Merlin Episode Ideas

1

Merlin, Arthur and the 4 main knights (Leon, Gwaine, Percival, Elian) are travelling through the forest back to Camelot after visiting another kingdom for 2 days. They come across a group of bandits who are holding a young woman captive. They fight and release the girl when all of the bandits are dead. The young woman is very cold and scared. Merlin tends to her wounds. They immediately recognise each other, and the atmosphere becomes tense due to their past.

Arthur decides to let Kate (the woman) join them and come to Camalot for a few days.

They make camp for the night. The usual banter happens for the evening. When everyone else is asleep, Merlin and Kate are talking by the fire – which is nearly out. They quietly argue. It is revealed that Kate is Merlin's sister. They think that everyone is asleep, but the camera pans to Arthur, who was intrigued so he felt the need to be nosey.

When everyone wakes, Kate is not at the camp. Merlin starts to panic, thinking she has left. Then, she stumbles through the bushes with fresh water for everyone. "I couldn't sleep so I filled everyone's canteens". The knights are very grateful and take their canteens off her. Merlin gets a little annoyed and snaps at Kate, claiming that she was trying to under mind him. Arthur tells him to relax, he assures him that Kate was just trying to be nice.

Cut to them travelling through the woods, some are on horses. Merlin is walking normally – Arthur insisted that Kate rides back. The forest starts to grow quiet, Kate notices and starts to slow her pace and look around through the leaves. She realises that they are surrounded. She whispers to Leon to hand her his dagger, he asks why. She says; "listen..." they all shrug as if to say 'can't hear anything'. She then says; "exactly" and discreetly holds her hand out for Leon to pass her the dagger and climbs off the horse. The others prepare to dismount their horses. Kate throws the knife into some low branches of a nearby tree. A bandit falls out and drops to the ground heavily, he is dead. Suddenly there are armed men running towards them. Arthur and the knights dismount from their horses and Merlin stays in the background of the fight – as he is still hiding his magic from everyone. The bandits are outnumbering the group 3-1, but they are still fighting their best. By this point, Kate has killed at least 5 men and has 'borrowed' 2 swords. She notices that there is a bandit running towards Arthur, behind him - he hasn't noticed yet and the bandit is getting closer with a very big, sharp sword aimed at his chest. Kate calls his name and tells him to duck. She throws one of her swords which directly hits the bandit in the throat. Arthur is shocked but carries on fighting. All the knights (coincidentally) finish fighting at the same time, but Kate is still fighting her bandit. The men stand and watch her fight for a few seconds before she goes to mount a horse but does a hitch kick thing and knocks the bandit out – when her feet meet the ground, her sword meets his chest. She turns to the men, "is everyone alright?". There is silence as the men are speechless. She looks at them. "hello? Are you all ok?". They all fumble with cluttered versions of the word yes. Merlin and Kate share a look – Merlin looks disappointed and Kate has a look as if to say 'I'm sorry I couldn't help it'.

They all return to Camalot. As Kate helps Merlin return the horses to the stables, Arthur requests that she come with him because Merlin can "do it by himself". She looks at merlin as if to say 'sorry' and she follows the king.

They enter the court. Arthur commends her on her skills as a warrior. She is grateful but humble. Arthur asks her where she learned her skills. She tells a story of her being left in the forest by her brother when she was young (like 10) and that she was found by another king. She was held in captivity and trained to fight with the knights as part of her 'torture' - the other king believed she had information on rival kingdoms. She then goes on to explain that she was sold to a slave trader who was then going to sell her to the highest bidder – that is when they found her in the forest. Within the story, she does not mention her brother's name – but the audience know that Arthur heard Kate and Merlin in the forest. Arthur tells everyone to "leave us". When they are alone, he explains that he knows that Merlin is her brother and asks if it was him who had abandoned her – she nods. She then asks Arthur to not tell anybody and explains that it was a long time ago and that Merlin should not suffer for it. The conversation then comes to an end when Arthur insists that she be his guest in the palace for as long as she needs. She is very grateful and then leaves.