There’s no merry fellows in Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 5, ‘Halls of Stone’. For the most part, it’s a dark, anxious, and even tragic chapter that sets up the show’s biggest battle to date.
Last week’s Rings of Power was tremendously exciting: Galadriel and Elrond plotted their moves to Eregion, facing off against terrifying Barrow-wights and eventually splitting up, with Elrond left guarding the Nenya (one of the three Elven rings) while Galadriel faced off against Adar and the Orcs alone.
Elsewhere, in Rhûn, the Stranger finally found what he was looking for: not his name, nor his staff, but Tom Bombadil, an all-powerful being who’ll act as his guide for the rest of his journey (though I suspect the Dark Wizard will have something to say about that).
If you’ve been enjoying that plot line… tough luck! Episode 5 is focused on two places: Númenor (yawn) and Khazad-dûm (yay!).
The Dwarven Rings of Power
We open on mist caressing the mountains. Within, King Durin puts on the first Dwarven ring as the remaining six whisper behind him. Armed with the ring’s foresight, he checks on Narvi’s mining operation. “All is shortly to be well,” he says, before pointing to a space on the wall.
“Dig here,” he orders, but his son warns him it’s a foundation wall (in other words, Khazad-dûm’s integrity could be at risk). The king angrily dismisses his concerns and begins whacking the wall with an axe himself. “It’s not air we need, it’s light,” he says, when urged to take a break.
Amazingly, it works: light shines into Khazad-dûm again. “Next time I order you to dig, you do so,” he says with a wry smile, before identifying other areas to open up.
“Pity those who dwell about, slaves to the sun…. chained to a ceaseless rhythm of waking and sleep. In Khazad-dûm, we are free of this tyranny. Here we bring the sun to us. At last, it is daybreak once more in our mountain,” he declares to the kingdom’s people… but Disa and the stone singers don’t look happy. They’re officially out of a job, I guess.
Sauron lobbies Celebrimbor over rings for men
Over in Eregion, Celebrimbor credits the rings for the unlikely cooperation of Dwarves and Elves. “Today, we embark upon a new dream: to enshrine our friendship in stone,” he says, before Narvi presents the “unbreachable” Doors of Durin, Khazad-dûm’s new Westgate.
Sauron walks away, quietly seething. “I encouraged you to keep it short,” he whispers. “You do not always listen, once you have an idea set in your head.”
Celebrimbor feels he should have credited Sauron for his hard work. “I find it hard to stay festive when those most affected by Mordor’s rise are still suffering,” he says, and Celebrimbor instantly knows “the game he’s playing”: he’s trying to convince him to make rings for men.
“Much of the misery of men is of their own making, and I have been informed it was the men of the Southlands who aided Adar in his conquest in the first place. Many of the rest have already been given new homes by their own kind from Númenor,” Celebrimbor says.
Sauron tells him that Númenor is always “teetering between glory and ruin… I fear Númenor more than any land in Middle-earth. I had hoped our rings might make her stable.”
Celebrimbor isn’t convinced. He believes men are too easily corrupted, and Sauron seems to agree. “But when darkness falls, there are always some who rise forth and shine,” he says, referencing Eärendil (an Elf who made it to Aman). He suggests they find men they can trust, “wisest and most noble, purest of heart… we identify nine ring-bearers, or the nine greatest mortal kings.”
“The perfection of the three; thrice perfected, for our third forge, we will make nine,” Sauron says with a tempting smile, but Celebrimbor doesn’t want to exceed his grasp and tells him no. “I shall make the nine myself,” Sauron promises.
Pharâzon dreams of the Undying Lands
“Have you ever seen it across our western seas… the gateway to the Undying Lands?” Pharâzon asks Kemen, believing the Elves wished every sunset to serve as a reminder that men’s days are numbered. “No matter how high we climb, some things will be forever withheld from our grasp.”
Kemen asks him if the scepter isn’t enough. “All my life, I thought it was,” he muses, pondering Valinor to himself while Kemen tells him, “The age of men is upon us, father, let us take it. Let us build the Númenor you’ve always seen in your mind’s eye.”
Pharâzon then reveals that Kemen’s mother prophesized that he’d “come to ill ends… impress me at the task I’m about to place upon you, and I’ll tell you [what she said]. Fail to do so, and I shall have to find other places to make use of you.”
