Season 2, Episode 1: ‘Elven Kings Under the Sky’
When last we visited Middle-earth in the Amazon Prime Video series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” our heroes were recuperating from two massive blunders. An army of Númenóreans had failed to prevent the orc-father Adar (Sam Hazeldine) from establishing the shadowlands of Mordor in the realm formerly known as the Southlands; and the regal elf warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) had failed to recognize that Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), the man she intended to install as the Southlands’ rightful king, was in fact her sworn enemy Sauron, in human form.
Good effort, everyone. But not exactly a rousing success.
The same could be said of “The Rings of Power” itself, which had a first season that delivered a lot of what its creators, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, said they had intended: blockbuster-level special effects and scenery, spectacular action sequences, an epic sweep and a deep exploration of the fantasy world created by the author J.R.R. Tolkien (arguably even deeper than any of Peter Jackson’s gargantuan “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies).
But what the show failed to deliver was the kind of “Game of Thrones”-level cultural buzz and critical acclaim that such an expensive project needs to survive. So just as Galadriel and her allies have a lot to prove as Season 2 begins, so do Payne, McKay and their “Rings of Power” cast and crew.
In the season’s first three episodes, released all at once on Prime Video, very little has changed in the creative team’s approach to telling a story. The action picks up roughly where Season 1 left off and continues in the same basic format, with each episode following just a few of the show’s many story lines, in long sequences that resemble chapters in a book. (It takes all three episodes to bring back every character and plot from the previous season. If you’re anxious to find out what’s happening in Numenor, you’ll have to wait a couple of hours.)
The flaws of Season 1 are still evident, right from the start. The novelistic approach leads to some sections that drag on too long; and the series on the whole can feel a bit over-serious and leaden. That said, the Season 2 premiere also contains everything that worked well in the previous season: the visual splendor, the wide narrative canvas, the rich performances and the complex consideration of how and when to wield extraordinary power.
With all that in mind, here are four takeaways and observations from the Season 2 premiere:
‘Always after a defeat, the shadow takes another shape’
Season 2 opens with a riveting sequence, nearly 20 minutes long, which fills in a key bit of back story: how Sauron ended up in his Halbrand form, adrift at the start of Season 1 in the middle of the sea. What we see is a sort of origin story for both Sauron and Adar. Addressing the orcs shortly after the death of the dark lord Morgoth, Sauron (played by Jack Lowden for this one scene) delivers what could be called the opposite of a pep talk. He warns his armies about the long fight ahead, in which “many orcs will die.” And he insists they have no choice but to follow him, because no one else in Middle-earth can stand their race.
Then, just as Adar appears ready to crown Sauron as the new dark lord, he flips the spiky crown upside-down, stabbing his superior in the back of his neck, at which point the assembled orcs swarm and stab him a lot (a lot) more. Sauron bleeds out and seemingly dies, with his ultimate end involving an explosion of light and frost that covers the surrounding land. In what perhaps should have been a clue to Adar, Sauron’s body vanishes; in any case, it leaves Adar as the new orc-father, in what becomes Phase 1 of his “make the Southlands into Mordor” plan.
This explains why, throughout Season 1, Adar insisted that he killed Sauron. Except he didn’t, really. Instead, Sauron’s blood drips down, pools up and reconstitutes into a creepy-looking, shape-shifting entity, which then dines on rats and bugs until it becomes strong enough to slither aboveground and absorb the essence of a human. It then becomes Halbrand, who joins with a band of fleeing Southlanders, one of whom bears the insignia of the realm’s former king. Their escaping ship gets wrecked, thus looping us back to the moment we first met Halbrand and setting up the chain of circumstance that leads Galadriel to believe she is in league with a fallen ruler.
This is all wonderfully fantastical stuff, filled with dark magic and ominous foreshadowing. (The ur-Sauron creature alone is a marvelous effect.) The sequence also re-establishes an important “Rings of Power” theme: It may be impossible to destroy true evil because the efforts to do so boomerang back on anyone who tries.
Which brings us to the next point:
The rings of power might be … too powerful?
Season 1 ended as the elfin master forger Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) — with the help of the man then called Halbrand — converting the dwarves’ magical metal mithril into three rings, capable of channeling their bearers’ will and exerting power over living creatures. But as soon as the half-elf Elrond (Robert Aramayo) learns that Halbrand is actually Sauron, he makes haste to warn the elves’ high king, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker).
The scenes between Elrond, Galadriel and Gil-galad in this episode — along with a new character, Cirdan (Ben Daniels), an elfin shipwright described as “the oldest and wisest of our kind” — are heavy with bickering and debate, understandably. The stakes are high here. Without the rings, the elves’ home on this realm will continue to diminish into “endless night,” meaning they will have to retreat to their true home and leave Middle-earth to a fate of chaos and conflict. (Throughout Season 1, we saw the king’s concern as his kingdom’s central symbolic tree was beginning to shed leaves.) But also … maybe Sauron engineered it so the rings are bad?
Galadriel insists that the rings are free of Sauron’s influence, a point which Elrond cleverly counters with “But are you?”
In the end, though — as anyone who has ever read or watched anything “Lord of the Rings” related should be able to predict — it is just too hard for anyone in possession of a ring of power to destroy it. So maybe they’re too powerful. Cirdan promises Elrond that he will row out to a spot in the surrounding waters and toss the rings into an underwater pit. But he does not follow through. Instead, he and Galadriel and Gil-galad slip on their respective rings and bring the elves’ dying tree back to life.
Hooray?
Always follow the song
The only major non-elf, non-orc, non-Sauron characters to appear in this episode are last season’s fan-favorites: Nori (Markella Kavenagh), a harfoot with a hunger for adventure, and “the Stranger” (Daniel Weyman), a magical being struggling with amnesia and an inability to control his powers. While journeying toward the land of Rhûn to learn more about who he is, the Stranger tries to alleviate their hunger by zapping a barren tree and forcing it to bear fruit. But he fumbles the job once again and explodes the tree, sending various dirt-bound crawlies scurrying. (Nori, who regularly dines on snails, is actually quite happy with this outcome.)
Just as it looks as if they are going to be lost forever amid the mountains and deserts, Nori’s old friend Poppy (Megan Richards) catches up with them and tells them that they have been basically going around in circles since they left the harfoots’ caravan. She reminds Nori of one of their nomadic race’s main mottos: “Follow the song.” Relying on the lyrics to a harfoot “wandering song,” they soon recognize landmarks and details that get them back on the right path.
This is “The Rings of Power” at its most Tolkien-esque, centering and honoring folk ways.
Sauron is on the move again
Bringing the episode full circle with its prologue, the other major plotline has Sauron — still in the guise of Halbrand — allowing himself to be captured by the orcs in Mordor so that he can forge an alliance with Adar. He warns the orc-father about the ancient sorcery the elves are tapping into, suggesting that Adar’s enemies are now collaborating with the orcs’ former master, Sauron. (“I am not yet certain what shape he has taken,” Halbrand says, in a voice dripping with deceit.)
Before he is set free to “find Sauron,” Halbrand befriends and unchains one of the orc’s enormous demon-dogs, which then — after Halbrand rides out of Mordor — attacks the duplicitous, orc-serving human Waldreg (Geoff Morrell). For fans of the show, this is a satisfying and overdue comeuppance for one of last season’s most infuriating characters. But the moment also has a thematic resonance.
Before, Sauron was restrained by the role he was playing. Now? A beast has been unshackled.
The post ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Premiere: All That Glitters appeared first on New York Times.