THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER “Where the Stars Are Strange”

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After moving a selection of characters back and forth across the game board in the first episode of The Rings of Power‘s second season, the followup episode allows for both a little bit of forward progression as well as an acknowledgement that there are whole continents full of characters and plotlines that haven’t been picked back up yet.

In Khazad-dûm, Durin and Disa are shopping for discounts in the local market because money is tight after he fell out with his father the king. He’s moody over their fallen status but she assures him she loves him. They remain one of the best of the show’s additions to the Tolkien mythos. It’s jarring to see a bustling marketplace in Khazad-dûm, but we like it when the show gives us glimpses of what it’s like to actually live in Middle Earth. Disa notices that a quake is on the way, (which we learn later was triggered by Mount Doom’s eruption) which devastates the community, blocking the light shafts that allow them to grow food.

In Lindon, a dreamy Galadriel has a horrifying vision of Celebrimbor being impaled on tree roots while he recites the One Ring incantation in Black Speech. We don’t want to make this comparison too often (partially because TRoP suffers from it), but one of the things this show has over House of the Dragon is its ability to slip effortlessly into full-bore supernatural horror scenes. Tolkien’s world was one of darkness, magic and death, which gives this show a lot of leeway to dazzle modern audiences. What we’re trying to say is, more horror scenes, fewer scenes of people talking around a table or talking under a tree, please.

Galadriel takes her concerns that Sauron has left Mordor to Gil-galad who, typical for him, dismisses them completely. We realize that people in this tale have to act in ways that court disaster, but making one guy so wrong all the time, essentially casting him as Galadriel’s grumpy boss, just turns him into a tool. She admits to him that the ring seems to have kindled her ability to see “that which has not yet come to pass,” borrowing an iconic Cate Blanchett phrase from The Fellowship film. He admits he has seen “mountains crumbling, waters running dry, and clouds – black – gathering over white towers.” She begs him to send her to Eregion and he tells her that she can’t face Sauron again, which is probably the right call to make. She counters that she alone can slay Sauron because she knows his mind as well as he knows hers, which doesn’t exactly make it sound like she’s not obsessed with him.

Back at Eregion, Sauron is worming his way in, first by refusing to leave, than by getting Celebrimbor’s aide to feel sorry for him. Meanwhile, the messengers Gil-galad sent to Eregion to warn Celebrimbor about Sauron are dead, which anyone but Gil-galad could have seen coming.

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We change locales to western Rhûn and a place called Caras Gaer, which translates from Silvan as “Fortress of Terror,” so that’s nice. A very Saruman-esque-looking wizard played by the great Ciaran Hinds reconstitutes the three priestesses that the stranger turned into a swarm of moths last season. We’re kind of glad to see them again because they made for memorable antagonists. The dark wizard tells of whispers he hears of an old man in rags who travels with two halflings, which indicates how poor a job the Stranger is doing of staying hidden. Mercenaries with armored masks tell the wizard that they will bring the Istar in chains if he agrees to “Heal the curse upon our flesh.” Naming him as a wizard (not that there was ever much doubt) brings us closer to the definitive declaration that the stranger is Gandalf, but not nearly enough as the conversation he has with his traveling companions. Nori keeps suggesting names for him, each of which he rejects. “No one can give you a name. It is yours already,” he tells them, promising his heart will glow when he hears his true name. Nori all but confirms this when she tells Poppy that the Stranger is afraid to use his powers “without a gand,” using the Old Norse word for “staff,” from which Gandalf’s name originates. Listen, if we’re wrong about this, we will clap our hands with glee at the fakeout. We hope we are wrong about this, because the hints are just too heavy and obvious to be intriguing. How hilarious would it be for the big, triumphantly emotional moment when he discovers his true name comes and it’s “Pallando“? Because as much as they’re hinting he’s Gandalf, there’s an equal amount of suggesting that he’s one of the Blue Wizards of Rhûn, with presumably Ciaran Hinds being the other one. The three travelers encounter the dark wizard’s trackers and opt to continue through the hard part of the desert in order to avoid them.

