In episode 7 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Marigold finally accepted Nori’s judgment and decision to help the Stranger, despite the dangers it may hold.
Throughout the series thus far, Marigold, played by Sara Zwangobani, has fought Nori on her insistence to aid the mysterious Stranger that had fallen from the sky, but that all changed in the penultimate episode of season 1 when Marigold accepts Nori’s judgment and volunteers to help her find the Stranger to warn him of dangers after being sent away from the Harfoot colony.
“I think that the gem of that actually started when the Stranger helped with the cart. Marigold kind of went, ‘Oh, oh, we’ll give this a go and see what happens.’ And then they went on their migration, which is one of my favorite bits in the show, and you could see the Stranger becoming part of their family. He literally became this sort of second surrogate child after Poppy.”
Marigold had her own reasonings for being skeptical of both the Stranger and Nori’s determination to break the rules and help him, both of which she had to break free of to fully accept not only Nori’s decision, but the Harfoot Nori had grown to be.
“In Marigold’s backstory, she had those yearnings when she was younger, too, but she chose the path of duty, and it became really important to her, and like we all do when we make a choice, we want to really believe in that choice. In that moment by the fireside, watching Nori go, ‘You know what? I was wrong the whole time,’ Marigold, in her heart, especially as a mother, is going, ‘No, my darling, you weren’t. And I need to prove that to you. And I’m going to do that by believing in you. And I’m going to go on your quest with you.'”
The acceptance of Nori and her convictions is something so crucial in parent-child relationships — where the parent throw who they wanted their child to be to the wind and embraces who their child is. While these traits Nori are displaying may have been squashed out of Marigold herself, she is now seeing the chance to help her own child flourish and grow. Let’s just hope they can find the wayward Stranger in time.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 finale airs Friday, October 14 exclusively on Prime Video. The series has been greenlit for a season 2, and production is starting in the UK.
