What? Chamber of Curiosities The episode begins. From the opening scene in which the grumbling orcs abandon A'dar's army instead of fighting, to the final scene in which catapults arc through the night sky, raining flaming boulders down on the vast elven city of Eregion, this week's Ring of Power Each scene seemed to deliver something special.
Sauron is as good a place to start as any. This season he has emerged as just as compelling and interesting on-screen as Morphys Clarke's Galadriel. This is thanks both to Charlie Vickers' restrained but still somewhat snarling villain performance (he really knows how to act complacent with just his eyes) and the unique portrayal of his character. It's not often you see a villain who is so willing to lie to people's faces all the time just to make life worse for everyone else but himself. What a motive, what a way to do it!
It all culminates this week in a creepy scene: he uses his powers of deception to make Celebrimbor believe it's a bright sunny day in Eregion, when in fact it's the middle of the night and everyone in the city is panicking because thousands of orcs are coming to kill them. This works not only because it shows Sauron to be superior to everyone else in power and cunning; he plays Celebrimbor, one of the greatest minds in elven history, like Jimi Hendrix did “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It feels like Celebrimbor wants to be fooled; he's instead thinking to himself, “But it Was I heard the siege alarm! And it was Was “It was midnight last I checked!” And will he return to the work that has so engrossed him? Sauron correctly guesses the answer is yes.
Eregion is under siege from the proto-orc A'dar, who, in theory at least, is fighting to protect orc freedom from the tyranny of the Dark Lord. (The aforementioned grumbling deserters have a different opinion of A'dar than they do of themselves.) He tricks Galadriel into thinking he is seeking an alliance throughout the episode. Subtly, he plays on her pride by telling her to “put your pride aside” and convinces herself that she is being generous and open-minded by telling him about Sauron/Halbrand and the Rings of Power, when in fact she is just being a target.
This is both expected orc behavior and, from a narrative standpoint, useful. What's important to remind the viewer is that, while Adder is not as overtly sadistic or sociopathic as Sauron, he's still a murderous bastard, regardless of how he became that way. After all, a normal person would naturally back away from a cursed object like the crown of Sauron's late superior, Morgoth, as Galadriel did. Adder can carry the crown around with him and use it as an antidote to Sauron, because, fundamentally, evil does not abhor Adder.
Durin III is no longer repulsive either. The Dwarven King, sitting on his golden throne with mountains of treasure around him, is now a fascinating and repulsive figure, like some golden something that will cause great trouble to his descendants thousands of years later. At first, he refused Annatar's request for mithril silver in Celebrimbor's name (he now holds real power in Eregion, has managed to isolate Celebrimbor from everyone else, and convinces everyone that it is for his own benefit), but only because of the inflated asking price. His son, the prince, is horrified and tries to convince his father to remove the ring from his finger, but fails. As a result, he breaks down emotionally and cries to his wife Disa that somewhere in the poisoning, in this new person's eyes, he still sees a “distant glimmer” of his old father… Wow, this is really bad.
“The whole world has gone mad,” Durin Senior tells Durin Junior during their confrontation, and he's not wrong. The Lords of Khazad-dūm are obsessed with the Ring, the Lords of Eregion are obsessed with getting more Rings, Galadriel makes a deal with the Orcs only to be betrayed, and in Nūmenor, a new ruler, Ar-Pharazōn, rises to power. He wears red robes that pop against a digitally goose-edged blue and gold color scheme (if you're wondering, that's a bit of a mystery). Must He uses a worn-out palette (used to highlight different colors) and accuses Captain Elendil of treason, sentencing him to a trial known as the “Trial of the Deep,” in which a Númenorean trumpeter summons a “sea dragon” to decide whether Captain Elendil will be eaten by the will of the gods.
But at the last minute, the usurped Queen Tar-Miriel is tried in his place, his crimes allegedly committed in her name, and just when all seems lost, she is hurled back onto land by a great beast, presumably to seize power, in all her grandeur, in a glorious shot that may be the show's most memorable image to date.
That is, until the final shot of the fireball leaping over the river in the face of death. I know I said earlier this season that I'd avoid any comparisons to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, but this feels like it's unfolding on the scale of some old siege of an Elven kingdom that I've long imagined. It feels big, and terrifying, and inevitable. Sauron himself seems to feel it too, welcoming the attack with open arms in a Jesus Christ pose. Galadriel had warned Adder that he was walking into Sauron's trap. That's the whole story of the world this season, and it's thrilling to watch unfold.
But there is a silver lining: far away from it all, Nori and Poppy settle into the colony of stoors they found, while the Stranger continues to receive cryptic and aphoristic advice from Tom Bombadil, a wise and incredibly ancient being who has taken the guise of a young Santa Claus. Bombadil gives the Stranger a choice: he can either go and rescue his friends, or accept his fate and seek out the Wizard's wand, but not both.
This is almost certainly a ploy. He chooses his friends and how He finds the staff, but who cares. I mainly just want to say how lovable these two characters are, especially Daniel Wayman's Stranger. In fact, he's so warm and caring and lovable that I don't care anymore. Make it Gandalf, whether it makes sense in the text or not. I love this guy so much, and that's Gandalf's greatest weapon.
Sean T. Collins (Follow) writes about television Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Timesand Anywhere that will accept himYes, he and his family live on Long Island.
