The Fantasy Review’s recap and review of Rings of Power, season 2, episode 8, Shadow and Flame.
My spoiler-free Rings of Power, season 2, episode 8 review would be that this finale gave us a little and witheld a lot. The climaxes were unsatisfying and some of the writing decisions were just insane.
There were positives, and I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t like it.
Spoiler-Filled Review of Rings of Power, Season 2, Episode 8
No Matter What You Hear, Do Not Follow Me Down That Mine
At Khazad-dûm, Prince Durin finds the destruction caused by his father, King Durin, now completely taken over by greed caused by the Ring. Prince Durin goes to face his father.
The set design and CGI is incredible at Khazad-dûm. From the open spaces to the narrow mining caves, this is the best looking part of Rings of Power. It’s a shame they keep ruining it by teasing the Balrog that no one should know about.
The Prince demands that the King takes off the Ring, or he will cut off his hand. Durin’s love and respect for his father comes across well, giving us something emotional to hang on to in this moment which we didn’t really have before.
King Durin looks insane here, blood across his face and a dead look behind his eyes. The make-up and costume department on this show really got his character designed and looking great.
The King breaks through into a cave and they see “the dynasty of Durin” – which refers to the huge amounts of Mithril that line the walls of a massive cavern. King Durin then says, “but to see our mountain the way I do, you have to wear a ring, my son,” which is the tragedy of this storyline.
Because Prince Durin will one day be King, and he will wear the Ring after his father dies. So, yes, right now he can see how it twists his father’s mind, but one day it will do the same to him.
Why is the Balrog Here?
The Dwarves awoke the Balrog in the year 1980 of the Third Age. It hid and slept under Khazad-dûm for the entirety of the Second Age.
This Balrog.
The one who is apparently very awake and very cross.
King Durin knows he’s about to die. He leaves the Ring behind and charges at the Balrog with his axe.
Despite the utter confusion at everything to do with this scene, it is emotional. If I ignore all my questions about why the Balrog doesn’t come back again to bother the Dwarves for ages, or how King Durin dug too deep that fast, etc, etc, then it is an exciting, dramatic scene.
The only issue is, I like to be able to think about what I’m watching. Poor writing and bad narrative structure is something that makes a story rubbish. I’m not watching a reality show – if I’m watching Taskmaster, I’ll happily switch my brain off and enjoy the entertainment. That’s the point.
This is Tolkien’s world. You are supposed to think about it. And with Rings of Power, if you scratch even a little beneath the surface, you see the inner workings of the narrative look like the wires at the back of your TV. A mess, and nearly impossible to untangle without ripping it all out and starting again.
The Stranger is Reunited with the Harfoots
The only storyline I have been interested and invested in has been the one that was crowbarred into the series and mostly ignored by writers who don’t know what to do with it. It is the story of The Stranger and the Harfoots.
So, finally, we see the Stranger again after he is abandoned by Tom Bombadil. The Stranger is looking for the Harfoots, I think, leaving us waiting for the staff for a bit longer. God, they are dragging this out, and for no reason because they get so little screen time anyway!
The Dark Wizard comes out of the shadows and speaks. He mentions Manwë, saying the leader of the Airnur told him the Stranger would come.
I kind of want to know how we got to this scene? Sure, I’m excited for it and this is awesome, but how did The Stranger get here, and where are we?
So, the Dark Wizard chats with Not-Gandalf, reveals he has Poppy and Nori “safe” and then scares off the masked guys who were holding a knife to the harfoots’ throats, killing one of them in the process.
He tries to pass himself off as a good guy who has a branding issue because of how Men feared his power. However, then we get the following lines:
Dark Wizard: “You pity him, whose blade was at your throat?”
Nori: “Yes.”
My heart warmed to hear her say that, standing bravely against such a powerful adversary. Nori is a character I wanted to see more of, because she needed more characterisation, and it is small moments like this that tell you so much about who a character is.
The Dark Wizards offers Not-Gandalf the chance to join him as Sauron’s successors, and The Stranger responds:
“I would sooner walk this desert forevermore, nameless and forgotten.”
