We’ve been treated to some of the most impressive battle action ever seen in a Tolkien adaptation in season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – streaming on Prime Video. Dominic Corry anticipates the finale (dropping October 4) with a look at the biggest moments leading up to it.
(Yes, this piece contains a bunch of spoilers.)
If there’s one thing nobody will ever be able to say again, it’s that The Rings of Power is lacking in action. The siege of the Elven city of Eregion by Adar and his orc army, which began in episode six and carried on throughout the entirety of the seventh (and penultimate) episode of the season, has featured some of the most impressive battle action ever seen in a Tolkien adaptation.
My heart stopped when they sent the troll into battle, and the little details—such as seeing individual elves getting smooshed under his feet, other elves getting their heads bitten off, and others still being swatted away by his club—were simply fantastic. Seeing the “main” elves (Arondir, Gil-Galad and Elrond) rally to take down the troll lives up to anything of its kind in the Peter Jackson films.
In fact, I have been so impressed with the show’s second season, I would venture into asserting that of all the major film franchises that currently have small screen incarnations—Star Wars, Marvel and DC being the obvious ones—The Rings of Power does the best job of living up to its big screen brethren.
The second season has been emphatic in its escalation of not just the physical scale, but the intensity of its characterisations as well. The greatest joy in the second half of the season has been seeing Sauron (Charlie Vickers), in the guise of elven emissary ‘Annatar’, continually manipulate Lord Celebrimbor (Charlie Edwards) into making the rings of power.
Celebrimbor, no fool, has pushed back multiple times on Annatar’s “guidance”, but Sauron keeps finding devious new ways to force Celebrimbor into completing his task. That deviousness reached its apex in episode seven, which sees Celebrimbor alone in his tower forging the nine rings for men, with Sauron’s magic clouding his mind from the fact that the city below is under a violent assault.
By the time Celebrimbor discovers the terrible truth, his absence from the battle has meant the citizens of Eregion now trust Annatar/Sauron over their own leader. Celebrimbor’s crazed ramblings upon finally escaping Sauron’s spell don’t convince anyone, least of all the previously devoted smith Mirdania (Amelia Kenworthy) and when The Great Deceiver makes it look like Celebrimbor pushes her over the city wall into the hands of the enemy, it results in perhaps one of the most shocking scenes in the entire series.
The tragedy of Celebrimbor’s downfall, enhanced by the role his own vanity has played in it, is one of the strongest threads in season two. His meltdown in episode seven is sad but meaty stuff—I love the re-appearance of Sauron’s “black goo”—and the show’s repeated use of shot compositions that visually evoke the Eye of Sauron reaches its peak as he finishes the nine rings for men.
Even though Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) has found him by the end of episode seven, things aren’t looking great for the greatest of elven smiths after he sends her on her way with the nine rings to prevent Sauron from getting his hands on them. Celebrimbor’s speech to Galadriel was the exact right balance of earnest and steadfast that Tolkien demands.
It was very satisfying to see Galadriel finally get to Eregion in episode seven, as it feels like she’s been heading there all season. The show has had to jump through a few hoops to keep her from informing Celebrimbor about Annatar’s true nature, but having Galadriel be aware of it this whole time has has kept the tension high.
And while episode seven featured the most action by far, the Balrog, whose presence was teased in the trailer for season two, has yet to appear, so it’s a safe bet we’ll see the horned beasty in the season finale, no doubt unleashed by King Durin (Peter Mullen)’s inadvisable, ring-assisted excavation of the previously untapped depths of Khazad-dûm.
The fate of elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) looks to be in question too, with him and Adar meeting on the field and stabbing each other a potentially fatal amount of times.
It’s been several episodes since we checked in on The Stranger (Daniel Weyman), Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) and Harfoots Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy (Megan Richards) over in Rhûn, and I’m hoping that episode eight will finally shed some proper light on the nature of the character we still only know as “Dark Wizard”, played by Ciarán Hinds.
Things aren’t going all too smoothly on Númenór either with political upheaval driven by the scheming Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) and the shocking killing of Valandil (Alex Tarrant) by Pharazôn’s son Kemen (Leon Wadham), which leaves Wadham the last remaining Kiwi member of the main cast.
When deposed Númenóreon Queen Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) volunteers to take the place of “traitor” Elendil (Lloyd Owen) in his “water trial” (always with the water, these Númenóreons), it results in another epic moment that lives up to the grandeur of Jackson’s films.
Poor old Elendil still doesn’t know that his son Isildur (Maxim Baldry) survived the war that ended season one, but anyone who paid attention to the opening prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring knows these two still have large roles to play in this story.
Although the orcs’ savagery is on full display in their assault of Eregion and subsequent war with the elves, this show has taken some interesting steps to—for lack of a better word—humanise the orcs. At least more than the films ever did. The scene where Galadriel encounters the orc funeral pyre while escaping the camp was unlike anything ever seen before in this world.
It’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic manifests in the season finale. You can never be sure where the story is going to pause, especially considering how deftly this show has been at condensing timelines, and plenty came to a head in episode seven. But at least we can rely upon the Balrog making an appearance.
However the finale plays out, I remain impressed with how the second season of The Rings of Power has ramped things up considerably from the first. Not unlike some rings floating about, I am somewhat in its thrawl.
