Rings Of Power plows through plot in its season 2 finale

The road is ever-winding, is it not? About a third of the way through Rings Of Power‘s proposed five-season run, both sides of the series (the beginning and the end) are coming into view. From their current positions, the Elves, Dwarves, and The Stranger—excuse me, Grand Elf—are seeing the larger vision at play—and so are we. Rings Of Power spent season two resolving the show’s initial mysteries as it heads toward a fixed ending, with the War of the Last Alliance and Isildur’s big moment at the cracks of Doom.  

The closer we get to the Third Age and Frodo’s quest, the more energy the show has, as exemplified through these breathless last two episodes. We’re getting closer to The Lord Of The Rings proper, and that’s not a good thing for these characters. In a thousand years, Gandalf will tell the Fellowship of the Ring that the Dwarves “delved too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Durin’s Bane.” In this finale, we saw what he was talking about. In Kazad-Dûm, King Durin mines in deeper, more perilous places, awakening an ancient nameless terror, Durin’s Bane, the Balrog of Moria. 

This opening scene mirrors the split between the two Durins last season when Prince Durin and Elrond were mining against the King’s wishes. Now a Ring-poisoned King defies his son’s wishes because the prospect of seeing the mountain is far too great a power for the King to resist. But it isn’t “seeing” Durin wants to do. He wants to dominate it, and Prince Durin knows the mithril mother lode isn’t theirs to take. “It’s not our mountain, father. You taught me that,” Prince Durin says. “With these Rings, it could be,” the King answers. Dominion over nature is Sauron’s foremost desire, and as those words leave the King’s lips, the nameless terror growls. 

The Balrog effects are as good as advertised, boasting some of the finest computer-generated effects Jeff Bezos can afford. The only problem is that it’s too short. Why are these seasons only eight episodes? In a last act of Dwarvish strength, King Durin removes the Ring, gives a poignant send-off to his son, and meets his ax against the Balrog’s flaming blade, leaping into the heavy metal album of Zack Snyder’s dreams and collapsing the mine with the sheer awesomeness of a Dwarf-Balrog fight. If only we could’ve actually seen it. 

The Balrog might be gone for now, but things are far from settled under the mountain. Other Dwarves are contesting Prince Durin’s claim to the throne, including Durin’s brother (who’s also probably named frigging Durin), and the Dwarves who paid tribute in exchange for a Ring are coming to collect. It’s another reminder of the chaos the Rings have unlocked between races and within.

Rings Of Power speeds through the other dangling plot threads from the season before returning to Eregion. Next up: The Wizard formerly known as The Stranger, whom we’ll call Gandalf from now on, followed Bombadil’s path right to the Stoors’ doorstep. He’s right where Old Tom, in his ring-a-ding-dillo way, wanted him. There were moments this season where I worried that our merry fellow would be reduced to a plot mechanic, sending Gandalf on various quests to collect his staff and, presumably, his hat. But the show has revealed different sides of Bombadil, how he operates, and his role in Middle-earth. He’s still an enigma and, just as with Frodo in a thousand years, he’s more helpful than he’s letting on. 

Facing off against the Dark Wizard, Gandalf finds himself in a situation similar to Elrond and Adar last week. With the Easterlings holding Nori and Poppy at knifepoint, Gandalf sees no reason to trust the Dark Wizard or join his cause. They could defeat Sauron, just as the Elves and Orcs could, but Gandalf’s loyalties lie with his friends first. His goal isn’t to dominate Middle-earth but to support it. Conversely, the Dark Wizard doesn’t even hide his treachery, treating the Easterlings with the same disregard as Adar and Sauron toward the Orcs. Throughout Middle-earth, deals are being broken, and trust is abused. Just as he vanquished the mystics in the season-one finale, Gandalf shows off his most remarkable powers when his friends are in danger. The Dark Wizard crumbles the Stoor village, and Gandalf uses his Force powers to protect the halflings from falling debris. Where was he when Durin needed him? 

“Shadow And Flame” is full of failed partnerships. After the negotiations break down between Wizards, Galadriel meets Adar outside Eregion. Captured by the Orcs, Galadriel reveals her trump card: She has the Nine and is ready to make a deal. Adar, too, is coming to the table in good faith. Now possessing Galadriel’s Ring, Nenya, the scars on his face have healed, and he’s returned to his Elven form. He gives it all up and gives back the Ring as an olive branch. 

Nevertheless, in this moment of unity among the peoples of Middle-earth, the show, in all its soap-operatic glory, can’t turn down a good swerve. Just as Adar and Galadriel come together, Glûg (Robert Strange), the Orc with a baby we’ve been tracking in the background all season, returns to the clearing in a stretcher, claiming to have been stabbed by Sauron. As Adar leans over his child, Glûg stabs Adar. The rest swarm, stabbing Adar to death like Sauron and Mirdania before. 

Sauron has disrupted every community in Middle-earth, and the show can’t make space for it all. The Stoors are making their first migration; the Dwarven kingdom might be headed toward civil war; and on Númenor, Queen Miril’s trial by Sea-worm is just another legal loophole away from disqualification. These three stories struggled for space this season, pushing Isildur and Theo to the edges even further. Considering how much happened to them at the beginning of the season, they didn’t get enough screen time in the back half to make an impact. Theo’s capture, Estrid’s introduction, Isildur’s battle with the spiders, and Arondir’s promise to the Ents didn’t matter as much as we’d hoped.

