Season 2, Episode 8: ‘Shadow and Flame’
If you were to describe “The Rings of Power” in the simplest terms, the show would sound like a parody of prequels. An epic TV drama about how the rings in “The Lord of the Rings” were forged? What’s next? A detailed, multi-season history of Batman’s utility belt?
So give the “Rings” creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay credit for finding a purpose for their premise — beyond trying to squeeze more money out of a popular I.P., that is. Through two seasons now, they have been telling a complex story about what Middle-earth was like in the years when Sauron was consolidating power. And they have been and exploring how tantalizing and corrupting Sauron’s vision could be to the elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, wizards and humans within his immediate reach. It’s a story similar to the one J.R.R. Tolkien told in “The Lord of the Rings” but set in a time when Sauron could still perhaps have been bested.
Like Season 1, the second season has been a shaky ride, hampered by characters and story lines that never fully popped. But the underlying concept for the series remains strong; and the final two episodes of Season 2 are, on the whole, exciting television.
Here are five takeaways and observations from the season finale:
Darkness in Numenor
If “Rings of Power” is renewed for a third season — which seems likely, given how much has been invested in it — Numenor will probably have a major role to play in the next phase of the story. I won’t spoil what might happen, assuming that the writers continue to follow Middle-earth history as laid out by Tolkien. But let it suffice to say that Sauron’s plans very much include the island kingdom; and the schism between Pharazon and Elendil will become one of humankind’s defining divisions. This place matters. These people matter.
Anyway, I hope you repeated those thoughts to yourself like a mantra as you were saying goodbye to Numenor for this season — after another round of middling political melodrama, of course. The main takeaway from the Numenor scenes this week was that Miriel’s showdown with the Sea Worm did nothing to slow Pharazon’s rise. Instead he has declared the Valar’s “faithful” to be traitors, in league with Sauron.
In response, Miriel commands Elendil to leave her behind as a martyr to the cause and to regroup with the faithful outside the city; and she gifts him with a significant old sword called Narsil (“the white flame”). This exodus also gets Elendil away from his daughter, Earien, who now feels terrible about what her loyalty to Pharazon has wrought. (There is a lot of “maybe our great leader isn’t so great” hindsight in “The Lord of the Rings” stories, isn’t there?)
What I found most haunting in this episode’s Numenor section, though, was the image of the city’s great tree once again shedding its blooms, as the ruling powers began rounding up their potential enemies. This land is ill — perhaps fatally.
What say the low men?
The action in and around the old Numenorean colony of Pelargir provided one of this season’s high points — the ents! — and then was forgotten entirely once Arondir took off for Eregion. But again, I assure you: Pelargir matters. Written off long ago by the Numenoreans — who consider the people of Middle-earth to be “low men” — these scrappy southlanders have been on the front lines of the battles to keep Morgoth and Sauron at bay. (OK, many of the low men switched allegiance to Morgoth and had to spend centuries being monitored by the elves. But most of them mean well?)
The coming inter-human clash between high and low is foreshadowed in this episode by the arrival of Pharazon’s horrible son, Kemen, in Pelargir. After Kemen gets over his shock that Isildur is alive (“I never gave up hope,” he lies), he tries quickly to reclaim Numenorean control of the colony, ordering the locals to start building a fortress. He also informs Isildur that his new friends are too “low” to travel back with him to Numenor. When Isildur tries to remind him of how well-connected his family is, Kemen drops the news that Elendil has been charged with treason.
Kemen’s arrival ups the dramatic intensity in Pelargir — but just a bit too late, right as the season ends. These scenes mostly set up next season’s conflicts. We get a little preview of what might be in store when Pelargir’s residents complain about Kemen’s command that they immediately start supplying him with timber. “After all, they’re only trees,” he huffs.
Ent fans … take note.
A grand elf, indeed
If I had the power to retroactively reapportion the amount of time spent on this season’s various story lines, I would cut way down on the scenes in Numenor and Khazad-dum and dedicate at least another quarter of an episode or more to the stoors, the Dark Wizard, Tom Bombadil and Gandalf.
Oh, did I say Gandalf? One of the least mysterious mysteries in “Rings of Power” — who is the Stranger? — found its inevitable solution this week, as the stoors thanked this tall, kindly “grand elf” for standing up to the Dark Wizard on their behalf. The Stranger then realizes that he will likely always be known as grand-elf … or (lightbulb switching on) Gandalf. He also realizes that the choice he had to make between saving Nori and Poppy and saving Middle-earth was just another of Tom’s “riddles.” Gandalf was always meant to choose friendship over power. That’s what grounds him. That’s what he leans on. That’s his staff. (He also stumbles upon his actual staff in this episode.)
