IMHO "Merlin" (1.8): Is the creepy telepathic kid as evil as he looks?

So in "The Beginning of the End," last night's episode of Merlin, Morgana and Merlin have to decide if they should hide the creepy, but telepathic druid boy who King Uther, since he hates all things magic, is determined to execute.

Morgana, her magic awakening, feels an intense bond with the boy — but I think a large part of her excitement comes from the fact that it's the eighth episode, and she finally has a substantial storyline.

Meanwhile — and this is admittedly pretty interesting — Merlin is warned by the dragon, in increasingly explicit terms, not to help the boy, that if the boy doesn't die, he will end up jeopardizing Merlin's destiny to keep Arthur alive so the once and future king can fulfill his destiny.

But how can our hero let a little boy die — especially a boy who throws such practiced psychic temper-tantrums? Seriously, did you get a load of the one mid-way through the show? The kid's whining and wailing, all telepathically, of course.

So what does Merlin do? He acquiesces! He goes and helps him! True, not helping would have meant that the kid and Arthur get killed, but in my mind, it still means Merlin would make a terrible parent. If Merlin and Arthur ever do get together and decide to adopt kids, I hope and pray I never have to stand behind them in line at the grocery. 

Anyway, this episode was all about the "twist" at the end, when we find out the real identity of the boy, and the dragon's warnings finally become clear.

*A spoiler-alert-warning drum roll if you please!* 

The kid turns out to be Mordred, who, if you know anything at all about the King Arthur legend, is Arthur's sworn enemy.

That's gratitude for you, eh?

Still, one of the things these "before-they-were-famous" Smallville-type retellings of famous stories can do really well is play with your expectations, and have major characters show up in ways that you don't expect. That's what this episode did, since we don't expect Mordred to be a little boy.

Still, did they have to make him such a little Satan's spawn? Didn't that tip their hand a little too much? Or was that just more misdirection, making you think they want you to think the boy is evil when he really wasn't (even though he really was)?  

Basically, whether this episode "worked" for you probably depends on whether you guessed the "twist" ending before the actual ending. If you did, it was, no doubt, like The Sixth Sense if you know the ending to that movie: all atmosphere and, ultimately, pretty damn boring.

As for me, I didn't guess it was Mordred until after the dragon's second warning to Merlin. So the episode did have a fair amount of tension and mystery.

Not an episode for the ages, but better than several other recent ones.