In her tower, Elendil asks Miriel to rally those who still support her claim to the throne. “It was you who opened my heart again to the way of the Faithful. We swore to keep serving, and now you wish to be still while the wolves are licking the cradle,” he tells her.
Miriel asks what he saw in the Palantir. “I saw myself lost, riding from the city to… I know not where,” he says, lying, and Miriel tells him that “not every battle must be fought to be won, sometimes maintaining stillness of heart is the greatest victory of all, the greatest act of faith one can perform.”
Miriel saw Númenor’s downfall, but Elendil may be able to give the kingdom’s people a new path with Pharâzon’s ship. “You have asked for my command. Now it is given,” she tenderly orders. “You must not jeopardize Númenor’s destiny, you must remain the calm in the storm’s eye.”
Oh Captain, my Captain
The next day, Eärien strips anyone suspected of disloyalty of their rank, including Valandil. In fairness, Lord Belzagar wanted them all tried for treason, but this allows them to walk free. Eärien is still angry about the loss of her brother in the Southlands and asks her dad to accept Pharâzon as his king.
“Your [path] is made of seawater. Take care to keep your feet beneath you, it’s a long way to the bottom,” he warns.
Elendil hands in his sword, and Valandil calls everyone to attention out of respect. “He’s nobody’s captain now,” Kemen petulantly says. Elendil smiles to himself, before steadying his anger. As he walks away, the crowd thanks him and says “the Valar protects him.” Eärien offers to try and get Valandil’s name off the list, but he doesn’t want her help (good!).
We see Pharâzon preparing to peek into the Palantir, but it’s unclear what he sees.
“Most noble High-king, I write this letter to convey my deep joy on hearing of the success of the three rings in Lindon. As requested, the forge is dark and the workshop is empty. A precious calm has settled over the city and I see brighter days ahead. I hope you’re able to make a visit soon. Until then, I remain as ever your loyal servant,” Celebrimbor writes in a letter to Gil-galad.
Gil-galad isn’t convinced everything is hunky dory. The ring shows visions of death, destruction, and Sauron. Elsewhere, we see Elrond running, armed with the truth he already suspects.
Disa hears an ancient evil
Back in Khazad-dûm, Disa is worried about Durin’s ring. “Learning to hear the mountains is a gift that’s honed and refined over a lifetime… this feels somehow like cheating,” she says, fearing the ring’s power would test “even the most virtuous of Dwarves. I pray your father keeps his path true.”
They head to the market to pick up a gift for their daughter’s birthday. They find a crystal ball she’ll love, but it’s extortionately priced… on account of the king’s new law: for every coin spent, an extra one goes to the crown. “Ring tribute, he calls it,” the merchant reveals.
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She haggles him down to a slightly cheaper price before dropping the ball. It rolls into an empty, damp cave. She finds the crystal, but a groaning troubles her in the distance as the water starts to ripple. We don’t see it, but it’s clearly the Balrog waking from its slumber.
King Durin is blinded by the ring
King Durin gathers emissaries of the seven Dwarven realms. “Middle-earth is changing, its limbs are stretching, its bones creaking. Some dark will threatens all our kingdoms,” he warns, before promising a new age for Dwarves.
He presents the six remaining rings, describing them as a “power that’ll change everything… seven rings, seven lords, and bond within each, power over Earth, power over rock, power to shape the destinies of all Dwarves forever.”
He tells them to return to their realms with news of the rings, but outlines the price for such power: “Khazad-dûm shall never want again. There is gold right beneath us.”
The king tells Narvi to lift the digging restrictions he himself enforced, before frantically, even angrily looking for his ring. It’s sitting less than two feet away from him, but he’s already addicted to its power – you could say, it’s become “precious.”
Durin runs in to warn the king about an “ancient, powerful” evil beneath the mines. “You musn’t dig,” he tells him, but Narvi’s hands are tied. “You have your orders,” the King coldly commands.
“Stone singers speak of hearing the mountain. With this ring, I can see it; every shaft, every ore, every jewel. In thousands of years, we’ve barely taken a thimble from the ocean of our riches. Disa is mistaken, there is no danger.”
