I Watch TV: The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 2

 

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season Two

At the end of Season One of The Rings Of Power Halbrand, lord of the Southlands, was revealed to be Sauron, the dark lord. We get a little of his back story here; killed by Adar, the leader and progenitor of the orcs, he turns to ooze and escapes out of the mountain lair. Coming across various humans he consumes them and takes their guise, eventually ending up on a ship which is sunk by sea worms, ending with where he came in during Season One.

His insights had allowed Lord Celebrimbor to devise an answer to the fading and dying of the tree that is linked to elf well-being in Middle Earth; to take mithril and make rings. Galadriel admits to the High King Gil-Galad she was fooled by Sauron. They try the rings anyway, and the tree regenerates. Elrond still distrusts the rings.

Galadriel has warned Celebrimbor not to trust Halbrand. Halbrand returns to the Southlands, now devastated by the explosion of Mount Doom. He confronts Adar, claiming he knows where Sauron is, and offers to go to Eregion, Celembrimbor’s elf-realm, to find him, in return for releasing the humans of the Southlands. Adar eventually agrees. Halbrand manages to get into Eregion despite the warning and reveals himself to Celebrimbor as Annatar the Lord Of Gifts, here to help him make more rings. They make more rings, firstly seven for the Dwarves, then when they don’t work as Celebrimbor hoped, nine for Mortal Men.

The Dwarves have a problem which is that the eruption of Mount Doom has caused the air and light shafts to close, disrupting the underground gardens. Durin III gets a ring and this gives him insight into where to dig to open new shafts. But on top of this he becomes greedy, ordering his miners to dig for treasure deep under the mountain in closed, forbidden areas, and offering rings to other Dwarf lords, in return for half their treasure.

Meanwhile what are the mortal men up to? Back on Númenor there’s some politics, the queen overthrown by her cousin and chief advisor, the Faithful supressed. Elendil, sea captain, is arrested; the queen takes his place in the being-cast-into-the-sea trial and is saved by a sea worm but this does not help. Meanwhile at the colony where the refugees from the Southlands have gathered, Isildur, Elendil’s son, gets caught up in events there; strange things in the woods, the wild men let loose by Halbrand’s intervention, orcs from Adar’s army etc.

Also in the woods are elves. Gil-Galad intends to send an army to Mordor to finally put an end to Adar and the orcs. But with no contact with Eregion, he sends Elrond, Galadriel and a few others to find out what’s happening there. They keep running into problems and enemies.

The last major plot line has The Stranger, a wizard unable to control his powers, and two Harfoots (not-hobbits) going to the land of Rhûn. There the Stranger meets two possible mentors, Tom Bombadil (fatherless, ageless, a figure from a different myth in Tolkien lore) and the Dark Wizard, who sent the weird heralds after him before, and now sends nomads in cool bronze masks. Bombadil is a bit less oblique than usual, explaining that the world is in peril etc. The Harfoots (Harfeet?) discover another clan of not-hobbits, the Stoors, who live in holes in the desert rather than nomadically wandering. The Stranger gets a staff, and control over his magic, and a name.

So what is to be made of this? Time and distance are even less well accounted for than in Season One – how long do Elrond and Galadriel take to travel to Eregion? Long enough for Celebrimbor to make two sets of rings, to alienate his workforce, to negotiate with Dwarves for more mithril, for armies to mass and attack. Never mind that. What does the show do with the time it gains for itself?

The inevitable descent of Celebrimbor is good, as Sauron/Annatar uses his own weaknesses – and strengths – against him. Adar and the orcs are willing to cut deals, to do anything to avoid being subjugated by Sauron, which culminates in some extremely good bits. And the final bit of magic as a fight is pretty good, though not as good as Season One. In that one Galadriel is being tempted with peace, with being given what she wants. This one is trying to poke at her weaknesses, to defeat her.

And the Dwarves, as Durin III is slowly overwhelmed by the ring, his avarice taking him over and leading him to disaster. Durin IV coming to the conclusion that he will have to oppose him, and also fail his friends. This brings back a monster from the Lord Of The Rings books, and, well, okay I guess. Okay.

Similarly okay is the appearance of the Ents amongst the various people getting lost in the woods bits. I didn’t mind the getting lost in the woods bits, but there were too many of them, several times we check in on characters in an episode to find out what they’re doing and they’re still lost in the woods. Also Tom Bombadil. I don’t think Tom Bombadil as gnomic mentor is especially good, but the weirdness around him, his refusal to take part, him being at least as interested in his bees and so on as the fate of Middle Earth, okay I guess.

The politics in Númenor I guess take or leave, it’s for later. The question of what Númenor is going to do back on the rest of Middle Earth is left behind for the question of what they’re doing at home until the end, so it’s disconnected, and less interesting than the Stranger/Harfoot disconnected storyline.

So how does this stack up? As before some good, some bad. The siege of Eregion was a better battle setpiece. We’d seen the location many times, and if I have some complaints about the big engineering twist, at least it makes sense in concept if not in how it was done*. Not quite sure where and how the final army appears from but never mind that.

The great plot challenge is that Annatar has to get Celebrimbor to forge the rings before anyone who knows who he really is gets there and reveals the trick. And here the time and space constraints seem to fall apart. Gil-Galad sends an expedition out but they’re waylaid and turned back by Adar’s army. An army manages to stop all communication but isn’t seen, that’s good for a few days. Meanwhile at Eregion they’re negotiating with the Dwarves, inventing new uses for mithril (“speak friend and enter” doors etc), giving the rings, Durin III sending messages and getting envoys from other dwarf realms. All this seems like it would take a lot of time. Ah well.

Watch This: Superior fantasy television adventure
Don’t Watch This: Incoherent plotting, with uninteresting bits taking up far too much of the screen time

* Damming the river to be able to cross the moat and assault the walls is a good idea. Using giant counterweight catapults doesn’t seem to me an effective way, yet the show insists otherwise so there we are. There’s the major problem – where does the water go? But on the other hand Adar needs to take the city quickly before reinforcements and/or Sauron’s scheme arrive, so as long as it holds back the flow for a day and a night it’ll do. It’s slapdash and relies on luck, a good idea that needs refinement.