Celebrimbor’s struggling with names this week – and we know how he feels. Here’s our The Rings Of Power season 2 episode 6 review.
Fourteen episodes into the series as a whole, it’s not a ringing endorsement of The Rings Of Power when I say I still have no idea who anyone is.
As if reading my mind, season two episode six starts with Celebrimbor forgetting the name of the only other smith in his workshop given a decent speaking part. If it makes him feel any better, I had forgotten her name too (it’s Mirdania, which apparently translates to “jewel smith with an ‘a’ on the end” in Elvish).
But anonymous elves aside, it’s not the flood of fantastical names I’m having much trouble with. Rather, it’s still a bit of a struggle working out what exactly everyone wants.
Compared to earlier in the season, for example, Prince Durin and Disa appear to have entirely swapped political leanings without much in-between; she’s furious about her father-in-law’s newfound obsession with gold, while he seems surprised she’d suggest anything other than burying the hatchet. Over the course of this single episode Galadriel, now a prisoner of “don’t call me an orc” Adar, performs a similar personality U-turn.
On paper, both of these transformations could mark the end of a satisfying character arc. Over the season so far though, it seems the middle bit of these arcs (where the actual change happens) has been lost in the edit. It’s difficult to root for any of our heroes when everything about them seems to change whenever the plot decides it would be useful for them to do so.
Speaking of plotting, Sauron’s back at it again, gaslighting Celebrimbor into shutting himself in his workshop while he promises to deal with all the pesky admin that comes with running Eregion. This seems to be going about as well as you’d expect; Adar is at the gates, eager for the Dark Lord’s head on a spike, and the population are getting understandably angsty. Still, things can’t be so bad – Sauron wrangles a bit of time off to swan over to Khazad-dûm and ask for more mithril, moving with inexplicable speed and somehow avoiding the small army of orcs on his doorstep. I’m assuming a bit of magic was involved, but no one ever seems to explain it.
Read more: Rings Of Power Season 2 Episode 5 review | Putting a ring on it
I have no idea what Sauron wants, either. Rings, obviously, but for the arch-manipulator and embodiment of all that’s evil in Middle-earth, watching him go about his work just hasn’t been as satisfying as you’d hope this season. We know he succeeds (and, ultimately, blows up), so there’s not a lot of jeopardy in watching his antics – and his crimes aren’t particularly interesting to watch either. Mostly, he tells Celebrimbor (sometimes authentically, sometimes not) to do something, then the elf-smith does exactly what he obviously wanted him to do in the first place. It feels a bit like watching a not-very-interesting man slowly engaging in tax avoidance.
On the positive side, though, we do get a lovely little speech from the leader of the Stoors, Gundabale (Tanya Moodie) about her halfling home, which feels like a bit of classic hobbit-y goodness. Teaching Nori about the appeal of settling down in a place of her own, it’s the stand out bit of authentic character-building in an episode which otherwise chucks out emotional authenticity for exposition.
Oh, and Disa can control bats, now. Did I miss an episode?
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is streaming on Prime Video now.
