“True creation requires sacrifice.” ~ Annatar to Celebrimbor
Finally, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power has given us a genuinely good episode. Color me shocked. Partly this is thanks to the fact that there are none of the show’s worst subplots to be found. No Harfoots or Stoors, thank the Valar, and no Númenorean nonsense. No not-Gandalf and no dime store Tom Bombadil. The lack of all these things allows the show to focus on its strengths.
Those strengths are on full display here, though I say that with some qualifiers that I will get to in a moment. First, let’s focus on what worked in Episode 7, “Doomed To Die”.
- I would like to give credit where it’s due, namely to the actors. Charlie Vickers continues to be really, really good as Annatar / Sauron and even his wig seemed a little less crappy looking this episode. Not great, but better. (See the top picture, the hair is less evenly cut, looks more natural).
- Likewise, Charles Edwards (despite, as I’ve pointed out, being too old to accurately portray an immortal elf who is younger than Galadriel) is excellent as Celebrimbor and really does a fantastic job in what is likely his biggest and most important episode. Yes, I fear next week will be an even bigger episode for the elven smith—and not in a good way—but this was the one where he really came into his own.
- The scenes where Celebrimbor begins to awaken to the illusion he’s been placed under are really great. He notices the mouse shows up on repeat. The ruby from Feanor’s hammer is missing. The candles haven’t burned down all day. As the smith begins to realize the truth, Annatar tries to convince him that he’s mistaken (while planting seeds of doubt about Celebrimbor’s sanity in the minds of the elven soldiers and Celebrimbor’s assistant, Mirdania). Later, when Celebrimbor tries to warn them that they’ve been deceived, he rambles about the mouse and the ruby and tells them to “cut open” Annatar to see that his blood is black ichor. Annatar shows them his hand the blood is red, and when Mirdania tries to lead Celebrimbor away he shouts “Get your hands off me!” and Sauron uses his magic to throw the elven woman from the ramparts, making it appear as though the smith threw her off himself. He is taken back to the forge, where Annatar cuffs him to the workbench.
- Robert Aramayo has won me over as Elrond. One of the best things about Season 1 was the friendship between Elrond and Owain Arthur’s Durin IV, and they reunite in this latest episode. Elrond begs his friend for aid, and the dwarven prince promises to bring his dwarves to Eregion. The dwarves have (mostly) realized their king is lost to the ring, and Durin the Younger gives a rousing speech. All seems well until another dwarf informs his prince that the king is digging deeper, and that he’ll soon reach the beast below. If Durin doesn’t stop his father (instead of helping the elves) Khazad-dûm will be lost. More on this in a minute. Elrond goes back to fight, and I genuinely enjoyed every one of his scenes, but especially in the end when the dwarves do not show, and all seems lost, and he kneels there on the battlefield saying “Durin will come. Durin will come.” I’m reminded, ever so slightly, of William Wallace’s despair when his allies betray him in Braveheart (and you know if I’m reminded of Braveheart then things are going well).
- When Elrond sees that Adar (now played by Sam Hazeldine in one of the best re-castings I can think of) has Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) he halts the elven charge and agrees to meet with the half-elf / half-orc general. This is where things almost take an absurd turn. When Elrond refuses to hand over the ring in exchange for Galadriel, he asks that he is allowed to say farewell. Then he kisses Galadriel, quite deeply, and for a moment I thought “Now this is just too much! This show is ridiculous! Elrond and Galadriel aren’t a thing!” Fortunately, it was just a ruse to trick Adar and pass Galadriel a lock-pick so that she could escape. (Yes, it’s still goofy but it’s not lore-breakingly bad).
Now for some quibbles.
- As I said last week, when I noted that the Annatar / Celebrimbor scenes were quite good, what this all goes to show is that there was in fact a good show buried inside all the mediocre, lore-breaking nonsense that has held this show back from day one. If they had only opened with this relationship, The Rings Of Power would have been so much better. If they had only forged the rings in order, instead of having Celebrimbor rush the first three, it would have stuck to the actual books. If they had only left out the Númenor story altogether until a later season, they could have focused on the Eregion plotline and fleshed it out. As it stands, it feels like all the actual rings of power stuff has been rushed to make room for . . . Harfoot shenanigans and the petty, backwater politicking of the Númenoreans. This is such a huge shame! So much has been broken and rushed and changed and squashed at this point, that no amount of better episodes can save this series from itself and from its reckless creators.
- Likewise, the dwarven plot feels out of place since the Seven were not handed out until after the fall of Eregion, but also (if we’re to just accept the chronological errors) because the ring’s corrupting influence on Durin III is so rushed. Again, a super interesting story is squandered here. It’s also not helped much by the fact that Durin III and his son had such a fractious relationship in Season 1. Had they been closer and more amicable from the get-go, the decline of the king and his lust for gold and riches would have been a lot more powerful now. I’m also confused at how the dwarves know of the Balrog, and know that Durin’s new digging will awaken it—or why the dwarven host couldn’t be split in order to stop the king while the rest march to Eregion.
- The writing continues to be uneven. For instance, when Celebrimbor is rescued by Galadriel—who was also rescued moments earlier by Mr. Nick of Time himself, Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova)—he tells her that “It is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light.” That’s a perfectly fine line on its own. But then they have him spout off six more sentences that basically just say the same thing in increasingly convoluted ways. Why? You had a perfectly fine line of dialogue, why hamstring it with a bunch of forgettable tag-ons? Still, it’s not as egregious here as in many other episodes. There are fewer bits of Lord of the Rings plagiarism and fewer callbacks as well, though I say “fewer” and not “none at all.” We’ll get to that. Mostly, the dialogue in particular is all over the place in this show. Every time I find myself not noticing anything egregious, something leaps out of the rushes and bites me.
