RECAP: “The Rings of Power” Season 2 FINALE
Season 2 of Prime Video’s “The Rings of Power” concluded this week, giving us a finale that delivered some epic moments but fumbled in places on the storytelling. Overall I think Season 2 was a significant improvement over the first season — whereas Season 1 felt like it went on forever, Season 2 felt almost over too fast — and the overall narrative of the show feels like it is progressing at a compelling pace.
Are there still areas that could be improved? Absolutely. But I remain unmoved in my opinion that there is a very strange, undeserved backlash to this show, and on its own merits, it is a solid serialized adaptation of a story that the vast majority of Lord of the Rings fans would otherwise have never experienced. Apparently Season 3 is not yet ordered, and I will be supremely annoyed if we do not get a continuation of this story. This show is doing way more right than it is getting wrong, and I think it’s about time people dropped the pretense and embraced it for what it is, instead of what it wants it to be.
Read on for my take on “Rings of Power” Season 2, Episodes 8, “Shadow and Flame.” 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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I’ll break the finale down by arc, from least essential to most. I’ll also weigh in on my thoughts about the overall plotline for for the whole season.
PELARGIR
We check back in on the Numenorian colony of Pelargir, last seen in, I think, Episode 4, where Isildur is preparing for a journey back to Numenor, leaving the colony in the — I’m sorry, I can’t say “capable” — hands of the surviving Southlanders. That includes his love interest/attempted murderer Estrid, who is ready to run off off Isildur to his higher-market island nation. That will surely come as a shock to her wildling fiance (I think his name was Makar), who is literally building them a house and praying to the gods to protect their love. Guys, I think Estrid might actually be the worst. Of course, she’ll have to work hard to wrestle that title from Theo, who is still unfortunately in the mix, giving a tearful goodbye to his new BFF Isildur. Theo has been an unrepentant shit for almost the entirety of his screentime, but now he’s all hugs and kisses with Isildur? Work.
Things do not go as planned when the Numenorian contingent arrives. The Pelargir citizenry was expecting resources to fortify their still-vulnerable colony. Absolute shitbird Kemen — son of Pharazon — makes it clear that there’s a new sheriff in town. Queen Miriel is out, King Pharazon is in, and Pelargir is no longer a colony, it is a Numenorian military outpost to watch for the coming threat of Sauron. Kemen is stunned to discover that Isildur is still alive — that’s gonna make for a real uncomfortable reunion with Isildur’s sister and Kemen’s would-be wifey, who played a large part in blowing up the political structure of an entire nation as revenge for Isildur’s “death.” Kemen informs the assorted rabble that they work for him now, and will only receive supplies if they provide lumber to be used for making Numenorian ships. That’ll be real easy, right? They’re surrounded by forests! Yes. Forests. And Ents. Who will not be cool with the wanton felling of their tree children. Oops!
As for Isildur, he tries to pull a, “Do you know who I am?” to get his would-be girlfriend Estrid onto the ship back to Numenor. That gets shot down by Kemen in the most classist, gross way possible, which means Estrid is now in the uncomfortable position of crawling back to the dude she very publicly just tried to walk away from, as her golden-boy meal ticket sails off to a very different political climate than he expected.
Overall the Pelargir arc was an improvement over the Southlands arc from Season 1. This thread is still populated by an overwhelming number of unlikable characters. I thought Estrid had promise early on, but they rushed way too fast through both her heel turn and her romance with Isildur. Now with Isildur heading back to the mess that is Numenor, I’m unclear as to who is supposed to carry the Pelargir sequences. I don’t think people are invested in Estrid, and she’s not a sympathetic character. It sure can’t be Theo, who frankly I would be happy to never see again. The only character left in Pelargir that I’m invested in is Berek the pony. Vote Berek for peace and prosperity!
