Galadriel, to win over the humans, gives them a dynamic lesson in orc-fighting, and allows herself to take a hit in the trial combat, to prove elves aren’t unstoppable. (He also gets off a good prank at the elves’ expense, when he pretends to be offended that their dining table is made of a material sacred to dwarves, in order to embarrass the king and to get a free table.)Įlrond isn’t the only elf who has to grovel among the rabble in this episode. Durin, unsurprised, agrees to aid the elves, seeing this as a potential win-win: for the future of Middle-earth, and for the dwarves as the keepers of the ore. It’s also crucial to the overall direction of the series’s plot.Įlrond does, of course, betray that oath by explaining the situation to Durin, admitting that his superiors sent him to the dwarf kingdom in the first place to expose their mithril supply. The sequence is visually spectacular, looking like a live re-enactment of a classical painting. This episode covers so much ground, yet still finds the time for a brief flashback to an obscure, possibly apocryphal legend, about an elven warrior who battled with one of Morgoth’s balrogs on the Misty Mountain, over the control of a much-coveted tree. Here are some takeaways and observations from an episode teeming with memorable moments. That said, a lot happened this week that was meaningful to where this saga has been and where it is going - and a lot of it was plenty entertaining, to boot. But the writers have more narrative pieces to shuffle around than a typical movie does and when they introduce so many into a single episode, the need to bring each of them to a good “to be continued” point can feel workmanlike. “The Rings of Power” has an outstandingly cinematic look and sound, with its state-of-the-art digital effects, its thrilling stunts, its subtly graceful camera moves and its rousing Bear McCreary score.
This week feels more like a typical fantasy TV show, hopping back and forth from place to place. Earlier chapters have had the pleasurably relaxed feel of reading a book, with long stretches spent in single locations. The downside to all this sprawl is that “Partings” is also the series’s longest episode yet and I can’t pretend the length isn’t noticeable.
And we follow the action back in Númenor, where the natives make a last-ditch effort to sabotage Galadriel’s expedition to Middle-earth. We see how Adar’s offer of safety to all subservient humans tears the tower’s refugee community in two. We see the Harfoots, mid-migration, on their way to find the best places to burrow, to forage and “to snail while the snailing’s good.” We join the dwarf prince Durin at an uncomfortable dinner in Lindon with the elf king, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker). This week’s “The Rings of Power” is the grandest in scale so far, with every major race and most of the series’s prominent characters getting at least some screentime.
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