IMHO "Merlin" (1:7): You think YOU know some nasty fairies?!

At the beginning of "The Gates of Avalon," last night's episode of Merlin, Morgana has a vision that Arthur is being drowned by an evil sorceress.

When no one takes her vision seriously, she says to Gwen, "I'm going to have to try to stop it myself!"

And I'm thinking to myself, "Finally! For the first six episodes, all the female characters did was stand around breathing."

But guess what? That's just about all Morgana does in the episode. She certainly doesn't do anything to stop the vision. That's Merlin's gig.

U.K. viewers who've already seen all the show's thirteen episodes, keep saying that I need to keep watching, that the ending is incredible, and that Morgana and Gwen end up being absolutely essential to the show.

They better be, because I'm rapidly losing patience.

Needless to say, I found this to be yet another mostly disappointing ep.

Fairy-like immortals who have been banished from the magical world of Avalon come to Camelot disguised as a father and his beautiful daughter. It seems that to be allowed back inside Avalon, they must sacrifice the soul of a prince — namely, Arthur, who they proceed to enchant so he'll think he's fallen in love with the daughter.

But since we've seen Morgana's vision, and since the immortals are identified as definitely evil early in the episode, there's almost no tension, and definitely no surprises. It's just a waiting game to watch them act out exactly what we thought was going to happen all along.

There's even a scene where Gaius talks to Merlin about Morgana's visions, explaining all the things that we, the viewer, already know. It's a basic writer's mistake. I'm thinking, "Um, Gaius couldn't you fill Merlin in on your own time, and just have the show be about, you know, interesting stuff?"

But I did enjoy the fair amount of humor in the episode, especially the bit about how Merlin is such a terrible liar that he keeps being banished to the stocks by Uther. I also love how everyone thinks he's this lowly little servant, when, in fact, he's the most important, most powerful character on the show.

It's like Samantha on Bewitched, except with no gay uncles.