Episode 5 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power finally aired and it is building up for an epic ending to the season. A lot has been disclosed in this episode and our protagonists are about to embark on their journey.
As always, there will be spoilers ahead so if you haven’t seen the episode and don’t want any spoilers, stop reading now. Otherwise, carry one.
Partings
We finally learn that Elrond was sent to Khazad-dûm to learn whether the dwarves discovered mithril. High King Gil-galad tells Elrond that mithril is the only way to save the Elves or they will lose their immortality. But Elrond has sworn an oath and does not tell the king about the dwarves’ discovery.
In Númenor, Galadriel is preparing to go to Middle-earth but not everything is going as planned. Halbrand is not interested in going back to his hometown. Some Númenorian are against the voyage which leads to two of the five boats being sunken. But things eventually work out and Galadriel and Halbrand are on board heading towards Middle-earth as the episode ends.
In Middle-earth, Bronwyn makes a short speech about fighting back against Adar while Waldreg convinces half of the residents of the tower to swear fealty to Adar. But Waldreg messes up as he confuses Adar for Sauron and has to make amends with blood. With half of the forces deserting, Bronwyn must make a difficult choice in using the sword which is actually a key and opening whatever is behind the door.
The stranger is accompanying the harfoot as they migrate across Middle-earth. But three wolves attack the harfoot and the stranger uses his power to fend them off. He is celebrated like a hero but he is busy healing his damaged hand. As he heals his hand, Nori touches his arm and her hand and arm freeze and she is blown back by a shockwave. She realizes he is dangerous and runs away.
Commentary
The first thing that I want to say is that this episode had the best scene in the show for me with the back and forth with Galadriel and Halbrand. I was annoyed that it took the whole episode for Galadriel to depart for Middle-earth. The plot is moving slow and with three more episodes left, we will not be seeing too much action.
Am I the only one that hates Númenor a lot? While it has some endearing characters, most of the people there are tiresome. They don’t even know why they hate the Elves! It will be interesting to see them eventually join Atlantis but that may take a long time depending on the pace of the show.
Besides Galadriel not sailing until the end of the episode, the Orcs also took their time. I guess they get come leeway because they can’t march until night but they weren’t really marching when we first meet them this episode. Can somebody please take the war seriously? Everybody is moving as slowly as possible. Next week should be promising but it did not have to take that long.
We finally learn that Adar is not Sauron which was not surprising. Is Sauron locked away behind the door at the tower? The Elves would choose that location to guard it so that is a likely possibility. But why would the Elves not know that? They are immortal and should have retained that in memory. We will find out next week if Sauron is behind that door.
The plot with the elves is kind of boring, not going to lie. While most of the plotlines focus on the war, the elves are focused on a rock. The stakes have been raised with the elves perishing if they don’t get the mithril. How convenient. It will be interesting to see if they can make us actually care about this plot or not going forward.
Lastly, the stranger saves the harfoot and he also sends one flying by accident. To be fair, Nori shouldn’t have grabbed his freezing arm. He sends Nori flying and she is terrified of him now. Hopefully, he gets to keep his harfoot card after that. Who else can fight off wolves? If you can even call those things wolves. If you are going to create an animal, please name it something new.
Conclusion
This week’s episode was weak and it felt like a lot of the scenes could have been skipped. Maybe having 5 different plots might have been overkill. Just to march to battle seems to consume a whole episode. Let’s hope that season two cuts the plots down to four because it is too slow right now.
Everything important this week could have been summed up in under ten minutes. An hour shorter than the whole episode. With 3 more episode to go, the action has to pick up, right? Next week’s episode might be the make or break one for me because with over 5 hours in, we have yet to see one good battle.
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