After the disappointment of The Diamond Of The Day (Part 1), the second part of the story was the epitome of everything that made this show great over the years.
For a programme about Arthurian knights in armour, mighty magic and monsters, Merlin was always at its strongest in the quiet, personal scenes and this episode was crammed to the gills with them.
Understandably most were between Merlin and Arthur as the young warlock helped the wounded king away from the battle, with the aim of getting him to Avalon where he could be cured of the magical wound inflicted on him by Mordred.
Merlin finally revealed his big secret to Arthur and, at first, Arthur was angered and annoyed that his servant had not only been lying to him all these years but had been concealing the greatest secret of them all: that he was a powerful sorcerer.
However, as their journey went on, Arthur began to realise the many reasons Merlin had for keeping his secret and came to appreciate everything he had done for him.
Colin Morgan, as Merlin, deserves some kind of gong in recognition of his portrayal - not just in this episode, where he is incredible, but throughout the show's five-year run.
The Diamond Of The Day (Part 2) was the finale the show deserved. I wish the BBC had had the gumption to screen both parts as a single episode, thus putting the first part in context rather than leaving it hanging as it did with an artificial cliffhanger.
Since the first ever episode of Merlin we've known that this was never going to be a traditional take on the Arthurian mythos and what made The Diamond Of The Day (Part 2) so surprising was how, at this eleventh hour, close it hove to the established legends - with the Battle of Camlann followed by the trip to Avalon.
Yes I wish this finale had been longer; in truth I wish this whole season had been longer - or had been two seasons - but this final 45 minutes was everything I could have wanted... even down to the all-too-brief contemporary denouement.
Truly magical and emotional, The Diamond Of The Day (no, I don't know why it was called that or what the phrase means... I'm hoping someone will explain it) was simultaneously a fitting capstone to this much-improved series and a fine example of why it shouldn't have been allowed to end after a mere five seasons.
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