THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER “The Eagle and the Sceptre”

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We start with one of our favorite concepts in all of Tolkien, the heroic horse character. Berek travels the former Southlands, now Mordor, looking for Isildur. He manages to kill two orcs along the way, but when he finds his rider, the two of them have to fight off a horde of giant spiders, not Shelob giant, just ones roughly the size of a dog, with pincers strong enough to explode an orc’s head.

Hey remember Númenor? Seems like the writers didn’t up until this episode. We know how essential Númenor is to the history of Middle Earth and the forging of the rings of power, but sometimes we wish the show ignored it. They’re trying to add a lot of political intrigue to a power struggle that was much more straightforward in Tolkien’s version. Worse, they’re trying to add all this family drama into it and the story feels so small and pointless when it does that. Eärien is a Queen Míriel truther and she wants to Make Númenor Great Again by overthrowing the queen. She implores Pharazon’s wimpy son to do something about it, but that conversation went nowhere. Elendil pushed her on it, after she berated him for being too beholden to the queen, who bears the blame of what happened to their people, but he seems too distracted to see what’s happening right in front of him.

It gets so bad that a subject slaps the queen at the funeral of her father, but Míriel hugs the woman in response, perhaps not realizing how much the people have turned against her. On the other hand, she’s clearly treading cautiously and she’s savvy enough to consider Pharazon untrustworthy. He is skulking about her living quarters and being a pest about the coronation. Later, he meets in a tavern with Kemen, Eärien and some other dude who’s willing to openly talk treason with them. Valandil, Elendil’s buddy who’s still in mourning for his friend, overhears them. Kemen rather stupidly insults the soldier and goads him into a fight. There’s a lot the show gets wrong about the Númenoreans (they’re supposed to all be peak humans, outrageously tall and beautiful, super-humanly accomplished in every endeavor, with lifespans of hundreds of years), but occasionally, they nail their arrogance. Valandil makes it clear that there are still plenty of people who support the queen. Eärien hints that she has information that could turn the public away from the queen even more and it’s revealed that she stole the palantir from the queen’s chamber.

In Mordor, Adar is preparing the orcs to go to war against Sauron. Presumably, Sauron told him some half-truths about his own return in order to set them on this path. The orcs are grumbling a bit about it, however. Adar assures them that, as their father, he knows best. Adar summons Damrod the hill troll, who apparently has beef with Sauron. We’re not entirely sure how we feel about the concept of Sauron needing to fight and conquer all of the dark creatures that ultimately served him, although we suppose it’s all going to come down to how it’s executed and paid off. So far, it’s intriguing, but it threatens to be one of those strands of the story that exist only to prevent characters from progressing to more familiar locales and roles.

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Durin and Disa meet with Celebrimbor in Eregion, where he tells them of his plan to grant the dwarves magic rings if he will provide him with a steady flow of mithril. Durin is rightly skeptical, but Celebrimbor assures him that “they will be RINGS OF POWER,” and once again, we groaned. Celebrimbor promises that the rings can heal Khazad-dûm the way they healed the Great Tree of Lindon. Durin remains skeptical and informs him that he isn’t on speaking terms with his father, who would be the one with the power to accept his terms. Sauron steps forward in his Annatar form and lays the flattery on thick, assuring the prince that Elrond routinely refers to him as the wisest of all the dwarves. Durin later tells Disa that there’s no way this guy ever met Elrond, who would never say such nice things about him. He asks her if this all doesn’t sound a little strange to her and we’re relieved to hear one person voice a modicum of common sense. Nevertheless, she tells him he’s being stubborn and insists he speak with his father. In Khazad-dûm, Durin goes to see his father and offers a heartfelt apology. They make up without too much fuss and the prince informs his father of the Celebrimbor’s offer, adding that he doesn’t trust whatever power it is that the elves are wielding.

