There’s something kind of remarkable about a 70 minute episode of television that’s so packed with events, even after watching it TWICE I’m still not 100% sure I’ve really absorbed it. This was an episode that I’m sure frustrated some folks who feel the pace has been too quick (I can sympathize while not really agreeing), delighted some folks who love how much peppier this season has been than last (generally count me among them here), and rattled more than a few Tolkien nerds given some non-canonical moments, though I am here (mostly in the comments, given how spoilery my defenses will have to get) to argue that in fact I’m finding the thematic work here incredibly true to the legendarium writ large, and I am really pleased by sequences of events that are creating conflicts and challenges that I can’t yet see how they’ll resolve. A prequel that did nothing but a paint by numbers retelling of only canonical events of the Second Age would be both short and pretty dull, to me: I’m pleased to see the showrunners attempt something with a little more ambition than that.
And since in this no-spoiler post level I’m talking at least partially to people who haven’t seen this episode yet, and might not have tried this season yet, I really highly recommend it – especially if you dipped your toe in season 1’s waters and didn’t quite find it to your liking. On almost every level, I think the show has picked up its game – the actors are if anything even better deployed this season, the dialogue feels richer, the effects are pretty tremendous in their scope, and with the exception of one whole arc (about which I’ve already complained at length in previous posts) I think the story is cruising along with a confidence that suggests that they know where they’re going and they’ve got a good plan for how to get there. I’m already looking forward to a third viewing of every one of these episodes – and impatient about the long delay I’m certain is coming between us and season 3.
As far as Episode 7 itself goes, I think it’s sufficiently low spoiler to just note that it concerns itself mostly with the War in Eregion – one of the big canonical events of the Second Age that is also somehow one of the lower detail events of that era. This is a conflict that always felt a bit remote to me – canonically it’s a battle with largely nameless casualties, the strategic maneuvering isn’t clear to me at all from Tolkien’s text, and the one death that ought to be haunting has, if I’m honest, generally left me a little cold because I’ve just never really envisioned the character in three dimensions. So for me, much like the Jackson films of the LOTR novel, part of what I love here is just the chance to both visualize and be swept away by these events, no matter how much they’re being interpreted for me through a particular lens. That interpretation is there, no question, but I’m finding it interesting even when I would have done things differently, and kind of exciting and energizing when I’m encountering ideas and themes that I hadn’t encountered here before. If you liked setpieces from the Jackson movies like Helm’s Deep and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, this won’t quite have the same grandeur (I think), but it’s certainly very much in that vein.
And, as a content warning, it’s also a pretty deeply violent episode – even more violent on screen than the LOTR movies, I think, in part because Jackson keeps a little more distance from the personal impact of a lot of the violence, and the filmmakers here seem to have been keen to ramp that up a bit more. It’s no Saving Private Ryan, but the squeamish will want a blanket ready to throw over their eyes at times, I suspect. Tolkien is never casual about violence – he’s a man who knew from painful experience what wars look like and what they do to the bodies of soldiers – but his writing style can often minimize some of the more tactile detail that a screen necessarily depicts.
As always, most of my thoughts belong in the comments where people who’ve seen the episode can reflect and comment and question each other….and if you don’t mind spoilers yourself, well, read whatever you like! :-) We’re just a day away from the season finale and I can’t wait to reflect on it (and the whole season) with you faithful readers/commenters.
Comments:
I’ll start where surely folks will want to start – the Elrond/Galadriel material in this episode, and one specific moment that, yeah, will have fired up a substantial fraction of the canon-loving audience. And let me be the Tolkien nerd who tells you, I think it’s working. Did I recoil in the moment from Elrond kissing Galadriel? Uh, yes – that’s his MOTHER-in-law. Gross-a-rooni. But let’s unpack what’s happening here – first of all, Elrond doesn’t know that’s his mother-in-law. Heck, he may not even know she HAS a daughter, at this point, let alone have met her. Elf relationships/age differences are impossible to really analyze in human terms so let’s not fuss over how old she is, either. It’s an incredibly charged and emotional moment – he thinks she may die; she thinks she may die; he feels responsible for decisions that led her to sacrifice herself in the forest; she feels responsible for the rings in the first place – and under the circumstances some brief and impulsive kiss is not, in fact, canon-threatening in the slightest.
