RECAP: “The Rings of Power” Season 2, Episode 5
Season 2 of Prime Video’s “The Rings of Power” continued with another solid episode, picking up several of the plotline we last saw in Episode 3. Several of these are the core storylines that are pushing forward the series as a whole — I mean, in one we’re literally creating the rings of power featured in, you know, “The Rings of Power.” Although this episode had fewer “wow” sequences than its immediate predecessor, I find the developments in the narrative compelling, even as they spell doom (or “Dum,” in the case of the Dwarves) for Middle-Earth as a whole.
Read on for my take on “Rings of Power” Season 2, Episodes 5, “Halls of Stone.” There’s a whole bunch of spoilers here, so don’t read if you don’t want to know what happens!
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NUMENOR
Of the three central plots featured in Episode 5, Numenor is by far the least engaging. Numenor continues to feel very much separate from the rest of the goings-on on the mainland, and I find most of the characters involved in it either unlikable, unmemorable, or incompetent.
Following up on Episode 3’s coronation coup, Pharazon is the new king of Numenor, and is getting right to work moving the island nation away from its past and focusing on its new, isolationist future. To that end, all former sea guar members have been stripped of their ranks and positions unless they swear allegiance to Pharazon, and that includes Elendil, almost immediately breaking his vow to the now-deposed Miriel, who ordered him to back Pharazon no matter what, as she believes his ascension to the throne may actually mean the salvation of Numenor.
Making Elendil’s life worse is the fact that his daughter, Earien, is all abord the Pharazon Train, and has quickly become quite the little fascist. She lectures her father about how his allegiance to Miriel led to Isildur’s death (except he’s not dead), and is quite close with Pharazon’s shit of a son, whose name I don’t know and refuse to learn; he is every bad 80s douchebag cliche brought to life and I hate him.
The dude is so bad that he bursts into a religious shrine in the middle of a remembrance ceremony for Numenoreans lost in the Southlands mission and orders that the temple be shut down immediately to make way for a new aqueduct. Terrible! When the, I assume, shrine caretaker tries to take the relic that they believe carries the souls of the dead, the chooch deliberately destroys it, leading to a brawl between the city guard and Elendil and his young sailor friend who, again, I don’t now the name and cannot be bothered. Pharazon’s son nearly drowns the kid before he gets the upper hand, including breaking his arm. When Elendil tells the young sailor to stop or he’ll regret it, the opposite happens, as Pharazon’s punk son shanks him from behind, killing the kid. Elendil is taken into custody for his role in the riot. So basically, his life is a steady turd rain.
As for Pharazon, we see him approach the palantir — you know, that supposedly cursed “elf stone” that the coup plotters used to oust Miriel — although we don’t know if he actually used it.
ORC ARMY
The Orcs only appeared for the last few minutes of the episode, largely to pick up on last episode’s cliffhanger of Galadriel being captured by Adar. For…reasons…the Orcs have apparently marched with Galadriel as prisoner for some time before she actually interacts with Adar. When brought before him, she immediately pulls a hidden blade and threatens to kill him, but Adar stops her and says that he wants to work WITH her against their common enemy, Sauron. I’m not sure why we couldn’t wait until next episode to get to that, but here we are.
KHAZAD-DUM
The Dwarven narrative hit hyperspeed this episode — a LOT happened, some of which required some logistical handwaving and dubious timeline shenanigans.
When last we saw the Dwarves, Durin III had brought the mithril to Celebrimbor in Eregion, willing to try anything to reverse the rapidly deteriorating conditions in Khazad-Dum. The seven Dwarven rings were made, and despite Durin IV’s pleas to his estranged father to not put on the ring, Durin III did. And through it, he now has the ability to “see” the mountain, which allows him to quickly find new sun shafts (even in walls that are supposed to be support walls), as well as all the riches that lay deeper in the mines.
The good news is that Khazad-Dum is once again blessed with daylight, and life is returning to normal. The bad news is that Durin III has instituted steep new taxes on all goods, because the ring must have its due. Furthermore, Durin III has called emissaries from the six other Dwarf lords and offered up the remaining rings to them — but at a price. What that price is, is not clear. But the basic gist is, She greedy.