In Khazad-dum, the stone-singers, including Disa, can’t sing their way toward a safe path to dig out of the collapsed sun shafts. After yelling at the stones, Disa yells at King Durin for being stubborn about Prince Durin and then yells at Prince Durin for being stubborn about King Durin. We’re being dismissive, but the glimpses of dwarven life are fun and make a nice counter to the long-windedness of any scenes with the elves.

In Lindon, Galadriel pleads with Elrond to come with her to Eregion because Celebrimbor isn’t answering any of their letters. It’s bizarre that no one is sounding the alarm about this, but that could be the influence of the rings at work. He gets pissy with her and essentially blames her entirely for Sauron’s return. It doesn’t make much sense to us, but he’s upset about the three rings seemingly taking over his friends. As we said in the previous recap, he’s not exactly wrong about that, although the rings themselves aren’t evil. “You have all chosen to become his collaborators,” he says, not unfairly. Círdan urges him to be more open-minded about the rings and their capacity to do good for the world, reminding him that if his closest friends are under their sway, he should be helping them instead of turning his back on them. Eventually, he agrees to go to Eregion with Galadriel, but only as her commanding officer.

In the desert, Gandless passes out from the heat. Nori and Poppy find a well and manage to set off an alarm, as hobbits are prone to doing when they encounter wells. When he revives, the Stranger finds what he believes to be his staff, although there’s no glowing of the heart or mentions of any names when he grasps it. The alarm summons the dark wizard’s trackers who immediately attack them. Gandless uses the staff to summon a tornado, which rips through the trackers before he loses control of it and it whisks the halflings away, Dorothy-style. This was a genuinely horrifying scene and we wonder if Poppy returned to the story so they could kill someone off.

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Celebrimbor shows his aide his latest trick, Ithildin, which will be later used to decorate the Doors of Durin outside Moria and write the secrets on Thorin’s map. Upon hearing that he’s still at the gate waiting for him, Celebrimbor decides to confront Sauron and have him thrown out of Eregion. Instead, the inexplicable dimwit invites him to stay. We’re being a little hard on Celebrimbor. After all, Sauron is the master of lies. Much like the Christian version of Satan, he’s able to entice people by appealing to their vanity. He did it with Galadriel last season, getting her to believe that it was her destiny to crown the king of the Southlands, and he does it again here with the evidently weaker-minded artisan. Sauron tells him about how successful the rings have been in Lindon and Celebrimbor never once questions why he hasn’t heard from Gil-galad, Elrond or Galadriel. After Celebrimbor stupidly invites him back to his forge, Sauron asks him if he’s his friend and Celebrimbor answers “Yes, of course.” Sauron says that Celebrimbor must make more rings, for men, which Celebrimbor considers a terrible idea, not to mention an unlikely one, considering he’s out of mithril. Sauron assures him that the dwarves of Khazad-dûm are in a position to bargain, which illustrates just how deep Sauron’s plan goes. He then reveals a sort of truth about himself as he reveals his Annatar form to Celebrimbor resulting in both a full-on Jesus moment and the utterly cringe-able uttering of the phrase “THE LORD OF THE RINGS.” We groaned out loud at this point. It’s moments like these that make the show hard to defend. Certainly Tolkien is given to moments of grandiosity and theatricality, but someone, at some point in the writing process should have raised their hands and asked “Do we really want someone saying that out loud? With a straight face?” The thing about making Annatar’s temptations articulate and literal, is that it’s very hard for anyone to watch that scene and not consider Celebrimbor the dumbest elf who ever drew breath. To confirm this, Celebrimbor sends word to Khazad-dûm that he wants the dwarves to come to Eregion. The pieces are moving around the board in a slightly more definitive and progressive manner.

Next: “The Eagle and the Sceptre“

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