Why haven’t the other episodes of this show been like this? Writer Justin Doble is going places. This episode has much more character development, action, and thematic storytelling than any other episodes combined. I cared about the characters this time. I was intrigued by the story. I’m even more excited now to see where things go than I ever was.
The episode opens with Nori talking with the Stranger, and it looks like the Stranger is beginning to learn English, so that’s good for him. We see them migrating alone (because the rest of their people left them behind for being slow, which is cruel and doesn’t go anywhere) and the Stranger helping them out on the way. Although, it does fast forward through almost all of it since it would be boring to watch since they didn’t do anything with them getting left behind last episode, which kind of stinks, but that’s ok. The migration montage is accompanied by a song sung by Poppy, which adds a more Tolkien feel to the scene. Also, the Stranger is definitely being set up to be Gandalf. I wish that wasn’t the case, and I still hold out hope that it isn’t, but it does seem to be that way. I love Gandalf, don’t get me wrong. He’s a fantastic character. I simply don’t think he fits in this story, and it would be significantly breaking the established lore, as he isn’t supposed to arrive until centuries later, but the writers haven’t shown any respect for the lore yet, and I don’t expect to see it now.
Arondir and Bronwyn are trying to get the people of the Southlands to stand and fight for their survival, but most of them lose hope and join forces with Sauron. It’s interesting watching this dilemma happen: fight and die or join and survive. It’s a tough one that not everyone would jump to one side or another, and it is made even more interesting when Bronwyn says that she is going to join as well at the end of the episode. I really liked watching this play out, and it gave a lot more internal conflict for the story, which is something this show had been desperately needing.
Galadriel and Halbrand went from bad to meh in this story. I do not like this interpretation of Galadriel. She’s a jerk to everyone and acts as though she’s the only person that matters in the world and everyone else is an idiot for not seeing things her way. It’s really annoying. She also appears to be better than everyone else when it comes to anything, which is also annoying, but that’s how they decided to write the character. I wish it wasn’t Galadriel. They could have made their own elf to make into this unlikable character, but they chose Galadriel because people know who she is and it makes people want to watch the show. Halbrand got a little cooler. His backstory of giving his allegiance to Sauron is really interesting, and makes him seem like a much more flawed man. He’s still almost an Aragorn stand in, though, and even looks just like Aragorn by the end of the episode. I still hope that, by the end of the series, he becomes one of the Ringwraiths, or even the Witch King of Angmar himself. I know that would be breaking the lore, but they’ve already done that a lot in this series, so I don’t care that much anymore. But Halbrand is becoming more and more interesting, and Galadriel is becoming more and more frustrating.
I was looking forward to the continuation of the story between the elves and the dwarves. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t know it would be this good. The writer of this episode, Justin Doble, seems to enjoy sticking moral dilemmas in places and calling it good, and it works. I love a good moral dilemma. It adds that extra internal conflict to the characters, forcing the story to look into the characters more and study who they are, showing sides of them we didn’t even know they had. That’s good writing. That’s interesting, and it’s done very well here. The conflict essentially boils down to this: for some reason (I can’t remember what) the elves are slowly dying, and the only thing that can save them is the mithril that the dwarves have only recently discovered because it holds the light of the Valar in them. The elves don’t know if the dwarves have found mithril yet or not, and that was secretly the intention behind sending Elrond into Khazad-dum the whole time, only Elrond didn’t know it. Now, Elrond is faced with a choice. He must either break his oath and tell the elves about mithril, betraying and losing his friend, or keep his oath and his integrity, essentially dooming his race. What he decided shows who he is. He cares more for his own integrity and the souls of others than he does for his own people. That’s interesting and very powerful. This whole conflict was a delight to witness, simply because of the way it forces the story to look deeper into Elrond as a character. It does a phenomenal job, and I really enjoyed it.
“Rings of Power” has been a mixed bag. On one hand, I’m happy to be back in Middle-earth again. I missed it. It’s enchanting, filled with wonder and excitement, and has tons of myths and stories. On the other hand, this show is often sloppy, skimming over characters and story beats, making each episode feel like the first draft of a script. This episode finally brought some depth to it’s characters, which should have been established right away. I hope this writer is in charge of more episodes in the future, as he does a fantastic job with the work he is given, pouring a lot of passion into the script. I can finally, truly say that I really enjoyed this episode. It was interesting, exciting, and fun.
Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.