Developed by J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay
1.06 "Udûn"
Written by Nicholas Adams & Justin Doble and J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay
Directed by Charlotte Brändström
Starring Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Joseph Mawle
New episodes streaming Fridays on Amazon Prime

by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer

If anyone thought Rings of Power was a boring show, this episode will prove them wrong. While I don’t agree that the show has been boring—slow, yes, but that’s Tolkien for you, babe—but this episode’s fight scenes and reveals should keep any viewer glued to the screen. 

But like usual, what works best for me are the character moments. That’s just who I am as a person. Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) talking about their future, Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and Isildur (Maxim Baldry) repairing their relationship, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Adar (Joseph Mawle) facing off; this is all great pay-off to the character building that’s been in progress all season. With only two more episodes left for this season, I’m excited to see where everyone ends up—even the characters we didn’t see this week. 

The episode opens with Adar planting seeds and giving the orcs an inspiring speech before they go into battle. While we’ve seen a speech like this before with Saruman in Two Towers, this is a much closer look at how Adar views his children. Maybe even a humanizing look. Mixed in with the Uruks is Waldreg (Geoff Morrell), who also seems to see them in a new light. 

Moving on to the MVP of this episode: Arondir. As established last week, with Adar and the orcs coming, Arondir needed to figure out a plan with the remaining refugees in the tower. And boy did he! (I must reveal that I’ve returned to my teenage roots and am deeply in love with an elf from Middle-earth. Anyone who knew me in my teens would not be surprised by this!) 

All the humans are gone, and Arondir hides in the upper levels of the watchtower. He’s set a trap to bring down the tower with all the orcs inside. As the structure falls, we move to the humans watching from the village, who are setting up for the second fight.

Arondir attempts to destroy the hilt, but it’s impossible to break. He decides to hide it and keep the location from everyone. As the survivors prepare for battle, Bronwyn has a really touching conversation with Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin): “In the end, this shadow is but a small and passing thing. There is light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. Find the light, and the shadow will not find you.” With the callback to Sam’s iconic speech from Two Towers and Bear McCreary’s score for this scene, it’s quite effective.

Then we see Arondir and Bronwyn as he explains the elvish custom of planting seeds before battle. (Hmm, where did we just see this?) He tells her about the Valar and alludes to the future he sees for them. And they kiss. Like I said way back in my first review of the show, I’m a sucker for elf/human romances, and this one is hitting all the right notes! 

That night, the orc forces come into town, and the survivors put their plan in motion. Everyone does their part, and Arondir gets caught in a long hand-to-hand fight with a big ass orc. This fight includes a knife going into the orc’s eyeball and his blood dripping down into Arondir’s mouth… I can’t put into words how gross it is! Thankfully, Bronwyn saves Arondir just in time. That’s true love, baby. 

The survivors see that they’ve won the battle, but then they discover that a good number of those they’d killed were their neighbors who’d left with Waldreg. On the one hand, I can see why this is upsetting. It is tragic to realize you’d been fighting and killing people you knew. But these are people who didn’t reveal who they were during the fight. If they had, they probably could have switched sides. It’s an upsetting sequence, but it makes sense to me that Adar would find a way to both split the forces and punish the humans by making them fight their own.

Of course, as the survivors ponder what happened, Adar and the rest of the orcs attack with the upper hand. Bronywn takes an arrow to the shoulder, and everyone hurries into the keep to regroup. Arondir and Theo patch Bronwyn up just in time for Adar to make his way inside the keep. 

In the keep, Adar threatens to, and ultimately, does kill people, demonstrating that he’ll stop at nothing to get the hilt back. Theo, who’d apparently seen where Arondir hid it, gives it up in order to save his mother. Adar gives Waldreg a task and then rides off. Just as he does, the Númenoreans ride in. They take on many of the orcs as Theo and Arondir take care of the ones inside the keep. Galadriel comes through the fight, like an absolute badass, and Arondir explains that she can’t let Adar get away with the hilt. Theo and Arondir have a little fanboy moment over her, as she deserves.

