We begin The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin season 1 episode 1 learning that this is the story of the wizard, who would go on to befriend King Arthur. However, before we get there, we need to know more about his parents.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin
To open, we get the speech about someone who is going to kill Arthur, but also someone who will be sent to save him. Of course, we know enough about Arthurian legend to know that Merlin is involved, but before we can get his story, we’re sent to years earlier, to 4th century AD Britain, where a bag is floating down a river.
That bag ends up in the trap of Elphin’s father’s in the water, but nobody knows of this. Elphin just happens to have been sent out to the traps for fish in the hope of proving that he isn’t filled with bad luck. It seems rather unlucky to find the bag of a dead baby, until that baby suddenly comes back to life.
Now, Elphin finds himself the father of this orphan, a boy called Taliesin, who is destined to be a bard. And what a bard he is, as when he grows older, he has a beautiful voice.
The fall of Atlantis and the fight for Britain on The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin
After that opener, we jump to 20 years later, where we see Charis preparing for a fight in the middle of a colosseum. She is praying to the Horned God, only it turns out that this Horned God wants to destroy everything. Charis is severely injured as an earthquake rattles the city, but we cut back to the story of Talisiesin, who is now a young man on his own adventure.
He is at a stone circle, where a stone has fallen. He’s encouraged by a vision of a man to pull the fallen stone to see what is under there, which opens to a vision and a Horned God. His vision is interrupted by Hafgan, as his father Elphin needs his help.
Taliesin is called to help at a Roman stronghold that has being destroyed by some sort of blue barbarians. Taliesin and Hafgan attempt to use their magic to help, but it looks like later on, that it doesn’t work, as they end up going to The Summerlands, which is now Charis’s home with her family, seeking refuge.
Taliesin and Charis feel a connection to each other
King Avallach and Elphin attempt to get along, but it’s clear that they don’t trust each other. It doesn’t help that Taliesin reminds Charis of everything that she has lost. We get a look back at the earthquake at the colosseum, giving us a chance to see how she is able to survive. As she takes down the Horned God, the bull that she is supposed to be fighting just collapses.
There is clearly more to this story, though, and it’s something to wait until The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin episode 2 to learn. For now, we get the focus on Taliesin and Charis clearly having feelings for each other, but Charis doesn’t feel like she can act on her heart. She is torn between her Atlantian ways and her home now in Britain.
It doesn’t help that her sister, Morgain, is clearly trying to win Taliesin’s heart, seeing the power that he holds. When she struggles to turn a breached foal from its mother’s womb, Taliesin is able to use his magic to help, and with that the foal is birthed and Morgain can see that this man could offer her the power that she desires.
She’s even willing to sacrifice the foal for what she wants. While, after Charis rejects him, Talisen heads to a hut from earlier in the episode. This hut is viewed by monks as a sacred place for God, and just as Taliesin gets there, a huge blast of light burns him like it did at the stone circle. Is this the Horned God or the Christian’s God?
The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin airs on Thursdays on Daily Wire+.