TL;DR – The season ends on a high note as war comes to Middle Earth

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this episode.

The Rings of Power Review –

Well, we have flown by, and before we knew it, we hit the end of the second season of Rings of Power. There have been highs and lows along the way this season, and some stories have triumphed while others have tried to tread water and failed. Today, we will take the time to see if the finale stuck the landing and then reflect on the season as a whole.  

So, to set the scene, things are dire for the good people of Middle Earth. The Orcs have entered Eregion, as Adar (Sam Hazeldine) has subdued Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and captured one of the Elven Rings of Power. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) might have escaped with the Ring for Men, but it still seems like Sauron (Charlie Vickers) is controlling everything as one of the great elven cities burns. The dwarves could not come to help because they were dealing with a King who was so focused on greed that he might unleash an untold horror. Even out in the East, The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is faced with growing darkness and a choice that could lead to the death of those he loves. Is there any hope for Middle Earth? Only time will tell. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

I don’t think anyone was shocked when the dwarves didn’t show up in Doomed to Die because we needed a cliffhanger somewhere. However, this week does not waste any time in bringing us back to Khazad-dûm. Of all the emotional beets of this final episode, I think this opening sequence was the only one that truly hit home. A son (Owain Arthur) is trying to reach his father (Peter Mullan), who has been lost to his addiction and is not only engaging in self-destructive behaviour but is putting the whole city at risk. That point when Durin finally gets through to his father in his last moments, when everything is at risk, look, I felt that.

Our time in Khazad-dûm also lets us see how the show deals with direct links with the Lord of the Rings films. We got a hint of Durin’s Bane in Season One and had it dropped a bit through this season, but this is the episode where it gets revealed in all its glory. We get a design that is clearly linked back to those original films, where you could put them side by side and add that corporate meme. But, there is a slight touch as Durin III is getting his big badarse final moments because the series dips into the debate about if Balrogs have wings or not by hinting at ethereal smoke wings, which could be real or implied. It’s one of those rare moments when having your cake and eating it actually works.

After the attack last week in Doomed to Die, we needed to conclude as things looked terrible, and possibly the characters died. But don’t worry, Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) is fine somehow, which kind of makes no sense, but I like him sooooooo, I’m not going to care about that. The battle went how I thought it would, given what we know of the characters in the films. While the day is won, it does not mean there were no casualties, and one of those was the city of Eregion, which was irreparably damaged. I liked the death of Adar and how that was presented, which continued to show the strength of not depicting the orcs as a monolith. But bar the shapeshifting shenanigans at the end; I was not a fan of the Saroun/Galadriel dual.  

I have not really connected with the storyline of the escape to Rhun this season. I like all the characters, but more than anything, it felt like they were off doing their own thing rather than being part of the story as a whole. But I think they finally pulled it together in the end, partly by just setting up next season. On the one hand, we are going to see the great migration and probably the founding of The Shire at some point. On the other hand, we get what I think everyone suspected from day one: The Stranger is Gandalf. Now, that does get a bit fuzzy with the established lore timeline, but there is a lot of condensing going on, so I am not too worried about that.  

When we look back at the season as a whole, I think it was probably a touch more inconsistent than Season One. There are parts where I think I liked the show better in the second season, but then there were also storylines that just frustrated me to no end. Part of the problem this season is that they bifurcated the narrative into too many plot lines. They did not do a great job of keeping all those threads consistent. Indeed, we had to wait for both Elven Kings Under the Sky, Where the Stars are Strange & The Eagle and the Sceptre before we were introduced to all the leading players for the season. I also believe that this finale is the only time this season that everyone in the main cast has appeared.

There are some choices that happened at the end of last season that I don’t think helped much here. Keeping Isildur (Trystan Gravelle) on the continent meant the already weak Númenórean storyline was split. It also would have avoided one of the more truncated love triangles in the show. I am sure if they had known that Nazanin Boniadi was not going to come back as Bronwyn, they would have set it up differently this season, which would have meant that we would not have had Arondir spending most of the season getting from Point A to Point B. I would talk more about the disappointment that was Númenór, but I think I have pontificated enough about that already.

While I do think it had issues with parts of its narrative, I do have to make it clear that there were aspects that it absolutely nailed. Sauron’s manipulation of Celebrimbor ended up being the heart of the season for a very good reason. The struggle in the dwarves of what to do when you don’t recognise your father and king anymore was heartbreaking. We got to meet Ents and Entwives in all their glory. Also, Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), look at you. There may have been a couple of awkward shots here and there, but the series still is stunning to look at, Bear McCreary’s musical score grew on me more this season, and I liked some of the in-camera effects that they used, supported by some top-notch CGI.

In the end, do we recommend The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Shadow and Flame? Yes, we would. While it is not perfect, when it hits, it is on fire. They have committed to five seasons of this, and I hope they will commit to that. I also hope we don’t have to wait as long as last time.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Rings of Power
Directed by – Charlotte Brändström, Louise Hooper & Sanaa Hamri
Written by –J. D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Justin Doble, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, Helen Shang, Glenise Mullins & Nicholas Adams
Created by – J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay
Based On –The Lord of the Rings and appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien
Production/Distribution Companies – Amazon Studios, Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Trust, HarperCollins, New Line Cinema & Amazon Prime
Starring – Owain Arthur, Sophia Nomvete, Daniel Weyman, Ciarán Hinds,   Megan Richards, Markella Kavenagh, Trystan Gravelle, Lloyd Owen, Cynthia Addia-Robinson, Morfydd Clark, Charles Edwards,Charlie Vickers, Maxim Baldry, Tyroe Muhafidin, Benjamin Walker, Robert Aramayo, Ismael Cruz Córdova & Peter Mullan with Kevin Eldon, Gavi Singh Chera, Tanya Moodie, Ema Horvath, Will Keen, Nia Towle, Leon Wadham, Sam Hazeldine, Rory Kinnear, Jack Lowden, Ben Daniels, Nicholas Woodeson, Geoff Morrell, Ben Daniels, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Williams, Nia Towle, Alex Tarrant, Calam Lynch, Kevin Eldon & Ameilia Kenworthy and Zates Atour, Peter Landi, Robert Strange, Gabriel Akuwudike, Murray McArthur, Thomas Gilbey, Stuart Bowman, Charlie Rix, Nellie Burroughes, Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Berynn Schwerdt, Emily-Jane McNeill, Jamie Bisping, Bryony Miller, Ken Blackburn, Kirsty Hoiles, Nazanin Boniadi, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Bridie Sisson, Raya Yarbrough, Zubin Varla, Rachel Payne, Laura Jane Matthewson, Arkie Reece, Kai Martin, Simon Haines, Selina Lo & Jason Smith
Episodes Covered – Elven Kings Under the Sky, Where the Stars are Strange, The Eagle and the Sceptre, Eldest, Halls of Stone, Where is He?, Doomed to Die & Shadow and Flame