"Forgive me..."
"Win!"
More than seventy minutes for this penultimate episode, and there's not a Man, Wizard or Harfoot to be seen. It's all an epic chronicle of the siege of Eregion, with all its twists, turns and impressive CGI hill troll(!)... and we end on a very bleak note, with Adar triumphant, and Arondir seemingly dead.
And the dwarves, despite Durin's promise, cannot come to the elves' aid, lest Durin's ring-addled father continue to mine and awaken the beast beneath- the Balrog? The show likes doing these kinds of impossible dilemmas, but they're effective. Can Elrond's friendship with Durin survive? Surely this will cause the enmity between elvesand dwarves; I'd assume so.
The parlet between Elrond and Adar is nicely done too, with Elrond refusing Adar's terms even at the apparent cost of Galadriel's life... and that parting kiss. For this show, usually all about the epic scale and not the humanfor once we have a lot of effective character drama here.
Most horrifying of all, though, is the full force gaslighting of Celebrimbor by Sauron. Yes, he wins, sort of, by entrusting the nine rings to an escaping Galadriel, but what he suffers is truly horrid. Charles Edwards is simply extraordinary here.
The Rings of Power has at times been inconsistent, but this extra-long episode is a trimph of both visuals- it looks amazing, cinematic- and storytelling. I have high hopes for the finale.
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