But the meat of the episode was devoted to Sauron’s final interactions with Celebrimbor and Galadriel. The show always had darkness, and Celebrimbor’s death is among Tolkien’s most violent. “In black anger, [Sauron] turned back to battle; and bearing as a banner Celebrimbor’s body hung upon a pole, short through with Orc-arrows,” Tolkien writes. We got something close to that tonight: Celebrimbor tied to a pole as Sauron fires arrows from point-blank range into his chest and raises him up on a pike. Vickers brings a devilish sadism to Sauron, matched by Edwards’ resolve. Celebrimbor refuses to give up the Nine, believing that he’ll soon be dead. Finally seeing clearly, Celebrimbor christens Sauron as “the Lord of the Rings.” Episode writers and show creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay frame the title as a curse, with Celebrimbor dooming Sauron to the fates of his jewelry. If they’re destroyed, so is he. He is the keeper of the Rings, which will doom him as they doom all Ring-bearers, but he doesn’t have all of them yet. 

After vanquishing Adar, Sauron meets Galadriel atop Eregion for a lengthy duel that reveals the extent of Sauron’s power. There is an old-fashioned, swashbuckling vibe to the ways Galadriel and Sauron clash blades and chitchat, each vying for the higher ground. (Sauron frequently shifts shape and finds new ways to stab the Elf with Morgoth’s crown.) But when it comes to grabbing her Ring, it just escapes his grasp. He may have the Nine, but the Three Elven Rings are light-enduring, the power of the Silmarils unvarnished and uncorrupted by the Dark Lord. Sauron shouldn’t be too disappointed. All things considered, this season went extraordinarily well for him. He has the Nine, Kazad-Dûm awoke the Balrog, and Eregion was destroyed. Plus, he got all those free forging lessons from Celebrimbor Community College. Yet when poor Glûg asks if the Orcs can retreat because the Dwarves finally showed up, Sauron gives him the pointy end of his blade. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. 

But still, light endures. The Elves are regrouping, and the enemy has been fully revealed. Rings Of Power is regrouping, too. This season, Payne and McKay tried to prove that they could keep up with the attention spans of their audience, making sure no one escaped an ordinary cave but rather the nest of a giant spider. However, this also meant bumping the breaks on some storylines that weren’t ready for the spotlight. Some arcs diminished significantly despite adding new characters, including Bombadil, The Dark Wizard, and the cool-looking Easterlings. Somehow, there still wasn’t enough time for everything.

Rings Of Power sped through so much of the plot in these eight episodes as the writers attempted to correct the course from last season. More plot made for a zippier story, but the problems persist in the show’s writing, which frequently takes shortcuts to get the characters where they need to be. Where the show excels is in its characters and performances, which have proven more complicated and fascinating as the series continues. 

Season two was a darker Rings Of Power, and we don’t expect it to get any sunnier. Something about how Sauron held Finwë’s hammer tells us that he’s about to enter the construction business. He has a tower of Barad-dûr to build and a One Ring to forge. The sun yet shines, but for how long? 

Stray observations

• • Thanks for reading my Rings Of Power recaps this season! I don’t think season two was a marked improvement over the first, which I enjoyed even more on rewatch, but I think the show is moving in an exciting direction. Even MacKay and Payne’s most bizarre choices, like last week’s kiss, fascinate me. I’m willing to let them cook.
• • I swear to Eru Ilúvatar, if next season doesn’t open with an extended Balrog-Durin duel à la The Two Towers, I am just going to lose it. 
• • As much as I’ll miss Peter Mullen’s King Durin, I am excited for there to be only one Durin in these recaps.  
• • We all assume Old Tom will introduce Gandalf to his haberdasher, right? 
• • The only thing missing from that final shot of Gandalf and Tom was the Sleepytime Bear sitting comfortably beside them. Can we get a 10-hour supercut of Tom’s cabin on YouTube already? It’s about to be cozy season.
• • I forgot to shout out Benjamin Walker for pulling double duty last week and voicing Damrod. Walker proved to be a clutch player this season. One assumes that Gil-galad will have an even more significant role as the Elves prepare for war next season.
• • While Númenor was on the backburner this season, Lloyd Owen made a strong impression as the tortured, faithful Elendil. The scene where he receives Narsil, the sword Aragorn reforges in the trilogy, indeed had the juice. 
• • Now that we know The Stranger is Gandalf, what’s the over-under on the Dark Wizard being Saruman? It wouldn’t be my favorite decision with two Blue Wizards still running around Rhûn. But there are reasons to think it’s Saruman. The White Wizard traveled through Rhûn with the Blue Wizards around this time and is evil. It would be a significant change for Gandalf to have already faced him, but Saruman is known for changing color. I hope it’s not him.
• • Plot holes, in general, don’t bug me. Coincidence, especially with Tolkien, doesn’t bother me. But I will not rest until I know how Prince Durin recovered his father’s Ring. 
• • R.I.P Glûg; we hardly knew ye. We look forward to next season when Baby Glûg seeks revenge.