The Rings Of Power returns with an expansive, violent, and big-hearted premiere

Two years after its divisive introduction, Rings Of Power returns to Prime Video more steadfast in its ways. With more nuanced emotion, twistier plot turns, and goopy fantasy violence, Rings Of Power has a heart as big as its budget, pushing against the grain of the more popular and dour fantasy serials. Still one of the most bizarre gambits in TV history, Prime Video’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices and maps leans heavier into what makes the author’s legendarium different from George R.R. Martin’s—cutting out the modern realism for something more heightened, arch, and hopeful. Rings Of Power creates myths from broad emotion, labyrinthine lore, and the paradox of fate and free will.

Recreating the experience of watching one of Peter Jackson’s Rings films, this opening three hours of Middle-earth adventure is breathlessly plotted, scattering the characters to the wind (sometimes literally) in the wake of Mount Doom’s eruption. Rings Of Power is, in many ways, old-fashioned in its presentation, relying on broad performances to cut through Tolkien’s verbiage and find emotion in his most ethereal and least relatable characters, the Elves. For instance, Morfydd Clark and Charles Edwards are reaching for a Shakespearean theatricality in their performances, helping to balance and clarify the show’s drama. In season two, showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne display the limits of the Elves’ patience, pushing their saintly guardianship into unexpected gray areas.

One of the smartest moves thus far this season is placing Sauron at the center of things. Opening with a Sauron’s origin story (with Slow Horse’s Jack Lowden as Sauron in his previous form), the Dark Lord gets his comeuppance for using Orcs as cannon fodder in his quest to “heal” Middle-earth. It’s death by a thousand stabs as Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and his army send Sauron back to the shadow. But Sauron is cunning, and his evil becomes a black goo that drips into the river, feasting on ever larger prey, until he finds his Halbrand form. During this stretch, Sauron comes across a band of Southland refugees, the eldest of whom lays out the season’s central theme: “Our fates are never certain; fortunes can turn even for the most powerful.” The tides of fate flow in and out for everyone.

As Sauron regains his strength, he finds his most satisfying meal in Galadriel’s mind, manipulating her and then Celebrimbor (Edwards) into crafting Rings of Power for the Elves. After touching base with Adar in Mordor, Sauron returns to Eregion to finish his work with Celebrimbor. Few are more susceptible to the Dark Lord’s flattery than the great craftsman, who takes the bait, hook, line, and sinker, and when Sauron transforms into Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, Celebrimbor justifies his decision to forge on. This is his “moment,” a chance to show he belongs in the House of Feanor. Even Sauron can hardly believe the lengths of Celebrimbor’s defiance of High King Gil-Galad. Celebrimbor’s imposter syndrome knows no bounds.

In Lindon, Galadriel (Clark) has to own up to the fact that she let a Dark Lord into the Elven city, and he may have had a hand in forging the Rings of Power. When Gil-Galad hears that Sauron is forging the rings, he’s as apoplectic as Elves get and lays out the dilemma before them. They may be playing right into Sauron’s hand, but the Rings of Power prevent Elvish from fading, threatening their lives on Middle-earth. Gil-Galad has no choice but to use the Rings because the Elves can’t leave Middle-earth with a Dark Lord on the loose. He sends Elrond and Galadriel back to Eregion to warn Celebrimbor. 

One major complaint I kept running into last season was the show’s Fast Travel mechanics. Galadriel was zipping around the map with wreckless abandon, effectively teaching the audience how to read the show. (Lindon is no more than a day’s ride to Eregion, it seems.) However, now that she’s needed in Eregion, she and Elrond are dragging their feet. We get a quick shot of Gil-Galad’s messengers’ bodies still holding their undelivered warning about Sauron, but by the end of episode three, Elrond and Galadriel still haven’t made it to the forge. We won’t spend all season harping on this, but the show needs consistency in how it presents travel. Lord Of The Rings is known for being about the journey, after all.