NUMENOR
I’ve gone back and forth on the Numenor plot this season. There are elements I find really compelling. A major world power that has prospered due for centuries, falling into chaos after backing obviously corrupt leadership? Boy, that hits close to home. I think the S2 Numenor arc has been far more successful than the S1 scenes. The stakes are sky high, the antagonists are very easy to hate, and it’s easy to root for Miriel (although used sparingly this season, I thought she was effective) and Elendil, who I think are the second-most-successful romantic pairing in the show after Durin IV and Disa.
After Miriel’s supreme HBIC move of swimming with the sea dragon last episode, Pharazon’s stooges cook up a new way to tank support for her: accuse Miriel of being in league with Sauron. This was apparently spurred by what Pharazon saw in the palantir — which again, is the very activity his coup plotters used to justify removing Miriel from the throne. Pharazon himself said very little this episode, really ever since he’s taken the throne. But that actor’s wig and eyebrow game are doing heavy lifting in making it clear that he is going absolutely batshit crazy, obsessed with surpassing the Elves in the eyes of the gods. That’s going to work out great for you, I’m sure.
The plot very quickly progresses from Miriel being named Sauron’s co-conspirator, to all “faithful” being exiled from the city or arrested. Earien — Elendil’s daughter and Isildur’s sister — attempts to do something noble for a change and warns her father that Pharazon’s thugs are coming for him, giving him the opportunity to escape the city. Before he does so, he visits with Miriel, begging her to come with him — she refuses, saying her place is in the city, trying to lead her people out of this death spiral. But before they part, she gives him a very important piece of equipment: the sword Narsil, the White Flame. The last we see of Elendil, he’s riding off into the Numenorian wilds, the same scene he saw when he touched the palantir. I suspect that implies that the palantir is showing each individual their fate, not just the general fate of Numenor. Both Miriel and Earien saw the great wave obliterating the island. Pharazon saw the face of Halbrand, telegraphing that he’ll be unknowingly entreating with Sauron again soon. But Elendil is riding free, setting up his inevitable reunion with his son and their doomed attempt to save their kingdom and its people.
I do enjoy the tension we are getting out of the Numenor scenes now. We are watching a nation in decline, which we know is facing complete destruction in the very near future. That’s potent. Watching Pharazon’s fascist takeover of the state, and how quick and easy it was, is challenging given our current political client. But Season 2 did a great job making me care about this plotline, and I’m invested even though we all know exactly how it ends.
THE STOORS/HARFOOTS
We also reconnected with Nori, Poppy, and the Stoors for the first time in episodes, as the Eastern mercenaries held the halflings captive while the Dark Wizard laid in wait for The Stranger. I think this plotline could have used at least an additional episode to fully maximize the story, as all of this felt very rushed. The Stranger apparently decided to save his friends, abandoning the quest for power (and his staff) set forward by Tom Bombadil. At the Stoor village, he is approached by the Dark Wizard, who initially attempts to sway The Stranger to his side using flattery and misdirection. There are some interesting tidbits here, with the Dark Wizard saying that he hates that title, and pointing out that if they hope to defeat Sauron, they cannot abide weakness.
The whole situation goes nuclear when the Dark Wizard loses his patience and obliterates the cliffs surrounding the Stoor village, sending boulders crashing down onto the halflings. The Stranger is able to hold off some of the barrage, giving most of the Stoors — and Nori and Poppy — an opportunity to escape the devastated village.
The end result is that the Stoors are forced into migrating, just like Nori and Poppy’s tribe, and Nori tells The Stranger that it’s time for each of them to go their separate ways. I like the idea of Nori and Poppy leading the Stoors to what I assume will become The Shire — they even teased that earlier in the season — and I do think it’s time for The Stranger’s arc to kick into high gear. We’re two seasons into what I assume is a four-season arc, and arguably the most powerful force on the side for good has been off to a REALLY slow start.
But we no longer need to refer to him as The Stranger. As the Stoors bid him goodbye, they referred to him as Grand Elf, with Nori explaining that they’d never seen an elf before. After finding his staff in the deserted, destroyed Stoor village, The Stranger returns to Tom Bombadil’s hut and tells him that he understands all of it was a test — he was always meant to choose to save his friends, and that’s where he would find his staff and power. And his name. Because The Stranger finally refers to himself as Gandalf, and then he and Tom settle in for a singalong. Meanwhile, the Dark Wizard looks out from his desert palace, glowering.
