Arondir probably did not assume he was done dealing with orcs after the eruption of Mount Doom and the evacuation of the Southlands, but the post-eruption break must have been nice (not that the Wild Men were a picnic). That comes to an end, however, in the opening moments of the sixth episode of The Rings of Power’s second season. He was expecting it, of course. When last we saw Arondir, he’d expressly set out in search of orcs. When he finds, and slays them, he also uncovers a map leading to a familiar-looking skyline: Eregion’s.
This second season has depicted action across all of Middle Earth, but some of those strands have begun to come together. For instance, the episode transitions from the map’s depiction of Eregion to Eregion itself, where Celebrimbor remains frustrated at his inability to crack the code of making rings of power for men, as Mirdania looks on. The floor littered with broken ring pieces reinforces just how frustrated he is but Mirdania and the others have noticed a shift in mood that seems to exceed what might be expected of these professional setbacks, setbacks made worse by a mithril shortage created by tardy dwarves. As if to confirm something’s wrong he reveals he’s forgotten Mirdania’s name as Sauron makes his entrance and delivers some troubling news: His subjects want to have a frank discussion with him. After all, he runs all of Eregion, not just his workshop.
Or maybe he doesn’t. In Celebrimbor’s absence, Sauron steps up and, quite casually, declares himself in charge. The citizens of Eregion are grateful to have someone in charge. For unexplained reasons the usual hustle and bustle of merchants and visitors has stopped. What’s more, their scouting party hasn’t returned. Well, except for a corpse that washed up with a disturbing message delivered in a disturbing fashion, runes carved on his chest. Sauron offers a chilling interpretation: “Where is he?†(without clarifying that he’s the “he†in question).
And who’s after him? A cut to Adar dining with Galadriel provides the answer we already knew. But it also raises a question: Will Galadriel take her captor up on his offer to team up? The unappetizing meal before her doesn’t seem likely to persuade her, but she hears Adar out anyway (not that she has much choice). He begins his pitch by trying to explain why Sauron is so seductive, and so dangerous. Serving Sauron feels kind of awesome, at least for a while. He makes his followers believe themselves invincible and promises them whatever they want, an experience Galadriel knows too well thanks to her own time spent (unwittingly) in Sauron’s presence.
Even worse, his seduction involves telling the truth (though sometimes with unforeseen consequences). She wanted an army, and now she has one (but she has to fight in what might be a hopeless struggle). Adar wanted children, and he has that too (even though it’s a bunch of screwed up angry dwarfs). They both agree Sauron has to go, but Galadriel remains skeptical about working together. To sweeten the deal he shows her the Iron Crown of Morgoth. Maybe his crown plus her rings could be the sweet combination needed to take their mutual enemy down?
One thing’s for sure: Elendil can’t offer any hope for the moment. Standing before Pharazôn, he’s accused of several crimes, including “high treason,†as a result of last week’s fatal, Kemen-stoked dust-up. Pharazôn sentences him to death but offers an unexpected reprieve. Elendil can go free so long as he renounces his “crimes†and pledges loyalty to Pharazôn. With a trembling lip, Elendil says yes to the first condition but no to the second. He’s a MÃriel man, not a Pharazôn fan. What to do now? How about letting the “Valar decide his fate,†referring to Tolkien’s equivalent of angels. But said judgment, quite troublingly, also seems to involve some kind of hungry sea monster. This does not look good.
Though he’s not in chains, the Stranger seems unlikely to offer any immediate assistance either. After getting a vision of Nori screaming he turns to Tom Bombadil for advice. “It shows tomorrow’s clouds as clear as yesterday’s sunshine,†Tom Bombadil suggests, but frankly, that’s not particularly useful. Nor is Tom Bombadil’s warning that if the Stranger fails the next trial that’ll be the end of the line for his quest. Fortunately (?), Tom Bombadil will be accompanying him.
Nori similarly seems to be having a hard time communicating with the Stoor. Proposing to Gundabale that her people could avoid the masked riders if they just, you know, moved, she’s told that they’re just not moving people. She makes some pretty good points. This is their home, and there’s history there that they do not want to leave behind. So maybe, Nori decides, it’s her fate to leave and surrender to the riders, which might save the Stoor and her pal Poppy. Not far away, Poppy’s getting to know Nobody, whom she clearly regards as a definite somebody. Not only does Nobody return her affectionate gaze, but they hold hands and kiss! This relationship is moving pretty quickly (especially by Tolkien standards). Talking to Nori later, Poppy doesn’t tell her about the kiss but does tell her she’s not on board with the Nori-turns-himself-in-for-the-greater-good plan.
In an unusually clear bit of direction, Tom Bombadil tells the Stranger exactly what he has to do: Find a staff. The only problem is that he says this overlooking a valley filled with potential staffs. The staff the Stranger picks has to be the true staff, and he’ll only find it when his vision aligns with that of the “service of the secret fire.†The Stranger would love to hurry it up in hopes of saving Nori but Tom Bombadil, in full Yoda mode, essentially tells him he needs to focus on his “destiny†even if it means his friends die. Then he disappears, perhaps leaving the Stranger to wonder if he’s chosen the right mentor or if Tom Bombadil is just a nonsense-spewing jerk.
