I know you are still watching this. On the face of it, I was expecting another poor episode - love interest of the week combined with evil magician of the week (but somehow someone Gaius has never mentioned before) and mythical creature of the week.When an old flame of Gaius's arrives in Camelot, Merlin is pleased to see a different side to his curmudgeonly mentor. But after discovering she is under the influence of a Manticore, a creature from the Old Religion, Merlin has no choice but to tell his old friend of Alice's evil intentions.
Blinded by love, the old physician refuses to believe Merlin's story, and the two friends fall out. With the King in danger and all signs pointing to Alice and her evil pet, Merlin must somehow make Gaius come to his senses before it is too late.
Actually, I thought the back-story for Gaius really added something - he helped magicians escape from Uther and he IS a good magician himself. Up to now he had seemed like a bit of an amateur and it wasn't explicitly said that there had been a kind of 'underground railroad' (in general, we have only seen evil magicians from the days of the 'Old magic'.). I can see this all leading up to something at the end of the Season which might be close to what I was waiting for.