The upside to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s slow reintroduction of characters in this second season is that it gives the series time to focus on the inhabitants of each pocket of Middle-earth without rushing from place to place. The downside is that after three episodes, we suddenly have to brush up on the intricacies of Númenoran politics and the various players who factor in, to one degree or another, the struggle to control the island kingdom’s future (which, in the long run, is not a bright one). These include everyone from the recently blinded queen regent MÃriel to Berek, the beautiful horse left untamable after the apparent death of his master Isildur, who was last seen running wild across Middle-earth.
That’s where we find him as the episode opens, but Berek’s journey is apparently not one driven by mournful rambling. Instead, he seems to sense that Isildur is still alive (which we already could assume given that he has an important role to play in the story’s future). His search is a dangerous one, bringing him into contact with both hungry orcs (who prove to be not much of a problem) and the giant, no less hungry spider who’s stashed Isildur away for a snack (a more formidable, but not inescapable, adversary).
Isildur’s capture and escape take place on the Middle-earth mainland, where the Númenorans ventured on what turned out to be an unsuccessful trip to the Southlands (the eruption of Mount Doom had a lot to do with that). That undoubtedly contributes to the mournful feeling that has enveloped Númenor, which is still dealing with the death of King Tar-Palantir and the fallout of Mount Doom’s eruption, including MÃriel’s loss of sight. There are other issues, too. A dying Tar-Palantir let slip to Eärien that he had a palantÃr, and upon gazing into it, she saw something, though what it was remains unclear. Elendil has to mourn his son’s apparent death while giving good counsel to MÃriel (and serving as her eyes). That also means keeping an eye on Lord Belzagar (Will Keen), a visitor from the north who seems to be in league with Pharazôn, an adviser/cousin to MÃriel who may have his own designs on power. But can anyone sustain the love of the people like MÃriel, who can take a slap from a grieving mother and then give her a hug?
There are a lot of forces at work, in other words. For the moment, Pharazôn outwardly plays the role of a MÃriel booster, helping her to pick out a coronation gown. But behind her back at a tavern, he entertains the gossip and flattery of Lord Belzagar and his own son Kemen, insulting MÃriel’s blindness and suggesting that Pharazôn would be a better leader. Pharazôn doesn’t object beyond stating he has many supporters but not enough to take the crown, while Eärien speaks vaguely of maybe knowing a way to turn “many into enough.†(What did she see?) Overhearing this fills Isildur’s friend Valandil with anger, which he directs at Kemen through some not-so-vague threats of violence. They don’t fight, but it’s pretty obvious they will. As Eärien goes on about having found something secret, dangerous, and forbidden, we watch MÃriel discover the palantÃr has disappeared. There’s obviously a lot of unsettled business to attend to once the ale-drinking is done.
Over in the Southlands — sorry, Mordor — a new visitor arrives. He’s tough to miss, too. Damrod, “hill-troll of the Ered Mithrin, killer of stone giants, eater of dragon bones,†towers over Adar and his other orc hosts and generally behaves as if he could tear off their heads. (That he arrives holding the head of an orc helps explain why.) “Where is Sauron?†he asks. But why does he want to know?
Meanwhile, a different sort of visit transpires in Eregion, where Celebrimbor plays host to Durin IV and Disa and makes them an offer: He’ll give the dwarves seven rings of power that will revive Khazad-dûm if they send some mithril his way. It doesn’t sound like a bad deal, but Durin IV has some misgivings. Putting it in place will involve talking to Durin III, which he does not want to do. And what’s the deal with the smooth talker who calls himself Annatar (who we know to be Sauron), who claims to know Elrond quite well even though Elrond’s never mentioned him before? This Annatar guy claims to know a lot of things. He tells Celebrimbor that Gil-Galad doesn’t like this give-rings-to-the-dwarves plan, which turns out to be exactly the piece of reverse psychology the smith needs to commit fully to the task of ring-making, even if he has to do it without the High King’s permission while lying about shutting down his forge. His intentions are good. But there’s a saying about good intentions, isn’t there?