The rings are a dark power
In Eregion, chaos unfolds after Mirdania wears one of the new rings. She vanishes, and hammers start flying across the room. Celebrimbor helps her take it off.
“I was in a place like this but shrouded in mist and darkness. At first I thought it was the forge burning, but it wasn’t… it was tall and its skin was made of flames. It came toward me breathing, reeking of death. I saw its eyes, hideous and eternal. I think it’s been here among us all along,” she recounts, but Sauron assures her there’s nothing to fear.
Mirdania explains that she tried to fortify the alloy by adding more mithril, clearly a grave error if not handled properly. Celebrimbor doesn’t explain why before he’s called away to see Prince Durin, who’s now echoing Disa’s concerns about the rings.
“It’s like he’s colder, quicker to anger,” he says, before asking if his ring was corrupted. “There simply cannot be a fault,” Celebrimbor urges, but Durin suspects the fault may be with the ring maker; more specifically, “Annatar.”
Sauron tells Mirdania she’s brave, having experienced the “unseen world… beings of differing shades of light, and darkness.” Sauron claims the toll of forging the rings has left Celebrimbor “vulnerable to the shadow”, and – without saying it outright – suggests he was the fiery figure she saw while wearing the ring.
For a brief moment, Sauron’s guard seems to slip, noting how Mirdania reminds him of Galadriel.
Kemen becomes Rings of Power’s Joffrey
Over in Númenor, the Faithful hold a memorial for those lost in the Southlands. Valandil and Elendil place candles in the water, including one for his son Isildur (even though he’s alive, but he doesn’t know that).
Kemen barges in with his troops. “This shrine is condemned by order of the king,” he announces with a sh*t-eating grin. “Leave willingly or leave by force… the king sends his apologies.”
Then he pushes his luck. He tells Elendil his daughter is ashamed of him, and he smashes a sacred relic. Elendil punches him in the face, but before Kemen can retaliate (with the help of his guards), Valandil stops him. “May the Valar forgive me,” he says, before tossing Kemen to the side.
Kemen tries to drown Valandil, but he kicks him away and easily bests him in a fight (he even dislocates his shoulder). Elendil orders him to stop before he kills him, but as soon as he turns around, Kemen stabs him in the back with his sword. Valandil dies, and Elendil is taken into custody for “starting the uprising.”
Celebrimbor begins forging the nine
Celebrimbor tells Sauron that something must be wrong with the Dwarven rings, and demands to know if they were altered. Sauron says they weren’t, before coming up with his latest manipulation.
“These are matters of spirit as much as craft. This time we brought deceit into the process. The letter, you lied. Your High King consented to the three, but the seven were forged beneath a cloak of deception. We must go to Lindon forthwith and confess the truth to your High King and matters will worsen,” he explains.
Celebrimbor fears he’d be prohibited from forging ever again, so there’s only one option: going “even deeper into the maelstrom.”
He tells the smiths they’ve failed, scolding them for “hubris and sloth dulling their attention… we must atone for our mistakes by completing the rings together.”
“The nine must do far more than bring aid to men, they must bring balance to the entire project. They must bring strength from the three and somehow redeem the seven. They must redeem us all. We shall work night and day; new designs, new alloys, a new process… it starts now,” he proclaims.
In Khazad-dûm, Durin tells his father that “devilry” helped make the rings. The king doesn’t hear him, instead telling the prince he’s proud of him for uniting Dwarves and Elves. “That’s why now, now more than ever, I need your axe by my side,” he says, before giving him his gold collar back.
Disa looks disheartened, but Durin swears he’ll never wear a ring of power.
Adar is a friend, not a foe
In the not-too-far distance, Orcs arrive outside Eregion, while Elrond finally makes it back to Lindon and warns Gil-galad of what’s about to happen. “Galadriel was right,” he says, but he’s reluctant to send an army, believing Sauron is the “architect” of everything.
Elrond warns that Eregion’s fall would be a mortal blow, but Gil-galad says their army needs help. Thankfully, they may have an option, but they won’t like it.
Galadriel is rolled into Adar’s camp. “I brought you here not as a prisoner, but as a potential eye. We share a common enemy,” he tells her, as Sauron smiles over the burning forge.
Make sure you’re caught up with our recaps of Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4. You can also read our guides on Morgoth’s origin, Forodwaith, and Círdan the Shipwright.
