Warning: This review contains spoilers for The Rings of Power season 2 finaleRings of Power playing the long game. That's been clear since reports first surfaced of creators Patrick McKay and JD Payne's five-season, billion-dollar plan for JRR Tolkien's masterpiece. To tell a story of this scale with this production value, planning is critical. But part of what makes television so great is improvisation. Of course, this can lead to less than perfect results. But the lack of improvisation or detailed mapping has led to some of the best television ever created.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power he found himself somewhere between these two extremes, for better and for worse. The first episode of Season 1, and the final reveal of the creation of Mordor, wowed television. Rings of Power Season 2 started off just as strong with an extensive sequence showing how Sauron became Halbrand, but it struggled to maintain that momentum.
Rings Of Power Season 2 Goes Through The Moves Until The Finale
Smaller Scale Compelling Stories Struggle to Tell
All of the events of season 2 culminated in the two-part Siege of Eregion, a pivotal moment in Sauron's rise to power. This is how the show plays it, albeit with some changes. Sauron does not charge for one. Instead, Adar is at the forefront of this battle, which began in the penultimate episode and culminates in the finale. It's an amazing sequence that brings together almost all of the show's main players, but the show doesn't seem to know where to put its focus.
Sauron's deception of Celebrimbor is the key to this siege. Charles Edwards has been one of the strongest players this season, a delight to watch sparring with Charlie Vickers' delightfully deceptive Annatar. Other elements of the show lack intrigue, though. Arondir, Galadriel, Elrond, and the rest of the elves fight to save their kind, but the stakes somehow feel hollow, disrupting the impact of a battle whose outcome we already know.
It could be
Rings of Power
relies heavily on prior knowledge, playing it safe when it should take risks.
It's clear why these stories weave into the narrative: Payne and McKay need to express Tolkien's broader strokes with intimate stakes. The problem is that the series struggles to make these stories compelling. As the siege of Eregion winds down, even Sauron's fateful rematch with Galadriel feels unlikely. It could be Rings of Power relies heavily on prior knowledge, playing it safe when it should take risks.
It's not hard to see why Payne and McKay were afraid to take the risk. Tolkien's mythology is valuable to countless people around the world and to the author's estate. The risks taken—Adar's story, the kiss between Galadriel and Elrond—don't feel organic. That's a shame, given the pure spectacle that is Siege of Eregion.
Other Middle Earth Stories Play Catch-Up
Mainly Produces Mixed Results
One of the biggest revelations Rings of Power season 2 finale that the Stranger is actually Gandalf, something that has long been theorized since his introduction. It just falls flat because Stranger's story so far feels extraneous to the events of the series. Now that we know he's Gandalf, that changes everything. So why not tell us from the start that we are following the origin of one of them Lord of the Rings' most iconic characters?
Keeping this information until now is an all-encompassing, confusing choice. Rings of Power. To preserve the mystery, the series can forget the wonder that Tolkien's original texts and Jackson's films can make us feel. This season has moments like that – I was glad when the series showed Elrond, Galadriel and their company of elves in wide shots as they travel across the landscape of Middle-earth – but the series may be drowning in its desire to surprise.
The tragedy of Khazad-dum Rings of Power The simplest and most effective story of season 2. Sophia Nomvete and Owain Arthur, as Disa and Prince Durin IV, serve as fittingly doomed figures to watch as their home is destroyed by their king's passion. Peter Mullan as Nomvete and Arthur, as well as Durin III, give solid and moving performances that ground Khazad-dum's story with real emotion.
It's a testament to Tolkien's stories that, regardless of the medium, they carry an emotional charge that can be deeply moving when done right. Rings of Power it does a lot this way. But when it gets lost trying to adhere to the conventions of modern television, it sounds hollow, as if the text itself resists interpretation.
Often enough, Rings of Power shows flashes of brilliance, so much so that I still believe in the series. Beautifully crafted and well acted, telling the eternal story of good versus evil. It just has to shake off the external pressure and exist as it is, letting the magic of the story do its work.
All episodes Rings of Power Season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video.