TV Review: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER: Season 1, Episodes 7-8 [Prime Video]

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Eye and Alloyed

Prime Video‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1, Episode 7: The Eye and Episode 8: Alloyed TV Show Review.

The last episodes of the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power admirably resolve the ambiguities introduced thus far in the series.

The Eye

This episode picks up where the previous explosive cliff-hanger left off. In this episode, regrouping after injuries and disasters is the over-arching strategy. In addition to Galadriel, good many of the Southlanders survived in the fire-stormed aftermath. Míriel also made it through, but not unscathed; she was blinded by the catastrophe. Orcs had injured Halbrand with a poisoned blade, and Galadriel takes him to the Elves for healing. Meanwhile, the Númenoreans set sail for home, and Adar claims the devastated land as Mordor. The Stranger is still among the Harfoots, but pursued by three pale women with powers of their own. These three are evidently new characters added to the story with names like “The Ascetic One,” and so on, something like the Three Fates of Ancient Greek history. They decimate the caravan, and as a result the Harfoots reluctantly exile the Stranger. A tug-of-war among the Dwarves arises because of mithril. King Durin III discovers Durin IV and Elrond mining the precious metal themselves after he had forbidden it. He disowns his son, and Elrond gets turned out with the original nugget still in his possession. But more importantly, this narrative stresses individual loyalties in the face of defeat or opposition.

Alloyed

Two red herrings launch the final episode of Season 1 of The Rings of Power, and both relate to Sauron. The first concerns the three pale, powerful mystics tracking the Stranger. Over the season they have popped up in a scene for a quick moment, just enough to hint at that purpose. But they strive under the misconception that their quarry is Sauron himself, acting as his favored servants. They pay for their mistake by being banished into darkness by the Stranger, one of the five Istari or Wizards (in my opinion, this Stranger is Mithrandir, or Gandalf the Grey). The second centers on Galadriel’s discovery that Halbrand could not be a Southland king, the line of which ended centuries before without issue. Then Halbrand declares himself as Sauron, and insists that as penance for his loyalty to Morgoth, he now desires only to heal Middle Earth as its ruler. And a very persuasive argument it is, too, begging Galadriel to join him as his Queen. She refuses, however, and he vanishes, presumably off to join Adar in the new land of Mordor to rule by force and terror.

This ends with the other main payoff of the season: the forging of the Three with their respective jewels — the Silmarils. Alloyed refers to the ‘pure’ silver and gold melted down from Galadriel’s dagger, to which the mithril will blend its purifying light with the strength of the Elvish alloys.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that there are significant departures from the books, but these are both understandable and unavoidable, considering the breadth of history covered in them, even as notations. In addition, the filmmakers stated that the narrative would be culled from backstories found in the novels, and especially the appendices, which laid the foundation for the “Silmarillion.” Though Tolkien and older son, Christopher, had worked in concert on this and other works, evidently there was still considerable latitude to enhance the story.  In this sense, alloyed could take on another meaning: a blending of Tolkien’s tale with their own style of mythos.

But whatever the intent, the result thus far is a seamless re-telling of the Tolkien epic, a solid narrative, good logical consistency, laced with plenty of twists, excitement and suspense to bridge the gaps in the source material. With few (if any) loose strings left from Season 1, one eagerly anticipates Season 2, where we can look forward to visual treats such as the forging of the One Ring, the fates of the Seven, the Nine, and especially Númenor’s itself. If the rest of the production stays on par, it promises to be an extraordinary accomplishment.

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