Here is my review for The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 4 and it’s a bit of a mixed bag this week. There are some really good moments I enjoyed that I had not expected to. There’s also some scenes which I think annoyed me as a Tolkienist but I think casual fans will like. There’s also however a few odd story choices this episode that didn’t annoy me purely on an adaptation level, but just general average writing.

I’m keeping with the FULL SPOILERS policy on this series folks. My reason being that I want to come at this as a huge fan of the books. So beware if you are avoiding any SPOILERS.

There are several different plots being covered in Episode 4 and I’ll talk about each in turn.

Rhun

This so far is my favourite part of The Rings of Power, with the Dwarves second. A lot of casual fans seem to dislike this plot the most, but for me it’s very Tolkien. Some folks don’t like the Harfoots in which case, you won’t like the Stoors, but I did. I even liked the story of how the Stoors and Harfoots diverged. I mean that’s thousands of years sooner than it should be happening, but it’s fair game for me.

The part that surprised me was the Stranger and Tom Bombadil. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like Old Tom showing up in this show. Surprisingly, I did like this interpretation of Tom. He is mysterious and talks in riddles even an Istari struggles with. The show does nothing to answer the enigma of Tom, but does play with that for a little fun. I enjoyed these first interactions between Tom and Stranger. We also found out that Dark Wizard (Please give us names soon for these guys Amazon and make it the right ones i.e. not Gandalf and certainly not Saruman) had himself once visited Tom. We are also told that the Dark Wizard wishes to link up with the more powerful still Sauron and tells the Stranger his task is to face them both.

It works for me, so far.

Elrond and Galadriel

My least favourite plot of Episode 4 is Elrond and Galadriel plus their red shirts heading off to Eregion. Speed if of the essence, so of course…They do not take horses. Sigh…

A bridge has been broken, they think by Sauron. They can either go North which will take a couple weeks longer or they go South and pass a scary place. Galadriel has a vision of danger South. Elrond doesn’t trust the Ring, so they head into danger. I mean, they could’ve just said, let’s take horses and covered the distance in a fraction of the time.

As for the scene which annoyed me as a Tolkienist? The Barrow Wights, they even call the place the Barrow Downs. However, one the Barrow Downs ghosts haven’t even been born yet. It’s a conflict that happened way into the Third Age. Secondly, in the books no Elf would genuinely have to fear the ghost of a mortal man. Legolas would have literally laughed at the Barrow Wights in LOTR and sent them on their way.

However, if you are not that fussy about lore changes then I admit it’s probably a fun scene and resolved well. I’m just not loving Elrond, Galadriel and their plot line so far in Season 2.

Isildur & Arondir

So I loved the Ents and the Entwives, I feel like they were inserted in an appropriate place and fitted in with how Tolkien imagined them. Arondir kinda bored me but I’m slightly warming to him and Isildur.

Estrid on the other hand…eesh. The whole, bad girl falls for handsome Isildur and starts to turn good, but then things don’t quite work thing. Overall it just feels like wasted time to me. This could carry forward and become something more meaningful, but right now I’m not a fan of the will they, won’t they?

Sadly, despite actually liking the Ents, we may be done with them, and the rest of this plot line is very dull currently.

I’d much rather we had more time with Sauron who doesn’t appear this episode or the Dwarves/ Numenor who also do not feature in Episode 4. One of the issues Rings of Power has is we are following too many different side plots that we cannot get much story due to time constraints. The Rhun plot could be a show on it’s own as could the Elven/Rings Dwarves plots. I’m less sure about Numenor or Islidur’s story so far. I’m not feeling any genuine character development from anyone outside of the Rhun plot, the Dwarven plot and the Eregion branch of the story though. That may change?

Overall, I liked a lot of Episode 4 and though some of it was bang average and nothing of interest. Probably the best one of Season 2 yet though overall.