While Sauron pushes Celebrimbor’s buttons, Isildur and Berek make their way across a wasteland filled with corpses (and, thankfully, boots in Isildur’s size) until stumbling across a ruined campsite, where he’s stabbed by Estrid (Nia Towle) after she mistakes him for an orc. This seems to be The Rings of Power’s version of a meet-cute. (Or it would be were it not for a later scene, but we’ll get to that.) Together, they decide to make their way to where they suspect other survivors might be hiding out: Pelargir, an “old Númenoran settlement†nestled in what appears to be a peaceful valley.
It’s not entirely peaceful, though. When Isildur approaches the apparent survivor of an orc attack, he finds himself lured into a trap and attacked by forest-dwelling Wild Men, a bunch of desperate and violent Adar followers. (The branded sigil on the “victim’s†arm is a dead giveaway Isildur notices too late.) Then, to the rescue, in rides Arondir. If he looks a little more sullen than usual, there’s a reason for that: Bronwyn, the forbidden love of his life, has died, leaving him behind and making an orphan of the young, troubled Theo (the last major character to appear this season).
Theo’s picked up some of his mother’s skills as a healer, but he’s not doing well. He’s angry and resents Arondir’s attempts to be his father figure, telling him, “Everything you were to be is ashes now.†He’s a little more open to Isildur, however, offering to help him retrieve Berek under the cover of darkness. But first, Isildur spends a little time getting to know Estrid (never mind that she tells him she’s waiting for her “betrothedâ€). They share sad stories of guilt and lost parents over a campfire while Theo listens in sympathetically. Then, after Theo and Isildur leave, Estrid takes a moment to burn the Adar sigil on her back. Is she a true believer, or did she do what she had to do to survive?
That answer will have to wait for the future. In the meantime, Theo tries to chat with the Wild Men followers as a distraction while Isildur makes off with Berek. This doesn’t go that well, though the thieves fall victim to some kind of attack. As Theo runs away, he runs into something that looms over him and fills him with fear. What is it? That answer, too, will have to wait for the future. (The sound of creaking wood does seem like a tip-off, though.)
Back in Khazad-dûm, Durin III has the difficult task of managing his kingdom through a crisis and the even more difficult task of talking to his son, who’s arrived to share Celebrimbor’s mithril-for-rings offer. This involves a lot of pride-swallowing on Durin IV’s part but also the courage to suggest that the offer might not be such a good idea. (But, of course, this doesn’t stop the king from accepting it, as we learn in the episode’s wordless final scene.)
Before we get there, however, we return to Númenor for MÃriel’s coronation. It does not begin well. After being heckled by a grieving subject, MÃriel delivers an inspiring speech that wins over her skeptical audience. Until, that is, Eärien shows up with the palantÃr and tells everyone that MÃriel uses it to make decisions. This revelation proves divisive, to put it mildly, prompting Pharazôn to use the moment to cast doubt on MÃriel’s right to rule. Then, perfectly timed to punctuate the maneuver, he’s joined by a giant eagle, whose arrival is taken as a good omen, just as it was when an eagle arrived to honor Tar-Palantir’s ascent years before.
Prime Video chose to premiere the first three episodes of this eight-episode season at once, and by the end of the third, that decision makes a lot of sense. Each involves a certain amount of table-setting but also an escalation of the action, particularly in this episode, which sees the extremely rapid rise and fall of MÃriel, the queen regent who seems destined never to be queen. And with all that in place, The Rings of Power seems ready to really get moving. (Or not. We’ll see.)
Mithril Links
• Bronwyn’s fictional death has a real-world explanation: Nazanin Boniadi made the decision to leave the show. While at first this was explained as being due to her work with the #WomanLifeFreedom movement in her Iranian homeland, she’s since said the choice was “unrelated†to her advocacy.