The following article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Do not read until you have seen episodes one and two …
Hello and welcome to the first recap of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It has been a big couple of weeks for fantasy TV – you may have noticed a certain other show began a few weeks ago – but we’re here to celebrate, not make constant comparisons with House of the Dragon, so I’m going to keep those to an absolute minimum – plus my colleague Tom Huddleston is writing some very fine recaps if you want to discuss that. This town is big enough for the two of us.
Let’s also keep references to RoP’s budget – rumoured to be $1bn (£860m) for the five seasons, making it comfortably the most expensive TV show ever made – to a minimum. Let’s just say that from the first frame to the last, The Rings of Power looks quite unlike any show I’ve seen before. The scale and ambition ooze from every scene; the costumes, sets, backdrops and props exist at a level of grandeur perhaps only matched by Marvel’s biggest-budget offerings, surpassing even the gritty, lived-in aesthetic of Peter Jackson’s original LotR trilogy. Anyway, enough of that. To Valinor!
Gravity? What’s that?
We began with a solemn voiceover from Galadriel, informing us that she remembers the times before it all went bad, when “the world was so young that there had not been a sunrise”, and something about darkness and light.
We were shown that young Galadriel (Amelie Child Villiers) was ready for a scrap. Just as she was getting the better of the boy who sank her sailboat, her elder brother Finrod (Will Fletcher) arrived to calm things down and issue some dubious advice.
“Do you know why a ship floats but a stone cannot?” he asked. Apparently it’s something to do with darkness and light – I’m sensing a theme here – rather than gravity and density. He then whispered something in his little sister’s ear. Presumably: “Pay attention to this bit about sinking, it’s going to come in handy at the end of the episode when you get cold feet about being on that boat.”
Then we were treated to a summary of events, explaining how the elvish people, Galadriel among them, travelled from their idyll in the west to the realm of Middle-earth to battle Morgoth and his armies. We met our heroine Galadriel as a grownup, played by Morfydd Clark (she won’t turn into Cate Blanchett for a good few thousand years yet). Grieving, she took her brother’s dagger – and his pledge to kill Sauron.
We picked up a few centuries later, when even Galadriel’s company, chiefly Thondir (Fabian McCallum), had lost faith in the mission – even after Galadriel killed a snow troll with such panache that I can’t wait for her to be ambushed again.
Meet the harfoots (and their, erm, interesting accents)
And so to our first harfoot sighting. Harfoots are a type of hobbit – along with the stoor and fallohide – not written about a great deal by JRR Tolkien. Here, just as the hobbits do in Peter Jackson’s films, it seems the halflings will provide some much-needed light relief in a series potentially heavy with Ponderous Moments and dialogue that treads a fine line between emotive and horrifically po-faced. (So far, it succeeds … but the line is a fine one.)
We saw Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows for the first time – interesting Irish accent, Sir Len– and were introduced to Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and her pal Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards). It was all pretty superficial in the first episode, and it wasn’t until the aftermath of the falling object from the sky that we learned more about Poppy and Nori’s characters. Who is the Stranger from the crash site, though? First thought is a younger version of Gandalf, although I think the hair and beard are red herrings – plus Gandalf, Saruman and the rest of the Istari weren’t sent to Middle-earth until some way into the Third Age, thousands of years after the events of this series. The actor playing the Stranger, Daniel Weyman, has stated that his character is an important one, pivotal to the creation of the titular rings. My money is on him being an original character, not from Tolkien’s books. That said, the way he spoke to the fireflies (before they all dropped dead) was very reminiscent of Gandalf, on top of the Orthanc, speaking to the moth in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Go west
Back to the elves, and we saw Galadriel given permission to return to the Undying Lands by High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker). It was immediately obvious she didn’t want to go, and by the time we reached the end of the second episode, she had jumped ship, to be rescued by Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), a mysterious, morally ambivalent character, another created specifically for this series. Is it too obvious to suggest he’ll be an ill-advised love interest for Galadriel, or will they simply bond over their shared hatred of orcs? And what terrible things is he running from?
The romantic potential of creepy cow’s milk
In the Southlands, we met Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and other elven warriors who have been watching over the region for signs of evil since the end of the conflict with Morgoth. After 79 years of nothing much happening, it’s probably understandable why Arondir has other things on his mind, namely Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), and why he looks so disappointed when news breaks of peace being declared, meaning the elves can go home. It takes a cow’s rotten udders to move this relationship along – isn’t that always the way? But slow as this strand is to get going, the broken sword emblazoned with Sauron’s symbol, the deranged monster in episode two looking for it and a town wrestling with the fact that their ancestors fought alongside Morgoth suggest it’s going to be a rich seam to be mined.
Talking of mining
To Khazad-dûm, and the kingdom of the dwarves, where Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) were hoping to ask for the help of King Durin (Peter Mullan) in creating Middle-earth’s greatest ever forge. But only Elrond was allowed in to the kingdom and, after losing to Prince Durin (Owain Arthur) in a rock-smashing contest, he had some bridges to rebuild with his old friend.
I enjoyed the interplay between Prince Durin and his wife, Disa (Sophia Nomvete), particularly as she undermined him when he was trying to give Elrond the cold shoulder. And they did a good job of suggesting that the prince and Elrond’s friendship, while frayed, had deep roots.
Overall
Expectations were sky high, but based on these two episodes, I am excited for what’s to come. The first episode took a while to get going, but then there is a gigantic world to establish. The second had a much brisker pace and definitely benefited from the introduction of the dwarves. Arondir and Bronwyn felt underused, save for the intense barn fight. Morfydd Clark, meanwhile, seems perfectly cast as a less ethereal Galadriel than we’re used to seeing. I also have big hopes for Elrond once he realises that the world is not as idyllic as he wants it to be. And this Celebrimbor chap … a smith, you say? Good at forging rings? Sounds like fun! Can’t wait.
Notes and observations
Sauron’s symbol, as seen on Finrod’s skin and elsewhere, distractingly enough, reminded me of the big E on Epiphone musical instruments. Is the dark sorcerer a guitar player? Perhaps he was a Beatles fan?
I said I wouldn’t mention Game of Thrones, but you may recognise Robert Aramayo, who plays Elrond, as the young Ned Stark in the Tower of Joy flashback, cheating his way to victory against Ser Arthur Dayne.
Brief as his appearance was in episode two, that was Peter Mullan playing King Durin III, the actor recently seen in Ozark, where he played Missouri’s opium king, Jacob Snell; and alongside fellow Rings of Power cast member Benjamin Walker as Ridgeway Senior in Underground Railroad.
What did you think? Who do you think the Stranger is? And why did the shattered blade react like that in Theo’s hand? Have your say below …