I will confess that I’m disappointed that The Stranger ended up being Gandalf. I mean, I get it. He is one of the most important figures in Tolkien lore and he could have conceivably existed at this point in the history (although I believe canonically he and Saruman were supposed to appear sometime later — maybe I’m wrong). I was hoping that they were setting it up for The Stranger and the Dark Wizard to be the two Blue Wizards, about which VERY little is known, and about which Tolkien’s own lore offers contradictory statements. We got to know dizzy bitch Radagast the Red in The Hobbit movies, but the Blue Wizards have never, to my knowledge, been given any live-action representation. They were both positioned in the East — in Rhun! — and were involved in machinations in that region to keep it destabilized, and less likely to add to Sauron’s forces. It’s still possible that The Dark Wizard will ultimately be one of those Blue Wizards, but given that they went with the obvious turn of The Stranger being Gandalf, at this point it’s more likely he’ll end up being Saruman. Which is, again, a problem, because Saruman didn’t turn toward darkness until much later in his history.
EREGION
This episode concluded the three-episode-long siege of Eregion, and the Elven outpost fell, hard. There was basically nothing of value left. Even Celebrimbor’s books and journals — the history of everything he created — were put to torch by the Orc forces, leaving Elrond in despair.
For his part, Celebrimbor got a fairly epic death scene with Sauron. After some old-fashioned torture play, with Sauron trying to get Celebrimbor to disclose the location of the nine rings made for man, Sauron ultimately snapped and hoisted a battered and bloodied Celebrimbor to his death at the end of a very long pike. But before he shuffled off the mortal plane, Celebrimbor got in one last savage read of his tormentor, telling him that he would ultimately not rule the rings — the rings would rule him. He promised that he had foreseen that the rings would destroy Sauron. Of course we know that he is right. And it seemed that Sauron did, too, because when Celebrimbor sneeringly referred to his killer as “the Lord of the Rings,” Sauron seemed genuinely shaken. That was interesting.
Meanwhile, just as the surviving Elven leaders — Elrond, Gil-Galad, Arondir who somehow managed to live after being absolutely thrashed by Adar last episode — were being rounded up by the Orcs to present to Sauron, the Dwarves made their belated arrival, throwing down enough interference for the few Elf survivors to make their escape. Bottom line: Eregion has been wiped off the map, Celebrimbor is dead, the rings of power have all been created, and the Elves of Middle-Earth have been dealt a serious blow.
Overall I thought the Eregion arc provided the core narrative spine for Season 2. It had a difficult job, justifying to the viewer how someone as brilliant as Celebrimbor could be stupid enough to work with Sauron to create these powerful, corrupted items. The answer required a healthy amount of suspension of disbelief, but there were at least legitimate canonical reasonings presented, and a slow but effective moving of goal posts on Celebrimbor’s part. I do think we could have sacrificed a few scenes in Eregion, and given them to plot lines that needed more room to breathe. But this was the arc that the entire season, arguably the entire show, hinged on, and I thought overall it worked. I understand how the rings got made. I understand how Sauron got involved. I understand how everyone was deceived. And the whole thing felt deeply tragic, which is appropriate.
KHAZAD-DUM
The other major plotline this season was the beginning of the fall of the Dwarves, set off by Mt. Doom’s eruption threatening their very existence via a mountain collapse, and then hastened by the Dwarven rings being put into play and instantly sending King Durin on a path to self destruction.
This episode picked up with Durin IV confronting his enthralled father deep in the mines, as his ring-smitten sire continued to hammer away the passage even as Durin IV begged him to stop due to the threat he believed to be down there. King Durin refused — he was being played almost as a zombie here, which I thought was interesting — and after busting through to a new cavern, he was dazzled by the veins of mithril marbling the walls. He and Durin IV had a lovely convo about strength — both physical and emotional — and just as King Durin seemed to think that he was justified in the ring leading him to this incredible treasure trove, from the cavern below light and flame emerged, and then a very familiar flame whip. The Balrog, teased since the end of Season 1, is finally on the scene, and Krusty wants OUT.
