Episode one, “Elven Kings Under the Sky” opens with a flashback to Sauron (Charlie Vickers) in his elf-guise, trying to convince the Orcs that he should be the next Dark Lord after Morgoth’s death. They reject and kill him. He reconstitutes by absorbing other lifeforms, eventually absorbing a human woman and becoming Halbrand. He joins a group of refugees traveling to Númenor. When their ship is attacked by the sea serpent, he steals the seal of the Southland Kings. He meets Galadriel in the ocean.
In the present day, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) is forced to admit Halbrand’s true identity to Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker). Elrond disagrees with them that the three rings should be used to save the elves and escapes with them. Gandalf and Nori are lost in a stony desert. Camping at night, Gandalf tells her about a dream he has of a staff sticking out of the ground, then notices that someone in the distance is watching them.
Halbrand offers to trade information about Sauron and the rings in exchange for the freedom of the human prisoners. Adar imprisons and tortures him. Elrond seeks refuge with Círdan (Ben Daniels) in the Grey Havens and gives him the rings to be tossed into the ocean. Gil-Galad’s forces arrive and Galadriel confronts Elrond to surrender the rings willingly. Gandalf and Nori’s pursuer turns out to be Poppy, who has discovered that the Harfoot walking song turns out to be directions through the area. Two riders spy on them as they travel.
Adar tells Halbrand about his first meeting with Sauron. Habrand offers to go to the elves and seek Sauron out so that Adar can destroy him. Having become entranced by the sight of the rings, Círdan brings them to Gil-Galad. Círdan, the High King, and Galadriel all claim one, and the dying trees of Lindon begin to bloom.
In episode two: “Where the Stars are Strange,” a volcanic eruption in Mordor causes an earthquake in Khazad-dûm, destroying the shafts that bring light to the city. Galadriel has a vision of Celebrimbor being killed. Gil-Galad dismisses her fears that Sauron has already reached the smith. Sauron arrives in Eregion. In Caras Gaer, a messenger brings word to the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds) of the Stranger’s journey into Rhûn. The Dark Wizard wants him captured before he remembers how to use his powers.
The Dwarven stone singers attempt to open new light shafts but fail for the first time in their history. Disa (Sophia Nomvete) confronts King Durin (Peter Mullan) over his fight with his son. Later, she tries to convince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), who is working as a miner now, to talk to his father.
Galadriel asks Elrond to accompany her to Eregion to check on Celebrimbor, but he refuses. Círdan demonstrates the power of his ring and advises Elrond to use his skepticism to help guide his friends, rather than turning away from them.
Realizing they are being hunted, the Stranger, Nori, and Poppy take a shortcut that leaves them on dangerous terrain, exposed in the heat. The Stranger collapses, dying. The harfoots manage to drag him to a well and revive him. Confronted again by their pursuers, the Stranger conjures a whirlwind he can’t control and the Harfoots are swept away.
Celebrimbor meets with “Halbrand,” who tells him that the rings worked to restore the Elves. Halbrand claims to be a messenger from the Valar and takes the form of an elf. Galadriel learns that Elrond has agreed to travel to Eregion, but that he will be the leader of the company, not her.
In episode three, “The Eagle and the Sceptre,” orcs fail to capture Berek, Isildur’s horse. Berek finds Isuldur in a spider’s lair and helps him escape. Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) attends her father’s funeral and has a confrontation with Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) about Númenor’s future. She discovers that the palantír is missing.
Celebrimbor and Sauron offer to make rings of power for the dwarves in exchange for mithril. Durin is suspicious of the offer, and the absence of Elrond, but they agree to take the offer to King Durin. Sauron tells Celebrimbor that Gil-Galad may try to stop the forging of more rings. Celebrimbor writes to the High King claiming to be shutting down the forge.
Isildur meets a refugee named Estrid, who is looking for her lost fiancé. The two join up to search for the other Numenorans. Attacked by followers of Adar, they are rescued by Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova). Berek is taken by the bandits. They attend Bronwyn’s funeral, and there is conflict between Arondir and Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin).
