Has anyone noticed that Mogdred starts laughing before they've finished errornously dispelling the word? How on earth did he/John Woodnutt know they were going to get it wrong and miss the O so quickly?

After all the stuff that's been said about the 'SHRUD scene', by me and by others - including a recording and video of my Let It Be/Letter O song parody by two nice people on Twitter - I wasn't sure I had anything further to say. But after watching it again recently, I've realised that, despite how entertaining it is, it just doesn't feel right to me.

Parts of it feel too convenient and too contrived. For example:

• Mark knowing immediately to dispel SHROUD – you can hear him saying "Right, say 'Dispel'" before the spell has even taken hold – yet repeatedly making an elementary mistake. This happens to turn an encounter that would've been brief and anticlimactic into a unique and entertaining episode.

• One advisor saying "Dispel" before a different advisor does the dispelling: this isn't logical and I can't recall any other team doing this. More precisely, what happens is: Jason says "Dispel"; it cuts to Mogdred looking startled; it cuts back to the advisors and Mark is doing the dispelling.

• "Turn spell": totally unexplained.

• Treguard giving a hint that so specifically complements both his constraint and the team's mistake ("Oooo"), followed by a bigger yet equally specific hint ("Le..tter... O"). If these were thought up for Hugo Myatt on the spur of the moment by Tim Child, they confirm his brilliance.

• Before his correct dispelling, it sounds like Mark is double-checking that "Dispel" is the correct term, despite his instant certainty about using it earlier.

• The timing and nature of some of the advisers' comments, particularly Mark saying "Yes! We've got him!" when the aim was to undo the shroud with no expectation that Mogdred would be affected.

In short, I've decided that I can't take the scene at face value. I find it easier to believe that it was staged or partially staged. This is, of course, speculation with no testimony to back it up.

Having said that, one interesting fact has come to light about this period of the Series 2 filming. Stuart Leatherland, the next dungeoneer, said recently on Twitter:

'We were late to the party. We were asked to get there for the Friday morning but I had tickets for Dolphins/49ers at Wembley that weekend. So they let us go on Monday.'

Well done to those of you who speculated about that earlier in this thread. Could it explain why Team 7 enjoy such a staggering amount of lenience, and minimal resistance to them reaching Level 3? Was their quest stretched because Team 8 were delayed? Might some rooms even have been retrospectively filmed and added? Again, speculation.

However, she did nevertheless accept the potion named "Potion" in its stead, which I found odd. She also them gave them "just a word" - Stalactite - which I'm assuming was a red herring, as they didn't need to use it even once, and even tried to give it as a password at one point.

I'm wondering what Mildread may have given them if they HAD the correct clue item. I suspect it may not have been anything more useful, as they completed the level without any problems anyway. They may, of course, have been let off on this occasion.

I wonder what the point of 'Stalactite' was, then, if not to just throw them off?

So they got to Mildread and she wanted a bone for her cauldron! Their reaction showed that they thought they were doomed. There was a noticeable sigh of relief when she surprisingly accepted the potion instead. Was this a let-off for team 7, or was it an example of Mildread's twisted humour?

They used the dagger to get rid of the cavernwraith in the well room. Was this the first time a team had successfully used a weapon in Knightmare?

Quickly reached the clue room in level 2, but there was only a key (which they took) and some bones, which they eventually left. Were the producers trying to see if the team could be tricked into taking the bones this time?

Next, the vale of Mogdred and one of the most memorable scenes in Knightmare history:

Mogdred spell cast "SHROUD" so that Neil disappeared. They then tried to dispel several times each time forgetting the letter O, then discussed several other useless ideas, before heavy hinting from Treguard finally sorted them out.

Very competently won the combat chess, but dithered in the hall of spears. Quickly got out of Ariadne's room, then summoned Merlin just before time froze again.

When the team tried giving "stalactite" to Cedric, he replied that it wasn't the password "for this level". This supports the theory that it would have got them past Gumboil on Level 1, had they encountered him. Gumboil tended to carry a sword...

Oh, hmm, that's an interesting observation! You could be onto something there - that it WAS a valid password, just not the one they needed.

This convinces me even more that a edit took place. The team wouldn't be aware of this and would be none the wiser. Could there be a possibility the actor who played Gumboil might not have been available at the time so the production team had to alter the script? Maybe instead of shooting a scene with Gumboil they let the team use the dagger which was the correct thing to do and then carry on from level 2?

When the team tried giving "stalactite" to Cedric, he replied that it wasn't the password "for this level". This supports the theory that it would have got them past Gumboil on Level 1, had they encountered him. Gumboil tended to carry a sword...

Oh, hmm, that's an interesting observation! You could be onto something there - that it WAS a valid password, just not the one they needed.

It was probably means to be the level one password and in the end they didn't bother with it. Guess we may never know.

When the team tried giving "stalactite" to Cedric, he replied that it wasn't the password "for this level". This supports the theory that it would have got them past Gumboil on Level 1, had they encountered him. Gumboil tended to carry a sword...
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There may have been a chance then that the quest was edited. Otherwise surely the team would had to encounter Gumboil at the end of level 1? That's as far as the team should have got to anyway!