This is a gorgeous line which has the same impact on his characterisation as Nori’s line before. But then, we had to get another Lord of the Rings quite spat out of an unoriginal writers room that just pulls you right out of the moment, when the Dark Wizard responds by saying, “Then you give me little choice, old friend.”
I mean, if this is Saurman, how does he rise to the position he achieves by The Lord of the Rings? And if this is another of the Wizards (which has all but been confirmed with the Dark Wizard himself talking of the 5 who travelled to Middle-earth), why would he sound like Saurman?
The Dark Wizard sends a bunch of rocks on all the Stoors’ heads and leaves, saying he will face Not-Gandalf again “when your senses have returned.”
This was unbelievably disappointing for every reason imaginable. Mainly because we got no answers. None at all. There was this climax to a plot we have waited for all season, seeing little of it, and nothing was revealed except this Dark Wizard guy wants to be friends. Ugh.
Final point here, it is revealed that the Stranger originally convinced the Dark Wizard to travel to Middle-earth. If this is true, Not-Gandalf really can’t be Gandalf. Olórin, Gandalf’s original name, didn’t really want to leave the Undying Lands, and had to be convinced.
Sure, Gandalf and the rest of the Istari shouldn’t be there anyway during the Second Age, arriving in Middle-earth around the same time the Necromancer appeared in Dol Guldur in the year 1000 of the Third Age.
But time compression is fine, can be fine, if done well. Whatever, moving on.
The King’s Men Persecute the Faithful
Back in Númenor, the land of the sheep people who will chant for anyone if the person next to them is chanting, the Faithful are gathered together by the King’s Men. Ar-Pharazôn tells them that Míriel “bewitched the sea” to survive her trial.
This is an interesting development as I was wondering how the hell they were going to get out of this one, to move the plot forwards. Ar-Pharazôn claims that Míriel had the assistance of Sauron and all who are Faithful are guilty of treason.
We keep getting a lot of shots of the White Tree, which means, I think, it will either be destroyed this episode, or the falling leaves from it show Númenor’s separation from the Valar. I wonder who will save the fruit/seed if not Isildur – Elendil would be the best choice.
Elendil’s made-up daughter is caught by surprise and warns her father of what’s coming. She might blame Míriel for everything, but she doesn’t want her father to die – especially not after she just came so close to losing him before.
Elendil goes to Míriel and says they must flee to the West to join the Faithful there, including his other son, Anárion. Míriel does not go with him, but she gifts him Narsil, The White Flame, a sword all Lord of the Rings fans remember.
The Sack of Eregion Continues
Episode 7 was a huge disappointment, considering how epic the Sack of Eregion could have been, and this scene where the orcs enter the city is just as disappointing. Galadriel gets a bunch of women and children out, but they are surrounded by orcs.
She says she will give herself up for Adar if they let the women and children go free, and the way she convinces them of this is to TELL THEM ABOUT THE NINE RINGS OF POWER IN HER POCKET.
Jesus Christ.
Now, we move on from that illogical nonsense to a brutal scene of torture. Celebrimbor is pierced with arrows, and Sauron keeps shooting them at him. Sauron wants the Nine.
During Sauron’s interrogation of Celebrimbor, he mentions that the orcs are almost within the walls. He threatens Celebrimbor with the orcs’ blood-hunger (something the show has tried to get us to forget, until now) and uses the Fall of Gondolin as a point of reference.
He speaks as if Celebrimbor didn’t fight in the Fall of Gondolin…
Celebrimbor is badass in this scene though. He understands the Rings of Power better than anyone, even better than Sauron, and he tells Sauron that the Rings shall be his ruin. Defiant until the end, with one of the best performances of the entire show, I shall miss Celebrimbor.
The scene ends with Celebrimbor’s death, which was the best climax of a storyline this show has done yet. Then, the orc with a family he loves comes in and asks Sauron who he is and it looks like he’s about to ally himself with Sauron over Adar, which makes no sense.
Sure, Adar is bad, but you allied yourself with Adar against Sauron because you knew Sauron was worse. Why go back to the worst possible option?