Durin apologizes to his father and presents Celebrimbor’s offer to him. Theo offers to help Isildur rescue Berek. While waiting for him, Isildur talks to Estrid about survivor’s guilt and reveals that he feels responsible for his mother’s drowning. After he leaves, she uses a heated knife to erase Adar’s brand from her skin. Isildur rescues Berek but the camp is attacked by a creature and he hears Theo calling for help.
At her coronation, Míriel is confronted by discontented subjects. A giant eagle appears and seems to bless Pharazôn, and the people chant for him as the chosen ruler. Durin brings Celebrimbor and Sauron the mithril, and Sauron has a direct hand in the forging of the dwarven rings.
The short length of modern seasons is a problem for most stories, and Rings of Power suffered last season from having too many characters and plot lines to pack into too few episodes. These first three episodes of season two continue to have this problem, and yet somehow there is also a lot of dead air. Shots of people traveling drag on far too long, characters have the same conversations over again in different scenes without making any headway, and the CGI isn’t nearly good enough to justify dragging those moments out (the “Dark Wizard” conjuring moths into people was especially egregious here). I would love for Rings of Power, and streaming shows in general, to have more episodes per season, with room to breathe and explore side plots and greater character development—but they don’t have them. As a result, every episode really needs to move. And every scene, every character choice, needs to be important.
They were clearly trying to connect us to the character of Isildur by reminding us of Aragorn’s little side-adventure in The Two Towers film with Brego. As much as I love a good horse adventure—and the horse that plays Berek is gorgeous—there was absolutely no point to any of that adventure into the spider lair and watching Berek get chased by orcs, and then just endless riding scenes until they finally run into Estrid. In the twenty-two episode seasons of yore, perhaps, but not here. They’ve also introduced us to a new character in Estrid, but Isildur’s conversation with her about his feelings of responsibility for his mother’s death connects to his character as we know it from last season, and also connects him thematically with Theo, so it’s a useful addition to the plot. Plus, it’s always nice to have more female characters, especially since the show had to kill off Bronwyn after they were unable to get Nazanin Boniadi back for season two.
Losing Boniadi is a real shame, as the relationship between Bronwyn and Arondir was a highlight of season one. Hopefully Estrid can provide a similar balance to Isildur’s character, since he was more of a trope than a fully realized character in the last season. We know where Isildur is going to end up at the end of this conflict with Sauron, and how important his journey is going to be to the future of Middle-earth, so there is a lot riding on both the script and Baldry’s shoulders.
With respect to the need for simple and speedy storytelling, the plot line that the discovery of mithril made possible the ability to create the Rings is actually a good choice. It allows what is a very complicated and windy story within the source material to be streamlined down, and connects the dwarves’ plotlines with the elves’ nicely. Durin IV and Elrond were the most well-written characters in season one, and continue to be in season two. The interception and slaughter of Gil-Galad’s messengers to Celebrimbor by Sauron was rote and boring, but Durin’s suspicion over the plan to make the rings and the lack of news from Elrond felt personal and important, raising the emotional stakes over the forging of the Dwarven Rings.
Unfortunately, the show fails to find these emotional stakes in most of the rest of the opening episodes. This is partly because the number of characters creates an inability to spend time with most of them, but it is also because the script largely fails to communicate why most characters feel and think the way they do. Galadriel remains the central character, and her motivations in season one were very clear. They remain so in the beginning of season two up to a point—she still wants to destroy Sauron, and now she also wants to make up for her personal failures in letting him manipulate her—but her confidence in the purity of the Three Elven Rings is baffling. Several times she tells Elrond that she “knows in her heart” that the rings weren’t touched by Sauron’s influence, and it is unclear why that should be enough. Yes, she’s an elf, and they are mystical that way, but everyone she’s talking to is also an elf, and Elrond meets her feelings with logic and facts. Gil-Galad, though he agrees with her about the use of the Three, is also presented as making the decision for logical reasons, and as a result, Galadriel looks like she is behaving irrationally, and the script doesn’t know how to communicate to the viewer how much we are or aren’t supposed to trust her.
Which is a shame, because Galadriel’s suspect motivations were the whole point of season one, and while she was wrong about Halbrand, she was also right in insisting that the danger of Sauron’s return was real and imminent. One assumes that she will be both right and wrong again, now—after all, most viewers will be familiar with the story and know that the Three were not touched by Sauron directly, and are less vulnerable to him, less corrupting of those who wear them, than those given to Dwarves and to Men. The three rings are used by their bearers to fight against Sauron’ s influence during the events of The Lord of the Rings, and will probably be used to do so within the course of Rings of Power.
