‘The Rings of Power’ Star Breaks Down Their Character’s Shocking Season 3 Exit

Published Nov 12, 2026, 2:00 PM EST Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain. She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE, published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold. Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Rings of Power Season 3 Episode 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has finally returned with its third season, with the story treading into even darker territory than we've seen before after a five-year time jump. While large swaths of Middle-earth have already fallen under Sauron's (Charlie Vickers) control, there are still some regions that have managed to withstand the threat. Anyone even halfway familiar with lore knows that a wholly different fate awaits Númenor, with the island kingdom creeping ever closer to that ending — but as this season tragically confirms, not every character will make it to that point. Season 3's second episode, "The Gift of Men," picks up with Númenor more divided than ever before, and its people are split between loyalty to the King's Men, led by Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle), and the Faithful, guided by Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). Although Eärien (Ema Horvath) has attempted to pass on what information she can to the Faithful — which includes her brother Isildur (Maxim Baldry) and her father Elendil (Lloyd Owen) from inside Númenor's walls — her intelligence-gathering is ultimately uncovered by Pharazôn's followers. Rather than allow herself to become a political prisoner or be executed for treachery, Eärien throws herself from a window to her death. It's a shocking and heartbreaking twist, one that emphasizes that the stakes are even higher for Númenor's civil war. Below, Horvath speaks with Collider about when she found out about Eärien's fate, the research she did to best represent her character's state of mind in her final moments, and the version of Eärien's ending that didn't make it into the final cut of Episode 2. COLLIDER: Can you take me back to the moment when you found out what Eärien’s fate was going to be and what the conversation with JD [Payne] and Patrick [McKay] was like about how that was going to play out this season? EMA HORVATH: I had a Zoom call, which I believe they did with almost every actor, to sort of pitch your arc for the season. They're very animated storytellers, which is very exciting when you're hearing what's going to happen to you. So they built it up, and then they told me what would inevitably happen. I think I was so in the story that I didn't process it, and when I got off the Zoom, my husband had been listening, and he was like, “Are you okay?” And I was like, “Yeah, of course. Why would I not be?” And he was like, “You're dying.” So it did take me a second to sort of come to terms with all the... you're off the show, and you're not going to see your colleagues for a long time. But I knew it was coming; I just didn't know how, and I didn't know when. So it was a surprise and not a surprise. I do think what's special about Eärien is that she contains the parable of Númenor within her own arc. She's one of the only characters who embodies the idea of lost potential and then wasted potential, and her downfall is kind of a foreshadowing of the whole island. So, that's a big honor, to have that whole thing contained. Because most of her brothers and her father have lives beyond Númenor, and she lives and dies there. Míriel does not contribute to its downfall, I would argue, at all. 'The Rings of Power's Ema Horvath Explains Eärien's State of Mind in Her Final Moments "... that option is on the table from the second you see her hair getting done." Image via Prime Video From a character standpoint, Eärien has been playing the double agent, trying to work against Pharazôn from the inside, but it also feels like the walls are closing in on her. I'm assuming she doesn't go into that room with the expectation of how things are going to end, but I was curious about how you wanted to depict that slow realization to the moment when she resigns herself to taking her fate into her own hands. HORVATH: For me, and there may be people who disagree when they watch the performance, but that option is on the table from the second you see her hair getting done. Again, she doesn't know when, she doesn't know how, but that is something that is an option for her that has never been an option in her whole life, until recently. I did a lot of research about shame-based behavior and how that drives people's decision-making. I hope that if you rewatch it, you realize that you're looking at someone where that's just an option that's already on the table. That's how I thought about it. How did you prepare for that scene leading up to the day, and do you recall what the overall mood was like on set? HORVATH: The book I read, about a shame-based theory of suicide, contained other theories of how people get to that point, but I was very interested in the shame-based model, so I hung the performance on that. Charlotte [Brändström] wanted a very regal, calm, collected exit, and I agreed, based on everything I had read, that that tracked psychologically as well. The mood on the day... I think in general, people keep things light. There's a lot of desperation and activeness coming from her leading up to that moment. We didn't shoot until the very end of that day, so there were other things I was obviously excited about, like getting to act opposite Trystan [Gravelle]. It was the first time we were delivering lines to each other. Pharazôn's always been like the hot person in the room for her, but we've never had direct lines to each other. Also, with Leon [Wadham], it's the first time I'm acting with him with his mask off. We did a lot of takes. I mean, there are takes of Trystan spitting in my face that didn't make it in. Not to be callous, but as an actor, the front half of that day was really fun. 'The Rings of Power's Ema Horvath Reveals the Take That Didn't Make the Final Cut "Those were the only two options we played." Image via Amazon Prime Video It's a sequence that plays out in more than one scene, because there's also the moment when Isildur discovers what's happened. Did you and Maxim [Baldry] get to film that last scene together? HORVATH: When she's on the ground, that was a different day, and I had a lovely stuntwoman who held that position for hours while they fixed the cameras. We shot two options — one where she was still kind of conscious, and we had a bit of a moment. I think what's in the final edit is that she's gone already. Those were the only two options we played. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is now streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes releasing Wednesdays.