The following scene is terrifically cinematic, with the Balrog clawing its way up the cavern’s cliffs, trying to reach King Durin and his potential escape route. Unfortunately there are some moments that aren’t narratively clear. Specifically, once King Durin realizes that he is well and truly fucked, he removes his ring of power, sets it to the side of the tunnel, and then leaps into battle with the Balrog, brandishing his mighty axe. (Did he have an axe? He was using an excavation tool to break through the mine wall.) As the Balrog flies to incinerate the Dwarven King, a massive explosion erupts, presumably sealing the tunnel that King Durin created to access the new area of the mine. But that was ALSO where the power ring was. Right? Like, Durin IV was nowhere near that ring when King Durin set it down. And then moments later that whole tunnel was blasted away.
Later in the episode, we see Durin IV — now the de facto king — and Disa in mourning (note that Durin’s throne is shrouded, presumably because they could not recover his body). Offscreen Durin ordered the Dwarven army to go to assist the Elves in Eregion — too little too late — and he informed his handlers to send word that the Elves will always have aid and safety in the halls of Khazad-Dum. I’m interested to see how Elrond and Durin can weather this fairly massively break in their relationship. It nearly cost Elrond his life, in additional to a huge number of Elves and entire city and its treasures. Meanwhile, Durin still lost everything he backed out on to protect. But Durin has other issues, as he’s informed that other Dwarven lords paid his father massive sums to obtain a power ring, and they are coming to collect. Furthermore, Durin’s previously unmentioned brother is being propped up by other Dwarven lords in a succession battle. So Season 3 is looking rough for the Dwarves.
I think the Khazad-Dum plotline was arguably the best handled in Season 2. I have very few notes. Disa is, I think, one of the best actors on this show, and I adore the relationship they’ve established with her and Durin. Durin’s arc, pitted against his father, was tense and also moving. The threats, between the collapse, King Durin’s madness, and now the Balrog, are very real. All in all, it was a disastrous season for the Dwarves, but a great season for viewers engaged by their story.
ADAR/THE URUK
The Adar arc is completed this episode, in both predictable and surprising ways. After the orc hordes captured Galadriel escorting Elf survivors from Eregion, she is brought before Adar, who is hunched over a massive rock, refusing to show his face. Galadriel tells Adar that she accepts his terms; they will work together to rid the world of Sauron, and she will guarantee that the Orcs have a permanent home in Mordor.
At this, Adar turns to her and we see that he is no longer scarred and scaled — wearing Galadriel’s ring, which he obtained at the end of last episode, has healed centuries-old wounds, and he has regained his original Elven form. I had frankly forgotten that Adar was originally an Elf who fell into darkness. Galadriel seemed to have forgotten as well, as when Adar starts talking about his original name, she seems fascinated by him — but he tells her that name and that person are irrevelant; the only thing that matters is the man he made himself into, Adar, Father of the Orcs. He gives Galadriel back her ring and quickly reassumes his mangled visage.
There was half a moment where I wondered if we would actually get an Adar/Galadriel romance — I even wondered if a healed Adar may have been the husband she canonically already should have at this point. But that isn’t happening, because the Orcs present Adar with his badly beaten lieutenant, claiming that Sauron overpowered them and brutalized their men. This is a ruse, as Adar quickly discovers as his “children” set upon him with knives, in a scene that directly correlates to Adar setting the Orcs upon Sauron in the flashback in Episode 1 of this season. The Orcs stab Adar countless time, and he dies knowing that his own “children” have turned against him, and embraced the very man he sought to protect them from.
