A THOUSAND YEARS is a long time. But in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a thousand years is often depicted in the time it takes to make instant coffee. Just as Season 1 began with a prologue that sped through the years Elf Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) spent on her revenge quest for Sauron, Season 2 also zips through that same period—only now from Sauron’s point of view, to stage his long reincarnation into the man we know as Halbrand (Charlie Vickers). Maybe it’s just me, but something tells me that The Rings of Power is slyly suggesting the “main character” this season may not be Galadriel, as it was before, but the Dark Lord himself.
Two years after it last streamed on Prime Video, The Rings of Power is back with three episodes hitting at once. After its lengthy prologue that catches up with Halbrand meeting Galadriel at sea, Season 2 resumes moments after last season’s finale, with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) fleeing on horseback with the newly-forged Three Rings in his possession.
There’s a lot of ground covered across these first three episodes, and you might yourself lost on Middle-earth’s map upon your first viewing. So throw on your mithril shirt and pack some lembas bread. Our journey into The Rings of Power Season 2 starts here and now—and if you want to keep your viewing experience clear of spoilers, keep this recap secret and safe until after you have a chance to watch all three episodes.
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Episode 1: Et Tu, Adar?
Season 2 kicks off with “Elven Kings Under the Sky,” written by Gennifer Hutchison and helmed by veteran TV director Charlotte Brandström. (Brandström returns from Season 1 to steer four of Season 2’s eight episodes.) From its opening moments, we learn that the terrifying, magnetic Sauron actually wasn’t much of a leader to the orcs before he disappeared.
Shortly after the fall of Morgoth at the dawn of the Second Age, Sauron christens himself as the new Dark Lord. But the orcs aren’t jazzed by their self-appointed leader, who appears in another lordly form, in contrast to the filthy, rugged horde. Uruk leader Adar (now played by Sam Hazeldine after the role was recast from Season 1) seizes his chance to claim power through assassinating Sauron with his own crown. Sauron’s magical death plunges the landscape into an ice age, and it’s clear to Season 1 viewers this is Forodwaith, where Galadriel and her company endure hostile conditions in the series premiere.
But you can’t keep a Dark Lord down for long. Deep under the now-abandoned tower, the gooey remains of Sauron preys on creatures before emerging to ambush hapless men. Soon enough, Sauron is “fed” enough and reborn into the familiar dark-haired Halbrand, deceiving war refugees with his non-threatening appearance—even stealing the crest of the fallen king of the Southland from an ally instead of saving him. Give him credit where it’s due: Sauron knows when even a worthless relic can come in handy.
When Season 2 finally catches up with Sauron/Halbrand from where we last left him, he is still playing a 4D chess game of deception. This includes deceiving Adar, the elf-orc who betrayed him and now sits pretty as the leader of the Uruks and, to most people, the main threat in all of Middle-earth.
There’s more to the premiere than Sauron, of course. Elrond harbors his deep skepticism towards the rings meant to save the Elves due to Sauron’s involvement. It’s through Elrond’s escape with the Three Rings that the show introduces Círdan, the wisest and oldest Elf of the Second Age. The Exorcist star Ben Daniels fleshes out Círdan in the series, imbuing in his part seasoned dignity and sageful aura that heavily contrasts with buttoned-up Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) and passionate, headstrong Galadriel.
While Círdan vibes with Elrond at first—even advising him how he might be able to dispose of the rings in a manner that echoes the way the One will be destroyed thousands of years later in The Return of the King—Círdan later returns to Lindon with them safe in hand. The Three Rings also find their bearers: Círdan, Gil-galad, and Galadriel, who all seem taken by the new bling despite knowing that Sauron played a part in their creation. Galadriel seems especially conflicted, for obvious reasons given her guilt and broken trust in Halbrand/Sauron. But the tree of Lindon is restored, and it appears the mission was successful.
Elsewhere, The Stranger (Daniel Weyman), the magical being that seemingly fell from the sky in Season 1, and Harfoot Nori (Markella Kavenagh) are deep into their travels when they reunite with Poppy (Megan Richards), who tailed them all the way on foot. Through meticulous analysis of the Harfoot’s travel song that would make any Genius user proud, the three wind up in Rhûn, an ancient land that occupies the eastern region of Tolkien’s map. The Stranger alludes to having been here before, but “only in dreams.”
Rhûn is reimagined from Tolkien’s writings as a barren desert that was once a verdant Eden. The producers have confirmed this in pre-premiere interviews, so it’s not a spoiler to mention it—but it will be in Rhûn fans will meet some new and noteworthy characters. Chief among them is Tom Bombadil, a consequential figure from Tolkien’s books who was left out of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. There will also be a different type of Harfoots called “Stoors.”
In these episodes, however, the only new introduction is a thus-far unnamed Dark Wizard, played by Ciarán Hinds. (More on him shortly.) Notably, and also in Tolkien’s writings, Rhûn was where tribes of men (called “Easterlings”) united under Sauron. Unbeknownst to our heroes, they have dangerous-looking stalkers who bear Sauron’s sigil. Someone tell our scrappy travelers to keep their heads on a swivel.
Episode 2: Doom in Khazad-dûm
Episode 2, titled “Where the Stars are Strange” from writer Jason Cahill and co-directors Charlotte Brandström and Louise Hooper, packs in a lot of plot and even more exposition to make its hour-long runtime whiz by like a breeze.
