Another week, another episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, another instance of me repeating myself: the dwarves are delightful, Sauron is wonderfully devious, and everything else is...passable.
I'll start with the things I liked. This show is just never beating the allegations that the dwarves are the best part of it. Loving married couple Disa and Durin simply pop in a way that no other characters on this series do. They're warm, they're funny, they're likable, they stand up for what they believe in without it feeling cliche, hokey or twee. I always pay at least 30% more attention to their scenes. The Rings of Power has something special in them, it's just a shame that everything else suffers by comparison.
In this episode, Durin is worried about his father the king falling under the thrall of his ring. Durin III is digging deeper and deeper into the mountain, risking awakening the monster Disa knows is down there. Disa figures the only way to stop him is to block the mine shaft themselves, but Durin IV can't bring himself to disobey his father. As far gone as the king is, his son still loves and respects him, and knows he isn't beyond saving. The scene where Durin IV tearfully breaks down is a great example of the show effectively combining intimate drama with epic scale.
Durin and Disa ultimately go through with their protest, as a team. I feel like if other characters were given this exact same storyline, it wouldn't work as well as it does for the dwarves. Maybe it's because the dwarves are high fantasy creatures who can get away with doing stuff like summoning giant bats with a song, but not so fantastical that we can't become invested in their family drama. Or maybe it's because the dwarves are actually allowed to show flashes of humor and personality, a privilege that seems too often withheld from the humans and elves on this show. Durin and Disa joke with each other. They go shopping, they get frustrated and bicker. I've seen them in good times, so it's easier for me to sympathize when times get bad, because I know what they're missing. The contrast helps.
The only question I have about the dwarves is what happened to Durin and Disa's kids. I hope they found a good babysitter.
The Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power review: season 2, Episode 6
I'm also enjoying Sauron's plotline in Eregion this season, where he's doing a great job of manipulating the elven smith Celebrimbor into crafting the rings of power. Not only does Sauron have Celebrimbor believing that the rings of power are his destiny, but he has all of Celebrimbor's staff believing that thier boss is going off the deep end. In this farce, Sauron — disguised as a being named Annatar — is the put-upon counselor who bears the smith's moods with patience and grace. Sauron steps things up by affecting Celebrimbor's perception, making him think that all is peaceful in the elven city of Eregion when really it's under attack from Adar and his minions.
Sauron really wants him to complete those nine rings of power for men, no doubt to increase his control over the movers and shakers of Middle-earth. I can imagine a man like Ar-Pharazôn taking to corruption like a fish to water. Speaking of Pharazôn (and water), the new king of Númenor decides that Elendil must be punished after the fracas in last week's episode that left Valandil dead; of course, Pharazôn's cowardly son Kemen was actually responsible for that tragedy, but that's not the story Pharazôn is going with.
Elendil is a prominent member of the Faithful, the faction that opposes Pharazôn's rise to power. Pharazôn tries to make lemons out of lemonade by threatening Elendil with death unless he swears allegiance to Pharazôn in front of a roomful of onlookers, but Elendil won't do it. Instead, the new king decides to do what Númenoreans always do when there's a sticky situation: throw Elendil into the ocean and let a giant sea monster decide his guilt or innocence.
The best thing about this plotline is Pharazôn growing increasingly mad with power; he's starting to use the Palantír and clealy it's messing him up. The actual politicking reads as too simple, like the show wants to be Game of Thrones but doesn't quite make it. Although the sea monster is a new twist. In the end, Míriel takes Elendil's place and is tossed into the sea, which is apparently allowed under what must be the very colorful Númenorean legal code, and emerges unharmed, proof that she might be the rightful ruler of Númenor after all. This is why sea monster-based justice systems don't work.
Back in Middle-earth, Adar convinces Galadriel that they should team up to defeat their common enemy: Sauron. She's resistant but eventually believes him and reveals things about what the elven military has planned, whereupon Adar immediately reveals he was just pumping her for information and starts attacking Eregion, intending to kill Sauron while he's at it. So once again, Galadriel has been tricked by a villain into doing something she shouldn't. It's kind of becoming a pattern with her.
Finally, we stop by Rhûn to do a quick check-in with the harfoots — who are hanging out in the Stoor village not doing much of consequence — and the Stranger, who acts on the advice of Tom Bombadil and goes looking for a magic staff. As a long-time fan of The Lord of the Rings books, I don't like what they're doing with Tom Bombadil. In the books, he is unconcerned with the goings-on in the wider world to the point of comedy, but here he's delivering portentous warnings about Sauron and the Dark Wizard ruling over Rhûn, whom we've barely met. I can't imagine being a Lord of the Rings superfan writing on this show and thinking this is a good way to incorporate this character, or even that incorporating him is a good idea at all.
Verdict
I like The Rings of Power, but it can feel messy and uneven. Tom Bombadil feels awkwardly jammed into a plot that doesn't need him, I struggle to emotionally connect with self-serious characters like Elendil and Míriel, and events in general feel like they're passing by both too quickly and too slowly. We only have two episodes left this season and it feels like some plotlines are barely getting up to speed. It makes me appreciate the scenes with the dwarves — direct, warm and relatable — all the more.
That said, clearly the show is setting up a big battle extravaganza for next week, which will hopefully give it some focus. Bring on the climax, I'm keeping an open mind.
The Bullet Points of Power
- Arondir shows up at the top of the episode, kills a few orcs and finds a map. He's probabaly headed to Eregion. Tune in next week.
- Poppy and the Stoor known as Nobody share a kiss. It's a sweet scene. The harfoot sections came and went in a flash this week.
- In The Silmarillion, we learn that Morgoth's crown was beaten into a collar and fastened around his neck before he was tossed through the Door of Night. So I call bullshit on Adar having that miniature version. He got that at Party City.
- I also don't like the idea that Morgoth's crown and Galadriel's ring of power together can kill Sauron. It reduces the mystery of his godly immortality to a math equation: if we combine the powers of these two macguffins, maybe that will be enough to end him for good! I'm sure it's difficult to write around the rules, such as they are, regarding the magic in J.R.R. Tolkien's world. I think the best approach would be to give it up and embrace the ambiguity.
Episode Grade: C+
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