One of the constant pushes and pulls a show like Rings of Power has had to tread across its first two seasons is just how Lord of the Rings it wants to be: the balance between wanting to carve out its own unique perspective on the Second Age of Middle-earth, and with leveraging the famous moments and iconography from Tolkien’s works (and the legacy of Peter Jackson’s films) that allow it to yell “Look! It’s that thing you know and like!”. Many years and many millions of Jeff Bezos’ shiniest dollars later, at long last, Rings of Power has reached that turning point: it is, now more than ever, about Those Things You Know. Whether that’s entirely a net benefit for the show, however, remains to be seen.
“Shadow and Flame” is somewhat of a peculiar finale for what has, in a lot of Rings of Power‘s myriad and disparate plot threads, been a bit of a peculiar season. If last week’s Siege of Eregion granted the show the strength of focus on some of its best story arcs of the season, the finale has to pay the price of effectively having to bounce back and forth around every character and plotline to neatly tie them off as we bid the season farewell. Some come to a sense of conclusion much better than others, but the episode is one that works better in parts rather than the sum of its whole—in some ways because that’s really how it’s structured, individual scenes with each thread, jumping around with little feeling of a cohesive whole beyond this being the last episode of the season.
That does not stop those individual scenes from being great though, especially as the episode starts incredibly strongly with the climax of what has been this season’s surprise highlight, brining to a climax the tragic tale of King Durin III and his desires to delve too greedily, and too deep. I’ve said in previous weeks that the Khazad-dûm plotline in season two has been Rings of Power‘s secret weapon—even in contrast to the major undertaking of depicting the fall of Eregion as the show’s primary focus this season—and that remains the case here. If anything, it also sets the tone appropriately for the rest of the episode. While it wrestles with potent imagery derived from what we know of where this story was always going—as Durin and his son discover the dark evil buried deep beneath the Dwarrowdelf in the form of the Balrog that gives the episode its title—it shines not because of this symbolic reference but for the emotionality at play, as king and prince alike wrestle with their relationship to each other, and the former, shaken out of the thrall of his own ring of power, passing on his mantle to the latter. It puts the characters before the imagery and connection to Tolkien’s grander work at the forefront, and in its sincerity it manages to give this entire season a personal cost where other plotlines swing for the scope of their heightened scale.
Where it matters, mostly in Eregion, that scale works—more on that soon. Let’s quickly dip into the two plotlines where neither that scale nor the importance of a legacy reveal really doesn’t: in Númenor and Rhûn, where no amount of name-dropping is going to save either of these threads from feeling like the most wasted of Rings of Power‘s sophomore season.
On the island nation, the constant back and forth of who’s actually supported as being in power—at least there’s not a third Giant Creature as System of Governance this time—tips back in Ar-Pharazôn’s favor, when he simply decides that no amount of popular support can overcome a light smattering of fascism, rallying his loyal guards to simply religiously persecute anyone who supported Míriel again. No one really gets much of anything to work with here, in terms of either a compelling emotionality or even narrative satisfaction. Eärien, Elendil’s daughter, finally tries to make good with her father by warning him of Pharazôn’s purge in time for him to secret himself back to Míriel’s side, only for the important bit there to climax with Míriel gifting Elendil Narsil, bidding him to leave her behind and accept his destiny while she stays to mollify Pharazôn’s power-grab. The moment is extremely paying homage to Aragorn accepting Anduril from Elrond in Return of the Kingright down to the way Lloyd Owen unsheathes the sword, but it feels so hollow in comparison: so much of the Númenor thread this season has been dedicated to the back-and-forth between who backs Míriel and Pharazon that none of the involved characters feel like they’ve grown to the point where the show is now pushing them to start becoming the characters we know them to be in Tolkien’s work. Drawing a direct parallel to one of the greatest moments in Jackson’s trilogy without any of the character context or nuance that made it so great just symbolizes “Shadow and Flame” at its lowest. I should probably mention the other Númenor-adjacent thread here in that, post-usurpation, Pharazon’s son Kemen sails into Pelargir at the worst possible time, bullying Theo and Isildur into accepting the village’s new status as a military hub for Pharazôn’s new navy, but it’s such a forgettably dull climax to their arcs that that’s pretty much all you can say about it.
Less egregiously lacking but still not ideal is wrapping up the Stranger’s story in Rhûn. Again, a lot of meandering leads to a lot of rush here—after seemingly setting up a narrative where Nori, Poppy, and the Stoors had to be ready to defend the Stoors’ established home from the Dark Wizard’s mercenaries, all of a sudden they were thrust smack bang into a meeting with the Wizard and the Stranger. All of a sudden that has to become a rapid confrontation, when it becomes clear that the Dark Wizard sees uniting the Istar as a way to inherit Sauron’s power over Middle-earth after his defeat—and that defeat must come at any means necessary, eschewing their connection to the mortal races—and then everything is just rocks falling and the Dark Wizard peacing out.