Isildur rides into battle and attempts to save his father, who’s attacked by several orcs at once. Halbrand kills one of them before Isil gets there. We also see his besties, Valandil (Alex Tarrant) and Ontamo (Anthony Crum), in battle. (I’m going to predict it now: I think Ontamo is going to die before the season is over. Last episode, his girlfriend said that her father was bragging about his son-in-law being a war hero. Ain’t no way poor Ontamo is making it out alive.)

Halbrand rides off in pursuit of Galadriel and Adar. This sequence, with the three riders and the incredible score, is such a callback to Arwen’s Fellowship sequence—complete with Galadriel saying “Noro lim” to her horse, as Arwen did with Frodo, as they rode to Rivendell.

Halbrand gets Adar off his horse, and when Adar reveals that he doesn’t remember Halbrand, Galadriel keeps him from killing Adar. This is definitely fuel for both sides of the Who-Is-Halbrand debate: Sauron is a shapeshifter, so he could absolutely be using a new disguise and ensuring that no one—not even the orc who claims to have killed him—knows who he is. However, he could really be a human man who has lost loved ones due to Adar’s orc forces. In which case, he’s reclaiming his place in the Southlands and will probably still fall to Sauron’s influence, wherever he may be. My argument’s for him being a human man who will ultimately become the Witch King. But the jury’s still out!

Galadriel interrogates Adar, and he confirms that he’s one of the first orcs. Score one for me; I saw that coming! Adar claims that Sauron turned to healing Middle-earth and wanted to create a power over flesh. Because Morgoth, and evil more generally in Tolkiens’s world, cannot create anything, only destroy, Sauron was unable to make this new power. Adar sacrificed enough for him, and he claims to have killed Sauron. But we as the audience know that wasn’t his end.

Adar talks about the Uruks as people with names and hearts, creations of Eru just like everyone else. But Galadriel disagrees, vowing to eradicate them all, and Adar mocks her violent nature. Halbrand keeps her from killing Adar, just as she did with him earlier. 

Later, we see Galadriel and Halbrand by a river. They agree that fighting together makes them feel stronger, braver, better. Score one for the shippers here, though it’s not my bag. Hope the girlies are happy!

The Southland survivors see Halbrand’s necklace and realize he’s the king they’ve long awaited. Becoming king, it really is that simple! Arondir talks to Theo about his guilt and loss over the hilt situation. Arondir hands off what he believes to be the hilt, but we see that it’s been swapped with an ax instead. 

Then Waldreg places the hilt in its place in the watchtower, setting off a terrible set of events. 

As this happens, Isildur and Elendil talk while tending to Isil’s horse, Berek. Clearly being a Horse Boy is hereditary because Elendil is even better with Berek. This is calling back to Aragorn’s horse sense, which I love quite a bit! Elendil reveals that his ability to understand horses came from Isil’s mom who died by drowning. Elendil agrees to teach Isildur about horses, and they hug. We love a supportive father!

But then, we hear the water overflowing the wells in the town, and then it fills the tunnels the orcs had dug, comes through to a volcano, and sets it off. And there you have it, folks, Mount Doom in Mordor! Galadriel stands as the others run through the town, trying to avoid lava and fire. It’s madness, pure chaos, and I’m not sure how anyone could survive this horror show. 

While I didn’t need a How Mordor Came To Exist explainer, it’s such an incredible sequence that I’m willing to go with it. This show is also dealing with more involved lore, and it doesn’t feel like Rings of Power was made simply to fill in the Mount Doom story. This isn’t like the live-action Disney remakes, which seem solely to exist in order to dispel theories and “plot holes” in the original cartoons. 

This was such a showcase of what the show does well: compelling character work, large-scale fights, and all with a good bit of heart at the center. I’m curious to see what will happen with everyone in the Southlands, as the devastation seemed overwhelming. And I’m looking forward to seeing Elrond, Durin, and the Harfoots next week. I’m sure there are people who don’t like all of the storylines, or prefer some over others, but I genuinely like all of them. With two episodes left, I’m excited to see what all’s left to come.