Clark has the acting chops to portray Galadriel’s conflict well. She really shined in certain scenes in season one, especially in her one-on-one conversations with Halbrand and with Elrond. The confrontation between Galadriel and Elrond in Círdan’s workshop was in some ways one of the best scenes of season two thus far; I really felt both Clark and Aramayo’s performance, not only each character’s fears and desires regarding the rings, but also the pain they both experienced in having this conflict with such a dear friend. When, later, Círdan advised Elrond to use his skepticism regarding the Three to help guide his friend, rather than pushing her away, that advice felt good and right, despite the fact that Círdan originally agreed with Elrond that the rings should be destroyed—the audience is invested in their relationship largely because Clark and Aramayo have portrayed it so effectively.
But just as Galadriel’s best moments in season one felt unmoored within the script from the rest of her journey, this otherwise powerful scene between her and Elrond feels equally separated from her journey so far in season two.
The character of Sauron has the same problem as the character of Galadriel, and I truly don’t understand what the show is trying to get me to think and feel about him. Narratively, he’s being presented to us almost like an anti-hero, with the first episode focusing on the pain and anger and despair he feels over the betrayal of Adar and the orcs. Both the musical cue and the shots of his face when he is murdered by the orcs in the opening of the season is very reminiscent of shots of Frodo’s suffering from The Lord of the Rings films, which is a bizarre choice—and another example of how Rings of Power continually and overly relies on the visuals, music, and design choices of Jackson’s films.
There are even the occasional suggestions that Sauron regrets some of the evil he has done in his life, that he might, at least for a moment, be considering a different path. But it is deeply unclear if the show wants us to believe those moments, or what Sauron’s motivations actually are. We know what he wants—to forge the rings and achieve total domination over Middle-earth—but not why he wants it. Revenge against those who wronged him? A lust for power that is perhaps not that far from what Galadriel experiences? Something else? I could keep guessing, but all I can really tell is that the show is trying to make this character, who in the source material is basically just one-dimensional Evil, into something else.
The Frodo-esque shot from “Elven Kings Under the Sky” is far from the only lingering shots of Sauron’s face. There are so many, especially whenever he is in his elf-guise, and they all kind of look… vaguely sad? Maybe an attempt at a sort of holy weariness? (Also, the Jesus-y imagery with Sauron is absolutely ridiculous, and had me laughing out loud. He is basically a fallen angel—which is not the same, obviously—making it seem as though they are leaning into Christianized imagery at random.) We’re supposed to take something away from this, I think, but the only place where the emotion was clear was when he was listening to Adar talk about being torture-converted into a being of Morgoth’s, and his first meeting with Sauron.
And that’s really because Adar’s story is far more moving, and more interesting, than Sauron’s: The series really missed an opportunity in this character. If you want to give us an evil villain that we feel connection and sympathy to, it’s Adar. It is really too bad they couldn’t get Joseph Mawle back for season two, but Hazeldine is doing a decent job in the role. And the story of an elf who was tortured and corrupted by Morgoth into something dark, but who still contained within him the emotions of love and loyalty, the only person who has any care for the beings that were created by Morgoth’s corruption of Elves, is far more compelling than the story of an already-fallen Sauron—especially because Adar’s journey makes a much more direct and interesting parallel to Galadriel’s. If Gandalf the Stranger was the main character of Rings of Power, paralleling him with Sauron would make sense. But he is not, and I am once again left feeling like Rings of Power doesn’t really know whose story it is telling. Or even what story it wants to tell.
Everyone on the internet, myself included, has already decided that Ciarán Hinds’s “Dark Wizard” is obviously Saruman. I am hoping we’re all wrong, however, because Saruman shouldn’t be evil yet. Also, why does he have a weird cult composed solely of young women?
And then I was annoyed by the scene in which Celebrimbor develops the mithril-based ink that only shows up under moonlight. Not only is this another dead weight half of a scene (there are so many scenes that are just little snippets and glimpses) that does nothing for the plot, but it is very clear in the books that moon-letters were invented by the dwarves. That shouldn’t be changed to another elf thing.
