As battle takes hold of Eregion, an uneasy alliance is formed in Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6, while Númenor tries (and fails) to get rid of its rightful queen.
Last week’s episode of Rings of Power was rather unpleasant, especially after the jolly introduction to Tom Bombadil. The Stranger was nowhere to be seen, with the show focusing on three arcs: Sauron and Celebrimbor, Elendil’s struggles in Númenor, and King Durin’s becoming rather fond of his new ring.
Nothing went well: Sauron convinced Celebrimbor his behind-the-back forging corrupted the Dwarven rings, Kemen became Middle-earth Joffrey when he killed Valandil, and Disa appeared to wake up the Balrog in Khazad-dûm. Whoops!
While we get a bit of time with Gandalf (sorry, The Stranger) and Bombadil this week, there’s bigger things happening in the realm – namely, the start of the Siege of Eregion.
Celebrimbor struggles with rings for men
We open on Arondir running through the trees, before he hears two “deserters” fleeing Adar’s base. “Anything’s better than dying to help Adar chase a ghost,” they grumble. They try to attack him – that’s a big mistake, huge. Seconds later, he’s the only one left standing, and he even finds their map to Eregion.
Meanwhile, Celebrimbor can’t forge a decent ring of power for men. “You live not, breathe not, possess not mind nor will, what pride is woven in your inmost self that you resist my hand,” he mutters angrily, holding a failed trinket, before ordering Mirdania to start again with more mithril.
Unfortunately, there’s none left. When he asks her to chase them up, she says their letters have gone unanswered. He snaps back, and rather bravely, she tells him how everyone’s noticed how short-tempered he’s become.
As Sauron walks in, he forgets Mirdania’s name and demands everyone “give him a moment.” Sauron tells the smiths to take a break while Celebrimbor composes himself. He feels like he’s losing his marbles, citing how he’s lost one of his hammers… which mysteriously reappears in the exact place he just checked.
He chuckles to himself. “My mind must be going,” he says, and Sauron wagers: “Or you were going so deep into it that coming out again has become an incredible burden… so deep, I imagine at times you must be tempted to stay there a while and gain some clarity.”
Celebrimbor says he’s tired, but Sauron has an unwelcome update: the people of Eregion demand an audience with their lord, who’s been skirting his responsibilities of late. “Until the nine are complete, nothing else matters,” Celebrimbor tells him, before asking him to find out what’s happening with the Dwarves and the mithril.
Outside, Sauron tells everyone that he’ll be handling “all matters of administration” in Celebrimbor’s stead. Unfortunately, trouble is brewing: after noticing an unsettling disruption across the river, soldiers from Eregion left to find out what happened. Only one returned, and they had a bloody message engraved in their chest: “Where is he?”
Sauron says they need to bury him. Mirdania expresses concern over Celebrimbor, but Sauron tells her not to worry and asks for her loyalty.
Adar and Galadriel sit down for dinner
Over in Adar’s camp, he treats Galadriel to quite the spread; fresh fruit, meat, vegetables (all slightly dirty, but it’s the thought that counts). “During my brief time in your capture, you seemed intent on finding Sauron; one might even say consumed by it, the way one always is when he’s wormed his way inside your mind,” he tells her.
Galadriel dismisses his theory, but Adar knows how Sauron works: he always finds a way to slither in and “make you believe his power is bigger than yours… irresistible power, an ocean of color against which everything feels forever thereafter a dull grey.”
Galadriel tells Adar she was promised an army. Sauron told Adar he’d give him children. “It is not his lies which must be extinguished, it is him – and I can help you do it,” he offers. Galadriel doesn’t understand what help an Orc could provide, and he corrects her: “Uruk.”
Adar then shows her Morgoth’s crown, which he once used to kill Sauron (or so he thought). “I was the one who used its power to slay him,” he says, believing that Galadriel and the three Elven rings could be key to defeating him. “Perhaps together this crown and your rings would destroy Sauron forever,” he suggests.
They both know Sauron is in Eregion, and Adar knows Halbrand is the Dark Lord. Adar just wants her help to beat him, but Galadriel is reluctant.
Phârazon charges Elendil
Over in Númenor, Phârazon reads out all of Elendil’s supposed crimes after he was framed by Kemen, including high treason. They warrant a sentence of death, he warns, but given his loyal service to the crown, he’s going to set him free.
There’s just one condition: he needs to renounce his crimes and pledge his loyalty to “Númenor’s true ruler.” As you’d expect, he’s fine with renouncing crimes he didn’t commit, but he can’t accept Phârazon as his king. “The only traitor here is you,” he scowls.
It’s clear that Phârazon isn’t happy about all of this. “You’ve done enough, boy,” he tells Kemen when he offers to help. Lord Belzagar has an idea: let the Valar decide.
The Stranger tries to find his staff
In Rhûn, the Stranger has a vision of Nori screaming and rocks falling from the sky (and we get a brief glimpse of the Dark Wizard, whose identity is still unknown). According to Tom Bombadil, the secret fires show “tomorrow’s clouds as clear as yesterday’s sunshine.”
“Every trial that you have met thus far, you have failed. Fail the trial before you know, and there will not be another,” Bombadil warns, before they set off somewhere together.
Meanwhile, Nori tells Gundabale she should just leave and find somewhere new to live. But Stoors aren’t like Harfoots – they’re not wanderers. Home means home, and she doesn’t want to run away. “It’s not just where we live, it’s our home,” she tells Nori, who thinks it’s up to her to help them.
Poppy seems quite happy there, though, and she’s getting quite pally with Merimac (or Nobody, as everyone seems to call him). They even share a kiss! Afterwards, Poppy tells Nori she shouldn’t turn herself in; if they’re only wanting her to get to the Stranger, she could put the fate of Middle-earth at risk.
