Elliot Kessler

The last couple of “Rings of Power” episodes were fun and exciting. They brought inner conflict to all the main characters and created real tension, making the show much less tedious and entertaining. I had fun with it, and it showed promise. I was excited about the season finale.

Not anymore.

This episode was boring as ever. It stripped away the inner conflict and strain between the relationships. Everything was boring again. This was yet another hollow shell of an episode. It looks fantastic, but there’s nothing behind the surface. Everything is focused on the characters’ physical actions, and the inner conflict becomes irrelevant. There’s no emotion behind the actions, and the suspense is removed.

The tension in this episode is false. A lot of the tension is supposed to stem from Isildur looking to be dead, but I have not only seen “The Lord of the Rings” films, but I have also read “The Silmarillion.” I know how Isildur’s story ends, and it is not getting buried under a burning building. It should have been Isildur’s friend who was thought dead, and Isildur should have been put in Elendil’s place. Speaking of Elendil, he acts out of character in this episode. He is usually calm and acts reasonably, but now he’s acting emotionally and making irrational decisions, which is weird. He was not done well in this episode. But that doesn’t mean Lloyd Owen doesn’t play the character well. Owen is fantastic. It’s simply the writers who didn’t do a good job.

As I said before, the story of this episode focuses more on the physical conflict of the story than the emotional conflict. The characters had decisions they had to make, but this episode takes those decisions out of their hands, relieving them of internal tension and making the conflict much more boring. It’s frustrating and significantly dampens the quality of the story, making it feel more like a tabletop RPG than a multi-million-dollar TV show.

Galadriel is back to being an annoying hypocrite who acts as if she has it so hard but defeats any problem in her path. I don’t like how they’re portraying her character. She’s selfish and stupid, and they act like she’s the smartest, wisest character. She had some character development going for her. Still, this episode took away everything that had been developed, turning Galadriel back into the immature jerk we met in the first four episodes.

There’s also a scene where Galadriel and Theo are both trying to escape the Southlands, which have now turned to ash, and Galadriel is beating herself up, saying that the whole volcano ordeal was her fault. Theo tries to comfort her, saying it wasn’t her fault, and he’s right because there is no way it could have been her fault. But Galadriel says it is and insists, despite not giving any reason for how it could be her fault. Then Theo says it was his fault, which makes more sense because he allowed the orcs to grab the sword. But Galadriel says he shouldn’t blame herself, telling him it’s too much for him to carry. This scene is stupid and shows what I was saying about Galadriel. She’s an immature hypocrite who acts like everything is so hard for her when she breezes through her problems like they’re nothing.

Also, why is her husband missing? Celeborn should have been in the show. It didn’t make any sense.

Despite this being the second to last episode, it feels like very little progress has been made through the story. The story is only beginning, which shows the show’s potential for the rest of the seasons, but it also shows how they dragged this story out. There should have been much more happening. This season is more than nine hours long, but more happened in “The Lord of the Rings” films, the theatrical editions being about as long as this series when combined. There was the potential to have much more happen in this season, but there was nothing.

This episode gives way more questions than answers. Especially going into the season finale. We still don’t know who the Stranger is (it’s Gandalf), and we still don’t know who that Justin-Bieber-looking person in the white cloak is. The tension going into the finale is low, and it needs to be much higher. The stakes don’t feel very high, and they need to be. I was very disappointed in this episode, especially after the quality of the last two.

Also, the Mordor name reveal was dumb. After the volcano, I thought it was obvious that the Southlands were now Mordor. But having it revealed with a location title transition rather than having Adar say the name was stupid, and it broke the little sense of immersion that this episode had.

I had higher hopes for the show after the last few episodes, which were excellent and entertaining, but shows like this always end up falling flat on their face. It isn’t focused on the emotional stakes or inner conflict, it feels like a first draft, and it doesn’t show any respect for the source material. It’s frustrating, and I’m not sure I’ll be returning for season two.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.