TV Review: Rings of Power Episode 6

We spent an entire episode in the Southlands this time, focusing on the clash between the Orcs led by Adar and the Men led by Bronwyn and Arondir, who are eventually joined by the Númenóreans. The geography of the Southlands suddenly became important in this episode since the final scene showed the eruption of Mount Doom, which was created by Morgoth. So let’s have a brief geography lesson! The Southlands themselves weren’t called as such until this show, so the only information we have on its geographical limits is what we see in the opening credits map. It appears that the Southlands is mainly comprised of the Northwestern portion of future Mordor, which makes sense with what we know of the Southlands’ ancestors fighting alongside Morgoth who lived near Mount Doom. The named locations of the Southlands are the Ostirith tower, and the towns of Tirharad (where we see most of the action) and Hordern (which was already burned when Bronwyn went to investigate in Episode 1). The future Mordor has an almost square shape and is bordered on its North, West, and South sides by mountain ranges, and it has some interior mountains as well. A little south of the halfway point on the Western side (the Ephel Dúath mountain range) is a shorter piece of the mountain range that juts out directly east.

According to the Southlands map that the show provided, Ostirith and the two towns are located in the crux of the L shape formed by the mountains. In other words, the area we see in the show is just Southeast of the future Cirith Ungol. The Tower of Cirith Ungol guards the Pass of Cirith Ungol on the eastern side of the Ephel Dúath mountains (which will eventually become the border between Gondor and Mordor), and we saw parts of Cirith Ungol and its pass in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. The winding stairs that Gollum lead Frodo and Sam through to get to Mordor is the Pass of Cirith Ungol. And when Frodo is taken captive by some Orcs after getting wrapped up by Shelob, the tower where the Orcs keep him is the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Running parallel to that pass is the Morgul Pass, which we also saw glimpses of in The Lord of the Rings. The Morgul Pass is guarded on the Western side of the Ephel Dúath by Minas Ithil (“Tower of the Moon”), which later becomes Minas Morgul (“Tower of Dark Sorcery”). When it eventually became Minas Morgul, it was the base of the Witch-king of Angmar- the leader of the Ringwraiths. In The Lord of the Rings, we saw the corrupted city of Minas Morgul covered in a glowing green hue when Frodo and Sam approached it. They couldn’t take the wide road path of the Morgul Pass since it was being used by Orcs, so they took the stairs in the Pass of Cirith Ungol instead.

All of that to say that the likely next move of the Númenóreans and the Southlanders will be to move north and travel through the Ephel Dúath mountains via what will become the Morgul Pass, and then build Minas Ithil. It’s unclear whether Minas Ithil or Cirith Ungol was built first or if they were built simultaneously, but Minas Ithil will certainly be the larger of the two. And of course, we know that these locations will eventually be claimed by Sauron’s Ringwraiths, but they will first be held by the Men of Gondor for two thousand years. We don’t yet know how the Rings of Power may condense the timeline, but if they’re only leading up to Sauron’s initial defeat through the destruction of his corporeal body, then we won’t see Minas Ithil become Minas Morgul in this show. We may not even get that far with only five seasons unless they do some major time jumps, perhaps ending the show with the creation of the One Ring.

Even though the last scene of this episode showed the town of Tirharad getting consumed by the fire and ash of Mount Doom erupting, we can be comforted in knowing that certain characters do survive. Galadriel, Elendil, and Isildur will all definitely make it through, which we know from Middle-earth history; we also know of Galadriel’s survival from the promotional posters where she’s standing and covered around and by orange ash. So I would imagine that the next episode will entail a gathering of the survivors who flee west to the Ephel Dúath mountains for shelter. The question will be how many survivors there actually are. Halbrand finally took on the mantel of King of the Southlands, but at this point there may only be a few dozen people left for him to rule. I’m really interested to see if we get some more information on what Adar did to his people and what made Halbrand flee. Adar didn’t recognize Halbrand, so they must not have fought directly, unless you want to go full conspiracy theorist and postulate that Halbrand is Sauron in disguise. Adar said that he killed Sauron, which we obviously know is false, and we know from the lore that Sauron can change his appearance. So perhaps Halbrand is Sauron in disguise, covertly recruiting some Men to his cause to quash Adar’s rebellion. Adar also talked about how Sauron was unable to finish his project because he wasn’t able to fully tap into the dark magic he was using. So another theory could be that Adar is Sauron after all, and he “killed” the part of himself that was unable to finish what he started and gave himself a sort of rebirth. It’s more likely that we still haven’t seen Sauron on screen yet, but it’s fun to theorize.

As for other possible survivors, between Queen Regent Míriel, Halbrand, Arondir, Bronwyn, and Theo, I doubt that they would kill off all of those characters in one go. If the show keeps to the lore for the Queen Regent, she will survive and return to Númenor and there will be some drama with Pharazôn. Halbrand, Arondir, Bronwyn, and Theo were all created for the show so they’re all fair game. It will be interesting to see how long Galadriel stays with this group before eventually returning to her kindred, and whether or not any Elves help in the building of future Gondor, but I’m sure we won’t see any of that in this season. I’m still hoping to see the completion of Celebrimbor’s forge before the end of this season- that would make for a good scene in the finale. And of course, some more time with the Harfoots so we can see if The Stranger continues to integrate into their group or not. I think the Harfoot sequences are so comforting to me both because the characters are so much fun, and because there is no lore on specific people, so their story in this show is entirely up to the creative whim of the show creators. The Harfoots will eventually settle in the future Shire and they will be the majority of those known as Hobbits, also joined by similar peoples called Stoors and Fallowhides. But for now, they are still wandering and haven’t yet come to live in the Hobbit holes that we’re used to seeing. It would be great to find out who The Stranger is, but I’m not concerned about getting that reveal this season since we’re having so much fun with the Harfoots in their own little corner of the world.

Only two more episodes remain! And they began filming Season 2 yesterday, Monday October 3rd in the UK, so hopefully we’ll start seeing some stills in Spring 2023.