Elsewhere in Rhûn, Bombadil takes the Stranger to a huge clearing of leafless trees. “One could spend months searching out there,” he says, fearing how long it’ll take to find a staff and that Nori could get hurt without his help. Bombadil says he shouldn’t concern himself with such things.
“There are times when one path becomes two and you must choose. Turn away now and you can never return to this path… Sauron rises in the west, a Dark Wizard in the east, every soul in Middle-earth is in peril. Will you abandon them to their doom? Your friend… or your destiny, the choice is yours,” the Stranger is told, before Bombadil vanishes.
Sauron meets the Durins
The Dwarves are hard at work mining in Khazad-dûm (Balrog be damned!), while piles of gold surround the king. Annatar arrives to meet with the two Durins, warning of Eregion’s impending invasion and the need for mithril. The king says no, and Annatar leaves empty-handed.
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“For a moment, I was afraid you’d taken leave of all your senses,” Durin tells his father. “I have never been of sounder mind. Do not worry, my son: they’ll be back,” he says, and the penny drops. “We can name our price,” he says with a grin on his face. “The whole world’s gone mad, it is for us to grip it by the throat.”
Durin tells his son they’re going to expand the mining operation. The prince asks him to remove the ring, because he now “belongs to it.” He tries to remove it himself, but Durin flings him across the room.
Disa suggests a protest, believing the Dwarves are in peril because of his obsession with the ring. Durin starts crying. “I can’t do it,” he tells her. “I look at him, and in his eyes, I still see my father – lost and far away, yes, but he’s still in there.”
“If we don’t act now, we’ll never reach it – he’ll destroy himself and take this kingdom with him,” Disa warns.
Beneath them, Narvi tries to start mining, but Disa stops him by summoning giant bats from deep within the mountain. It’s a temporary measure, but it gives Disa and Durin time to prepare.
Ëarien begs Elendil to yield
Ëarien tells Elendil that’ll be thrown into the sea to “face trial by abyss… they are summoning the sea worm as we speak.”
According to Ëarien, Phârazon doesn’t want to antagonize the Faithful any further and his offer of mercy is still on the table. Elendil doesn’t wish to “set his integrity aflame.”
Ëarien begs her dad to reconsider and swallow his pride. “If after all this all you see is pride, then there are no words left for us to speak,” he tells her, as Phârazon predicted, so Ëarien brings in the big guns: Miriel.
To his surprise, she commands him to bow to Phârazon for the greater good. “If Númenor is to endure it needs men like you, men who will champion ll that is precious, men of faith,” she says, but Elendil is struggling to deny the knowledge that Miriel is the kingdom’s true ruler.
He can’t fathom living the rest of his life as a coward, and would rather bet on the will of the Valar than bend the knee to someone who doesn’t deserve his fealty.
Trial by abyss
Soon, Elendil stands before the sea. “Do you forsake all earthly authority and accept the judgment of the Valar?” Phârazon asks, and Elendil agrees. Just as he’s about to jump in, Miriel orders that he be released. “Given that his crime was committed in my name, I have the right to face the Valar’s judgment in his place,” she says.
“If we are to walk the path of the Faithful, it must be me who takes the first step,” she tells him, before slowly walking into the water.
Waves crash against the rocks as the seaworm groans in the distance. It eventually drags her under the water, staring her down and opening its mouth.
From above, it seems like the Valar have made their choice – until she emerges from the water alive. She’s innocent! “Hail Tar-Miriel, queen of the sea,” Elendil shouts, and the crowd chants her name.
In anger, Phârazon uses the Palantír, seeing visions of Mount Doom spewing lava and Sauron staring back at him.
Galadriel and Adar team up
Galadriel tells Adar that Sauron is trying to forge rings to dominate all kinds of life in Middle-earth. His devotion to that goal gives them an advantage, she claims. Elrond is en route with her ring and an army, and when he arrives, they’ll save Celebrimbor and secure the city.
“Together, Uruk… you and I will eradicate all trace of Sauron from this world, never to be seen again,” she tells him.
There’s just one problem: once Sauron is dead, Adar wants to know if Gil-galad will proceed with his plans to invade Mordor. “In the end, your drive to prove your virtue will work right into Sauron’s designs,” he says.
Outside, Adar’s enormous Uruk army emerges from the trees, turning darkness into radiant amber. In Adar’s eyes, Eregion needs to fall so Sauron can die. “This is all his design,” Galadriel screams, but Adar proceeds with ordering the Orcs to march on Eregion.
The Siege of Eregion begins
Panic consumes Eregion, but Celebrimbor’s forge remains oddly quiet, bar the unsettling, quiet noise of shrieking. Sauron stops him from going outside, but Celebrimbor resents being told what to do all the time.
He walks outside… and, amazingly, it’s a sunny, peaceful evening. Children are playing in the courtyard, merchants are closing their stalls for the day, and laughter and calm chatter fill the air.
It doesn’t change the fact that Celebrimbor can’t forge any more rings without mithril – but, as it turns out, Sauron has mithril ore in his pocket (clearly conjured from his own blood after cutting his hand open).
“Upon my immortal being, when the history of this age is written, the Silmarils… well, they will merit little more than a whisper. Your rings, the rings of power, they will be deemed the most precious creations in all Middle-earth,” he tells Celebrimbor, and he returns inside, buoyed by Annatar’s words.
Like Thanos altering reality, the reality of Eregion fades in. The city is blanketed in darkness, people are running for their lives, and Sauron grins as he looks into the distance. The Orcs mobilize; catapults are loaded, lines are assembled, and battle begins.
Make sure you’re up to date with our recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5, and you can also read our guides on Morgoth’s origin, the Undying Lands, and Forodwaith.
