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"Will Arthur never learn? This week&amp;#039;s Merlin begins with the King and his knights riding through the notoriously unsafe Valley of the Fallen Kings - and soon enough, dozens of mercenaries descend on our heroes. A vicious battle ensues, and tragedy strikes - Merlin is badly wounded... Arthur helps his wounded servant to find refuge and inspects his wound. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve seen worse,&amp;quot; he claims, but Arthur is a bad liar and Merlin knows that he&amp;#039;s in trouble. Arthur tells his friend that he is &amp;quot;extremely brave&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;incredibly loyal&amp;quot; - Merlin must be dying if Arthur&amp;#039;s being this nice! Once dawn rises, Arthur slings Merlin over his shoulder and intends to carry him home, but more mercenaries descend on them. Merlin uses his magic to cause a rock-fall and the huge boulders cut Arthur off from the villains. The only problem - Merlin has been cut off from the King too... The mercenaries were sent by Morgana, and Agravaine drags an unconscious Merlin back to his witchy ally. But Morgana&amp;#039;s just annoyed that she didn&amp;#039;t get her clutches on Arthur! Agravaine has bigger concerns - he knows that Gaius suspects him of being a traitor and Morgana warns, &amp;quot;If your true nature is revealed, I really don&amp;#039;t know what use I&amp;#039;ll have for you.&amp;quot; Aggy prepares to kill Merlin, but Morgana stops him, &amp;quot;Arthur&amp;#039;s strangely fond of the boy. He could prove useful...&amp;quot; Morgana strings Merlin up and taunts her former friend. She treats his battle wound, but he&amp;#039;s convinced she&amp;#039;s going to finish him off. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re not going to die,&amp;quot; she tells him. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not going to make it that easy!&amp;quot; Reuniting with his knights, Arthur rides back to Camelot, promising a worried Gaius that he will not rest until Merlin is recovered. But the king is also anxious to know how the mercenaries that attacked them found out about their secret route. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s only one conclusion we can draw,&amp;quot; says Sir Leon. &amp;quot;We have a traitor in our midst!&amp;quot; Back in her rather homely hut, Morgana is brewing up some dark magic. She summons a snake-like creature with seven heads - the Fomorroh - and severs one of the heads.   Back in the old days, the Fomorroh were used to control minds, so Morgana has one burrow its way into Merlin&amp;#039;s neck - he will now be consumed with an overriding desire to kill King Arthur! In Camelot, it seems that life is going on without Merlin - Arthur has been given a new manservant, the efficient yet incredibly dull George. But Arthur rejects George - Merlin is his manservant, and that&amp;#039;s just the way he likes it! A moment for the Merther fans there. Arthur rides out back into the forest with Gwaine and is overjoyed when they stumble across Merlin. The pair even hug, even though Merlin is coated from head to toe in grime, mud and dirt! But all is not well - the Merlin who returns to Camelot is far more rude and snarky than the charming young man we&amp;#039;re used to. Pocketing a stash of Gaius&amp;#039;s strongest poison, he taints Arthur&amp;#039;s food, but is furious when he finds that Gwen has already made the King lunch... Frustrated, Merlin carelessly tosses the poisoned food into a pigsty - think of the poor little pigs! He head straight to the Camelot weapons store, where Sir Leon recommends a fine weapon - a crossbow that will devastate anything caught in its arrow&amp;#039;s path! Merlin sets up a trap - when Arthur opens the door to his wardrobe, the arrow should stop him dead in his tracks, literally. Meanwhile, the people of Camelot discover the dead pigs, poisoned by Arthur&amp;#039;s lunch... When Gwen brings the food to Gaius, he identifies the poison as wolfsbane - the same substance that Merlin borrowed from him. But why would Merlin be trying to kill Arthur? The pair decide that something must be affecting the young servant&amp;#039;s mind...   