The aftershocks of Mount Doom’s eruption continue to quake throughout Middle-earth, reaching the Dwarves in Moria. Now exiled over forbidden mithril mining, Durin (Owain Arthur) and Disa (Sophia Nomvete) shop in one of Khazad-dûm’s bustling bazaars as an earthquake collapses Moria’s lightways. The connection between stone and Dwarf is now fading like the Elves. After receiving an invitation from Celebrimbor, Durin and Disa meet with the Elf and Annatar to discuss forging Dwarvish Rings, but Durin is uncertain. Annatar doesn’t impress the Dwarf prince, and he returns to Moria suspicious of the offer. Like the Elves, the Rings could save his homeland, but he doesn’t trust the craftsman. Again, Rings Of Power offers a nice counterbalance to its conflict. Durin was all about mining mithril last season, but now he tells his father that their only hope might spell their doom. That’s not enough to outweigh extinction, and the Dwarves have no choice but to give Annatar the mithril they need. With Elrond and Galadriel taking their sweet time, Sauron drops the mithril into the cauldron, explicitly corrupting this latest batch.

Unconnected from these plots are Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and the Stranger (Daniel Weyman), making their way across the desert toward Rhûn. Wandering in circles like Frodo and Sam in Emyn Muil, they are pursued by Easterlings, working for a Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds), and Poppy (Megan Richards), who lets her friends know they haven’t gotten far. They’ve barely left the trail. If Nori and The Stranger feel a little aimless, it’s because they are. We don’t know where they’re going, what they’re doing, or who exactly hunts them. We’re left to wade through montages, and the sudden appearance of Poppy, who arrives just in time to put them back on course, probably won’t impress some viewers. This sort of thing happens in Tolkien all the time. The problem with this sequence is that it too closely mirrors Jackson’s introduction of Merry and Pippin on Farmer Maggot’s crop. Rings Of Power’s over-reliance on Jackson’s cinematic language can get tiresome. But I digress.

But while Poppy and Stranger start slow, the arc ends in an exciting place. After days of roaming the desert, Stranger, Nori, and Poppy happen upon a well, presumably owned by the Dark Wizard. With Stranger dying of thirst, Nori and Poppy spring into action, attempting to draw water as quickly as possible. But as they nurse their friend to health, the bucket tumbles back down the well and begins sounding an alarm. When Easterlings arrive to capture the Istari, Stranger conjures a tornado that sends his Harfoot companions off into the desert. 

Prime Video’s decision to premiere episodes like this indicated something special waited in episode three. Three hours is a lot to ask of an already apprehensive audience that wasn’t exactly bowled over by season one. We’re happy they did because this week’s final installment is easily the best yet.

When we last saw Isildur (Maxim Baldry), he was crushed under a beam shortly after Mount Doom’s eruption. His father, Elendil (Lloyd Owen), returned to Númenor with the now-blind Queen Regen Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). The only one who still believes Isildur is alive is his loyal horse, Bereck. After disposing of some Orcs with the poise of John Wick, Bereck finds his companion in a great spider’s nest. The spider sequence is a blast, particularly during the moment when one of the arachnids pops an Orc head like a grape.

Isildur makes his way back to the Southlands, where he happens upon Arondir and Theo, who are grieving the death of Bronwyn, who passed between seasons on the way back to her home planet. Her death created a rift between Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) and Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin). After her passing, Arondir, in his detached, Elvish way, takes on an even greater sense of sorrow. But he has experienced this kind of thing before. His family was killed during the fall of Beleriand, and like Theo, Arondir blames himself for their deaths. Theo, too, feels responsible. Perhaps she’d still be alive if he hadn’t played around with the hilt last season. But while he pushes Arondir away, he embraces Isildur. Isildur, like Galadriel, is beginning to regret how he acted last season and reveals that he, too, is escaping guilt, confessing that his mother drowned while attempting to rescue him.

