At the beginning of the scene of the Houses of Healing in the book, we have a tired and dreadfully injured Merry, injured by both the Witch-king and the sorrow for King Théoden and Lady Éowyn.
Meanwhile, in the movie, we see Éomer and Pippin searching for their kinfolk. When Pippin sees the familiar cloak the Fellowship received from the Elves of Lórien, he knows that something has befallen Merry. Not far from the place where the winged monster laid, poor Merry is lying unconscious under the body of an orc. He is somehow more or less forgotten by everyone but Pippin, which is as in the book, since it is Pippin that finds him in the tight alley after Gandalf sends him to search for Merry who had disappeared. Merry asks Pippin if they would bury him, but Pippin tells Merry that he is taking him to the Houses of Healing.
“Merry? Merry, it’s me! It’s Pippin!”
“I knew you’d find me.”
“Yes!”
“Are you going to leave me?”
“No, Merry. I’m going to look after you.”
This is the conversation between Merry and Pippin in the movie, but here we do not know if Merry is taken to the Houses of Healing.
When Éomer finds his sister’s body, he cries out in grief and despair, a thing that he had already done at this point in the book; in fact, he even believes that she is dead, but is proven wrong afterwards.
In the movie we get to see Aragorn healing Éowyn, with Éomer hovering in the background, but we don’t get to hear the talk between Gandalf and Éomer, or the accusation onto Aragorn for his sister’s love for him, to which Gandalf answered that Éomer had his horses, weapons and the plains while Éowyn had been fated to take care of an old man, who she nevertheless loved as a father.
We never hear Aragorn calling her back either, but we see him close his eyes and sort of fade, maybe into a healing trance?
We aren’t informed by the movie whether Aragorn heals Faramir and Merry, which he does in the respective chapter, but still, we love the scene!
by Sirthien and Sirths_lady
