After a crazy summer of television, it’s safe to say that House of the Dragon won the Fantasy TV Wars. As Tolkien fans waited for more tales from Middle-earth, The Rings of Power went through recasting drama and faded out of the spotlight. Meanwhile, a giant inflatable dragon sat atop the Empire State Building while everyone tuned back into George R.R. Martin’s world of medieval backstabbing.
But even though House of the Dragon garnered more viewers than The Rings of Power, both shows largely went about their business in the same way. As prequels, the only destination for either series is a future that audiences already know everything about. House of the Dragon very much ran into this problem during its lackluster season 2 finale. And thanks to the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings films, viewers mostly know what happens to Middle-earth and all its important jewelry.
Even at a prequel’s best, it can sometimes feel like the stories are written in reverse—propelling characters to their predestined fates no matter what is happening on-screen. That’s the largest hurdle for prequels like House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power, which is why many of the latter’s fans gravitated toward plots that had nothing to do with the major conflicts to come.
The Harfoots, for instance, embraced that Hobbit-esque sense of adventure more than anyone in season 1, as they left their cozy little hamlet to explore the dangers of a magical world. There was also Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and Disa (Sophia Nomvete), a loving dwarf couple who live underground and act in a more rational fashion that any other character on the series. That’s probably because they aren’t thrust toward their destiny at glacial speeds but instead are free to fill the series with some of its only warm, humorous moments. Sadly, neither character appears in the season 2 premiere.
Outside of the caves and the forests of these relatable folk, The Rings of Power is instead flooded with lots of doom and gloom. The Harfoots are sent to the desert. Sauron seemingly manipulates Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) into creating an absolutely silly supply of powerful rings like he’s asking Alexa to update his shopping list, and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) sets out on a quest to stop him… which won’t come together until the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. If season 2’s premiere is a taste of what’s to come, it’s all going to play out as slowly as we feared.
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Where are the dwarves?!
That is, if you even make it past the “previously on” segment to continue watching. Did you think there were too many Aegons to remember in House of the Dragon? Well, get ready to recall names like Celebrimbor and Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker). Sauron/Halbrand/Annatar (Charlie Vickers) is the same guy with different names, while Adar (Sam Hazeldine) has been replaced by an entirely new actor.
But if you do stay for Sauron’s opening speech, you’ll catch some gnarly orc violence. After a failed bid to win their service, Sauron is stabbed over a hundred times by the ugly band. But you can’t kill the big bad that easily. Sauron unleashes a powerful beam of light from his mouth that covers the entire area in frost, before escaping underground by turning himself into a black goop. The dark elf Adar still claims victory for the orcs, completely unaware that Sauron’s body is being reborn as the Venom symbiote from Spider-Man.
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Do not trust this man!
Turns out, this event actually took place prior to the events of The Rings of Power, before Galadriel found Sauron shipwrecked in his Halbrand guise. We don’t really know Sauron’s motivations in this prequel series so far—especially since he’s just represented by a scary skyscraper in the movies—but it’s clear that anyone with his otherworldly abilities would consider himself a god.
When Sauron finally makes it back to Modor to face Adar again, the Orc ruler is savage and unyielding. But the menacing tone is undercut when Halbrand, echoing Moses, asks the dark elf to “Let my people go.” He’s still playing the part of the King of the Southlands, masking his true identity from his former killer. I’d enjoy a plot that explores Sauron trying to do good as a Southlands ruler before turning grim, but I doubt that’s in the cards for the dark lord.
Instead, Halbrand lets Adar’s men torture him until he can convince the dark elf that he’s better off in his service than dead. As Elrond (Robert Aramayo) suggests, maybe he needs the rings. He’s very right. Halbrand tells Adar that Sauron has taken on a new form (himself, of course!) and that he can uncover his identity for him if he lets him return to the elves undercover. For whatever reason, Adar agrees. Halbrand swears allegiance to Adar with his head at his feet, contorting his face into a twisted smile. Anything for those rings!
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Celebrimbor is easily one of Tolkien’s best-named characters.
Another man confused by his identity is Gandalf (Daniel Weyman), aka “the Stranger,” who spent all of season 1 with amnesia. He can finally speak now, but the fallen angel-esque wizard still doesn’t recall what his purpose is, or even how he arrived on Middle-earth in the first place. Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), who should absolutely be the main character of this series, remains his only companion, until they run into Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards). They all eat bugs together this episode, and that’s about it for now. “I feel the legs in my throat,” the Stranger says. Gross.
Back with the elves, Galadriel (the actual main character) reveals to her allies that she was tricked by Sauron. But when high king Gil-galad demands that Elron had over the rings, the elven diplomat refuses. “You know I can’t do that,” he says, before jumping off the cliffs and falling down a waterfall. Can he survive that? It’s a good reminder for fans of the power levels we’re dealing with here. Then Gil-galad entrusts the incredibly important message to Celebrimbor that Halbrand is Sauron to some random guard.
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The only way to explain this crazy image is to show it to you.
Elrond escapes to meet Cirdan (Ben Daniels), an expert shipwright who agrees to help him safeguard the rings. Instead, Cirdan is enchanted by their power. Classic! He wields one himself when he returns to the clumsy King Gil-galad, who puts another ring on his hand and drops the third one. The silver ring oh-so-casually bounces its way over to Galadriel’s feet, and she becomes utterly fascinated with its power as well. How could she not, when their mere presence restores their golden tree and saves the elven race from extinction?
In an insane shot (shown above), the camera swirls around as the three ring-bearers just wordlessly gaze at each other with their hands outstretched in a huddle like they’re about to jog out onto the court for a bizarre Renaissance Faire community basketball game. If only The Rings of Power could hold the same sway over its audience as these rings. Maybe they could use a couple dragons?
