Dominic Monaghan Explains the ‘Con’ of Merlin’s Ending (Exclusive)

If you ask Dominic Monaghan, Merlin was “humbled” by the end of The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 finale. He became so blinded by his obsession with magic that to say things took a dark turn would be an understatement. TV Insider spoke with Monaghan about the finale and more. Warning: Spoilers for The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 finale ahead!

Merlin seemingly traveled back in time to Camelot, claimed the sword in the stone and the throne as his own, and systematically took out the Librarians team one by one… until, after Vikram (Callum McGowan), he realized he’d destroyed everything, including the kingdom. That was when he was woken from the nightmare magic the team used on him in the annex; they’d never left. He had to hit rock bottom, and now that he did, it was only up and onwards… to a new job, categorizing and preserving the magical artifacts of the Library as his chance to start over, his redemption. He made sure they knew that if they ever needed a knowledgeable, educated, contrite magician, he’d be there.

Below, Dominic Monaghan reflects on Merlin’s arc and shares what he’d like to do if he returned for a third season. (Plus, read what creator Dean Devlin had to say about the finale here.)

The finale is everything going completely wrong. So, how surprised was Merlin that the team chose to help him rather than just say, lock him up once he was in that dream state? Because they easily could have.

Dominic Monaghan: Yeah, they easily could have, for sure. And I think that’s the real humbling moment for Merlin because you don’t see a massive amount of humanity in him. You see someone desperate for power, desperate to be the leader, to be the person who’s making the decisions. But then, when he realizes at the end that the Librarians have kind of tricked him, but they’ve also saved him as well, I think it’s a very humbling experience for him. And maybe a moment where, for the first time, he has to grapple with the fact that there are good people out there that want to do good things. And he could have gone down that path as well, but he chose not to. So I like seeing that for characters like Merlin because you want a little bit of retribution. You want the audience to realize that he’s had to have pause for thought, and the Librarians have done that to him.

TNT

Speaking of that dream state, though, before Merlin realizes he’s gone too far at the end and was blinded by his obsession with magic, do you think there was a moment that he realized, wait a second, I need to question what I’m doing as each one of them was “dying”?

Yeah, I mean, I think by that point, to be honest, he’s a little bit too far gone. I think he just thinks, “All I can do now is wipe them out, and I have to be the ultimate leader, and I’ll deal with it from that point on.” He is kind of quite single-minded. I think also, with Camelot, he starts to see, I could have this castle, I could have these knights, I could have these horses, I could have Arthur as kind of my assistant. It’s not the other way around. So he just gets drunk with power, and there really is no turning it back. And then it’s the switcheroo with the Librarians that allows him to look at his humanity.

How does Merlin feel about where he’s left as the Library’s archivist? That’s not something I think he ever would’ve imagined when we first met him at the beginning of the season.

Yeah, I think he has to eat a little bit of humble pie because he’s aware that they could have probably blasted him off the face of the earth if they wanted to, and they chose to show him mercy. So, he’s picking at scraps at the table, really, and they’re playing nice. They’re basically saying, “We found a great job for you, and we’ve got something that’ll keep you busy.” But really, they’re like, “Hey, we’re going to put you in a prison, and we’re going to watch you the entire time. And if you misbehave, we’ll know where you are.”

And Excalibur will be there to guard him.

Yeah, exactly. But we’re going to dress it up as, like, “You are our helper. You’re going to be a Librarian with us sorting books and stuff.” So they all know there’s a little bit of a con going on, but it’s a compromise by everyone.

Do you think at the beginning of the season, if you had asked Merlin what his dream ending would’ve been, would it have been somewhere between where he ends up and where that nightmare was?

I wonder if maybe his dream, if he’s able to get out of his own way, is to become another Librarian, is for the gang to accept him and say, “We all have our powers. We see your power too, and we’ll bring you in for moments of magical problems, and you can be on the team.” Because I think Merlin is a lone wolf, and I think he’s probably really struggled with being a loner. And he might play well with others. He’s just not had that much experience. So I think that’s his ultimate dream, but he can’t get out of his own way of, there can only be one king.

Merlin remarks that if they’re ever in need of him, they know where to find him. So would you return for a third season? Because it kind of feels like the door’s been left open.

Absolutely was left open. And I really appreciated Dean for that. As we got closer to that last episode, I think that was a rewrite. I think Dean said, “Listen, based on the time that we’ve all had in this season and the character that we’ve been able to create, we would love to keep that door open.” And I said, “Oh, that would be fantastic because there’s more adventures to be had.” So, it was a great thing to realize that there might be a chance that he could come back. And it would be brilliant.

I love being in Serbia. The crew are fantastic. Dean’s one of the nicest guys in the business, and he has a reputation for that. And the cast was so lovely. This is a very well-cemented cast of mid-20-year-old people. I’m turning 50 at the end of this year, so I’m way out of that age group. They very much accepted me. I was always invited for dinner and drinks and was part of the gang, and they couldn’t have been more welcoming. I had a wonderful time. I really did.

If you did come back, what would you want to explore with Merlin? Are there any of the characters you’d want to work with more?

One of the things that Dean and I said was there’s so much to mine in the Arthurian legends. You can find out what happens to Arthur as he gets older. We can find out about Lancelot. We can find out about Guinevere. Anything that happens in that particular world that is about those characters, or anything in any other story that is about magic and it being out of control, because now Merlin hopefully is on his best behavior, and he says, “OK, I’ve been here before. I’ve made this mistake. I know how you can fix it.” So, I think we can go anywhere, really, but I would love to have the Librarians come with Merlin back to Arthurian legend and have them help him solve some of those mysteries.

What was your favorite scene to film from the season?

Probably I have a really nice walk and talk with Callum in this village where I say to him, “Listen, if we get ourselves into a situation where we can find the bad guy, I can’t do it. I’m way too close to magic. I’m going to mess it up. You have to do it. I’ll get you there, but then you have to be the person that picks it up.” And Callum says, “No, no, I’ll do it with you. You’ll be with me.” I say, “No, I can’t be that close to magic.” That was a really fun scene because the great thing about that, I was saying to John, the writer on set, those types of scenes, it’s weird. You don’t really need to learn your lines. They’re written so well that you just listen to the other actor and you think, “OK, how would I answer that?” And it’s pretty close to the way that the writer has written it. So, it’s really fun those days.