What do elves drink in the morning? It’s hard not to wonder that after Celebrimbor sips what appears to be a satisfying beverage as he gazes out on another peaceful, sunny day in Eregion. Is it coffee? Some kind of elvish concoction that’s far more satisfying than any drink mere humans could concoct? Whatever it is, it seems to give him the energy and inspiration he needs to throw himself into the task of creating the nine rings of power destined for human hands that Sauron so desperately wants. Does it matter that he’s living in a dreamworld of Sauron’s creation?
We quickly learn that it does. When Celebrimbor gets a fleeting glimpse of his true, bedraggled self, he’s quite alarmed. But, for now at least, he’s happy to hand-wave any glitches in the Matrix away — a missing jewel here, a troubling reflection there — if it means more peace and quiet in which to work. But it’s going to have to be a pretty strong illusion because Celebrimbor, for all his faults, is no dummy. As the glitches stack up, the chaos and destruction going on outside intensifies.
Adar has Eregion under siege, but its elves aren’t his true target. That would be Sauron, who’s using illusions to manipulate Celebrimbor in his workshop and old-fashioned lies to get the rest of Eregion to do his bidding. Celebrimbor, he tells Mirdania and the head of Eregion’s security, doesn’t want to counterattack, but he does. The question of how to counterattack quickly becomes moot after Adar knocks a chunk out of a mountain, damming the river. Instead of taking the fight to the orcs, the orcs will come to them. From a vantage not too far away, Arondir looks on with concern. These story lines are seemingly destined to converge.
News travels fast in Middle-earth. In Khazad-dûm, Durin III gets the news of Eregion’s troubles, but he remains focused on his own, namely the work stoppage created by Durin IV and Disa seizing the mine. As the old workers’-movement song goes, there is power in a union, and soon the Durin IV-Disa power couple finds themselves joined by like-minded dwarves who support their decision to take control of the means of production. And, unlike his father, Durin IV is concerned by the news out of Eregion, even if it does lead to a reunion with an old friend: Elrond. It’s a short and not particularly mirthful reunion. Elrond has come to plead for help for Eregion. Its survival might depend on whether or not the dwarves show up to help.
To underscore his point, the episode then cuts to the many, many orcs quickly making their way to Eregion. The elves’ archers do a pretty good job of taking some out, but the orcs have numbers on their side — and a really nasty-looking siege engine. As that chaos unfolds outside, inside, Celebrimbor has figured out he’s caught in an extremely peaceful trap thanks to a mouse that runs in the same pattern and candles that never burn down.
Deluded no more, Celebrimbor looks out on the fighting and seems to realize just how deep his troubles go: His city is about to fall, his workshop is in ruins, his right-hand elf isn’t who he’s claimed to be, and he seems to have been duped into attempting to create rings of power that will be put to evil ends. “You are he, are you not?†Celebrimbor asks Sauron before taking his first steps outside in weeks. Seeking out Mirdania, Celebrimbor tries to tell her what he’s discovered. But Mirdania isn’t sure who to believe when Sauron shows up. That Celebrimbor hasn’t made much sense lately doesn’t help his case, nor does the moment when he seems to toss Mirdania off the wall, letting her fall to be murdered by the orcs below. (No one catches Sauron willing the fall to happen himself.)
Sauron offers a compromise: If Celebrimbor puts the finishing touches on the nine rings, he’ll let Eregion stand. What’s more, he’ll use it to “create a perfect and lasting peace.†And when has he lied before? But maybe all this will be irrelevant? When Elrond arrives on horseback leading an army of armor-clad elves, the balance of power appears to shift away from Adar’s forces — at least until Adar reveals he has an ace up his sleeve. Or, more accurately, he has an elf at knifepoint, specifically Galadriel. Rather than a battle, they have a sit-down.
Maybe, Adar suggests, they should team up to take down Sauron. It’s more or less the same offer he previously made to Galadriel, only now he’s using Galadriel as leverage. And, as before, Adar has a point, but perhaps not the unanimous support of his minions. After sowing the seeds of doubt about Adar’s leadership, Elrond makes clear he won’t be joining Adar, even if this means seeing Galadriel’s head put on a pike. Telling him to “win,†Galadriel signals she’s supportive of his choice. Then, confirming this is a far smoochier season than the first, they kiss.
