Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6.
Ah, it seems like only yesterday the Elves on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power were trying to figure out how to forge the Three, and now here we are, starting work on the Nine. Villains grow up so fast, don’t they? We’re well past the halfway point of the season now, and everything is finally starting to feel like one big plot again — except, again, the Númenor stuff, but who’s complaining? I’m not.
Episode 6 opens in the woods, presumably somewhere in and around Mordor, as a lone Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) makes good on his promise to track down Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and the Orcs. Turns out, he doesn’t have to look that hard, as a pair of deserting Orcs shuffle past, grumbling about Adar’s search for Sauron. A third Orc finds Arondir’s hiding spot, but none of them stay alive for long. In one of their pockets, Arondir finds his first clue to Adar’s larger plans: a sketch of Eregion.
Trouble Comes to Eregion in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 6
Over in the Elf city, Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) has reached the point every creative is all too familiar with: conversing directly with your work to best convey your frustrations. The forging of the Nine is not going well, and he orders the smiths to try again. There’s just one problem: they haven’t received their scheduled mithril delivery from the Dwarves. After he snaps at them all, Mirdania (Amelia Kenworthy) ventures that he’s seemed more irritable lately. Rather than firing back at her, he asks her for her name, not in some ploy to put her in her place, but because it seems like he genuinely can’t remember it, a fact which alarms Mirdania. Annatar arrives and orders the other smiths to all take a break so he’s left alone with Celebrimbor. It’s only after Annatar arrives that Celebrimbor remembers Mirdania’s name, and he admits he’s starting to lose track of things. Annatar chalks this up to Celebrimbor being in a creative groove, and understands how tempting it is to stay there, but tells him he can’t, as the people of Eregion want an audience with him. He turns that down, saying his only responsibility at the moment is to the rings, and also tells Annatar the Dwarves are late delivering the mithril, which Annatar agrees to take care of.
Celebrimbor might be too consumed for an audience with his people, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get an audience anyway, as Annatar steps out to address them himself, telling them he will be taking over administration of the city instead. Mirdania and one of the guards take him to one of the gates, which is usually busy with travellers coming in and out, but has now gone quiet. They tell him that soldiers were sent out to investigate the cause, but only one returned, dead and with a message carved on his chest. Annatar orders him buried, and the message kept secret, and further tells Mirdania that Celebrimbor has stripped the smiths of their duties and is to be left alone. Before he leaves, she asks him what the carving on the body said. The answer? “Where is He?”
Over in his camp, Adar and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) are bringing the Captain Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann dynamic into a new decade, which is to say, he interrogates her over dinner. He tells her he noted her obsession with finding Sauron, characteristic of someone whose mind he has invaded, but Galadriel protests that, unlike Adar, she resisted Sauron worming his way into her mind. He tells her that Sauron’s influence is inevitable, as he preys on what a person desires most to worm his way in — something we see in practice with Mirdania right now — and makes the world around them feel so radiant that everything after feels dull. She concedes the point, and tells Adar that Sauron promised her an army, which she got. He tells her that he also got what Sauron promised him — his children, aka the Orcs. Sauron might not be a liar, but he is dangerous, hence their need to be rid of him.
Adar offers Galadriel his help in the form of the Orcs, then shows her the treasure he’s been keeping: Morgoth’s crown, the same he tried to kill Sauron with. He was unsuccessful, he said, because he needed Galadriel. Or more specifically, needed the power of the three Elven rings combined with that of the crown to finish Sauron off forever. He adds that he knows Halbrand is Sauron — something Galadriel refuses to confirm, and something I keep forgetting isn’t common knowledge — and their future success depends on Galadriel’s ability to set aside her pride where Halbrand/Sauron is concerned. This scene is nowhere near the most jarring and disturbing in the season, but I did want to shout out the camera work, which alternates between straight shots and Dutch angles — when the camera is rotated along the horizontal axis and looks “crooked” — to make the whole exchange feel off kilter. It’s such a clever cinematography trick to convey the mood of the scene that has nothing whatsoever to do with the dialogue, and is so sneaky you’re uncomfortable before you realize why.
Now for someone experiencing a different kind of discomfort, we head over to Númenor, where Elendil (Lloyd Owen) is on trial before Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) for inciting a riot and high treason. It’s worth noting that assaulting the king’s son is not on the list of his crimes, so I guess Pharazôn doesn’t really care about Kemen (Leon Wyndham) either. Pharazôn says that the crimes named warrant putting Elendil to death, but his years of service to the kingdom will grant him freedom on the condition he renounces his crimes and pledges his loyalty to Pharazôn instead. The first point, he readily agrees to, but as for recognizing Pharazôn as king, he refuses, calling Miriel the true king, and calling Pharazôn a traitor for good measure. Lord Belzagar (Will Keen) suggests they let the Valar decide his fate instead, in keeping with the old traditions, and Eärien (Ema Horvath) is rapidly realizing that she may have taken the wrong side after all.
