Unlike many of you, I actually made it all the way to the end of the first season of Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings prequel series — which is why, once Season 2 of The Rings of Power finally arrived on Prime, I felt invested enough to dive back into this enjoyable yet divisive adaptation of Tolkien’s work.
And I’m so glad I did.
Ahead of Season 2’s conclusion with the eighth and final episode later this week, The Rings of Power has not just improved upon many of the weaknesses of Season 1 (like the slow plotting that bored some viewers to tears). The groundwork having been sufficiently laid — specifically, by fleshing out the stories of different lands populated by elves, orcs, men, and dwarves — the show set the stage for Episode 7, titled Doomed to Die.
Which, say what you will about the series given that it continues to draw mixed reviews, some viewers are raving was one of the best single TV episodes of the year.
The Rings of Power had basically been leading up to this moment throughout the prequel series. Specifically, to the siege of Eregion that’s central to the new season’s penultimate episode. It’s a bloody and epic battle that’s so well-executed it rivals the quality and scale of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies; the clash, a pivotal moment in Tolkien’s histories, has also never been depicted onscreen before now.
In terms of its scale and production quality, the confrontation rivaled something like the battle for Helm’s Deep in the Two Towers movie. We’re talking thousands of orcs and elves hacking and slashing, huge explosions, a hill troll, a breathtaking calvary charge — it was breathtaking to watch unfold, this battle that not only transforms the topography of Middle Earth and its major players henceforth. It was fan service of the highest order, a gift to Tolkien obsessives who’ve been wishing for years they could actually see it play out like this.
The Rings of Power has really taken us all over the Middle Earth during the show’s sophomore season, from Eregion to Khazad-dûm, Lindon, Númenor, Mordor, and so many points in-between. Sauron returns and sets about convincing Celebrimbor to craft rings of power in his Eregion forge, rings that can then be given to different leaders who Sauron can then control via his one ring that rules them all.
As much as I’ve enjoyed the new season, I’ll admit that the writing has still made me groan a bit here and there. There are times, for example, when Elrond suggests taking a certain course of action based on known facts, and Galadriel (who was presented as an absolute bad-ass in Season 1) will blather on about we have to pursue this odd alternative choice because she “feels it in her heart” or some such nonsense.
Having said that, the positives this season definitely outweigh the weaknesses for me. Watching Isildur fight his way out of the spider’s cave was genuinely terrifying. Likewise, watching Sauron’s evil black goo gobble up anything living in his path so that the dark lord can appear again in human form. The costumes, the weapons, the sets — all of it makes for a fantastically produced show that’s so damn captivating to behold.
“Season 2, the game is afoot, so there’s a lot of action in the season, and most of the storyline, several storylines, all build to one giant battle in the latter half of the season — the Siege of Eregion, which is famous from the mythology if you’re a super fan,” The Rings of Power co-showrunner Patrick McKay told Yahoo UK.
He continues: “”Season 1 we always thought of as the primer. It is gonna open up the Second Age [of Middle Earth] and hopefully pull people into the universe of Tolkien who maybe were unfamiliar with the books, or hadn’t even seen the films. Now we’re in season 2, now they’re in our house, right?”