- I don’t mind Arondir showing up like this, though I think they would have pulled this off better by having him on the road to Eregion this entire time rather than lollygagging around with Isildur and Theo. It’s another fast-travel blip, and these are annoying. I’m more bothered by the death they gave the elven archer Rian, who gets the Boromir treatment, stuck with a bunch of orc arrows, but then valiantly doing her duty nonetheless. That feels totally unearned given what a minor character she was. If Arondir had been given that death, it would have made a lot more sense, though it still would have been a ripoff of Boromir’s much more impactful and tragic demise. Instead, Arondir stabbed and left for dead by Adar—though it’s extremely unlikely he actually is dead. The only characters this episode “doomed to die” are minor ones introduced this season. Maybe he’ll die offscreen between seasons like Bronwyn. Those poison orc blades really do have a delayed reaction!
Beyond this, I thought the battle scenes were quite good overall, even if they were a bit messy and lacked any sense of strategy. The elves should never have broken their charge for one hostage, even if it was Galadriel. I can excuse the rather lackluster defense of Eregion thanks to Sauron’s influence. He’s keeping all his enemies busy and is perfectly happy with Eregion falling as soon as he has what he wants: The Nine, which Celebrimbor finishes and then escapes with by cutting off his own thumb to free himself. He passes them on to Galadriel and then takes some elven soldiers to buy her time to escape. Sauron uses his dark magic to make them kill one another, and Celebrimbor is left defenseless. I suspect we’ll get a pretty harrowing moment between these two next week, though how Sauron will pry the rings from Galadriel remains to be seen.
One ring is taken, however. Elrond lied when he told Adar he didn’t bring Galadriel’s ring to the battle. When Adar seizes him on the battlefield, he says “Have you forgotten your Rúmil?” he says, lifting Elrond above him. “Never make war in anger.” He rips the ring from around Elrond’s neck and throws the elf to the ground in disgust. Rúmil was an elven sage who came up with the race’s alphabet and wrote a number of other important texts, including the creation story found in The Silmarillion. This is the kind of subtle reference to lore I wish this show would do more—instead of “follow your nose” and other goofy Easter Eggs. Adar looks super weird in these last few shots, however, as if they did some reshoots and got the lighting all wrong.
All told, had this show been as good as this episode up to this point—and had it focused on the forging of the rings instead of all the other stuff, and had it chosen to tell this story first and not compressed everything and gotten all the events out of order—this could have been a genuinely good, entertaining exploration of the Second Age of Middle-earth. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Some lines can be cheesy. The battles don’t have to all be as good as Helm’s Deep. I’m fine with new characters like Adar and Arondir. I’m fine with the elves being more diverse. But it’s taken so agonizingly long to get to this place, it’s very much too little, too late. Now that we’re effectively done with the Annatar / Celebrimbor story (with one more episode of that to go, it seems) the best part of the show is over. I’m not sure what they’ll do in Season 3, though I suppose it will focus on either the fall of Númenor or the Nine rings corrupting the human realms. Who can say when the timeline is this jumbled?
Scattered thoughts:
- The orc lieutenant tells Adar “You told us you loved us” to which Adar replies “With all that is left of my heart. Too much to let you become Sauron’s slaves.” I don’t like the focus on the orcs being afraid to die, but I wonder if in the end, when that orc sneaks away from the fight, if we’re just supposed to think of him as a coward more than anything. Then again, Adar may have sacrificed too much and the orcs may turn against him when Sauron gives them an alternative.
- Gil-Galad fighting with a spear was pretty badass. Between him and Arondir, there were some pretty cool fight scenes at the end of the episode. The elves still have garbage tactics, however.
- I really think they could have pulled off the dwarven “betrayal” better. Why not have Durin gather his loyalists and attempt to leave Khazad-dûm, only to have his father—via the ring’s magic—cut him to the quick, preventing him leaving and arresting and imprisoning the prince and his allies? This would be a lot more exciting than worrying that Durin could dig down to the Balrog by himself, and all the associated goofiness.
- I’m glad that we no longer have anyone fan-theorizing that Mirdania is secretly Galadriel’s daughter, Celebrían. We’ll still have to wonder where on earth Celeborn—her missing husband—is.
- Some people are telling me this is the worst episode so far because of how much it breaks lore. I think that the vast majority of the lore-breaking (specifically with Annatar and Celebrimbor) had already taken place, so the damage was done and I’ve reckoned with it already. At this point, I’m judging the show for how it plays the cards we’ve already been dealt. Maybe that’s grading on a curve, I’m not sure. It’s not like they can fix all that they’ve broken, so to me it’s more about how it’s executed going forward that matters, and I thought this episode did a good job with its key figures. Is it still, as a whole, a total disaster that lays waste to Tolkien’s texts and basically ignores mountains of source material? Of course it is. One good episode (or one that I thought was better than the rest) won’t be able to fix all the damage that has been done up to this point.
If I have more scattered thoughts I’ll add them.
What did you think of this episode? I suspect some of you will think I’ve gone soft, but I just call it like I see it, folks. This show has been a jumbled, mediocre mess but this was a good episode and I just wish the rest of the show could have been at this level. It still wouldn’t have been great, but it would have been good enough. Let me know your thoughts on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
