father, and how he used never to shy away from telling Uther when he was in the wrong. Even someone as dense as Uther can’t avoid hearing the sound of that particular penny dropping, so Uther and Morgana are reconciled just as Tauren creeps up behind him.

Tauren is about to plunge his dagger into Uther’s throat when Morgana dispatches him from behind. And the moral of this week’s tale is therefore: Never trust anyone who purports to be from the Dark Ages, but who prances around muddy Camelot in a dress with a six-foot train and a pair of high heels that wouldn’t look out of place in Knightsbridge.

The first series of Merlin concludes next week at 7.10pm with an episode called Le Morte d’Arthur.