First, the Dwarves: When we reunite with Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and his lively and loyal wife Disa (Sophia Nomvete), we find them officially estranged from Durin’s father, King Durin III (Peter Mullan). When their beloved mountain ceases to feel alive, all Dwarf-kind begin to worry. If only there was something powerful that could restore their connection to the natural world…
Back in the sands of Rhûn, we finally meet the sinister beings stalking our humble Harfoots. The formidable Ciarán Hinds makes his series debut as “Dark Wizard” (as he’s credited). Clearly powerful as he is impatient, the Dark Wizard fears the “Istar”—a.k.a., our Stranger—for reasons unknown. But he wants him dead. The Dark Wizard enlists the fearsome, hooded and masked figures who bear a mark that resembles Sauron’s sigil; the credits list the only one who speaks as “Kilta,” played by actor Arkie Reece.
Kilta and his fellow Sauron fanatics, looking like a cross between Boba Fett and Kabal from Mortal Kombat, seem appropriately fierce and intimidating. (Kudos to the sound designers, who manipulate Reece’s speaking voice to sound absolutely menacing under the mask.) But being outwitted by the Harfoot’s clever camouflaging and the Istar’s sorcery is enough to fend them off, which the Dark Wizard will certainly not appreciate as much as viewers. Unfortunately, The Stranger’s defense against them, a massive wind storm also blows away Nori and Poppy like they’re extras on Twisters, which again stresses the Istar/the Stranger’s need to control his powers or risk hurting those closest to him.
Over to Lindon: Elrond is dejected by the Elves’ adoption of the Three Rings, and shares his continued concerns with Galadriel. Through a pep talk with Círdan (who is now all about his fancy new ring), Elrond slowly accepts the rings for what they are and not who created them. In essence: Círdan wants Elrond to separate art from the artist, and the argument is convincing. So convincing in fact, that Elrond takes charge of Galadriel’s mission to Eregion (to inform Celebrimbor that Halbrand is Sauron and not to be trusted), to Galadriel’s chagrin.
Speaking of Celebrimbor and Eregion: The vain Elven smith keeps Halbrand at his doorstep after being warned by Galadriel that he is not to be allowed in. (But as for the real reason why, Celebrimbor still doesn’t know.) Soon enough, Sauron-as-Halbrand makes his way to Celebrimbor’s forge, and with a sparkling smoke and light show, fashions himself into the false identity Annatar, the “Lord of Gifts,” a being of immense power sent by the Elven deities, the Valar, to aid the peoples of Middle-earth.
Celebrimbor, caught up in his own hubris after being manipulated by Sauron, is all too thrilled the Lord of Gifts has come to him to forge more rings and become—drumroll please—a “Lord of the Rings.” Appealing to Celebrimbor’s vanity over his craftsmanship works like a charm.
Episode 3: On the Wings of an Eagle
“The Eagle and the Sceptre,” the third episode to wrap the premiere of Season 2, is again directed by Brandström with writing credit to Helen Shang. Here, we finally up to the matters of (mostly) Men, from Númenor to those still displaced from the complete obliteration of the Southlands.
Actress Nazanin Boniadi who played human healer Bronwyn in Season 1, left the show before Season 2 for private reasons. (In an Instagram post dated May 31, she said her exit was “unrelated” to her ongoing human rights activism.) To explain this absence, the character succumbs to wounds caused by toxic orc arrows between the events of Seasons 1 and 2.
With Bronwyn gone, we now get more time Elf soldier Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and her restless son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) as they mourn her loss. Arondir tries to keep up a relationship with Theo, but the boy is too much of a moody teenager to want his mom’s boyfriend hanging around and rebuffs him. Not for nothing, Arondir’s immortal, aloof disposition is even more pronounced since losing Bronwyn.
Theo may not want to hang with Arondir, but he winds up drawn to Isildur (Maxim Baldry). While presumed dead by the forces Númenor and left in Middle-earth, Isildur survived by the skin of his teeth and is rescued from the clutches of a Shelob-like giant spider by his faithful horse Berek. In his attempt to catch up with the rest of Númenor’s forces, Isildur picks up pretty company—another human survivor named Estrid, played by Nia Towle— before being saved from wild men by Arondir in an acrobatic rescue and the best action set piece of the season thus far. Theo is moved after hearing Isildur talk of his mother, and offers to help him rescue Berek after he was stolen. But the mission goes poorly, with Theo plucked by the shoulders from giant Hill-troll Damrod, who appears in another impressive bit of VFX work earlier in the episode.
Over at Númenor, inhabitants of the kingdom harness their shared grief and resentment to turn on now-sightless Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) after the mission to Middle-earth lost so many Númenorean soldiers. Some court intrigue sees rising opposition led by a scheming Ar-Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle), who—thanks to a public appeal from Isildur’s sister’s Eärien (Ema Horvath) and her revelation of the Palantir and lots of thanks to an auspiciously-timed appearance of a Great Eagle—gains populist support for Númenor’s crown. Tolkien fans know Ar-Pharazôn is the last king of Númenor before its downfall—so this triumphant moment is loaded with irony for the island empire.
Back in Eregion, Celebrimbor and Annatar/Sauron are deep in their collaboration. The two invite Durin IV and Disa and offer them the unbelievable proposition of some Rings of Power for Dwarves. In this one instance, Disa’s optimism and geniality feels like a liability, and Durin IV’s sour suspicions yield a correct assessment. (“Magic rings? Does no part of this sound strange to you?” Durin IV says to Disa later.) For the Dwarves, the offer compels Durin IV and his estranged father to patch up their differences. With Moria in peril, the Durins agree to the invitation by the elves and offer precious mithril for rings of their own—but not without the younger Durin cautioning his father about his bad feelings about the deal.
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