‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Highs and Lows

Season 2, Episode 8: ‘Shadow and Flame’

If you were to describe “The Rings of Power” in the simplest terms, the show would sound like a parody of prequels. An epic TV drama about how the rings in “The Lord of the Rings” were forged? What’s next? A detailed, multi-season history of Batman’s utility belt?

So give the “Rings” creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay credit for finding a purpose for their premise — beyond trying to squeeze more money out of a popular I.P., that is. Through two seasons now, they have been telling a complex story about what Middle-earth was like in the years when Sauron was consolidating power. And they have been and exploring how tantalizing and corrupting Sauron’s vision could be to the elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, wizards and humans within his immediate reach. It’s a story similar to the one J.R.R. Tolkien told in “The Lord of the Rings” but set in a time when Sauron could still perhaps have been bested.

Like Season 1, the second season has been a shaky ride, hampered by characters and story lines that never fully popped. But the underlying concept for the series remains strong; and the final two episodes of Season 2 are, on the whole, exciting television.

Here are five takeaways and observations from the season finale:

Darkness in Numenor

If “Rings of Power” is renewed for a third season — which seems likely, given how much has been invested in it — Numenor will probably have a major role to play in the next phase of the story. I won’t spoil what might happen, assuming that the writers continue to follow Middle-earth history as laid out by Tolkien. But let it suffice to say that Sauron’s plans very much include the island kingdom; and the schism between Pharazon and Elendil will become one of humankind’s defining divisions. This place matters. These people matter.

Anyway, I hope you repeated those thoughts to yourself like a mantra as you were saying goodbye to Numenor for this season — after another round of middling political melodrama, of course. The main takeaway from the Numenor scenes this week was that Miriel’s showdown with the Sea Worm did nothing to slow Pharazon’s rise. Instead he has declared the Valar’s “faithful” to be traitors, in league with Sauron.

In response, Miriel commands Elendil to leave her behind as a martyr to the cause and to regroup with the faithful outside the city; and she gifts him with a significant old sword called Narsil (“the white flame”). This exodus also gets Elendil away from his daughter, Earien, who now feels terrible about what her loyalty to Pharazon has wrought. (There is a lot of “maybe our great leader isn’t so great” hindsight in “The Lord of the Rings” stories, isn’t there?)