The Stranger Undergoes a Trial With Tom Bombadil in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 6
We haven’t checked in with the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) in a bit, so let’s do that now. A meditation session with Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) turns into a nightmare when he has a vision of Nori (Markella Kavenaugh) and Poppy (Megan Richards) in danger. Tom tells him that the Secret Fire can show them things and tell them things if they only pay attention, and the Stranger asks at once how the fire can be mastered to push back against the darkness. Tom tells him the Secret Fire is not for him to master, and bristles at the idea that mastering something is the only way to use it. It turns out every trial the Stranger has faced while at Tom’s, he has failed, and offers him one final chance to succeed.
The trial in question? The Stranger must find his staff in a valley full of dried out trees. Tom tells him the staff will reveal itself once the Stranger’s heart is aligned with the Secret Fire. The Stranger worries this will all take too long, though Tom tells him there’s no time limit on how long before he needs to find the staff. His concern, however, is over his vision of Nori, and he worries she’ll die unless he finds her soon, and offers to return as soon as he ensures Nori’s safety. Tom tells him that death is a part of life, and one that is sometimes dealt out unfairly, and if he leaves now, then he won’t be able to return to this path he is on. The choice is a serious one, as the rising threats of both the Dark Wizard and Sauron means Middle-earth will need a wizard like the Stranger in the fight ahead. Tom then leaves him — literally, he vanishes — to make his decision, and I get the sense that, unlike Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, the Stranger really can’t just abandon his training now for the sake of his friends and return later, but that’s a question that will have to get an answer later, as this is the last we see of the Stranger this week.
Over in the Stoor village, Nori asks Gundabale (Tanya Moodie) why they don’t just leave their village if trouble is at the door. Finding a new place to live doesn’t seem like much trouble for a Harfoot, who is used to moving once a month, but Gundabale has a different view. The Stoors have planted roots in their village, it’s where their home is, where their ancestors lived, where they have a history. Yes, at the end of the day home is found in who you’re with, but there’s meaning, and community, and home to be found in the place where you and yours have a history. Nori, realizing she’s the reason the Stoors are in danger at all, suggests she turn herself in to turn the attention away from the village, figuring that way she can keep Poppy safe too, especially since Poppy and Merimac (Gavi Singh Chera) have sparked up a little romance. Poppy, however, doesn’t share Nori’s view, and tells her that given all this started because the Dark Wizard’s (Ciaran Hinds) masked scouts are looking for the wizard, and her turning herself in will likely only lead to more trouble. The two resolve instead to fight back.
Down in Khazad-dûm, the Dwarves are digging to King Durin’s (Peter Mullan) specifications, unearthing mountains of treasure to lay at his feet. Prince Durin (Owain Arthur) is summoned to the throne room to meet with Annatar, something he’s less than thrilled about. Annatar tells the king and the prince that they’re in need of more mithril in Eregion, especially with enemies at the city gates, in order to finish making the Rings of Power in time. Annatar offers them timber for their mine shafts, and tries to lure King Durin with the promise of something more “precious” but the King has already decided, and his answer is no. Prince Durin’s relief is short-lived, though, as his father tells him he only refused so that the Elves would return later, and make him a better offer for the mithril. Durin begs his father to take the ring off and prove that it isn’t controlling him, but the king refuses, and an attempt to force it off his hand causes the king to lash out.
Disa (Sophia Nomvete) decides this means the time has come for more drastic action to bring the mining activities to a stop. Even Durin’s worries about the king sending his army at them don’t faze her, as she points out this will only prove to all of Khazad-Dûm that he is no longer fit to rule. Durin is horrified at her callousness, but to Disa, the Durin on the throne isn’t the father figure she knows and loves, he’s too lost to the influence of the ring. Even knowing all this, Durin still struggles with the idea of humiliating his father as he can still see a sliver of him in there, but Disa tells him that unless they act, their kingdom is lost. Later, Narvi (Kevin Eldon) and a group of miners head down to the work site later to find Disa standing there, and tell her she can either move, or be moved. Using her stone-singing abilities, she draws the attention of a herd of bats who run the group off, and impressed as Durin is, she tells him their fight is only beginning.
Elendil and Miriel Face Judgment in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 6
Speaking of kingdoms currently having a hard time, over in Númenor, Elendil languishes in prison where he receives a visit from Eärien, who explains that he will face the Trial by Abyss, wherein he’s thrown into the sea to face the sea-worm — how very Dune of them. She tells him that Pharazôn doesn’t want to antagonize the Faithful — should have thought of that before bulldozing their shrine — and that he’s willing to let Elendil go in exchange for a vow of fealty. Elendil isn’t interested in losing his integrity, even at the cost of his life, and Eärien begs him to reconsider because she doesn’t want to lose him as well, which is maybe something she ought to have considered before taking a prominent part in a coup against the queen. Elendil and his daughter obviously still love each other, but the fact that she can’t see why this goes beyond a matter of pride causes him to pull away.
