TV Review: Rings of Power Episode 3

We’re back with a spectacular third episode of The Rings of Power, where we met several new interesting characters- including the three unnamed characters I spoke of last week. Anthony Crum is Ontamo and Alex Tarrant is Valandil, both close friends of Isildur. I was wrong about Joseph Mawle possibly portraying Celeborn, as it turns out that he is playing Adar instead. There’s a possibility that Adar is actually Sauron in hiding, since we know that Sauron eventually builds an army of Orcs. And since the humans in the Southlands previously helped Morgoth, it would make sense that Sauron would be looking for something there, perhaps even the sword hilt that Theo found. However, it might be a little early to introduce Sauron in the series, even under a pseudonym, since they’re planning a five-season series. They may want to keep him hidden away for longer to increase his gravitas when he does finally make an appearance. So another theory is that Adar is Arondir’s father since Adar means “father” in the Elvish language of Sindarin, and we know Arondir is estranged from his father, so that would present a really interesting conflict of characters. However, in the Elvish language of Quenya, Arda means “realm” and represents the land masses of Middle-earth and Aman and the oceans. And so thinking that Adar means “father” could be a false clue. Adar could simply be an Elf allied with dark forces and/or Sauron. We will likely find out in Episode 4!

Another partial character reveal was that Halbrand is a direct descendant of the Southlands king who led Men with Morgoth against the Elves. The area called the Southlands is a new distinction for this show, so its borders are not yet precisely defined, but it does cover at least a portion of Mordor, which lies directly east of Gondor (which doesn’t exist yet in the show). Morgoth created Mount Doom in the First Age and Sauron lived in Mordor during the Second and Third Age, so Mount Doom at least should exist in the show but they haven’t explicitly named Mordor yet, so we don’t yet know if it’s been officially formed for the show’s storyline. (Keeping in mind that the show is compressing large chunks of the canonical timeline to help the audience better understand a story that spans thousands of years.) According to The History of Middle-earth, Mordor was thus named before Sauron settled there, so I would imagine that we’ll hear the name soon. With Halbrand being a forgotten heir in the Southlands, he could potentially be a future Nazgûl, since the nine Nazgûl were once nine Men who were leaders or kings of some kind that received Rings of Power from Sauron. We don’t know the original identities of any of the Nazgûl, only that three were Númenóreans and one was an Easterling, so there’s plenty of room to play with the identities of the nine. If the Southlands end up being entirely consumed by Mordor, then the inhabitants will likely have to pick a side and either fight for Sauron or immigrate to what will soon be Gondor. For now, I’ll hope that Halbrand is a good person who tries to lead his people against the rise of Sauron.

Speaking of Númenóreans, we got some interesting information on the island nation of Númenor in this episode. The Númenóreans fought on the Elves’ side in the war against Morgoth, and so the Elves gifted them the island in thanks. From what I understand of their history, I believe their falling out with the Elves was due to their not being welcomed into the Undying Lands for their help against Morgoth. So their society was split between those angry with the Elves for not receiving eternal life, and those still loyal to the Elves because of their long friendship. We saw some evidence of this in the show, with Captain Elendil explaining to Galadriel that the town he came from still taught Elvish (not sure specifically which Elvish language) to their children. Elendil’s friendly attitude towards Elves certainly lines up with the future information of his son Isildur eventually fighting alongside the Elves against Sauron (Isildur being the one who cut off Sauron’s finger that held the One Ring). Elendil himself is also crucial to some Middle-earth history when he will eventually lead some Númenóreans to settle in Middle-earth itself rather than their home island. I imagine that we will soon see a faction split in the show between those loyal to the crown of Númenor and those who oppose them. It could be that Galadriel’s determination to get back to Middle-earth will be the catalyst for that change. If Galadriel and Elendil break Halbrand out of prison to leave with them, their exodus would hopefully spur Halbrand to side with the Elves and encourage others from the Southlands to do the same.

There were some emotional moments with the Harfoots in this episode. We learned that since the Harfoots are migratory, anyone who can’t keep up with the caravan is left behind. Those that are injured or elderly and can’t keep pace, or those who are felled by the elements during their travels. Nori’s friend Poppy is all alone because her family was killed in a landslide the year before, so now she has to pull her small cart on her own and struggles with it. Because of this, I can certainly see how it would be wise to get married and have children just to have more help with pulling your family’s cart in the migration. There’s also the possibility of being de-caravanned for bad behavior, as we see in this episode. The Stranger is discovered by the entire group of Harfoots when he accidentally sets fire to some star charts and they find out that he’s friends with Nori, so Nori’s family is threatened with banishment from their group. They end up only being relegated to the back of the caravan, which almost defeats them because of Nori’s father Largo’s injury, but The Stranger very sweetly comes to help push the cart since Nori is his only friend and he doesn’t want to lose her. I’m looking forward to their growing friendship and hopefully The Stranger’s acceptance into the Harfoot group as a whole.

We didn’t have any scenes with the High Elves or the Dwarves this episode, nor Bronwyn and Theo, so I’m hoping that we’ll start to see more crossover between groups in the next episode. If Galadriel convinces Elendil and Halbrand to travel with her to Middle-earth in the next episode, it will be interesting to see if she stays with them or travels immediately to see High King Gil-galad. I hope that she continues to foster a relationship with the Men she’s befriended, perhaps brokering an official friendship between Elendil and Gil-galad. We should also soon be seeing a relationship develop between the Dwarves and Celebrimbor who needs help building his forge. I can’t wait until Friday!