HBO and BBC's His Dark Materials has returned for its third and final season after the previous seasons' many cliffhangers, this time covering the grand finale of Philip Pullman's book series, The Amber Spyglass, which will take Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will (Amir Wilson) to many worlds, meeting strange and fantastic creatures, all culminating in a war against the heavens itself. There's no knowing right now how well this incredibly expansive and ambitious novel will translate to the screen, but hopes are relatively high from what has been shown so far.

Looking back on the past two seasons, though, makes for an opportune time to reflect on a particularly great character and her journey throughout the series. Marisa Coulter, played here by Ruth Wilson ( Nicole Kidman playing the same role in the film The Golden Compass) is one of the key antagonists of the series, but as the stories continue the audience sees her motivations, her outlook, and her actions change dramatically to make for one of the best character journeys in any genre show.

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Who Is Marisa Coulter?

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Image via HBO

Let's look at who Mrs. Coulter is, and why she starts off incredibly strong. Though many things about Marisa will change throughout the course of the series, some things stay the same. She is an incredibly powerful woman, a high-ranking member of the tyrannical Magisterium, the theocratic rulers of Lyra's world, she is also Lyra's mother, which we find out midway through the first season. Her daemon, her soul which takes an animal form, is a nameless golden snub-nosed monkey. He doesn't speak, and is far more animalistic and aggressive than other daemons in the show, despite its lush coat and unassuming face.

Mrs. Coulter, on both page and screen, has an almost superhuman level of charisma, someone who has complete control of herself, her daemon, her image, and her interactions with those around her. She is effortlessly switching back and forth between gentle and matronly to domineering and brutal, all to manipulate and get what she wants because, at the end of the day, she's really out for herself.

Wilson plays this role brilliantly. You feel as if you're constantly being fooled by her. When she's kind you see this glimmer in her eyes, and you think that it's legitimate, before she does something horrible minutes later. She walks the line between kindness and cruelty just as the character did in the books, but something about her feels more real on both ends, as if she means every word, no matter what she's saying. Her outfits, designed by Caroline McCall, are in rich shades and tactile materials like silk and velvet, conservative, elegant, and unmistakably feminine but in a way that presents with authority and dominance, a clear, broad-shouldered silhouette. She dresses for those around her, for her image, which becomes her taste, and she uses every facet of herself to control people who perceive her.

Marisa Coulter Is Season 1's Best Baddie

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In the first season of the show, Marisa is blatantly the villain of the story, being the leader of the General Oblation Board, the organization that is abducting and experimenting on children by severing them from their daemons. At this point, she is still loyal to the Magisterium, and is close with her colleague Lord Boreal (Ariyon Bakare), another very powerful man who associates with them, though neither of them is within the inner circle of the church. It's clear that her reasons for doing this are not moral; she doesn't hate children, nor does she particularly care about her cohorts at the Magisterium. She's running these experiments for both the power it gives her and for her own curiosity about the higher powers.

Her charm and allure hide this from Lyra, who at first sees Marisa as a mentor who wishes to help her save her kidnaped friend, not knowing that she is the one responsible. Despite her evil acts, there is a clear care and concern she has for Lyra, as she's known the whole time that she's her daughter. It's unclear if that care comes from love, or a need to control, a want to shape Lyra in her image as she introduces the girl to her world of power and glamour. Marisa wants Lyra, but that doesn't quite mean she loves her.

In Season 2, Mrs. Coulter Starts to Change Her Motives

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Image via HBO Max

In Season 2 of His Dark Materials, our heroes and villains cross over into new worlds, and we see new angles of Mrs. Coulter's character when no longer shackled by the restrictions of her own. We get to see the rather difficult relationships she has with other members of the Holy Church, who see her as just a woman who's getting too big for her boots, and the constraints with which she's had to live with to get by.

This is exacerbated when she meets Mary Malone (Simone Kirby), a scientist in "our" world, and she realizes just how much the system has held her back from reaching her full potential, her contempt for said system starts to fester, and her priorities dramatically shift. Marisa comes far more into her own power here, while being bested by her own daughter. Her charisma and her ability to control herself becomes genuinely superhuman as she finds herself able to control the consuming specters that have haunted the world of Cittagazze. She realizes that she owes nothing to the Magisterium, and even less to Lord Boreal, who now hinders her ambitions, betraying them both and killing him.

Finding Lyra becomes the most important thing to her, and a source of desperation. When Lyra's destiny as the Eve of the new world is revealed, Mrs. Coulter covets her daughter, but now not for entirely selfish reasons. She wishes to keep Lyra safe, and even goes against her superior officers to do so. Her final act in Season 2 finds Lyra back in her clutches, as she vows to protect the child now sleeping inside a trunk.

What Can We Expect From Mrs. Coulter Next?

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Image via HBO

Looking to the future of the series is easy for those who have already read the books, but from the trailers, we can see where the journey begins. Mrs. Coulter's plans, as in the books, is to keep Lyra from fulfilling her prophecy by locking her away until this all blows over, coveting her this time for apparently, Lyra's safety. The Magisterium is after them both now, and Marisa has now lost her power and status for the sake of her daughter, one she's had nothing to do with until now.

In this, we can see the heel-face turn that is Marisa Coulter's character journey, and while it's clear her motivations now come from a good place, it does not erase the evil she wrought before this point, nor does it make her any less of an antagonist. She stands between Lyra and discoveries that could save many worlds, and one could argue her motivations are still rather selfish, not thinking about what is at stake by hiding her child away. From the offset, Mrs. Coulter is just an insanely cool character, even at first glance an incredibly elegant woman with a golden monkey is already a striking image, but there are so many layers to who she is. She's powerful, but stunted in her position, matronly, but controlling over what she covets, incredibly measured and manipulative, but doesn't respond well when she's bested. The wicked stepmother and the fairy godmother, to paraphrase Wilson herself.

The showrunners, and of course Wilson, have worked to make this evolution feel natural. Along with keeping faithfully to the literary character, they made some really fascinating additions that weren't in the books, such as Marisa meeting Mary. From reading the books to now, as we all wait for the final season, it'll be even more fascinating to see how the show's version of the character concludes her journey as the series wraps up.

His Dark Materials Season 3 premieres December 5 on HBO Max.