Part of the reason episode three is such a success is that Isildur is the closest thing we’ve got to a regular human on the show. His big goal for the episode is to retrieve his horse, who was captured after successfully stomping on a hundred spiders. When Isildur and Theo catch up to the horse-nappers, the woods come alive in one of the show’s most compelling moments thus far. I’m looking forward to where this is headed but don’t want to be hasty.

Things wouldn’t be much better for Isildur on Númenor. When Elendil and Míriel return to the island, they learn Tar-Palantir has died, and Míriel will ascend the throne. However, returning to their shores with the stink of failure, supporters of Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) believe he should be king and begin sowing the seeds of discontent. At Míriel’s coronation, which Eagles never attend, Isildur’s sister Eärien (Ema Horvath) steals the Palantir from the dead king’s quarters and accuses Míriel of Elvish witchcraft. Míriel attempts to win back her people by validating their grief, but when an Eagle swoops into Númenor, Pharazôn takes it as a nomination from a higher power.

There’s always a split between free will and fate in Lord Of The Rings. A god watches over these characters, and its invisible hand guides them toward the correct path. However, characters are expected to choose the right path. When the Eagle lands, Pharazôn pounces to claim it as an endorsement of his leadership, but there’s no reason to assume that’s what the Eagle was doing. Pharazôn reads the omen as he sees fit.

The same is true of Celebrimbor. He doesn’t have to listen to Sauron and likely knows he shouldn’t. Galadriel tells him not to forge with “Halbrand” again, but his ego gets the better of him. The show repeatedly asks its characters to swallow their pride and do the right thing, even if that means telling your High King that you briefly had a crush on a Dark Lord and maybe even dreamed of being a Dark Queen. These are impossible decisions, ones that were not only laid out by fate but by Sauron. He also is an unseen hand, often waiting for his prey to do the job for him. There’s always a choice, Sauron learns. In his mind, he’s making the correct one. By his admission, Sauron wants to heal Middle-earth. Promising a cure for their homelands, Sauron offers Elves and Dwarves just that. Call it a gift.

Stray observations

• • Welcome back to Middle-earth, readers. If you read my recaps in 2022, you’ll know I’m mostly positive on this show and am mostly pleased with how this season is shaping up. However, I have yet to see the similarities between Sauron and Walter White that the showrunners are always touting.
• • The depiction of Sauron’s formless shadow making its way around Middle-earth was a blast. It resembles a mix of Venom’s symbiote and the god goo from Prometheus, essentially garbage-water tumbleweed.
• • Benjamin Walker’s eyebrows got some serious hangtime when chastising Galadriel. “Now you inform me our most cunning enemy is rising again?” The Elves are getting it coming and going.
• • Speaking of great reactions, check out Charlie Vickers’ face when Celebrimbor announces that he will keep the Rings a secret from Gil-Galad. Vickers’ restrained joy is so palpable that he almost appears to break the fourth wall.
• • Did Nori suggest “Radagast” as the name for The Stranger?
• • I couldn’t help but sigh when Celebrimbor dropped that First Age bottle. What a waste.
• • We didn’t have space for it, but I love the hints of Orc life we were getting. When Adar informs one of the Orcs of Sauron’s possible return, the Orc turns to his wife and little Orc baby and gives a gentle hug. I am all for a more complicated Orc.
• • RE: The Stranger – The Gandalf teases aren’t necessarily helping this plot come together. At this point, it feels like another impossible needle to thread. If he is Gandalf, the response will be, “Well, duh.” If he’s another character, it’ll be a “Who’s that?” However, it’s worth noting that every time I predicted what would happen, the show managed to find a surprising and satisfying route.
• • I’m not sold on Sam Hazeldine’s Adar. I was a big fan of Joseph Mawle’s performance last season, and Hazeldine brings far less gravitas to the role. There was so much juice in Malwe’s portrayal, and it’s sorely lacking here.