A Druid and his son come to Camelot, which is a very big mistake since the place is run by mad Uther, who doesn’t like magical people, even kids. Meanwhile, Uther is doing his irrational best to find the child, so he can give him the same haircut as his father. Anthony Head is obviously having scream playing the fruit-loop Uther, though I don’t find his version of insane quite as convincing as the one John Noble is parading in Fringe. But the bizarre twist this week is that on this particular occasion, he’s actually right for once. Merlin is concerned for the magical child and heads down to see the Dragon. Usually he gets a cryptic message from the scale-head, but he’s refreshingly direct this week, ‘let the boy die’. If he wasn’t confused before he went, he was afterwards. The Dragon convinces Merlin not to help, but eventually against his better judgement he does, and Arthur takes the boy back to his Druid buddies. And if you hadn’t already guessed the name he gives when asked at the end is Mordred. Yes, the very person that will kill Arthur ultimately. When Mordred uses his telepathy trick he calls Merlin ‘Emrys’, which is a reference to the earliest Arthurian welsh tales where the wizard was called Myrddin Emrys. I did enjoy this Merlin outing even if the Mordred reveal was telegraphed like bad news in a western. The episode avoided people being stupid, including Merlin for once. Next week they stop messing obtusely with the lore, and introduce Excalibur. About bloody time. There is also a black knight, who’s already dead but doesn’t let it slow him down, and the lovely Michelle Ryan as Nimueh is also back. This show works when they avoid poor comedy routines and use some of the legendary events and characters we associate with Merlin. Hopefully we’ll get more magic, and a less crazy Uther from here going forwards.   Read Mark’s review of last week’s episode here.