“What a great shot!” “Brilliant!” “Hahahahahaha!” “What a line!!!” “Looking cool, actually!” “Incredible banger line!” “Fuck yeah!” “Holy shit!” “Fuck yeah!” “Unreal, dawg!” These are all actual notes I took on this week’s episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power . I think my overall feelings about it are pretty clear. Before we do anything else, though, we need to address it: the kiss.
Elrond and Galadriel kiss! Granted, it’s a ruse so he can get close enough to slip her a pin by which she can unlock her cuffs and escape, but for crying out loud, it’s the Lord of Imladris kissing the Lady of the Golden Wood. For these two characters, who for millions of people function as secular saints, this might as well be an X-rated sex scene from Industry . Turns out Elrond and Galadriel, and Robert Aramayo and Morfydd Clark, have some real chemistry — why not set off a reaction, if only just once? Wit that out of the way, what you’ve got here is a good old-fashioned battle episode, of the sort pioneered by David Benioff, Dan Weiss, George R.
R. Martin, and Neil Marshall with Game of Thrones ’ Season 2 climax, “Blackwater.” In this case, we’re looking at the Sack of Eregion, as legions of orcs led by Adar attack the huge Elf city in hopes of catching and killing its most unpleasant current resident, Sauron.
It’s pretty clear by now that this is all part of Sauron’s plan. While fireballs rain down from above, siege .
