Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6 Review: When Gandalf Met Yoda

There’s a lot going on in Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6 , too much to effectively fit into an hour. What we’re left with is an oddly shaped piece of storytelling with a few well-developed ideas, some pieces thrown in around the edge just to make sure you don’t forget what’s going on in the extraneous subplots, and a couple of portions that should really have been attached to Season 2 Episode 5 to get the full emotional effect.

The episode opens with a piece of trite coincidence. Arondir, having promised the Ents in episode four that he’ll care for their forest by stopping the Orc threat, hastens to Eregion for a confrontation with Adar, the self-appointed father and leader of the Orcs. For some reason, this elven ranger who’s as old as the land itself doesn’t know the way, but an Orc he slays just so happens to have a map pointing to Eregion. Yeah.

That’s all we see of him for now. Episode 6 gives everyone screen time – except Isildur, who’s still wandering around in the woods, apparently – which means everything ends up feeling a bit rushed and underdeveloped. That’s true for the Harfoots, who only get a scant few minutes of time with the Stoors, where Tanya Moodie’s Gundabale helps imprint on Nori the importance of home. It’s also true for the Stranger, though his situation lacks any comparable elegance.

The Stranger turns up again with Tom Bombadil, but only for the briefest of moments. The Stranger needs a wizard’s staff, and Tom knows just where to find one – sort of. Tom essentially tells the stranger to go find a stick in a forest, no matter how long it takes or if the Harfoots die in the process. It’s a baffling plot decision that feels like an excuse to get the Stranger safely out of the way so the show can focus on something else, and the overt parallels to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, when Yoda pushes Luke to ignore his friends for the sake of his training, make it feel even cheaper. Bombadil even says the Stranger’s training will be ruined forever if he leaves now.

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He then responds to the Stranger’s concern by quoting Gandalf’s chat with Frodo in Moria during Fellowship of the Ring, saying that many who live deserve to die and some who die deserve to live. There’s a big problem with that statement, aside from its unwarranted harshness and self-indulgent fanservice. Even if the idea behind it is to show where Gandalf – assuming the Stranger is him – developed his philosophies, Bombadil’s sentiment misses the point to an extent that borders on ridiculous. The idea isn’t “well, people die and that’s life. Get busy finding your stick.” When Gandalf says it in Fellowship of the Ring, he’s encouraging Frodo to take a broader view of an individual’s suffering and not be so quick to judge.

After two episodes, we go back to Galadriel after Orcs captured her, and after two seasons, Galadriel finally gets a chance to say and do something other than ruminate on Sauron’s evil – but not for long. Despite a few excellent scenes between Morfydd Clark and Sam Hazeldine’s Adar, it still feels like there’s no clear plan for Galadriel’s development, and it comes across as a missed opportunity to put Clark’s talent and a potentially interesting character to good use. Maybe that’s yet another facet of Rings of Power that we’ll have to wait another season or two to see pay off.

Rings of Power intends the situation with Adar to unfold like a tragedy, where this misunderstood, physically and mentally tortured elf cares for the world’s rejects and eventually treats them just as horribly as everyone else did. Adar and the Orcs just haven’t had enough time or development for this theme to work, though, an issue born from Season 1 and how Rings of Power hasn’t given the elves a clear identity or role to play in Middle-earth

It’s a misjudgment of viewer expectations as well. Even without Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy or even knowledge of Tolkien’s books, Orcs are your stereotypical fantasy evil – physically unappealing, cruel, brutal. Subverting perceptions and expectations of them would take much more than just a single episode and a few earlier snippets, and this season just hasn’t devoted the necessary time to the concept to make that sudden appeal to sympathy work.

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The strangest part of it is that for all the other bits and pieces of lore thrown in, from Entwives to giant sea monsters, there’s been almost no discussion of how Orcs came to be. There's nothing about what makes them so tragic, or the twisted nature of their relationship to the elves, the latter of which plays a strong part in the elves’ own relationship to the land and why – in Tolkien’s work, anyway – pride consumes them. Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6 very much wants to tell a story of oppression, but the pieces just aren’t there to make it work.

In Numenor, Elendil’s personal crisis reaches a breaking point when Ar-Pharazon demands his allegiance, forcing Elendil to renounce his faith to the Elven gods and his fealty to Miriel. It’s a cruel ploy in general, but especially after the events of Episode 5 and Kemen’s treachery. Elendil refuses, unsurprisingly. That means he has to die.

Rings of Power often relies heavily on sweeping landscape shots that capture the feel, but not the soul, of Jackson’s trilogy, but the execution event – a kind of witch ducking ritual where the convicted is either saved by the Valar or eaten by a giant water worm – is a welcome instance where the cinematography actually complements the action. Here, we get a sense of Middle-Earth’s wild untamed edges and can see the vastness of the kingdom’s isolation – cut off from elves and humans alike with no hope for aid should corruption set in.

The personal drama in Numenor continues to be a highlight, particularly between Elendil and his daughter Earien. Her own grief and her own father’s stubbornness drive her to support Pharazon’s regime and the dismantling of Numenorean culture almost out of spite. Meanwhile, Elendil’s intended sacrifice is a literal drop in the ocean, one whose ripples won’t reach far, but he’s too wrapped up in his own grief to realize how much more good he could do while remaining alive.

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Back in the elven lands, Annatar’s hold over Celebrimbor and, more importantly, Celebrimbor’s friends and allies grows ever stronger. Episode Six continues the downward spiral of abuse and manipulation as work begins on the rings intended for mortal hands and Adar’s army draws closer. As ever, the chemistry between Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards gives the exchanges between them weight and tension, and the growing sense of impending danger lends an air of desperation to every moment.

There’s just not a lot that’s new here in Episode 6. Annatar’s manipulation and deception, Celebrimbor’s growing paranoia – it really is a continuation of Episode 5 and, in a different edit, could – and should – probably have been part of it.

Annatar takes a brief detour to Khazad-dum to request more materials from the dwarves in a short, tense interview with Durin IV. The king refuses, hoping Eregion will pay more when their need grows desperate, and for some reason, Annatar sees the Balrog manifest in one of the nearby torches. The moment isn’t quite as cringeworthy as seeing “Mordor” pop up on screen, but it serves no purpose either.

The Durin family gets only a tiny bit of time, but it leads to one of the most poignant moments in the series so far. Disa and Durin have to confront the fact that the father figure they both love is no longer himself, and they now must make a seemingly impossible decision about how to move forward. The situation and its parallels to real-life caretaker scenarios is oddly specific considering how little attention Rings of Power gave the idea previously, and I walked away wishing the conflict between Prince Durin and his father had delved further into the shifting relationship between parent and child as the parent grows older before now.

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Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6: The Verdict

Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6 is an odd one. It’s effective at building a sense of impending doom and great change just over the horizon, but trying to cram too much into an hour takes away from the narrative arcs where the plot actually moves forward. It doesn’t do the other substories any favors either and just emphasizes how little is happening for the rest of the cast. On the bright side, more of the narratives are starting to converge for the next episode, which should help give the season some much-needed focus.