Developed by J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay
1.08 "Alloyed"
Written by Gennifer Hutchison and J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay
Directed by Wayne Che Yip
Starring Daniel Weyman, Lenny Henry, Charlie Vickers, Sara Zwangobani
Season one now streaming on Amazon Prime

by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer

I first want to reiterate my stance on this show, which is that, yes, it’s slow. But that’s part of Tolkien. If you’re expecting epic twists and turns and reveals in every episode, you’ve come to the wrong place! If you’re expecting world-building, character work, and earnest television, have a seat, Rings of Power is for you!

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with earnest television. In fact, I find it refreshing, given how many shows there are about anti-heroes these days. Morally gray shows where everyone’s making fucked-up choices aren’t bad, but I’m glad there are alternatives out there. And Tolkien’s Middle-earth is, as it should be, a place where good triumphs after facing hardship. It’s a place where family, both the ones you’re born into and the ones you find along the journey, loves you, protects you, and wishes you well when the path diverges. It’s a place where your choices define who you are. And while there’s a lot of cynicism and irony-poisoning these days, this show is such a balm against that.

What I will say is that watching this show and seeing the Twitter discussions every week has reminded me that I don’t like watching things in the zeitgeist. I much prefer coming to a show after it’s had its heyday on the internet. I feel much freer to enjoy and ponder a show when I don’t have to see wild discussions every week when the episodes drop. I love a lot of things about the internet, including the fact that it helps me stay close to my own found family, but it’s also a constant gripe machine about anything that could possibly bring you joy.

Obviously, Rings of Power isn’t perfect, nor is this finale. I spent a good chunk of this episode wondering what was going on and if I was even going to like where we ended up. There is always room for criticism and commentary; why the hell would I be here reviewing the series otherwise? But I just feel like there’s so little joy these days. And listen, the world sucks. Everything is bad. This show brings me the same wonder that the Peter Jackson films did when I was eleven and that the books have whenever I reread them. 

So, I’m going to follow Rings of Power down the path, adventure on with these characters, and let myself enjoy it. You don’t have to, though! Don’t watch anything just because you feel like you have to. But if you are going to watch this show, I encourage you to meet it where it is—see what it’s trying to do. 

Anyway, let me hop off my soapbox and get into the episode! Let’s start with the big stuff! The stranger (Daniel Weyman) is wandering through Eryn Galen, when the mystics—the three magical people who were looking for him—find him and tell him he’s Sauron. Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and the Harfoots find him, staging a rescue attempt. 

One of the mystics throws a knife, injuring Sadoc (Lenny Henry). As the fight goes on, the stranger tells Nori that he could hurt her, because he thinks he’s Sauron. She insists that his choices define who he is, not these mysterious mystics. The stranger uses a mystic’s staff to cast magic, fighting back against them. He denies that he’s Sauron, insisting that he’s good—just like Nori told him he was in a previous episode. Now, I’ve seen a lot of tweets about how this line is cheesy, and it is. But it works for me! He’s defining himself by his choices and how Nori sees him.

The mystics realize that he isn’t Sauron, but instead one of the Istar. They fade away into gray moths—a nod to Gandalf if there ever was one. I don’t understand what the mystics were planning in the long run. Since we saw so little of them, there wasn’t really time to figure out their whole deal. But given that we only had so much time in this season, I’m okay with leaving them as a bit of a mystery.

Once the mystics have been vanquished, Sadoc is very clearly in pain. Goldie (Sara Zwangobani) insists that they can find a way to carry him back to the Harfoot camp, but he doesn’t want to. He just wants to see the sunrise as he dies. I get the sentiment here. But with the stranger’s powers, including the ability to heal himself, it just seems silly to not have him try to heal Sadoc. 

And then there’s the whole trope of a wise Black man dying in service of a white person’s story thing to consider. It’s a racist trope that many stories follow, and I don’t like that we ended up with it in Rings of Power. Obviously, this fight had to come at a cost. But I don’t like that it came at this cost. The danger of colorblind casting is that characters of color can still be mistreated. 

In Eregion, Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) are working on a way to make the mithril into a power that can be used to save the elves. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) arrive, and he’s healed with Elvish medicine and immediately giving off bad vibes. As soon as Halbrand walked into the forge and talked with Celebrimbor, I knew for sure what was coming. After their discussion, Celebrimbor mentions creating power not of the flesh but over flesh, something Adar (Joseph Mawle) referenced a few episodes ago as well. Who could have given him that idea?

Celebrimbor’s plan is to create a crown with the mithril to harness the power, but there isn’t enough metal for that. Only for a ring or two…

There’s some really delicious tension in the episode where Galadriel has a bad feeling about Halbrand, but holds off on saying anything until she can confirm the Southlands lineage. And of course, the last King of the Southlands died with no heir, a thousand years ago. Which means, of course, that Halbrand is Sauron! When she does confront him, Halbrand reminds her that she saved him, and when he confessed that he’d done awful things, she said it didn’t matter. All reasonable things when the man you’re talking to is a mortal and not, oh, evil incarnate. 

So, he dives into her mind, shows her visions of her brother, distorted through his power. He tries to convince her to rule with him, but she refuses. There’s an incredible shot of them, back on the raft from episode two, where the reflection in the water is Sauron in his iconic armor and Galadriel as an evil queen. And this is so effective for me because while it does call back to when Galadriel is offered the ring in Fellowship, it also presents us with why Sauron is so threatened by her. She could be an evil queen; she could have been all along! But she fights for good, as she always has.

After Galadriel rejects Halbrand, Elrond finds her and Halbrand has gone missing. Galadriel convinces Celebrimbor that there needs to be three rings, enough that even if there is conflict, a third person can balance it out. Celebrimbor realizes that the only metals that will merge with mithril is gold and silver from Valinor. Galadriel gives up her brother’s dagger in order to melt it with the mithril. And so, the first three rings of power are forged. The titular rings have appeared!

Returning to my favorite part of this show: the ding-dang Harfoots! The stranger and Nori agree to go on an adventure to Rhûn together, and the other Harfoots are leaving to follow the usual trail—even Nori’s family and Poppy (Megan Richards). There’s a lovely goodbye sequence between Nori and her father. He insists that he hasn’t taught her anything, but she recites back to him all the lessons she’s learned. And Poppy, the ultimate best friend a girl could ask for, has a heartfelt goodbye ready too. 

Like I wrote weeks ago, a crucial element to The Lord of the Rings is friendship. Frodo and Sam had it, Legolas and Gimli had it, Merry and Pippin had it—along with so many others. Friendship, family, goodness. They’re all essential parts of life worth fighting for. And it’s embodied in Nori and Poppy, two incredible women who hold their own in such a wide, wild world.

Given what we know now, we’ve got a lot more to see in season two. The forging of more rings, Sauron’s continued influence over Middle-earth, and the relationships already developed in season one. I hope that we’ll see more of the Harfoots, the dwarves, and the survivors of the Southlands. I love so much of what the show’s done so far, while still being critical of its faults, that I still have great hope for what’s to come. With the next season going into production now, it’ll be a while, but I’m willing to wait for it.