Where some episodes of The Rings of Power focus on a few select locations while ignoring the others, this one is all over the place, landing next at Khazad-dûm where the dwarves are mining their dwarf hearts out and yielding previously unimaginable hauls of gold, thanks to Durin III’s ring-assisted gold-sensing powers. Called before his father, Durin IV finds himself face to face with Sauron, who demands more mithril ASAP. Durin IV is skeptical, to say the least, and so is his father, who gives Sauron only his regrets. It’s the right choice, but made for the wrong reason. Durin III sees this not as a hard “no†but the opening salvo in his negotiations. Durin IV correctly suspects that his father’s ring is the problem and asks that he remove it. His subsequent refusal proves Durin IV’s point (with a wallop that sends him across the room providing a punctuation mark).
So what should he do? Desa tells him he has to do whatever it takes to stand up to Durin III, no matter how hard it might be. His first steps do prove hard, but perhaps not as hard as Durin IV might have suspected. When a regiment dispatched by Durin III shows up to take Desa into custody, she uses her superhuman (superdwarven?) voice to summon a small army of bats to drive them off. Surely that will help.
In Numenor, Elendil gets some more details about his sentence from Eärien, who’s understandably emotional when telling her father he’s to be fed to a “sea worm.†Elendil refuses to bow before Pharazôn so Eärien brings in the big guns in the form of MÃriel, who makes the same request. No dice. He’ll be a martyr to the cause rather than deny it. And, hey, maybe the Valar will let him off the hook no matter how dire the situation looks.
To be clear, it looks pretty dire. Taken to a cliff, Elendil is asked to accept the judgment of the Valar before being sent into the sea to be eaten alive. He gets a reprieve, but not the one he’d hoped for when MÃriel shows up and demands she meet the sea worm in his place. The creature responds by dragging her below the water, giving her a good look, then tossing her back on shore where her accusers have no choice but to accept her innocence. As witnesses chant their support, Pharazôn begins to realize that his coup may not go as smoothly as he had hoped. When he turns to the palantir for advice, and receives a glimpse of Elendil, he apparently doesn’t like what he sees there, either.
Meanwhile, Galadriel has begun to warm to a possible elf/orc superteam. She thinks she has Sauron’s number. He’s stuck in Eregion until he can forge all the rings he wants, which opens a window of opportunity. She’s sure Elrond will reach the city and talk some sense into Celebrimbor, which will make their job super-easy. So what’s in it for Adar? Will he and his “children†be left in peace in Mordor? Galadriel can’t make that promise, and maybe he doesn’t need her help anyway. As he shows her, he has a lot of orcs. So why not take out Sauron and the elves to secure their future? Sensing Adar’s been played, Galadriel suggests that this attack is just what Sauron wants and will give him a chance to claim an army out from under his old follower. As she’s dragged away, her protests fall on deaf ears as the orcs prepare to take the fight to Eregion.
Above the city, Celebrimbor remains focused on creating rings of power that work. But the sound of what he believes to be siege alarms leads Celebrimbor to finally suspect Sauron might be up to something. He’s so fed up, in fact, that he decides to lead even as Sauron pleads that his failure to produce rings for men will be Middle Earth’s downfall. And when Celebrimbor steps outside his tower he discovers that everything is … fine? It’s a sunny day. People are milling about. Children laugh and play. He should feel free to spend his time working on the rings. And, what’s more, here’s some mithril. Why doesn’t he just go back inside and do a little more smithing?
There’s, of course, a very good reason he shouldn’t. This peace and quiet is an illusion. The orcs are at the door. The people are in a panic. There are fireballs in the air. And Sauron is getting exactly what he wants.
Pretty intense ending, right? This hasn’t been a slow season, but major developments seem to be arriving at a much more rapid clip in its back half. The episode itself felt faster-paced than usual, too. That’s undoubtedly because it explores every location and includes virtually every major character, if only for a scene. (If you thought Arondir was going to be the star of this episode after that opening, think again.) It’s a trade-off. The Stranger’s section feels truncated, for instance. But we get less of Numenor (sorry, Numenor), and the times when the episode slows down provide some of the best moments of the scene, particularly that long dinner conversation between Galadriel and Adar in which Adar proves himself capable of matching wits with his captive, even though she ultimately has a better sense of what’s going on. And what’s going on, at least at the moment, is a lot.
Mithril Links
• Sea serpents, or sea worms, don’t play a major role in Tolkien and only get mentioned in vague terms. What we see of one in this episode makes it seem like it’s related to the Watcher in the Water from The Fellowship of the Ring. Perhaps it’s a seawater offshoot of the same species? Whatever the case, the Numenorans seem to have a history with it and can summon it at their will.
• Without giving too much away, the sudden reveal of an alternate reality at the end of the episode suggests the influence of Rose Glass’s great 2019 horror film Saint Maud, starring The Rings of Power’s own Morfydd Clark.
• Would dwarves who live in a cave be that scared of bats?