MERLIN: Dragons and Tchotchkes and Knights, Oh My.

So BethAnne’s DVR may have been sabotaged this week. I claim no responsibility, even though I’m trying to overtake the Nice Girls group from the inside out. So I’m not saying I drove up to Chicago, sneaked into her home, set the DVR to record O’s back-to-back marathon of the Best of The Bachelor, nearly got caught by the Chicago PD, went on the run for two days across Illinois, found and wooed the love of my life in a bank robbery gone horribly awry, and ultimately lost him when we forgot to exchange Facebook information before going on the lam in separate directions. I’m not saying that’s what happened (though it may be a little more than probable).

Either way, I get to do the Merlin recap and hoo boy, I’m excited. Seriously. It’s an episode about dragons. I LOVE dragons.

Did I love this episode, though? That’s to be determined.

Last episode dealt with the death of Uther Pendragon (now there’s a dragon I’m not fond of, even though he’s Giles), so you would expect this episode to cover the thematically dark topic of Arthur finding his way as Camelot’s new king and discovering new kingly boundaries. You’d be wrong.

After three weeks of intense, game-changing episodes, Merlin returns to the goofiness of previous seasons, and I’m not sure I welcome the “same old, same old” feel I got sometimes this episode. We’re once again reminded how many masters Merlin must serve: his mentor Gaius, his dragon John Hurt, the delightfully-shirtless-for-a-lot-of-the-episode Arthur, and that whole pesky destiny thing. Each master wants something from him in this episode, and it’s up to Merlin to walk the treacherous path of looking like a buffoon while once again saving the day yet again.

The story this weeks brings Battlestar Galactica alum James Callis to the show as Julius Borden, a former pupil of Gaius now out on a quest to assemble the Triskelion of Ashkganar so that he can retrieve the last dragon egg, which has sat dormant and protected in the Temple of Ashkganar. Our first shot is Borden lowering himself via rope into the midst of a bunch of sleeping people and retrieving something that looks a bit like a coat hanger with runes from a box. Our first magical clue comes when he connects the Magical Coat Hanger to another Magical Coat Hanger and gets…a Magical Tchotchke. And of course he turns and everybody in the cave has woken up and has gathered around him, just standing there staring at him. The ultimate creepiness of this gives them away as what they are: Druids! Yes, a druids episode!

Borden escapes with the Tchotchke Triskelion by making a daring jump, but not until he reveals that he’s spent twenty years on this quest, which means it’s Very Important. Thankfully, he explains exactly why it’s Very Important in the very next scene, in which he visits Gaius, hoping that the death of Uther Pendragon means Camelot will be a little more magic-friendly (too bad for him that Merlin and Morgana killed Uther, thus preventing any chance of that happening for awhile). Gaius, of course, immediately distrusts Borden for the conniving weasel Callis always plays so well. Merlin overhears the whole thing and gets excited because, of course, he’s the last Dragon Lord and so a dragon egg is right in his wheelhouse of things to care about. Gaius warns Merlin against helping Borden, claiming that Borden is No Good.

Here’s the problem with serving Four Masters: the minute Merlin visits his dragon John Hurt, dragon John Hurt’s like (I know his name is Kilgharrah, but I like John Hurt as a dragon name so much better) “Hey, you’re a dragon lord. You can end my loneliness. Get on that.” Merlin approaches Borden with an offer to help him get the third piece of the Triskelion, buried in Camelot’s vaults. I love that Camelot, which has been pillaged and attacked multiple times, is still completely easy to break into but has all of these great treasures in its underbelly. Merlin does the buffoon thing to get the keys, first convincing Arthur that he’s doing some early-dawn searching for wormwood when caught, and basically pantsing Arthur in front of his grand council in order to get the key—which he gives to Borden and is promptly betrayed, to absolutely nobody’s surprise.

Now we get to the real reason I stole this recap from decided to cover for BethAnne: lots of scenes with Gwaine and Leon and the others! Hi, fellas! Once the theft of the third part of the Triskelion is discovered, Arthur learns the tale of the dragon egg and decides that nobody else should possess a magical object of such power. So it’s Arthur and his Hot Knights (and Merlin) on a quest to fetch the dragon egg. They track Borden on the way to Ashkanar. The camaraderie between the knights is one of my favorite things about the show, and they’re in fine form this episode, hazing Merlin about cooking them dinner and feeding the horses but not saving him any food…until it’s revealed that they were just messing with him and saved him a plate after all.

Merlin gets a night-time visit from Iseldir and his creepy band of People That Stand Around. Iseldir tells him that Borden has gone east. He also warns Merlin that the Triskelion is a trap, and that he can only go forward when the path ahead seems impossible, two rather grim predictions. Before Iseldir can make this party any more depressing, Merlin-Emrys leaves without thanking the druids. The next day, when they lose the trail, he almost has to reveal his magical side to Arthur to get them on the right path (“I can just sense it.” / “Sense is not a word I associate with you, Merlin.”), but they head east, catching up with Borden by going through the impossible path (a cave and a waterfall). From there, it’s a straight shot to Ashkanar, or it would be if Borden weren’t there to take potshots at them with a crossbow. Merlin uses magic to yank the crossbow from Borden’s hands, but Borden still gets away. Of course, he shoots my beloved Percival in the leg, and for that, Borden must pay.

They make camp, deciding to try and catch up with Borden at the Temple of Ashkanar the next day. Unfortunately, Borden sneaks into the camp and poisons Arthur and his Hot Knights. Merlin heals them and heads off to save the day and the dragon egg. It turns out Iseldir was right; the Triskelion unleashes a gas on Borden when he tries to get into the Temple. Merlin, handy bandanna over his mouth, dispels the gas and goes in to find the dragon egg, which looks a little like Dan Aykroyd in my dad’s favorite movie. They throw down, Borden offering Merlin half of the power the dragon’s egg can bring, but Merlin wants nothing to do with any of that. He defeats Borden, protecting the egg and then proving that he has never seen a single Indiana Jones movie, picks up the egg. Which is of course when the temple starts falling down around his ears and he’s forced to run.

Arthur and his Hot Knights watch with the newly-returned Merlin as the temple collapses, taking Borden and presumably the egg with it. Defeated, they return to Camelot, where Merlin shows Gaius the dragon egg before taking it out to see the dragon John Hurt. The dragon John Hurt tells him that only a true Dragon Lord can call a dragon from its egg by Naming it. Merlin thinks about it and dubs the new dragon “Aithusa,” which is draconic for “light of the sun.” A white dragon, the dragon John Hurt says, is a good sign for the someday peace at Albion that Arthur and Merlin will bring. Does that stop me from shouting, “Yes! Ruth!” at the TV? Not a bit. And if you got that, you’re a fellow McCaffrey nerd and my new best friend.

And Aithusa, despite the dodgy name, is an adorable dragon, guys. Baby dragons usually are, Sucker Punch aside. Overall, I’d call this a decent episode, despite the fact that it’s tonally jarring compared to the episode before it. Merlin is well-known for this sort of tonal hijinkery, though, so I suppose it’s only to be expected. Next episode, our favorite not-nice girl Morgana returns along with, presumably, our favorite nice girl Gwen, both of whom were sadly missing in this episode.

Thanks to BethAnne for letting me fill in!   If you missed BethAnne’s interview with Eion Macken and the rest of the Hot Knights, you can read that here.

Merlin airs on SyFy on Fridays at 10/9c.