Arthur prepares for a traditional knighting ceremony, but he&amp;#039;s still distracted by thoughts of a traitor in the kingdom. He opens his wardrobe, but the arrow does not fire - Merlin&amp;#039;s trap has failed. Desperate, Merlin grabs the king&amp;#039;s ceremonial sword and launches at him when his back is turned... Gwen and Gaius enter the room just in time to see Merlin run straight into a stone pillar - the klutz! Barely paying any attention to his man servant&amp;#039;s clumsiness, Arthur departs, leaving Gwen to knock Merlin out cold with a cooking pot. Gaius spots the Fomorrah under Merlin&amp;#039;s skin and, after paralysing the serpent, removes it with a knife. &amp;quot;We have the old Merlin back,&amp;quot; gushes Gwen. &amp;quot;Arthur is safe once more!&amp;quot; But there&amp;#039;s still the matter of the traitor in Camelot. Arthur has narrowed down the list of suspects and is horrified when his uncle Agravaine rises to the top! But Aggy denies the accusation, &amp;quot;There is one other person who knew your route,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Gaius!&amp;quot; Cunning old Agravaine, killing two birds with one stone! Meanwhile, Merlin is apparently restored to normal, but what&amp;#039;s that lurking under his skin? Another Fomorrah! His latest scheme involves filling Arthur&amp;#039;s bath with acid, but Gaius suspects that all is not well with his young ward and rushes with Gwen to Arthur&amp;#039;s chambers... Gwen once again whacks Merlin with a cooking pot, but Arthur has been preparing for his bath and is forced to grab a pillow to hide his modesty from Gwen and Gaius. I know these are olden times, but I&amp;#039;d assumed Gwen had seen it all before... Turns out if you kill one Fomorrah, another grows in its place, so Gaius paralyses the new serpent. Merlin is temporarily returned to normal, but Gaius warns him that when the Fomorrah returns to life, he&amp;#039;ll fall back under Morgana&amp;#039;s control.   &amp;quot;You have to kill the mother beast!&amp;quot; reveals Gaius - that&amp;#039;s the original creature in Morgana&amp;#039;s hut. Merlin can&amp;#039;t risk exposing his magic, but has a cunning plan - he transforms himself once more into the elderly Dragoon! Agravaine visits Morgana to inform her that he has fingered Gaius as the traitor, but Merlin spots him leaving the hut - final proof of his treachery! Once Morgana also leaves her home for firewood, Merlin sneaks inside... When Morgana returns, she&amp;#039;s terrified by the sight of Merlin - she knows &amp;#039;Dragoon&amp;#039; as Emrys, the figure that will lead to her doom... Merlin snatches up a jar that contains the wriggling mother Fomorrah, but Morgana gives chases and uses magic to attack him. &amp;quot;So Emrys,&amp;quot; she tells the fallen Merlin. &amp;quot;It seems you will not be my doom after all\u2026&amp;quot; But Merlin fights back, and soon he and Morgana are engaged in a battle of sorcery! Eventually, Merlin comes out on top - using his magic to create a powerful vortex that sucks Morgana up and mercilessly spits her out. Escaping, Merlin lights a fire and tosses the mother Fomorrah onto it, destroying the creature and releasing himself from its influence. Back in Camelot, Gaius removes the final snake from Merlin&amp;#039;s neck - it&amp;#039;s now unable to replace itself. But Arthur is irritated with Merlin - he thinks that his manservant has spent an entire two days in the tavern. He cheekily warns Merlin that if he wants to remain as his servant, he will have to take lessons from the officious George. A thrilling instruction course on polishing brass awaits... As the episode concludes, Agravaine returns to Morgana&amp;#039;s hut and finds the witch defeated, in a heap on the ground. Scooping her up, he descends into the forest...  In a Land of Myth and a Time of Magic... \u2022 &amp;#039;A Servant of Two Masters&amp;#039; is a fun romp of an episode, and it&amp;#039;s good to see Merlin and Morgana finally go at it - sorcerer vs. sorcerer! \u2022 But it&amp;#039;s a shame that Merlin&amp;#039;s attempts to kill Arthur are played for laughs. The show&amp;#039;s been somewhat darker in tone this year so it seems like an odd choice to veer towards comedy here. \u2022 On the plus side, it&amp;#039;s good to see that Arthur is canny enough to finger Agravaine as a traitor, even if his slippery uncle does manage to talk his way out of it. But how can Arthur possibly suspect lovely old Gaius? \u2022 Speaking of Arthur, Bradley James&amp;#039;s apparently contractual obligation to get his shirt off every episode reaches its zenith here, with the king&amp;#039;s bath-time scenes! \u2022 Watching this episode&amp;#039;s final scenes, we were briefly worried that they&amp;#039;d killed off Morgana - did anyone else get that feeling? But worry not, we can confirm that Katie McGrath will be back... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/merlin/review/a349034/merlin-a-servant-of-two-masters-recap/>