Mildread gives them this mysterious word STALACTITE, remarking that "the word is mightier than the sword". Were they perhaps supposed to use the word instead of the dagger?

That would have been far too subtle for them. Granitas told them that the dagger was not for use against flesh, and Treguard later emphasised that the cavernwraith had no flesh, so I think they did what they were meant to do. In Series 4, we again saw a dagger that was intended for use as a magical object rather than a weapon.

When the team tried giving "stalactite" to Cedric, he replied that it wasn't the password "for this level". This supports the theory that it would have got them past Gumboil on Level 1, had they encountered him. Gumboil tended to carry a sword...

Or they wanted to drag it on a bit longer as the previous quest was quite short?

I think Mildred gave them a fake password for having giving her the wrong item.

If that was the case then the production team should killed them off!

I've just noticed something. Granitas gives them a hint about using the dagger to dismiss the cavernwraith, which they later do. But in between, Mildread gives them this mysterious word STALACTITE, remarking that "the word is mightier than the sword". Were they perhaps supposed to use the word instead of the dagger? That would explain why it has no use later in the quest, but then why would Granitas have given them the dagger clue in the first place?

It was strange in the first place for a weapon of the opposition to be used as it goes against the grain. But then again Granitas clearly indicated that the team should take the dagger. As previously mentioned, this was a strange quest!

Obviously a Knightmare-crew favourite.

The 'SHRUD' incident is in my opinion the second funniest Knightmare moment ever (second only to Simon, sidestep to your left...) This is possibly the first time that Mogdred appeared in a non-terrifying capacity.

Incidentally, the riddle that the team was given on the magic plant that doubles was identical to the one that me and my team were given when auditioning for Knightmare Series 8! We got it right, but didn't make the cut!

I liked this episode's Paul Simon song reference. Did anyone else pick up on it? I'll give a hint later.

Mildread tells them she'd have preferred a bone instead of a potion (and you can see the team's "Oh crap, we're dead" expressions) but lets them pass anyway.

Given Mildread's nature, it's possible that if they had given her the bone, she'd have told them that she'd have preferred a potion. But on the face of it, this was an explicit let-off. Combine that with life-saving clue object advice from Granitas (would they have taken the weapon otherwise?) that they arguably should not have earned from a score of 1 and we get, in my opinion, one of the most outrageous Level 1s ever seen in Knightmare. Regardless of how the previous team had done, I don't feel that this team should have been allowed to get to Level 2.

Previously, Mildread had tried using her impersonation magic to deceive Martin from Team 1 of Series 2. Like Neil, he didn't have the gift she particularly wanted. Unlike Neil, he couldn't placate her with either of the objects he did have, and unlike Neil, it seemed that Martin entered losing status as a result.

Stalactite: my guess is that a Gumboil password scene was written for this Level 1 but wasn't filmed.

It seems an odd point of semantics that a cavernwraith can't harm a dungeoneer but can harm his or her Life Force.

I wonder why they didn't do a retake when Treguard stumbled over his lines at the beginning of Level 2.

If the key is Casper, it looks like he's been through quite a traumatic experience. This would explain why he's gone mute. Or maybe he's silently contemplating how helpful it is for the team not to have a choice of clue objects on Level 2. Teams 3 and 4 didn't either, and got through the whole level; Team 5 did, made a wrong choice and entered losing status.

The 'SHRUD' scene (about which I wrote this) ended up demeaning everyone concerned: team, characters and actors. And yet when the dust settled, there stood the only Knightmare team ever to get the best of Mogdred in a face-off. What a travesty. The TOAD scene in Series 3 (Quest 6) went some way to overwriting this.

After winning Battle Chess, the team seemed very relieved. They were certainly pleased with themselves, even though the puzzle itself was a piece of cake to solve.

I'm guessing that the sprig of energy on the Combat Chessboard was there to speed things up by allowing the team to plot a route more easily. A shame that it reduced the challenge significantly. I was amused when Neil got to the far wall and appeared to have stopped to relieve himself. Ironical really, since it seems his advisors couldn't p*ss this quest away even if they tried.

http://twitter.com/WatcherMark/status/371029191380070400

That sheds some light on why Merlin liked to be called Bert. He told Neil to call him Sir. Neil didn't. But while Merlin is merely magnificent, Neil is invincible, so what do manners matter to him?

How can a person know about Pegasus and about Jason but draw a blank on Theseus?

Watching this team bumble indestructibly through the Dungeon has me wanting to fall to my knees in agony. I may have to change my name to Kneel Pain.

And the Paul Simon song reference? Think about the state that Neil briefly took on while stepping around in the room of cards. If you can't get it from that, look up the Graceland track listing. It also puts me in mind of the song Play Me... by Neil Diamond. If they're not careful, which isn't much of an 'if', the diamond could come back to haunt them later in the quest. Perhaps one of the other suits will too.

The team is quite entertaining, that's always good.

And isn't this the first time Merlin's room has appeared in series 2?

In fact we haven't seem much from him recently. What I like at the moment is the amount of variation. You never know exactly what room you're gonna get next.