But also, I would argue that the kiss clearly ISN’T impulsive. He’s prepared himself with that clasp in his hand for her to free herself with. The camera shot we get at the end of the kiss clearly shows his hand touching hers to make the pass. Which for me interprets her facial expression post-kiss through the lens of “you sly dog, you figured out how to spring me out of here” rather than “you foxy man, give me some more sugar” or whatever it is that other folks are seeing in the moment. Heck, let’s actually think about Elrond’s line to her – “Forgive me.” It’s working on THREE levels – he’s sorry for how he’s been treating her AND he’s sorry / pretending to be sorry for not being willing to trade Nenya for her life AND he’s actually most immediately sorry because he’s about to make out with her as a diversion and he himself knows it’s kinda gross-a-rooni because that is not how they feel about each other at all. So, the Kiss – which I’ve seen at least one online Tolkien person huffily denounce as a bad Hollywood move – is to me in fact a perfect dramatic device that shows Elrond’s cunning and his ability to play Adar and the orcs while simultaneously giving us a vehicle for an apology (and Morfydd’s beautiful line reading of “Win.” – Galadriel in that moment thinks Elrond IS saying goodbye and she’s telling him, if you stop them all my life was worth it, which it’s even choking me up a little just typing it out to say). But what do you folks think?
Speaking of Elrond and Adar, man this is a fascinating series of exchanges. My guess is that we will never in fact be told who Adar really was, but I think we’ve got a lot of interesting information here – despite my concluding in Season 1 that he was an Avari, captured by Morgoth at the beginning of the First Age, I think now it’s far more clear that he’s at least partly Noldor. He speaks Quenya fluently but in an archaic mode, and in talking to Elrond (whom he’s able to recognize by sight) he remarks on his resemblance to his ancestor Melian, Thingol’s wife and a Maia spirit. To me that means not only that he likely met Melian at least once – which means he passed through the Girdle of Melian into Doriath, I think, since I don’t recall her leaving Doriath – but he may well have known other, nearer kin to Elrond in the lineage, maybe Luthien and Beren, maybe even further down the line. And there’s a few interesting options here, but one I’m particularly interested in is Maeglin, son of Eol the Dark Elf and Aredhel, daughter of Fingolfin – if somehow he is Maeglin, it would make Adar first cousin once removed to Galadriel and first cousin twice removed to Elrond, whose grandmother Idril Maeglin had once been in love with. Also it would make some sense dramatically – Maeglin betrayed the city of Gondolin to Morgoth’s forces, and I can imagine a narrative in which, rather than dying in combat with Tuor, he fell but was rescued and brought back to Morgoth as a slave. Maeglin never meets Melian, though, that I know of, and in any case all the things I just mentioned they can’t possibly get into in the show, so this is just me playing with head canon. Anyone else have a fun head canon for Adar?
As far as the Adar/Elrond interactions, I appreciated Elrond’s profound despair when let down by Durin (about whom more in a moment) – despair really is the deepest threat to an Elf, I feel like, something that can touch their soul more deeply than even humans seem to feel. And it was good to see tables turned – a clever Elrond, outsmarting Adar in his own camp to liberate Galadriel, now finds himself an outmaneuvered Elrond, about to lose his life before the walls of Ost-in-Edhil in a field full of Elvish dead. Elrond is of course getting out of this jam, but I don’t know how yet – I do anticipate, though, that he’s learning things in these moments that add to the store of wisdom that will make him such a famously sought-after counsel and friend in the Third Age. And as for Adar with Nenya in his hands? Well, I doubt he’ll hold it for long, but even if he does, I think it’s a great storytelling opportunity – what happens when a hand hoping to wield it for evil’s sake tries to master an Elvish ring? My guess is that Adar will find it does not bend to his will at all, and that rather it draws out of him what little Elvishness remains after all these years of resentment and hatred. Maybe even bringing him to his own downfall, not through betrayal but by undermining his malicious purpose at a vulnerable moment with a desire to accomplish something more openly good. I am very keen to see what happens.
I’ll address some other Elves on the field of battle quickly, since I have little to say other than admiration. I don’t know if Arondir is dead – Galadriel was right to hope not, since there’s still a dearth of Elvish heroes – but if that’s how he went down, I think he died bravely. Elvish bodies are hardy, though, and many wounds that would slay a mortal man find it harder to send an Elf’s soul to Mandos. I do wonder, if he is dead, how much of this is fallout from the show decision to kill off Bronwyn’s character rather than to recast her – something maybe eventually we’ll find out the truth about? And I was so delighted to finally see Gil-galad doing anything other than be a plot obstacle – and getting to see him risk his own safety rushing to the aid of his men, wielding the great spear Aeglos like it was a dancer’s baton, and calling out to the handful of survivors to form ranks and face near-certain death with grim determination? Um, more please – this is the Elven King of whom the harpers sadly sing. I don’t know how he’s getting out of this pickle any more than I know about Elrond, but I’m looking forward to it.
