NOTE: The following contains spoilers from Season 1, but I shall do my best not to spoil plot points of Season 2.
“The Lord of the Rings” prequel series “The Rings of Power” was an absolute blast when it hit Amazon Prime Video back in 2022.
Since then, it’s been an excruciatingly long two-year wait for Season 2 to arrive due to the Hollywood actor and writers’ strikes, leaving us all anxiously coveting “my precious!”
To fill the time, my wife and I enjoyed a chronological re-binge of the entire “Hobbit” trilogy (2012-2014), which I surprisingly enjoyed much better this time around. We followed up with the entire “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (2001-2003), which delivered the most recent film on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 with epic fantasy world-building that still holds up two decades after it first mesmerized me as a teenager at the multiplex.
Now, after our nearly 20-hour return to Middle-earth, the moment has finally arrived with “The Rings of Power” dropping its first three episodes of Season 2 this past week. Before you start, you might want to look up a YouTube refresher of Season 1 beyond the brief recap provided on Prime Video. Like “House of the Dragon,” it’s hard to remember all of the characters, but I’ll do my best to refresh you on Season 1 below without spoiling Season 2.
Adapted by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay from J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic books, “The Rings of Power” is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the Third Age explored in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning blockbusters. This means that the events take place after the First Age where the armies of good defeated the Dark Lord Morgoth, shown in flashbacks. Now, we explore the last alliance between Elves and Men.
Episode 1 (“The Elven Kings Under the Sky”) is written by “Breaking Bad” alum Gennifer Hutchison, opening with the back story of dashing sea drifter Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), who was revealed last season to be the evil Sauron shapeshifting in disguise. Our heroine Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) warns the elves about him, while being tempted by the rings with a transfixed gaze like Frodo or like Indiana Jones reaching for the Holy Grail (“Indiana, let it go”).
Episode 2 (“Where the Stars are Strange”) is penned by “Sopranos” album Jason Cahil, who reintroduces lovable dwarf spouses Durin & Disa (Owain Arthur & Sophia Nomvete). We also learn more about the mysterious Stranger (Daniel Weyman), who sparked fan theories about his identity last season. Is he Ian McKellan’s beloved Gandalf or Christopher Lee’s evil Saruman? The juicy clues continue, including a premonition of a magical wizard staff.
Most recently, Episode 3 (“The Eagle and the Sceptre”) is penned by “13 Reasons Why” alum Helen Shang, exploring the horseback journey of Isildor (Maxim Baldry), forefather of Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen, hence “The Return of the King”). Tolkien die-hards know that Isildor will eventually battle Sauron for the Master Ring with an epic struggle and aftermath that will cause the ring to get lost in the river to be found by Gollum in the Third Age.
We also meet Isildor’s dad, Elendil (Lloyd Owen), protector of Númenor’s queen regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who grew up in Silver Spring and spoke to WTOP in 2022. You’ll recall her character was blinded by the volcanic eruption of Mount Doom, devastating an entire village of the Southlands in Episode 6 (“Udûn”). It was last season’s best cliffhanger, forcing us to hold our breath to search for survivors in Episode 7 (“The Eye”).
Both of those standout episodes were directed by Swedish-French filmmaker Charlotte Brändström, who showed more restraint than the murky episodes by the usually brilliant J.A. Bayona (“The Orphanage”). Brändström now directs most of the episodes in Season 2. If you still somehow doubt her directing chops, she also directed the third episode of FX’s “Shōgun,” which boasts a leading 25 Emmy nominations before the ceremony on Sept. 15.
That’s all I can say without spoilers, but now you are officially “primed” for Episode 4, which drops on Thursday. Hopefully it all builds to a more satisfying finish than Season 2 of “House of the Dragon,” which did way too much teasing of Season 3 without much payoff in the Season 2 finale. The rumored plan for “The Rings of Power” is a five-episode arc (or is it orc?). Die-hards will be delighted, though I doubt casual viewers will make it that far.
To quote Bilbo Baggins, “The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can.”
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