I’ve seen complaints that this season’s attempts to humanize the Orcs were a mistake, that they should simply be evil, mindless killing machines. And, they are that. They are clearly evil in alignment. But I do think the show did a good job explaining how Adar lost the respect and trust of the Orcs, who repeatedly begged him to stop sending their ranks into a chipper shredder, and to just let them be in Mordor. It is exactly what Adar was afraid that Sauron would do to them at the start of this season, and while Adar’s reasons were well intentioned, the result was the same: scores of Orcs dead for someone else’s war. The mutiny was rushed — and off camera — but the seeds were absolutely planted along the way.
Of course, this swap did not work out well for the Orcs, who Sauron immediately set about disposing of as he saw fit. They traded a disappointing “father” for a cruel and unfeeling master, and I suspect more than a few Orcs at the family barbecue will be having difficult political discussions. “Don’t blame me; I voted for Kodos.”
Sauron & Galadriel
Ultimately, this was Sauron’s season. It started with his murder and return, and it ended with him ascending to his greatest level of power yet — but also aware that the very tools he created to dominate may end up dominating him. Parallel to that is Galadriel, who had a very different arc and characterization from Season 1. This season, Galadriel seemed broken, depressed, and questioning her every move, after being manipulated by her quarry and wondering if her ring — which she prizes even as she fears it — is further compromising her.
It all makes narrative sense, but it is frustrating to watch as a viewer. You want Galadriel to snap out of it and return to that kickass powerhouse we knew her to be. We got that, partially, this episode, when she and Sauron engaged in an elaborate swordfighting sequence in which Sauron continued to use mind tricks (less successful from a viewer perspective) and Morgoth’s crown (very cool from a viewer perspective) to wear Galadriel down, stabbing her with Morgoth’s crown (our first case of a Morghul blade?), and collecting the nine rings of men before giving her one last chance to join him. Instead, Galadriel literally jumped off a cliff. We’ve all been there, right, ladies?
I know some people have perceived the Galadriel/Sauron relationship to be a quasi romantic entanglement, but I never got that. While Galadriel may have had a passing interest in Halbrand, I never thought she was taking him seriously as romantic partner. And once she realized he was Sauron? This was two extremely powerful beings circling each other, understanding that the other could destroy them. In Sauron’s case, I also think he understood that partnering with Galadriel would essentially make him unstoppable. The Elves have routinely blown every chance to stop him thus far, in part because of their arrogance and in part because of their isolationism. (Same can be said of the Dwarves and Numenor.) If he had Galadriel, the one elf who has been wise to machinations from the jump, he would have really no obstacle in conquering Middle-Earth.
I think Sauron himself was the most successful aspect of Season 2. This is the first time we’ve ever really gotten to see Sauron in action himself, to understand what made him so dangerous even before he had the rings to bind them. While some may dismiss his manipulations of Celebrimbor, Galadriel, etc. as bordering on unbelievable, I fully buy it. This guy is called The Great Deceiver. His superpower is manipulation, lying, and getting into people’s heads. We also got a mention in Eregion that his spirit form in the Unseen World is far more intense and terrifying, implying that while we are seeing/hearing his words and actions, behind the scenes his dark spirit is constantly at work corrupting these beings and their thoughts. He doesn’t have force lighting like Emperor Palpatine. He doesn’t have magnetic powers like Magneto. He’s just exceptionally good at manipulating and corrupting people, and that alone makes him a terrifying character.
The season ends with Sauron in possession of the nine rings to rule mankind, in control of his Orc army, and with the Elves seriously wounded. That’s literally the case with Galadriel, who barely survives her fall off the cliff — possibly due in part to the healing powers of her ring — and is then brought back to health not only by Gil-Galad, but also Elrond, who after realizing he has thoroughly shit the bed this season, puts on Galadriel’s ring and aids in her revival. The assembled Elven leaders have to make a choice: do they fall back to their capital city of Lindon to rest, recuperate, and prepare themselves for the coming onslaught? Or do they take their battered, broken bodies and spirits and attempt to strike at Sauron before he consolidates power? The shield, or the sword? Galadriel leads her comrades in raising her weapon in response, to the cheers of the few but impassioned survivors of Eregion. Sword it is.
What did you think of Season 2 of “The Rings of Power”? Leave your takes in the comments!