What Did You Have for Breakfast on This Day, 3 Years Ago?
Back with Isildur, finally, he and Theo have a chat. Theo asks Isildur how he lives with his mum being dead, and it being his fault – which I had completely forgotten about until this moment, because the writers of this show do not know how to manage so many different characters and storylines at the same time.
When Theo leaves, the woman who was “bad” then became “good” and that Isildur fancies comes in and he asks her if she is building a home. It has been so long since we last saw these people it could have been last season.
I don’t care about this storyline, or remember it, and I don’t think anyone else does either. What I do like, however, is Isildur. This version of the character has gone through a lot and he’s gone from being a brash young man to a slightly wiser, humbler individual. Despite his lack of screen time, I feel like I know who he is.
As this is a recap of the whole of Rings of Power, episode 8, I’ll go through the main points:
- The woman I can’t remember tells Isildur that her husband is laying the foundations of their new home
- She says she felt ill when her husband talked of loving her/their love
- Then she and Isildur kiss
- He asks her to come to Númenor with him
To be fair, we never know who Isildur’s wife is, only that he has one. It is a gap in the lore that the show has the opportunity to fill and do something new with. Maybe I’ll be more interested in the future when they actually spend some time developing this love at first sight stuff.
If Isildur is going to Númenor, I feel like next season we are going to see the Fall of Númenor as the main climax of the season. This will give the writers time to have Elendil and Isildur miss each other, maybe Elendil will go back to Númenor one last time, to rescue Isildur, I don’t know.
I also hope not, as that all sounds very convoluted and boring.
Kemen, everyone’s favourite Geoffrey replacement, lands in Pelargir and swaggers in and shits himself when he sees Isildur. Then he gathers himself and tells Isildur the quick TL;DR of the situation.
The King’s Men are going to use Pelargir as a fortress in Middle-earth, and want the “low men” there to cut down the trees for the building of the fortress and their armada, which might anger a few of the Ents…
Here, Have Your Ring Back
Back with the quick-thinking Galadriel, it turns out her Ring healed Adar of his wounds and he wants to earn his old name back. So he gives the Ring back to Galadriel, in the hopes of healing the rift between Elves and Uruk, creating a lasting peace in Middle-earth.
Adar is one of the best inventions for Rings of Power. It’s a shame his plot doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, but the character and his history is fascinating and I always find myself wanting to know more about him.
Shame the next scene happens then.
The thing I said would be rubbish happened. And it was rubbish. The orc who wants peace and happy family times stabs Adar in the side, pretending to have been injured by Sauron, and then all the orcs stab him over, and over again, mirroring what they did to Sauron in episode 1.
Sauron comes by and picks up Morgoth’s crown (how is that Morgoth’s?), says hi to Galadriel and stands over Adar’s corpse. Galadriel says it was all Sauron’s plan from the beginning, so he quotes one of Bilbo’s poems: “the road goes ever winding. Not even I can see all its paths.”
This is taken from the poem called The Road Goes Ever On, which we see various versions sung or spoken by Bilbo and Frodo in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
A Dance of Dragons
Galadriel picks her sword from the ground and attacks Sauron who just bats her away like a fly. He notices the Ring and is immediately obsessed with it, demanding she give it and the Nine to him.
If he doesn’t get the Nine after this fight, it’s going to be a very frustrating season 3.
In Eregion, Gil-galad and Elrond are held captive. I suppose, with King Durin’s death, Prince Durin (now the new King) might come to their aid at some point in this episode. This show is very good at teleporting people, so there shouldn’t be any trouble.
Elrond is another character who I like in Rings of Power, despite being called a politician all the time which is just irritating and insulting. But he has a great moment when he begs an orc not to destroy Celebrimbor’s library of documents, saying they can kill him, but please spare the work.
This is very Elf-like behaviour and just the sort of thing Elrond or many others would say and believe. Of course, that doesn’t work and the work gets burned anyway.
Back at the Dance of Dragons, Galadriel fails to be a challenge for Sauron in their duel of stick vs. pointy hat, and their dialogue is very Star Wars, with them taking a breather every few seconds to take verbal jabs at one another.
