Merlin: The Witch's Quickening

Evil storm clouds are gathering over Camelot as the pieces are falling into the place for an end game that could spell the fall of the city-state.

Charismatic fighting-sorcerer Alvarr (Joseph Mawle) and his merry band of reprobates teamed up with the wonderfully creepy druid child Mordred (Asa Butterfield) to coax Morgana (Katie McGrath) into purloining a powerful magical crystal from the vaults of the castle.

She did this, but then Gaius (Richard Wilson) and Merlin (Colin Morgan) directed King Uther (Anthony Head) and his troops to the bandit camp. In a heated battled Mordred escaped, most of the gang were slain and Alvarr was captured and taken before Uther to be sentenced to death.

Morgana was unable to contain her resentment at her guardian's blind hatred, of magic and those who use it, any longer and she told him she was "disowning him" before storming out - and making it quite obvious that she was going to help the imprisoned sorcerer escape.

Meanwhile, The Great Dragon (voiced by John Hurt) had been kicking up a stink with Merlin, reminding him of the promise to release him; then when Merlin gained access to the magic crystal he saw visions of Camelot in flames and the Great Dragon freed.

A straight-forward, gritty, no frills, no romance, 'establishing' episode, maneuvering the various players for the upcoming season finale into position, The Witch's Quickening was very much a rock solid "jobsworth" story that had its message to delivery and then get out without clouding the plot strands any further.

It's always good to see Morgana-centric stories and the reappearance of Mordred, because these are the characters we know traditionally from Arthurian myths are associated with the "Dark Side".

And, for once, there was no almighty reset button pressed at the end of the episode, Morgana has pretty much burnt her bridges with Uther and, even though he has no proof of her part in Alvarr's ultimate escape, you could tell he knows she was involved somewhere along the line.

The lighter tone and romantic elements of recent stories was conspicuous by its absence in The Witch's Quickening and this change of tone foreshadows ominous times ahead for Camelot and its residents.

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