The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Recap: No, You Ruined the Rings of Power!

A neat and effective perspective sets the stage in the opening moments of this second season’s fifth episode. As the camera moves above the majestic surface of Khazad-dûm, a dissolve puts the ring of power soon to be claimed by Durin III in a close-up in the foreground. The moment seems to suggest all this will be controlled by this little object. As unlikely as that seems, it soon proves true. While speaking with his son about their efforts to dig out from the collapse caused by Mount Doom, Durin III is able to determine precisely where his people need to dig. Never mind that it’s a “foundation wall.” This is the spot, and Durin III will dig them out himself if he has to! It might sound crazy, but the thing is, he’s right. “Here,” he tells them, “we bring the sun to us!” Everyone cheers. Well, almost everyone. The look on Disa’s face suggests not everyone wants to accept this change in fortune at face value.

For now, at least, the dwarves are happy. And so are the elves. Over in Eregion, Celebrimbor leads a dwarf/elf gathering designed to mark a new era of cooperation. But, here, too, a guest sounds a note of dissent. While Celebrimbor speechifies, Sauron (a.k.a. Annatar) sulks away. It’s a strategic move. Sauron wants Celebrimbor to make rings of power for men but he wants Celebrimbor to think it’s his own idea, a maneuver Celebrimbor sees through. Sauron’s not easily dissuaded, however. All they need to do is find a bunch of wise men, nine specifically, that they can trust to carry rings and live up to the promise of humanity, one of Middle Earth’s more disappointing races, in Celebrimbor’s view. Sauron gets a no, but he’s not really someone who takes no for an answer. Walking away, he tells Celebrimbor he’ll make them himself.

In attempting to make his case for humanity receiving rings of power, Sauron points to the potential of Numenor while admitting that, yeah, things don’t always run so smoothly there. And, indeed, things aren’t running smoothly at the moment. Keeping up the momentum after being endorsed by a Great Eagle, Pharazôn surveys his recently acquired kingdom with Kemen at his side. After expressing some anti-elf sentiments, Pharazôn suggests simply claiming the scepter of Numenor might not be enough. Kemen is skeptical, but Pharazôn knows how to manipulate his son, no matter how unkind those manipulations might be. He tells Kemen that his mother once prophesied he’d come to a bad end, but then refuses to tell him how until he succeeds at the task Pharazôn plans to give him.

This, frankly, does not seem like good parenting, and across town, Miriel and Elendil have their own issues with Pharazôn’s leadership, namely that he’s the leader at all. Elendil is further troubled by a vision from the palantír, one in which he saw himself riding away into parts unknown. This is at odds with the dark visions Miriel used to see, which she believes changed because of Pharazôn’s ascension.  So maybe the coup wasn’t such a bad thing? Miriel sends him away with a promise not to interfere with the recent developments. (As for the palantír, we soon learn that Pharazôn is still using it, so who knows what effect that will have.)

It won’t be easy, though. Running into Valandil, Elendil learns that Miriel loyalists have been stripped of their rank. What’s more, it’s his own daughter, Eärien, who’s behind this move. It’s a tense moment made even more tense when Kemen reminds everyone that Elendil is no longer a captain. His former charges aren’t buying it, whoever might order them to, a telling sign that not everyone’s on board with Numenor’s New Pharazôn Order.

Back in Eregion, Celebrimbor sends a letter to the high king telling him the forges have gone dark. That, of course, is a lie, but the High King can’t be entirely sure of it. He has a choice: follow up on Galadriel’s suspicions, which concur with the visions he’s receiving from his ring of power (and which we know are really an issue), or attack Adar in Mordor, a threat they know to be real, with all his might.

So why was Disa so concerned about Durin III’s actions? Alone with Durin IV, she gets a chance to explain. Durin III’s discovery of just the right places to dig rather than following the subtle craft of listening to the mountain “feels somehow like cheating.” What’s more, yes, he has power, but does he have too much power? And might that power corrupt? In the market, Disa’s able to forget her troubles, but only briefly. After finding the perfect tuning crystal, she learns that Durin IV is now demanding a “ring tribute” on sales. She bargains the merchant down, but when the crystal gets away from her, she’s drawn into a dark shaft just off the marketplace. She tracks it down and makes a discovery: there are some really disturbing sounds coming from deep within Khazad-dûm.

If Durin III knows about this he does not care. He’s gathered representatives from the six other dwarven realms to tell them to tell their masters that they, too, can enjoy the benefits of the rings of power. Of course, there’s a catch, and though the episode cuts away before we learn the particulars, it quickly becomes clear that Durin III is not quite his old self. In fact, he wants to do the work of his old self by removing some of the mining restrictions he put in place many years before, never mind the consequences. It’s clear the ring is weighing on him heavily, perhaps literally. When he can’t find it, Durin III’s sent into a panic before being reminded he took it off.