It’s a bizarre conclusion, made more bizarre that it climaxes with Nori, Poppy, and the Stoors deciding that actually, having a home to have roots in is not important when someone can just drop a bunch of rocks on it, and they rapidly part ways with the Stranger to go on a Harfoot-style migration. You hardly feel anything in Nori’s goodbye to the friend she’s guided across these two seasons, because again, the moment is less about that connection between the characters, and the legacy link we all knew was coming, when the Stoors refer to the lanky tall Stranger as “Grand Elf,” giving him the opportunity to decide that his name is now, of course, Gandalf (oh, and he finds his perfectly shaped wooden staff just lying around on the floor seconds later. Great emotional climax to what was meant to be the Stranger’s trial this season!).
But let’s get back to the mostly good stuff. The rest of the episode weaves us around the events in Eregion, as the siege begins to reach its final end and our elven players begin shuffling themselves around the remaining pieces on the chessboard. Elrond and Gil-Galad are captured by the invading orcs (Arondir too, seemingly perfectly fine after being horrifically shanked by Adar in last week’s climax), Galadriel once again decides her only option is to get herself captured instead of the thing she was meant to do, and poor Celebrimbor’s Very Not Good Day gets much worse as Sauron plays arrow pincushion with him. Celebrimbor’s final moments are arguably the most perilous that “Shadow and Flame” treads in this balance between doing good by its character arcs and the need to remind us things are progressing closer and closer to the Lord of the Rings we know. The agency the series granted him last week in resisting his downfall to the very end continues here, with Charles Edwards relishing a defiant, but defeated last stand to give one of his best performances from his time on the show. But making Celebrimbor’s final words, as a petty Sauron runs him through for needling the Dark Lord over his insecurities, to declare him the Lord of the Rings is, well… it’s certainly a way to get that specific set of words into this TV show.
Similarly clunky is how “Shadow and Flame” dispatches Adar out of the picture. One of the most interesting original characters in Rings of Powerthe idea of an orcish leader who had compassion for his fellow uruk, and wanted peace for them at any cost, was never going to end well, no matter how many times Rings of Power gestured to the idea of treating the orcs as more than just evil minions. And yet, that’s exactly what we end up getting here: the second Adar’s orcs find Sauron, they are immediately ensorcelled to do his bidding, setting up a way for Sauron to conveniently interrupt Galadriel and Adar’s last-ditch attempt at united front while the surrounding orcs gut their “father.” The parallel to the season’s opening flashback to the First Age is a good parallel compared to similar the Narsil/Anduril choice, but it’s still just as empty an end: you don’t get to feel any particular tragedy that Adar’s desires were all for naught, nor that the orcs lose their sense of agency: they’re just now a faceless sea of baddies, and as soon as that happens Rings of Power is eager to move on to thrusting Galadriel and Sauron at each other again.
It’s a fun fight, as Sauron effortlessly dances around Galadriel’s attacks, swapping physical forms to try and keep her off-balance (although unless we get some flashbacks next season, it feels like a bizarre choice that Charles Edwards’ actual final moment in the show is a few seconds where he has to be Sauron-as-Celebrimbor and snarl a petty jab before tumbling off a stone arch), one that ends with Sauron having the nine rings for humankind, and with Galadriel promptly chucking herself off a cliff face and into the forests below as a final fuck you of defiance, denying Sauron hold over her or her own ring.
Better, but still a little awkward, is how this sets up Gil-Galad and Elrond finding her weakening form and having to tag-team in using the rings to heal her—a necessary move towards Elrond having to accept the capacity to use the rings for good after his initial doubts this season, even if it feels forced after just how wildly his relationship with Galadriel has vacillated this season. At least that gives way to the actual final moment of the season, a powerful reminder of even at the darkest, Lord of the Ring‘s strength is in hope standing against evil at its apex. The stage is set for all these stories, with familiar names and familiar images firmly now locked in place, to begin their resistance to Sauron’s true ascendancy: Gil-Galad rallies the survivors of Eregion to fight for their home, rather than simply defend it, Prince Durin is now a precarious King who has to stand ready for not just the threat below his mountains, but from rival Dwarven kingdoms, Gandalf is now committed to in turn awaken his powers in the name of Middle-earth and its peoples rather than simply because it was what he was told to do by fate, and Elendil is… well, Elendil’s peacing out until he can find his other absent son before doing any of that rising up just yet. Baby steps!
In all, it’s a messy end to what’s been a largely strong, but similarly messy season for Rings of Power. It’s been an awkward transition, as the show prepares to draw closer and closer to familiar events in Tolkien’s world, but it’s one that has, for the most part, at least managed to retain some of the emotional strengths that made the otherwise-threadbare season one ultimately worth getting through. Now the true test of Rings of Power is here: It’s proven it has the logistical clout to amplify the scale of what its story (and its budget) is prepared to unveil of envisioning some of Tolkein’s grandest battles for the fate of Middle-earth. But now it has to prove that it can keep its heart, as it draws closer and closer to the ring-like temptation of being able to just namedrop and show familiar details and hope that’s enough. The war’s on pause for now, and the Lord of the Rings is truly here… we’re just going to have to wait a while yet to see how the series will deal with it.
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