Suspecting it would come to this, after the king told her that Elendil’s hatred of him had spread to his daughter as well — Pharazôn, you’re projecting, you’re the one that hates your kid — Eärien reveals the ace up her sleeve: Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), hoping her father will listen to his queen instead. Miriel orders Elendil to give in to Pharazôn’s demands, if only so he can continue to be there for Númenor going forward. But to Elendil, giving up his principles for the sake of his own life would mean he isn’t the sort of noble man Númenor needs, or the sort of man she believes he is, and it would break his heart.
Then, in a moment that I can only assume was conceived to appeal to me specifically, Miriel tells him that if he dies in the trial it will break her heart too, and he cups her face (gasp!) and promises that he’ll survive as long as it’s the will of the Valar. Miriel is still worried that he won’t survive, and if you’re thinking this would be a good moment for them to kiss, then we’re having the same thought, and we’re both leaving disappointed, though we do get a forehead touch, which is equally intimate. Not to mention they probably didn’t want to kiss with Eärien lurking right outside watching all of this go down.
Down by the shore, Elendil is prepared for his trial, and agrees to abide by the judgment of the Valar. They’re about to toss him in the water when Miriel arrives and orders them to stop, saying she will go in his place. Under the law, because he committed his “crimes” in her name, she has the right to face judgment in his stead. Pharazôn agrees — after needing the information confirmed for him by two separate sources — and Elendil tries to stop Miriel from going through with the trial, but she points out that if they want to keep to the ways of the Faithful, then she needs to lead by example. Literally, Pharazôn could never. Miriel enters the rock pool, and the sea-worm arrives shortly after to pull her under. Whatever it was seeking in Miriel, it does not find, and just as she’s about to be found guilty, the sea spits her back out alive. Pharazôn and co. have no choice but to declare her innocent, and Elendil goes a step further and declares her Queen of the Sea too, which seems popular among those gathered, even if they were calling for Elendil’s death a minute ago. Angry, Pharazôn goes to commune with the palantir once more, and this time, Sauron manages to perceive him looking as well.
Adar and Galadriel Become Uneasy Allies in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 6
Back in his camp, Adar meets with Galadriel again, and she admits that Halbrand is Sauron, and reveals his purpose in going to Eregion, telling Adar that Sauron will stay there until he’s crafted enough rings to dominate all of Middle-earth. She agrees to an alliance between his people and hers, and tells him that once Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and his forces reach Eregion, carrying her ring with them, then she and Adar can work together to eliminate Sauron. That’s all well and good, but Adar wonders what an end to this fight will mean for the Orcs, and whether Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) intends to leave them in peace, or whether he will proceed with the plan to invade Mordor, anyway. For Adar, there’s no benefit in teaming up with the Elves if it leaves his people back where they started anyway.
Out in the camp, Adar orders his men to prepare, and Galadriel warns him that a single legion of Orcs isn’t enough to take on Sauron. Good thing he’s got more legions on the way then. Not only that, now he also knows who carries Galadriel’s ring, meaning he doesn’t even really need her help. Galadriel says this would be playing right into Sauron’s hands, as he will use Adar’s army to topple Eregion for him, but orders her taken back inside so he might assemble the rest of his forces.
It’s too late for Eregion. The city is now under attack by Adar’s forces, all while Annatar watches, slicing open his palm for reasons unknown, at least for now. Up in his tower, Celebrimbor is sketching ring designs until he hears the siege alarm sound from beyond the window. An attempt to investigate is thwarted by Annatar, who tells him he’s got things under control in the city, and all but forces Celebrimbor to stay inside, telling him that if he doesn’t, he will be personally responsible for the fall of Middle-earth. The smith charges past him anyway and heads outside to… a city in full daylight and at peace. Now, either that’s a really long staircase, or Annatar’s done something to his mind, and I think we know what the answer is.
Annatar follows him outside, and tells him he sought him out because he has long wanted to craft objects of great power. Celebrimbor tells him he can’t forge more rings without mithril, and fortunately, Annatar just happens to have a container of mithril ore in powder form, just enough to forge the Nine rings, promising him greatness and renown to accompany them, greater than that given to the silmarils of legend. The motivational speech is enough to get Celebrimbor back inside, after which Annatar lifts the illusion. It’s still nighttime, and the city is under attack, the citizens fleeing in fear from the invading army. War has finally come to Eregion.
The first six episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 are streaming now on Prime Video.
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