Celebrimbor advises Sauron to give the dwarves some time to consider the offer, but Sauron immediately drops hints that lead the dim bulb to do exactly what he wants. Sauron tells him that Gil-galad has forbidden the forging of any more rings and considers the dwarves unworthy of them. He manipulates the prideful elf into lying, by sending a letter to Gil-galad informing him that he’s closing the forge. “You would lie to your king?” Sauron asks him. “This is my moment,” he says petulantly in response.

Isildur slowly rides his way out of Mordor. On the borders, he’s ambushed by a young woman named Estrid, who stabs him in the thigh as part of their meet-cute. She tells him that the Númenoreans have all sailed home but she found a map to Pelargir, where many of the Southlanders were said to have taken refuge at the end of last season. They are ambushed by wild men – or rather, Isildur rather stupidly approached them right after being stabbed by someone else for doing the exact same thing. Just when all seems lost, Arondir swoops in and does his Batman act. We literally sighed with relief when we saw him, not because we were worried about Isildur and not because Ismael Cruz Cordova is pretty to look at, but because Arondir was one of the best new characters introduced in season one, and it’s amazing how much the show perks up whenever they give someone a little action sequence. There is far, far too much talking going on in this series. There must be a temptation in adapting Tolkien to sticking to the same kind of flowery verboseness that characterizes his writing, but this is still a TV show about elves and monsters, so it behooves them to break up all the singing and incantations with an occasional sword fight. Peter Jackson understood this very well. Give the characters their big speeches, but also give them many opportunities to kick ass.

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Arondir was out gathering firewood for Bronwyn’s funeral pyre because actress Nazanin Boniadi chose not to return to the series. Fortunately, her character was left in a very precarious position, so no explanation is needed for her sudden death. Bronwyn felt important in the first season because of the show’s commitment to portraying human life in this age and also because her village would provide the impetus for turning the Southlands into Mordor. We’re not sure if there was much left for her character to do, although someone in the show should speak on behalf of humankind. We suppose that task is going to fall to her bratty son Theo. He seems to have taken over her role as a healer for now, although he has absolutely no patience for Arondir trying to become a fatherly figure to him and orders the elf to never speak to him again. He seems drawn to Isildur, possibly because they both appear so lost and ungrounded at the moment. He tells the Númenorean that he can help him get his horse back. Pelargir is a community of depressed, traumatized people. Theo only has to walk around to hear stories of loss and pain, including Isildur’s admission that he caused his own mother’s death, which explains why Theo is drawn to him. As much as we complain about the endless talking scenes, it’s good to be reminded that, for most of its inhabitants, Middle Earth provides a hard life. Isildur and Estrid have a moment that looks like the start of a romance, until he leaves and she helpfully reveals to the camera that she bears the mark of Adar. We didn’t think she was completely trustworthy, but given how Adar administers his brand, by force, it doesn’t necessarily tell us where her heart lies. Theo and Isildur ambush the wild men camp and Isildur manages to get Berek back, but Theo runs into something mysteriously large and creaky in the woods. We’re ready for some Ent action.

In Númenor, the coronation is under way and Pharazon is looking for an opening to take over. Someone yells out “Queen of lies,” which prompts Míriel to give an impassioned speech about loss and honor. It might have worked to calm the crowd but Eärien Taylor-Greene disrupts the proceedings even further by crying out for her (not) dead brother and dropping a palantir on the crowd’s collective ass. Remember, the Númenoreans are arrogant and there have been indications of racism endemic to their community. The crowd reacts badly to the idea that their ruler relies on “elf magic.” Elendil tries to reach for the palantir but it forcefully prevents him from doing so, which forces the question of how and why Eärien was able to grab it. Things go south very quickly but everyone quiets down immediately when one of the fabled eagles appears. Somehow, Pharazon convinces the crowd that the eagle is here to bestow its blessing on him and not on the actual queen standing there waiting to be crowned.

Meanwhile, in Eregion, Celebrimbor and Annatar have begun the forging of the dwarf rings.

Next: “Eldest“

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