Summary
Lots of action, chaos, and recognisable monster designs define “The Serpent’s Coils”, as the character dynamics begin to become more complex.
This recap of the Netflix anime Dragon Age: Absolution season 1, episode 3, “The Serpent’s Coils”, contains spoilers.
“The Serpent’s Coils” is a very chaotic and action-packed episode that manages to sneak a fair helping of character into the margins. And a lot of it, as seems right, pertains to Miriam.
Miriam has spent most of her life as a slave. Being an elf, she’s reflexively mistrusted by almost everyone she meets, so with Roland and Lacklon having discovered her over the corpse of Master Fairbanks at the end of Episode 2, she’s once again battling to prove herself innocent under the presumption of guilt. Her only advantage in the short term is that, with the palace having entered a homicidal lockdown, they’re pretty much stuck.
Dragon Age: Absolution season 1, episode 3 recap – how does Razaren control Neb?
The group has also been spread out. Qwydion is missing. Hira is trapped behind a magical barrier. Tassia is trying to secure the palace. It’s all going off, and “The Serpent’s Coils” does a decent job of establishing and maintaining that sense of confusion.
Eventually, Miriam is able to find Hira behind that magical barrier. Hira tells her about Fairbanks and implores her to take the Circulum to an Inquisition contact of hers at The Hanged Man in Kirkwall. This isn’t the original meeting place, but the logic is that if Fairbanks already betrayed them, the original plan can’t be trusted.
For what it’s worth, fans of the games will particularly enjoy this episode, which is littered with recognizable demon designs and even, in some respects, character classes. Lacklon is a dwarf using a two-handed heavy weapon; Roland is your classic sword-and-board fighter. It’s a neat touch, creating consistency in the setting’s fighting styles across all its media.
Qwydion, meanwhile, finds herself helping the palace’s elf servant families. It’s a minor subplot, but it’s a nice way to flesh out Qwydion’s character, even if it would have perhaps been more meaningful for Miriam to do this.
Nevertheless, we also begin to properly introduce some of the dynamics that will come to define the rest of the season. For instance, Razaren has a personal guard named Neb who he controls with magic. Neb is completely subservient to him, but there’s a backstory there, which will be unspooled later, involving a demonic possession to keep the body of Neb up and moving. And, just as Miriam and the gang are about to escape, they’re cut off by guards, and Razaren refers to Miriam as his “sister”.
Oh, there’s also a dragon underneath the palace. “The Serpent’s Coils”, indeed.
You can stream Dragon Age: Absolution season 1, episode 3, “The Serpent’s Coils” exclusively on Netflix.
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