The sixth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power delivered an hour-long epic battle. We finally get to see a large scale battle and the build-up of the previous five episodes pay off. Keep reading to find out what happened and what it means for the remaining two episodes.
There will be spoilers for episode six so if you haven’t seen it yet or don’t want any spoilers, do not read ahead. Otherwise, enjoy!
Udûn
The episode opens up with a grandiose speech by Adar to the Orcs before they attack the humans at the guard tower. But when they arrive, it is empty. Except for one Elf who crashes the tower on the Orcs and runs away. Instead of pursuing, the Orcs give the humans a day to do whatever. They use that time to prepare for battle and set traps for a counterattack.
Things go great for Bronwyn and Arondir and the villagers. They win the fight and celebrate. But nobody noticed that they were fighting the deserters. Mental warfare by Adar shows why he is in charge. A counter-counter attack ensues by the orcs and they win pretty easily. They get their aim back and cannot miss their arrows. An episode makes a big difference in aim it seems.
Adar and the orcs break into the tavern and start killing their hostages one by one until Adar finally gets the key he seeks. But right when he gets the key, the Númenor army arrives and so does sunlight. The tide of the battle changes once again and Galadriel and Halbrand pursue after Adar on horseback. Waldreg has the key and inserts it and the dam opens up, releasing tons of water across Middle-earth and reaches the volcano because of the tunnels the orcs’ dug.
Commentary
Episode 6 is one long battle and it feels really good to finally get an epic battle. With that said, the fight scenes are average at best and lacks choreography. I hate to do this but compared to a Game of Thrones battle, this comes very short. Hopefully this issue is fixed because while the fight scenes itself were ok, the episode was great.
The back and forth between the orcs and the villagers kept me interested. Seeing it from both of their point of views was creative. I will say, it was hard to tell how big the army of the villagers was. One scene they would get killed and the next, there’s somehow more of them. Continuity issues aside, the episode delivered with the orc and the villager plot.
Even knowing that Númenor would arrive and save the day, I was still happy with the episode. The writing for this show has been subpar and I will definitely write another piece about that. For me, the oddest part of the show is the shift from day to night and night to day. Time is fluid and it is used as a plot device too often.
Galadriel has been called evil twice now and she has a mean streak. She also does not know how to socialize and is quick to anger. She is supposed to be the hero of the show but is portrayed as callous. Adar shows affection for the orcs and did what he did for them. After his heartfelt speech, Galadriel threatens to kill the orcs by exposing them to sunlight and she promises to kill every one of them and only then will she kill Adar.
I can see what the writers are going for but the problem is that Galadriel is centuries old. They don not treat her as such. Her character is getting a bad reputation and while that would be okay for a normal show, this show is not normal It is using source material that is well-established and ignoring it whenever it feels like it. Many fans will be angry and rightfully so.
Conclusion
This was easily the best episode. We finally see some action and it was well executed. Next week we will see how it affects all the other plotlines. I will say I was annoyed that we didn’t see Sauron when he was teased in the episode trailer. My guess is that we will see him end of episode 7 or 8. Hopefully they don’t wait too long or people will lose interest. Only two more episode remain and they should be as good if not better than this week’s episode!
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