Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Premiere Recap: An Ominous Alliance Looms — Grade Episode 1!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returned on Thursday morning with a thrilling flashback, lots of deception, and a problematic partnership. Let’s recap just the first of the three new episodes, now streaming on Prime Video.

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As Season 2 opens, Sauron (played by Charlie Vickers) addresses his hordes at Forodwaith. Adar (Sam Hazeldine, replacing Joseph Mawle), the dastardly Orc who caused so much trouble last season, stands nearby, his expression unreadable. The Orcs bristle at Sauron’s admission that many of them will die in pursuit of “this new, perfect order,” but none move against him. Not yet.

Sauron, unperturbed by his audience’s growing unrest, reminds the orcs of their… unfavorable standing among men and elves. This is when the orcs start snapping. One of them moves to gut Sauron, which ends the way we all knew it would — with the orc cut to pieces and Sauron more self-assured than ever. He once again demands their fealty, and they appear to surrender to him.

Adar produces an evil-looking crown, proclaims, “All hail Lord Sauron,” and drives it, spikes-first, into the back of the kneeling Dark Lord’s neck. Wounded and enraged, Sauron lunges at his assailant. The first problem? There are hundreds of furious orcs in the room with him, many within shanking distance. Couple that reality with the fact that Adar isn’t being skewered by dozens of hungry blades, and it’s clear how screwed Sauron seems to be.

The would-be arbiter of evil collapses. Before the dust can settle, though, blue light erupts from his body and transforms Forodwaith into a lifeless tundra. Was it a last-ditch effort to wipe out Adar and his Orcs? Maybe a distraction to cover his escape? Either way, Adar not only survives, but becomes Head Orc. Sauron, now a viscous black blob, lives. Barely.

Black Tar Sauron drips through the cracks in the ground and, sustained on a steady diet of rats and hatred, eventually congeals into a marginally anthropomorphous slab of evil. Despite his weakened state, he’s able to overwhelm a passing traveler and use her strength to regain human form.

Sauron wanders the wilderness alone until he meets a ragtag group of travelers prepping for a sea voyage. He joins the travelers on the boat, but a sea monster attack cuts their voyage short. Sauron leaves the travelers to drown and finds “safety” on raft-sized splinters of the ship.

“Over here!” a familiar voice calls. Sauron turns, and we suddenly realize (if we haven’t already) that we’re watching a flashback. He pulls Galadriel ( His Dark Materials ‘ Morfydd Clark) onto his raft, and we’re whisked back to the present.

As you may recall from Season 1, Galadriel now knows Halbrand is Sauron, and Elrond (Robert Aramayo fka young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones ) has recovered the scroll that exposes the Dark Lord’s lie. That lie is fixing to sow even more chaos. Southlands scroll in hand, Elrond races to High King Gil-galad ( Jessica Jones ‘ Benjamin Walker) on horseback, with Galadriel hot on his tail. Elrond reaches Gil-galad, who demands the three Rings of Power (which Elrond also possesses) and forces Galadriel to tell him who Halbrand really is. Enraged, Gil-galad doubles down on needing the rings. Elrond, convinced that Sauron corrupted them under Celebrimbor’s nose, refuses and leaps into a waterfall. (Hey, I’ve seen worse exits.)

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Gil-galad sends a messenger to inform Celebrimbor ( Downton Abbey’ s Charles Edwards) of Halbrand’s true identity. Galadriel tracks Elrond to Lindon, but she’s too late: Elrond has entrusted shipmaster Círdan ( House of Cards ‘ Ben Daniels) with tossing the rings into the sea. A large wave knocks the pouch of rings from his grasp, and he considers them, ominous music implying he’s about to make a terrible choice.

While the rest of Middle Earth scrambles to track down the rings, plucky Harfoot Nori ( The Gloaming ‘s Markella Kavenagh) and the Stranger ( Vera ‘s Daniel Weyman) continue their quest for answers regarding the Stranger’s origins. The search is not going well. They’re starving and frustrated, and their desolate surroundings offer no reprieve from either. The Stranger manages to make bugs explode from a rotting tree, but even beetle-munching can’t lift his spirits. What does lift Nori’s spirits, however, is the arrival of her best friend Poppy (Megan Richards), who has been following them through the desert.

Down in Mordor, Sauron has turned himself in to Adar. He informs the orcs of Sauron’s return, convincing them that the great evil they fear so much is elsewhere and not standing right in front of them. He eventually tricks Adar into releasing him, but only after several nights of torture at Waldreg’s (Geoff Morrell) hand. As Sauron rides away from Adar’s camp, a warg he’d possessed earlier kills Waldreg. The man’s screams echo across the hellscape as Sauron Brutal, but on-brand.

In the premiere’s final minutes, Cirdan arrives with the rings (he has claimed one for himself) as Gil-galad mobilizes the elves to leave Middle Earth. Elrond, horrified at Cirdan’s decision, protests, but it’s done: Gil-galad and Galadriel each claim one.

Sauron arrives at Eregion to meet with Celebrimbor, setting the stage for a thoroughly destructive partnership.

And that’s it! What did you think of The Rings of Power ‘s long-awaited Season 2 premiere? Let us know in the comments below!

Want scoop on The Rings of Power , or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com , and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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