The Rings of Power Spoiler Recap: Season 2 Episode 6
Our dear Celebrimbor is falling further into Annatar’s grasp this week and it’s so heartbreaking to watch. He’s so consumed by the creation of the rings that he has begun to forget his own smiths’ names and is easily fooled by Annatar’s distortions of reality. Annatar’s distortion does bring us some of the best camerawork of the season, though the Trial by Abyss eclipses it in my mind. Annatar walking from his false daylight and happy Elves to the dark truth as the Uruk begin their attack is a fantastic piece of artistry. In the past few episodes, I’ve felt that Annatar is (purposefully) a bit bland, but now we’re seeing Sauron peeking through as his plans are coming into focus. As felt through Bear McCreary’s wonderful musical score, Sauron has been fully embodying himself as helpful Annatar, and in the final moments Sauron is embracing more of himself as he tunes his orchestra of doom. The only element I’m unsure about in Annatar’s scenes is the mithril he gives Celebrimbor; we saw King Durin refuse Annatar’s request, so either Annatar stole the mithril or it was part of his illusion to get Celebrimbor back to the forge. King Durin is clearly succumbing more and more to his lust for gold and Prince Durin and Disa are doing their best to dissuade him. Disa continues to show how talented she is by using her singing to scare bats out of their nests to drive out the miners. She may be my all-time favorite character of this show.
I was personally drawn most to the scenes of Númenor in this episode. Eärien is torn between the love of her father and her loyalty to Pharazôn, but her failure to understand what her father is fighting for doesn’t leave me much sympathy for her future. She’s not mentioned in lore, which is unfortunately typical for women, so her future is not preordained, but it’s easy to guess where she’s headed. We got some really lovely moments between Elendil and Míriel and we almost got a kiss but I suppose we have to be content with forehead touching. Which brings us to my favorite scene of the entire episode, the Trial by Abyss. Elendil was arrested and apologized for his crimes but would not renounce his belief in Míriel being the rightful queen, so Lord Belzagar thinks he’s funny by suggesting an old tradition of The Faithful instead of executing him directly. I believe this trial was invented for the show but I’m glad for it as it was so engaging. The sea-worm is called forth via horn, and the accused must wade into a tide pool and face the sea-worm for its judgment; this is the first indication that the sea-worm is an intelligent creature rather than a standard predator. At the last second, Míriel demands to take Elendil’s place instead and she undergoes the trial. As she’s wading in the tide pool, she gets dragged underwater by one of the sea-worm’s tentacles and she remains completely calm as she looks it straight in the eye. This shot is my favorite moment; the way the water fans out Míriel’s hair and dress and she’s completely surrounded by the sea-worm’s enormous body is fantastically beautiful. She is deemed innocent by the sea-worm and it pushes her back to the surface and into Elendil’s arms. Pharazôn now has a tricky situation on his hands since the woman he overthrew has survived this spectacular show of force.
Galadriel and Adar have some interesting conversations where they’re both trying to draw the other out but Adar is the most successful in the end. Galadriel confirms that Halbrand is Sauron, tells Adar who currently has her ring, and that Elrond is coming with an army. In return, she does learn that Adar has Sauron’s crown, reformed from Morgoth’s, and that Adar has more legions than she knew about. Putting the pieces together, Galadriel understands that Sauron wants Adar to attack Eregion so that he can take control of the Uruk army, but Adar is too proud to listen to her; he thinks that because he bested Sauron once before that he can do it again. But since he doesn’t know how Sauron survived the first time, it seems egotistical and short-sighted to think that a second attempt would get the job done without help from the Elves.
We only got a few brief scenes with The Stranger and the Harfoots and Stoors, but I’ll take what I can get. The Stranger has still been spending time with Tom Bombadil who is instructing The Stranger on how to find his wizard staff; I imagine that we’ll get confirmation of The Stranger being Gandalf when he does. Tom tells him that he must choose between acquiring his staff or finding Nori and Poppy, and also that it’s The Stranger’s purpose to prepare himself to fight Sauron. It seems a bit hypocritical to me that Tom is so adamant about The Stranger fighting Sauron when Tom himself intentionally stays out of the main plot of the Middle-Earth saga, but I suppose if he’s essentially the embodiment of Nature then it’s not really his place to do more than help errant travelers. Nori has a nice discussion with Gundable, the leader of the Stoors, about the difference between the kind of lives they both lead; it’s an excellent foreshadowing of the dual nature of Hobbits to both settle down in their Hobbit-holes but also crave newness and adventure. And then we have perhaps the most adorable moment of the entire series when Poppy kisses Merimac! If anything bad happens to either of them, I will riot. Nori contemplates turning herself in to the Dark Wizard in order to protect the Stoors, but she’s only a tool to draw in The Stranger, so that probably isn’t the best strategic move.
With only two episodes remaining, we have quite a lot of action and development ahead. The battle of Eregion should be in the next episode, though I’ll be interested to see if they split it over two episodes. The exodus of Elendil and the other Faithful from Númenor isn’t supposed to happen until after a confrontation between Pharazôn and Sauron, but the show is speeding things up so much that they may cut that part out. Isildur is also meant to return to Númenor before that exodus but I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets changed as well. Isildur has a younger brother, Anárion, but I doubt they would introduce him at the end of a season; that’s more likely to happen in the next season. I would guess that he’s currently living with his grandfather Amandil on the west coast of Númenor. I would also guess that we see The Stranger get his staff in the finale rather than in the next episode. I can’t wait to see the camera work and special effects for the battle of Eregion!