The show has done well by the dwarves in other respects, however, and Disa and her stone singing are an absolute gift. The plotline that Mount Doom is causing damage to Khazad-dûm and causing both physical as well as spiritual distress to the inhabitants is a bit clumsy, but it is a direct and effective way of creating their need for the Dwarven Rings, and when paired with the frustrating relationship between Durin IV and his father, really fixes the problematic concepts from the book that suggest that the Dwarves’ downfall in Khazad-dûm and their acceptance of the seven rings is due to their species being naturally greedy.
My hope for season two of Rings of Power was that it would amplify what it did well in season one and adjust the aspects that didn’t work, but so far things seem to be going in the opposite direction. Some of the best aspects of the show are the original characters—Arondir, Bronwyn, Disa—but except for the one beautiful scene with her and the other stonesingers, Disa has had too many scenes talking over and over again about the same subject, the conflict between her husband and father in law. Nomvete is a powerhouse of an actor and I feel the emotions she is portraying in every scene, but the repetition makes the subject matter boring, and I worry she’ll be sidelined by the ring plot. Bronwyn is, of course, dead, but hopefully we’ll get more out of Arondir than Theo being mad at him. I love the idea of a team-up between Arondir, Isildur, and Estrid, especially if their adventures could actually be tied neatly into the main plot. But we will have to wait for further episodes to know what the future holds for the people on that side of the story.
And then there’s Nori, Poppy, and the Stranger. I continue to find the characters and their relationships very charming, and the concept of Gandalf having this foundational relationship with Hobbits was a great idea. However, the series doesn’t know where to draw the line when it comes to connecting its story to the story we know from The Lord of the Rings. A few judicious moments of establishing lore are great, but there is a point at which Gandalf’s love for hobbits is cheapened by having too much of a connection to them now.
When Poppy revealed that the harfoots originally came from the wasteland Gandalf and Nori have been lost in, and that their walking song was actually directions back to their original homeland, you know where the show is going with it: At the end, Gandalf is going to finally harness his ability to restore life to growing things and heal this land, and the harfoots will settle there and it will become the Shire. And that is just… really silly.
It’s just like the moth thing with the Dark Wizard. Gandalf speaking to the moth when he’s imprisoned on Isengard was a beautiful moment all on its own—you don’t have to seed everything as being big and connected. Sometimes it is better to just let things be.
For all my complaints about things being overly connected, there are places where they should be, and Rings of Power does seem to be getting it right when it comes to Elrond. His journey has become the most interesting part of the series, and the show is doing an excellent job of showing us how and why this ambitious young half-elf with his crush on a Dwarven prince is going to become the grumpy, bitter ruler of Rivendell who is rude and dismissive to Dwarves. Aramayo has great chemistry with every actor, and our connection to Elrond and his struggle helped introduce us quickly and efficiently to the character of Círdan. We believe right off the bat that Círdan is a wise and trusted mentor—Daniel’s portrayal also has that wonderful warmth and gravitas—because it’s so clear that Elrond trusts and respects him with this very important, very dangerous decision. I’m looking forward to seeing where this advice leads, and if Elrond and Galadriel can find a balance between them that helps defeat Sauron for the time being, and sets them up to be the aiding influences that they become for Frodo and his friends in the events of The Lord of the Rings.
Extra Thoughts:
- Círdan was always my favorite Tolkien bit character, and I loved that they gave Círdan his canonical beard, and the effect of him shaving it off was so incredibly off-putting in the best way—it communicated how his ring is affecting him even more beautifully than when he forced the fish to leap out of the water and lie gasping on the land.
- Heroes in fantasy and genre films are always getting dramatically stabbed and then pulling the knife/arrow/spear/whatever out and marching on to their heroic goals. Of course there are different rules for movies than for real life, but I absolutely love that someone finally acknowledged that you’re not supposed to pull the object out! That’s how you bleed to death! This was also the only moment of humor in the entire three episodes, and I really appreciated it.
- Benjamin Walker feels like an odd choice for Gil-Galad in many respects, but he’s really starting to grow on me. I loved that they actually let the man sing this season! His voice is beautiful and a great addition to the scene.
Until next week!