The Dark Wizard (who hates that name, by the way … and who I’m guessing will one day be revealed to be Saruman) doesn’t understand who Gandalf has become. In what amounts to an extended back story dump, the Dark Wizard helps fill in some of Gandalf’s missing memories, explaining that the istari came to Middle-earth as a close-knit group of five, committed to defeating Sauron — and that it was Gandalf who suggested that the Dark Wizard take up residence in the desert wastelands of Rhun. Something about the isolation, though, has warped the wizard, such that it’s hard to tell whether he actually wants to stand against Sauron or usurp him. He is a menace to his own minions — calling them “low company” and even killing one — and to the halflings, whom he considers too gentle to be of consequence.
But our grand elf is committed now. Though Gandalf drives the Dark Wizard away, the stoors’ home is irreparably damaged, meaning they’ll have to take to the road, led by the veteran nomads Nori and Poppy. But they now have a very tall, very powerful friend who knows their worth.
Balrog alert!
Our reward for enduring week after week of Khazad-dum tedium is a genuinely exciting finish to the dwarfs’ story line this season. King Durin III, determined to show Prince Durin IV the “true wealth of our mountain,” enters a chamber that contains mithril by the ton — and an enormous, horned, fire-breathing balrog, the beast Disa previously heard growling deep underground. The balrog looks impressively frightening; and the slow-motion shot of the king raising his ax to attack it represents a nice moment of redemption. (As he removes his ring before making a doomed charge toward the creature, he says, “Forgive me my son … King Durin.”)
The Khazad-dum scenes plant a seed for next season, as Durin IV learns that his father, for all his riches, left the kingdom in debt — and as he hears rumors that his brother is “gathering support” to challenge his claim to the throne. But for the purposes of this year’s arc, the resolution of the Durin III story line matters because it frees up his dwarf armies to offer much-needed reinforcement to the elves at Eregion.
Speaking of which …
Glimmers of hope
I watched last week’s episode three times — twice for the review, and once more for pleasure — and the more I saw of it, the better it looked. This series has many flaws, but its creative team handles fantasy action very well. And I’m not exaggerating when I say I would stack the extended elf vs. orc (plus one troll) battle sequences in “Doomed to Die” against similar scenes in any TV series, including “Game of Thrones.”
The Eregion scenes in the finale aren’t as packed with combat as the previous episode’s, but they do offer a fitting coda. They mainly serve two purposes. First: the downfall of Adar.
If there were ever any doubts about the sincerity of Adar’s commitment to building a thriving, independent orc community, they should be dispelled by the way he reacts to losing his “children” in this episode. Adar hates that the ring he took from Elrond has transformed his appearance, making him look less scarred and more as he did back when he had “a meaningless name … a name I was given.” So he returns the ring to Galadriel, just before his orcs — under Sauron’s sway — turn on him and stab him to death.
The second purpose of the coda is to mark the next step in Sauron’s climb to power. He gets on a real roll in this episode: torturing and killing Celebrimbor, then ordering the orcs to raze Eregion and destroy its stores of recorded knowledge.
Finally, he faces off against Galadriel, in a sequence that is another season highlight. He uses his powers of persuasion and confusion to try to win Galadriel to his side. (“It is not my wish to harm you,” he says. She replies ironically: “You wish to heal me? … As you have Eregion?”) Then they have a spirited sword fight, during which he keeps shifting his physical form to throw her off, all while suggesting that she has as much darkness as light within her. In the end, he seizes the nine rings and stabs her with Morgoth’s crown, which she had meant to use to destroy him. It is not a happy ending.
Or is it? The elves do escape from Sauron with their own rings still in hand; and Sauron does show some signs of weakness. He looks genuinely shaken when Celebrimbor warns that the rings will eventually enslave and destroy him. And when Galadriel calls him a master at planning, Sauron dismisses this, saying, “The road goes ever-winding; not even I can see all its paths.”
In other words: Sauron’s triumph has never been inevitable. His remarkable ability to adapt to any situation makes him formidable but not unbeatable. At the end of the season, as a bright sun rises, the elves take comfort once again in Celebrimbor’s words: “It is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light.”
It’s going to take a lot of light, though. After they heal their wounds, the elves need to start making lanterns.
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