I wouldn’t have minded the cinematic fantasy of pausing in a fight to take a verbal shot at your enemy, but they decided to continue shipping Sauron and Galadriel, implying he fancies or loves her or something.
Now, out of all beings in Middle-earth, Galadriel is the one who would be most likely to attract Sauron, in theory. But the richness of Galadriel’s character and history in Tolkien’s work is made shallow by this kind of lazy storytelling.
Incel Sauron, after being denied once again by Galadriel, stabs her in the chest with Morgoth’s crown (get that out of the show!) They do a fake-out of Galadriel’s death, but it’s for the purpose of Sauron getting his hands on the Nine. I am so glad that that plot didn’t get dragged out.
Sauron is then distracted by a horn, and the Dwarves are teleported in.
Dwarves!
Galadriel stands, despite having been stabbed in the chest, and falls off the cliff, denying Sauron the Elven Ring she wears. The orc who turned on Adar comes up to him and says they are outnumbered and should retreat and is stabbed by Sauron.
As if that orc didn’t already know Sauron was the worse of the two. If he’s got enough brain cells to love a family, he’s smart enough to know Adar was the better of the two Lords.
Now he’s dead, so that’s that.
Gil-galad, Arondir, and Elrond see Galadriel fall off the cliff and find her body. Her wounds are of the body but also of the soul, with her spirit being drawn into the shadow realm… like Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Can’t these writers come up with anything for themselves?
Gil-galad and Elrond use two of the Rings to save her life, with this being Elrond’s climatic change of opinion on the Rings.
In the Rubble
So, this was the theme of the season. No matter how hard you fight, sometimes you can’t fix what’s broken.
The Stoors are recovering from the destruction of their home. The Elves and survivors of Eregion flee from the destroyed realm. The people of Pelargir suffer under the rule of that dickhead, Kemen.
Rings of Power got the feel right for the Second Age, at least. It’s a tragedy, as is much of what came before, and much of what is to follow. But there is always hope, hope in the little things, hope in the hearts of good people, despite the tragedy and darkness that threatens to overwhelm them.
At the Stoor’s destroyed home, the Stoors depart and bid farewell to “Grand-Elf.” Nori goes with the Stoors, leading them on their first migration, and she and Grand-Elf go their separate ways.
Then, Grand-Elf happens upon a staff. Of course, it would come from that tree. So the Wizard with a fondness of Hobbits, got his staff from the very early Stoors. I like that storyline a lot.
It is a nice twist that Grand-Elf was supposed to “choose friendship over power,” and we got to see Tom Bombadil one more time. And finally, after knowing the answer for two full seasons, we get the official reveal of The Stranger being Gandalf.
Finally, we can move on from pointless speculation!
It was a nice scene and I don’t care much about the time compression – so long as it is done well! Seeing a younger Gandalf discover what he is good at, what he needs to learn, and struggling at the beginning of his journey in Middle-earth is a worthwhile and interesting story to tell.
Concluding Thoughts to this Rings of Power, Season 2, Episode 8 Review & Recap
Some of the final scenes include Prince Durin’s future storylines being set up – some kind of succession plot, with his brother coming to claim the throne. And the Dwarf Lords want their Rings of Power that they paid the late King Durin for.
Galadriel wakes up in the forest after being healed by Elrond and Gil-Galad. They have a decision to make – stand and fight Sauron, or fall back and prepare their defences. Galadriel makes it very sunny, which raises people’s spirits and their tiny numbers, apparently, will stand and ready themselves for war with Sauron.
How do I make this Rings of Power, season 2, episode 8 review at all positive?
This finale to Rings of Power season 2 has had its ups and downs. I preferred season 2 to season 1, just about, but there was so much wasted potential, so many mystery boxes that keep being ignored and used as a cheap way of making people watch more episodes.
This show is full of lazy writing, a lack of understanding of both Tolkien’s work and how narrative structure works and why it’s important in telling a good story. I finished this episode and, as a fan of this world and its characters, I feel flat and emotionless.