Can his son set this situation? He rushes in with word that the noise Disa heard belongs to a “nameless evil” and that mining is going to be a big problem for Khazad-dûm. This looks like it will be the good advice that Durin III just doesn’t take. Per Durin III, there’s a lot of gold and Disa doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Further complicating matters, Durin III will later tell his son how proud he is and restore his status as prince. Durin IV’s unswayed, if not unmoved, by the gesture, and later swears to Disa she’ll never catch him wearing one of those rings.

While Disa plays Cassandra in Khazad-dûm, it looks like Celebrimbor is left to fulfill that role in Eregion. Sauron presses on with the work of forging rings without him, but he hits some snags, as his assistant Mirdania discovers after one of the prototype rings sends her to a dark, misty place where she sees a vision of a large figure with flames for skin. But instead of saying “I told you so,” Celebrimbor can’t help himself and starts to tell them what they’re doing wrong and how to fix it. He can’t finish, however, due to the arrival of Durin IV who has some concerns about the last batch of rings Celebrimbor made. And here we learn the catch: Durin III will share the rings but only if the other dwarven lords give him half their income. This is, his son tells Celebrimbor, out of character.

So what’s going on? Could the ring be defective? Celebrimbor insists this is impossible, so Durin IV counters with another possibility: Maybe this guy who calls himself Annatar is the problem. While this unfolds, Sauron is trying to sow doubt about Celebrimbor’s skills, suggesting to Mirdania that her boss may have lost a step or two (while also telling her her hair looks really great). Later, Sauron will try to play mind games with Celebrimbor, too, telling him that they’re both responsible for the problems with the dwarven rings by introducing deceit into the forging process by telling the High King that they were only going to make three rings and shut down the forge and instead pressing on.

The only solution, per Sauron, is to go to the High King and confess, which Celebrimbor says he simply cannot do. “It’s either that or we plunge straight on even deeper into the maelstrom,” Sauron tells him. It ought to be an easy choice. Whenever anyone offers the possibility of going “deeper into the maelstrom,” that’s usually a good time to rethink your decisions. But this, it would seem, is something Celebrimbor cannot bring himself to do. Instead, he digs in (after attempting to spread the blame for the dwarven rings’ flaws). His unlikely fix is to make really, really good rings for men that will correct the mistakes of the rings made for the dwarves. That ought to do it, right?

While this unfolds, Kemen continues to recommit to his heel turn by interrupting Elendil and the others as they conduct a somber ceremony at a shrine. The shrine, Kemen tells them as he shuts them down, will have to go to make way for the new aqueduct. Then he makes it personal, asking Elendil, “How does it feel to have a daughter who’s ashamed of you?” Though he almost takes the bait, Elendil tries to defuse the situation by offering to escort the priest, and a precious relic that prevents souls from being lost, off the premises. Instead of taking it out, Kemen drops the relic to the ground, where it shatters. Then the slugging starts, a confrontation that ends with Valandil’s death at Kemen’s hands and Elendil in chains, accused of starting an “uprising.”

As the episode draws to a close, the ominous developments pile up. Elrond has been able to beat feet back to the High King to tell him the orcs are headed for Eregion. But though the High King says he has reason to believe that “Sauron is the architect of all this” (correct), he’s opted to send his forces against Adar first (oops). The plan has a further complication, though whether this will be better for the elves or Adar and his orcs remains to be seen: Adar’s forces have taken Galadriel prisoner. Maybe, Adar suggests, there’s a third possibility: Since the elves and orcs both hate Sauron, how about a team-up? It’s an idea that is so crazy that it just might work! Or at least, Galadriel’s eyes suggest, one she can’t dismiss right away.

It’s getting tense in Middle Earth, isn’t it? Where there was once at least the illusion of peace in some places, there’s unrest everywhere. Putting aside the characters’ confusing ability to travel at odd speeds from place to place — it takes Elrond all episode to reach the high king while the distance between Eregion and Khazad-dûm is apparently meaningless — it’s a tense, well-plotted episode but also one that again underscores an issue with this season: Some parts of Middle Earth are simply more compelling than others. Specifically, the game of thrones unfolding in Numenor has never really caught fire. The straight-up sneering villainous turns from Kemen and Eärien make the goings on there seem simplistic, and neither Elendil nor Miriel have been too caught up in the events to develop as characters. There are three episodes left, so this might change, of course. In the meantime, the other goings-on remain pretty intense, even with Galadriel sidelined for much of the episode.

Mithril Links

• Should we add Elendil and Miriel to the handful of maybe-romantic pairings developing this season? They exchanged several meaningful glances and touches, which pretty much counts as a hot make-out session on this series.

• Do we know what a tuning crystal does?

• This season has made Celebrimbor walk the thin line between being a character undone by pride and being Sauron’s useful idiot. In this installment, he’s pretty much just an idiot.