However worried he might be about Galadriel, Elrond feels like this won’t end well for the orcs. Why is Elron so confident? Elrond knows something the orcs don’t: The dwarves will be arriving soon to help. And it sure seems like they will, too. Back in Khazad-dûm, Durin IV delivers a rousing speech to a receptive crowd as Elrond fights his way into Eregion. He fights well, but it’s a tough struggle in which he loses his beautiful horse.
Things don’t look great for Eregion, but they don’t look great for Adar, either. Because the walls are proving difficult to breach, he’s starting to lose the faith of his followers. “You told us you loved us,†one asks. He does, he replies, and “too much to let you become Sauron’s slaves.†This does not appear to be the most persuasive possible answer and, making matters worse, Galadriel has escaped thanks to a hidden pin that’s proved useful in picking locks. She disguises herself as an orc using a really thick cloak, though not one thick enough to keep up the illusion indefinitely. Fortunately, a nearby Arondir rescues her. (Remember what we said before about story lines converging?)
So, about that army of dwarves, it turns out they might not be able to go to Eregion after all. Durin III has lost his mind and seems intent on letting loose the Balrog. If there’s to be a Khazad-dûm, Durin IV might need to stick around and bring the army back to help.
Given little choice, Celebrimbor continues to labor away at the nine rings as Sauron goes on and on about his tortured past and plan to make Middle-earth great again and how if Celebrimbor hadn’t been so stubborn, this all could have been far less painful. It’s ultimately all too much for Celebrimbor, who decides to do whatever he can to keep Sauron from getting his hands on the rings (and the rings on others’ hands). Celebrimbor is committed enough to cut off his own thumb to slip off his chains, and though it seems like he’ll quickly be taken back to the tower, a savior arrives in the form of Galadriel. After listening to a short inspirational speech, she agrees to take the nine rings with her.
As she comes to this decision, the battle rages into the night until Adar says three fateful words: “Send him in.†The “him†is the troll we met a few episodes back, a ruthless killing machine dedicated to smashing everything in his path, be they orc or elf. It’s a decision with short-term gains but potentially long-term losses, one that suggests to the orcs yet again that Adar cares more about winning than the well-being of his “children.†In the end, the gains prove pretty modest. The troll fails to breach the walls, thanks in large part to the efforts of Elrond and Arondir.
While this unfolds, Celebrimbor confronts Sauron. But though it at first seems like the smith has his enemy at a disadvantage, Sauron reveals he has the upper hand by compelling the Eregion guards to kill each other. This doesn’t look good, nor do the developments outside Eregion’s city limits. At dawn, it becomes clear that both sides have suffered tremendous losses and that while Eregion might still stand, its position remains precarious. And those dwarves Elrond promised were coming? They’re nowhere to be seen. Instead, he gets a message that the dwarves have shut themselves off inside Khazad-dûm. “Durin will come,†he insists. But as the battle resumes, this doesn’t look too likely. What’s more, Adar gains the upper hand. Not only does he stab Arondir (who really hates him), but his forces finally do what the troll couldn’t and tear through Eregion’s wall.
And to think this episode began so peacefully! It’s a big episode, the best of the season so far. From the start, The Rings of Power has lived in the shadow of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, and with this episode, we arrived at the series’ equivalent of the Battle of Helm’s Deep. That it doesn’t top Jackson’s film isn’t surprising. That’s one of the best action sequences ever shot. But the siege of Eregion is an impressive piece of work in its own right, establishing a clear sense of space and then letting all hell break loose within it. Beyond that, it’s a smartly paced episode, not only cutting from one location to another but letting one scene comment on the next. Where some Rings of Power episodes feel arbitrarily divided (a little Numenor here, a little Eregion there), every piece here fits together.
Mithril Links
• “My heart sings to see you, old friend.†Whose heart didn’t? The Elrond-Durin IV team consistently gave the first season some of its best moments. Elrond can be a little boring, and Durin IV a little much on their own, but together, they balance each other out. And yet it’s taken seven episodes to reunite them, and then only for one scene. Will next week’s episode change that?
• RIP Mirdania. It looked like she’d end up working for Sauron for a bit there. Instead, he threw her to the orcs. She might have been a fine smith if she’d lived. Instead, she spent her final days serving as an unwitting pawn.
• The Elrond-Galadriel kiss doesn’t come out of nowhere. There have been hints of feelings developing between them all season. Yet it seemed unlikely to go anywhere because a relationship isn’t part of the Tolkien canon. Not only are they not together, Elrond marries Galadriel’s daughter. Then again, this series does a lot of squeezing developments in between the established lore, and this seems like another example of that. Tolkien purists, beware.