The Dwarf storyline here is emotionally compelling as always – I love Narvi finally having had enough of Durin III’s greed and siding with the prince, and the speech that Durin the Younger (presumably Durin IV) makes to his people is wonderfully stirring and well-acted. I wish that there had been more time for he and Elrond to fill each other in, but I suppose in a TV series where the audience has already seen all those things, working through some character shorthand is the better course. And then oh, the agony of that choice – to abandon not just his friend Elrond but all of Eregion to near-certain catastrophe, or to abandon not just his wife Disa but all of Khazad-dum to near-certain catastrophe? The choice is impossible, but it’s also such a great example of what JD and Patrick are doing with the canon – for decades now we’ve just generally had the note that the Dwarves close the doors of Moria as the war erupts in Eregion, but with little indication of what happened. It’s been easy to see this as Dwarvish isolationism and cold-heartedness – fueling the fires of the Elf/Dwarf feud that’s clearly still burning late in the Third Age – and that’s not inconsistent with Tolkien necessarily. I just like it so much more, though, to be given an answer that’s much deeper dramatically – a Dwarvish kingdom that would have rushed to Eregion’s aid had it not been for Sauron’s treachery already poisoning the king and the kingdom from within. Doors that shut not coldly, but with anguished compassion as Durin the Younger has to accept that he may be sacrificing his friend to save his wife and his kingdom. It’s the choice Aragorn has to make at Amon Hen. It’s the choice Gandalf has to make when Pippin tells him of the threat to the dying Faramir. There are no easy ways to make such choices, and maybe in the end no way to know if one has chosen wisely or well. Durin will, I am certain, long bear the burden of this choice, and I am heartbroken for him, and as a viewer I also am so fully engaged by the dramatic possibilities of the situation they’re unfolding – I hope we get a little more of this story in episode 8 before the season ends.
Oh, man, the Celebrimbor/Annatar/Galadriel stuff….it’s so good, y’all. It’s SO good. I have a quibble I’ll get to, but by and large this is just incredible work – Charles and Charlie as the smith and the sorcerer locked in this contest of will have been great all season, but maybe never more so than here, as Celebrimbor moves from blissful ignorance to troubled realization to horrified reality, and then somehow finds it deep within himself to resist with absolutely everything he’s got left. The echo of Frodo Baggins here, in a man who loses a finger (well, a thumb) for the sake of trying to destroy a magic ring (nine of them) to keep it/them out of Sauron’s hands is just masterful in that it was not shoved in my face at all but the moment I realized the parallel I was moved. The idea of the Nine being made with Sauron’s blood is thrilling for lots of reasons – it offers an explanation other than “the weakness of men” (which is always overdone I think by Tolkien’s interpreters) for why the Nazgul are so much more warped by their rings than the Dwarves are, and it suggests that Sauron is already toying with the line of thinking that will eventually lead him to invest some huge proportion of himself (whatever that means) into the creation of the One Ring. I love that Charlie’s range as Annatar flows smoothly from genial and almost cloying friend to a furious fiend almost shaken by his own desire and increasing desperation – oh, and I love the subtle dig that, when Sauron asks Celebrimbor if he knows what it’s like to be tortured by a god, Celebrimbor immediately says “No.” No, Sauron, you’re no Morgoth. I could watch those two for ages.
And then the heartbreaking mercy of that meeting between Galadriel and Celebrimbor – I had no idea I wanted such a meeting until it happened. But all of a sudden, there it all was – his shame and her refusal to let him forget who he really is. Their shared agony at their failures, and yet their resilient commitment not to fail again. Celebrimbor’s genuinely selfless unwillingness to leave his city as it burns and falls – to hand her the rings and tell her to get far from there. Because, as he might have said (but didn’t), he’s figured it out now. True creation requires sacrifice. And, having brought these cruel things into the world, the only way to work their destruction is to be willing to give all he has. The emotion in that scene has hit me both times I’ve seen it – up to and including the emotion in the guards saying “he will not be alone”, which is a tiny eucatastrophic moment in a moment of real sorrow, as Celebrimbor realizes that he can in fact be forgiven, or at least receive some grace from those around him.
My quibble? It’s just that I think in that final confrontation with the guards, the show takes Sauron’s power a touch too far. He is a deceiver, an illusionist – he tricks Celebrimbor into thinking the world at peace so he will make the rings. He somehow contrives to both have Mirdania thrown from the wall and to have it look like Celebrimbor’s doing. This is the kind of thing he masters. So, in that showdown with the guards, I get the cinematic logic of a truly beautifully shot/choreographed sequence where they fall on each other with swords. But I don’t think he should control them like marionettes. All I want there is for them to cry out, “Captain! There are orcs among us! How did we not see it?!” and then attack each other, and in my head canon, that’s exactly how Sauron gets them to do the deed. Anyway, he’s a sorcerer and a shapeshifter and Tolkien never put specific limits on him, so it’s a quibble and not an actual complaint.
That’s really all I have, but with a day left here, does anyone have any predictions for the season finale? Other than that the Stranger will prove to be Saruman, that is? Personally, I’ll throw in there that I think Miriel and Pharazon are going to get married (it’s canon) and that Adar will somehow survive (I’ve been thinking he’d die, but I don’t know…..he’s such a great character!). What have you got?