The Rings of Power falls back on boring, shallow storytelling in “The Eye”

With the eruption of Mount Doom blanketing the Southlands in ash and darkness, the stakes have never been higher on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Who survived the calamity, and how will it change the status quo of Middle-earth?

Unfortunately, “The Eye” takes a pretty cool setup and makes the follow-up as bland as possible. As always, there will be SPOILERS beyond for this week’s episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The Rings of Power Episode 7 review, “The Eye”

Let’s get this out of the way right at the top: I want very, very badly to like The Rings of Power. The first episodes drew me in, but as the show has gone on I’ve found my attention for it consistently waning. Last week’s battle episode was at least engaging enough that it got me excited to see what happened next, even if many of the character beats fell sadly flat. With Mount Doom erupting, surely it was the perfect opportunity for the show to do something interesting, to really drive home the terror of this cataclysm and make me feel something?

“The Eye” does as little as possible with this exciting lead-in. Worse, it hobbles some of its best moments because it doesn’t take the time to properly set them up. Add in more shameless fan service that comes off as lazy rather than interesting, and “The Eye” is the first time this season that I found myself writhing in my seat and venting my frustrations at the television while I watched.

Let’s start with the obvious. The episode begins with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) awakening to find herself covered in ash, disoriented and reeling in a bleak hellscape. The set design stands out as she looks around the red-tinged, ruined remains of the Southlands. A horse with a flaming saddle runs by her, the leaves are all burned off the trees, and what few buildings remain are collapsing or consumed by fire.

Galadriel catches glimpses of other characters, but her story really kicks off once she cross paths with Bronwyn’s son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin). Theo can’t find his mother, so Galadriel takes him under her wing and the two set off into the wastes.

Why do they set off on their own? Because that’s what the plot demands. Theo is not the only person Galadriel sees upon waking. The Númenoreans are gathering into their own group nearby, but for whatever reason, these two decide to go on a solo quest.

There have been casualties among the Númenoreans. Isildur (Maxim Baldry) pulls his friend Valandil (Alex Tarrant) out from beneath a collapsing building with the help of Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), but they’re too late to save Ontamo (Anthony Crum), their other friend who was just last episode saying he was done with war. It’s a sad moment, but also feels a little manipulative, since they’re trying to sell us on the sadness of the situation by killing off the least important character of the bunch.

As they try to escape the ruined village, Isildur gets trapped in a building that collapses and bursts into flames. We discover later that the embers also blinded Miriel. Miriel and Valandil reunite with the rest of their Númenorean allies, making it out of the Southlands and back to the safety of their nearby camp without further incident. Miriel leads Elendil (Lloyd Owen) to believe that his son Isildur perished.

On the one hand, that’s an okay development that gives Owen great acting fodder. On the other, Isildur is one of the only characters on the show that Lord of the Rings fans know can’t die. He’s the one who will one day cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, so even though the episode never reveals his fate, we know that he’s still around. It robs the proceedings of any real tension.

Galadriel and Theo have some conversations that feel more forced than engaging, about light and darkness and what it means to be a soldier. They have one close call with a group of orcs, and then are in the clear to reunite with the rest of the group on the cliffs overlooking the sea. We do get some great moments there; Theo’s reunion with Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) in particular was probably my single favorite moment of the entire episode, and Morfydd Clark continues to do a standout job anytime she’s on screen.

Galadriel’s reunion with Halbrand, however, had me groaning. She finds him with a dire wound, so dire he’s laid up in a tent and can only be healed by elvish medicine. She asks if he’s well enough to ride, which I assumed meant Halbrand was going to be put in a cart or something. But nope, this man who is so weak he needs the extra healing power of the elves then just hobbles out of the tent, hops on a horse, and gallops off with Galadriel…to ride from the Southlands, hundreds of miles to Lindon.

Again, there’s just no real way to justify it all except that it’s what the writers wanted to happen, so it happened.