I've been pretty hard on the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power so far, dinging it for what I see are dull characters, loose plotting, and a general disinterest in taking seriously the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. But I've also pointed out what I've enjoyed, and there are times when The Rings of Power doubles down on those things and becomes a fun, albeit lightweight and pulpy, watch. This episode, "Halls of Stone," is one of those times. I think it's the best of the season so far.
This episode has a lot of what works on The Rings of Power — the dwarves, Sauron, and beautiful scenery — and little of what doesn't, namely the adventures of the elves and the humans from the Southlands. Also, the rings of power are actually out there and having an impact on the plot, which is wild considering we're already deep into the second season of the show named after them. But it's good to have some momentum! Let's dig in:
Review: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, Episode 5, "Halls of Stone"
From the start, my favorite characters on this show have been the dwarves. Alongside the hobbits, they're the only people who seem to have senses of humor, so I can breathe when watching their scenes instead of holding myself taut for the next portentous pronouncement. Even little scenes like Durin and Disa shopping in the underground market give us a much-needed break from the rest of this very self-serious show.
Of the relationships on the series, I'm most invested in the one between Durin and his father, also named Durin. I think a lot of people can relate to the experience of watching a parent or grandparent get older and start to decline mentally or physically, becoming someone you don't recognize. It's upsetting and disturbing and it's happening with Durin III, who changes once he puts on one of the seven dwarven rings of power. With the power of the ring, he's able to divine where to dig and returns sunlight to Khazad-dûm. That's great, but he also withholds rings of power from other dwarven lords unless they pay a steep tax, and disregards restrictions he himself put in place so his workers can mine deeper beneath the Misty Mountains. Durin IV can see something is off with his dad, but he doesn't want to ruin things between them now that they've reconciled, so he convinces himself he can be a modulating influence on his slipping father. The dwarves aren't human, but they have the most human story on the show.
As anyone's who read or watched The Lord of the Rings knows, mining deeper into the Misty Mountains is a mistake, but it's in keeping with what we learn of the Second Age of Middle-earth in Tolkien's appendices. The rings have different effects on the different races of Middle-earth; the dwarves become more insular, delving too greedily and too deep.
The Rings of Power tends to do whatever it likes with Tolkien's source material, but things lined up fairly neatly in this episode, which gave it a solid structure. Sauron and Celebrimbor are actually making the rings of power, which feels important on a show called The Rings of Power. The seven are already out there, and Sauron now wants to make nine for mortal men. Celebrimbor shoots him down, but Sauron does what he does best and manipulates the elf into seeing things his way, using Celebrimbor's lie to High King Gil-galad to make him feel trapped. At the end of the episode, Celebrimbor decides to go forward with making the nine, reasoning that he either does that or admit his lie to the High King and be banned from making anything else.
I like this tricky manipulative Sauron; he's bringing some crafty villainous panache to the table. But is it too little too late? I have to point out that this arc — Sauron manipulating Celebrimbor into making the rings of power — is drawn directly from the source material while everything with Halbrand last season was completely made up for the show. And I'm enjoying the Annatar version of Sauron a lot more. Maybe that's just me being a biased book reader, but I think the show made a mistake not skipping directly to some version of this story. I like that we're getting somewhere but I feel like we should be further along by now.
More like Númebore, amirite?
So I liked most of what was happening on Middle-earth. We also stop by the island of Númenor, where things are a little less interesting but not a complete waste. Although it ramped by very quickly, I liked the newly installed King Ar-Pharazôn looking out towards Aman, the continent to the far west where dwell the godly Valar and their elven followers, and begrudging them their perfection and immortality. I feel like we didn't ramp up to this — we haven't spend much time on Númenor this season — but it's the kind of melodramatic high fantasy hubris I can get behind. And it lines up with the books, which is always a plus.
Sometimes I think The Rings of Power plucks things from Tolkien's work assuming readers will understand them without bothering to explain things to newcomers. In the books, it's true that Númenor is divided between those who worship the Valar and those who are resentful of them, but did we spend much time exploring that? Certainly not this season. I'll admit my memory of the finer points of season 1 is foggy, which I'm going to blame on the show being kinda dull in places and not on my own laziness or forgetfulness. Am I kidding myself? Decide in the comments.
Anyway, the divide between the Númenoreans is expressed in the split between Elendil and his daughter Eärien. He worships the Valar, she's thrown her lot in with the Valar-hating Pharazôn; he's grieving the seeming death of his son Isildur, she blames him for it; he's a character from the books, she's invented for the show; he's a little bit country, she's a skosh rock and roll. Of course they're not going to get along.
But seriously, I have trouble keeping track of this family drama in a way that I don't with the dwarves, which I'm going to chock up to the Númenoreans being kinda boring in general. There's a violent scuffle between the Valar faithful and Pharazôn's followers that ends with a character whose name I don't think I ever knew getting killed. I know he was on Elendil's team, though. Elendil becomes wrathful and is arrested. Tune in next week.
Also tune in next week to see what happens with Galadriel, who is Adar's prisoner. Adar is marching his army towards Eregion to root out Sauron...who is also Halbrand, whom Adar sent to Eregion in the first place. This plot is far off the map laid out by the books and I don't find it very compelling, but it's obviously leading to a battle and the big battle episode was the high point of the first season, so that's something to look forward to.
The Bullet Points of Power
- I know it was just nostalgia bate, but my Lord of the Rings-loving heart still danced when the dwarves presented Celebrimbor with the Doors of Durin, the gate we see in Peter Jackson's trilogy.
- We don't visit Rhûn this week, which is too bad since I think Nori and Poppy are two of the more likable characters on the show. On the other hand, I watch those scenes in constant fear that the show is going to violate canon in some spectacular way, so maybe it's for the best.
Episode Grade: B
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