Anyone who watched Fellowship of the Ring remembers the specific line that the Dwarves “delved too greedily” in the mines, which awoke the Balrog and ultimately led to the destruction of Khazad-Dum. We saw Balrog awaken at the end of Season 1, and this episode we got what I think was supposed to be another nod to him, although to me it looked more like the tentacle creature that attacked the Fellowship outside the secret entrance to Moria. Bottom line, Disa has sounded the alarm that Durin III’s aggressive new mining is awakening creatures deep within the mountain, Durin IV has tried to warn his father, and Durin III is completely ignoring him in lieu of more riches. On a positive note, Durin III now sees Durin IV was right all along to work with the Dwarves, and brings Durin IV back into the royal court.
Durin IV had a busy episode, as he also went to Eregion — where we also saw the mithril-laced doors that will make up Moria’s secret passage installed, including the codeword that was stated literally in front of Sauron (although obviously they didn’t know that) — to tell Celebrimbor that something is very wrong with the ring he gave to his father, and that it has completely transformed his personality.
EREGION
That leads us to the most interesting plotline of the episode, Eregion. In addition to Durin IV’s warnings that the Dwarven power rings have a corrupting influence, Celebrimbor is also dealing with a quite effective influence campaign from “Annatar” (Sauron in disguise), who continues to insist that they complete the rings by forging an additional nine for the rulers of men. Celebrimbor continues to refuse, saying that men are too easily corrupted to wield such power. He even calls out Annatar for being a manipulative gaslighter who somehow always gets his way. And in the end, he’s right: even though Celebrimbor refuses to make the human rings, Annatar just decides he’ll make them without Celembrimbor, but with the help of the forge staff. Ultimate Karen Level Achieved.
That plot goes awry when the lead forge staffer (who, again, I don’t know her name, sorry) tries on one of the prototype rings and finds herself in the Unseen World, while she remains invisible to the people around her. This is interesting for a few reasons. First, it didn’t seem like Sauron knew this would be an element of the human power rings when he created them; he seemed as surprised by this as the elves were. Second, after being saved, she describes her experience involving a giant creature of flame, whose unfeeling eyes were upon her. That’s very clearly the aura of Sauron she’s speaking about, but here it is a whole entity, not the lone eye we see in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where he was significantly diminished. She also says that now that she saw it, she can’t help but feel the presence has been there with them the whole time.
This is where Sauron plays one of his two great moves this episode. He uses this as an opportunity to suggest to the forge staffer that the menacing spirit may in fact be related to Celebrimbor, of whom he is sowing significant distrust among the forge staff.
The second brilliant move by Sauron this episode is his other scene with Celebrimbor, after Celebrimbor starts freaking out that the rings they created for the Dwarves may be somehow tainted. When Celebrimbor asks “Annatar” if he in some way altered the process of the Dwarven ring forging, Annatar replies no — but THEY did. He says that Celebrimbor’s letter to High King Gil-Galad, in which he lied about shutting down the forge after creating the three Elven rings, brought deceit into the process, and that may have corrupted the spirit of the rings. Celebrimbor is shocked and horrified that he may be ultimately responsible for this, and it doesn’t take much more for Annatar to cajole him into personally ensuring the human power rings are pure by being involved in the process himself.
I suspect that many people will find the interactions between Annatar/Sauron, Celebrimbor, and the forge staff to be completely implausible. These elves are not stupid, but they’re being played for chumps here, especially Celebrimbor. I think it’s important to remember what Galadriel told us early this season: once Sauron enters your mind, he can influence it any time. He is also a master at deception and manipulation. It would be implausible if we weren’t dealing with a highly powerful, mythological evil. But given what we know about Sauron — and the interesting tidbits we got about him in the Unseen World — I think it holds up. The Sauron moments are some of my favorites this season so far.
Are you enjoying Season 2 more than Season 1? Leave your takes in the comments!