The Rings of Power – Season 2 Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Eagle and the Sceptre

Episode 3 of Rings of Power season 2 starts with Elendil’s horse, Berek, showing up in Mordor. It single-handedly manages to kill two Orcs, before rushing into the Black Forest alone. Apparently nothing makes it out of here alive. Still, our horse is not deterred and heads on into the cave alone. There, it finds Isildur, who’s all tied up in a web at the hands of a nasty spider.

The eggs all start to break as the baby spiders are hatched. Isildur manages to break free from the web and finds himself stalked by Shelob. Only, she’s much smaller than in LOTR and Isildur manages to get away, thanks to Berek’s influence.

Over in Numenor, Elendil and Earien pay their respects to the fallen King. Pharazon shows with Queen Muriel to the coffin, but there’s also the nobles from the North who have shown. Many among them are not happy with Queen Muriel’s leadership.

One of the crowd strikes the Queen but she doesn’t have them punished for it. No, she instead hugs the woman and offers her condolences for her loss. After, Pharazon speaks to Muriel about her upcoming coronation. She needs to choose whether to wear white or red. An eagle is a rare sight at a coronation, he says, but given this episode is called “The Eagle”, I think it’s fair to say it’s going to show, right? Pharazon continues, claiming this is an auspicious omen. She eventually chooses the white gown to wear, to honour her father.

However, a blind Queen is enough to quell murmurs among those in the high ranks, questioning her ability to lead. Valandil vouches for her though and speaks up on behalf of her, having seen Muriel’s miraculous ability to walk through a pyroclastic flow and live to tell the tale. Muriel has also found something secret and dangerous using her bracelet. The palantir.

At the same time, we get more of this “sympathetic orc” storyline. One of the orcs worries. “We have a home here, must we go to war again?” to Adar, as he worries for his little elf babies. That’s right folks, the epitome of true evil is getting a humanized storyline. Adar warns that they’ll never truly be safe until they’ve made certain that Sauron is no more. And when Adar goes, we see a poor little baby orc. Won’t someone please think of the evil baby orcs?

Just like that, the troll that was based on Mike Ermentrout from Breaking Bad pops up. He wants to know where Sauron is and seems to strike a deal with Adar.

Meanwhile, the dwarves show up at Eragion, pitching the Rings of Power to heal their mountain just like its healed their tree. Mithril has reversed their fortune and Celebrimbor believes the same can be true for them. Sauron introduces himself as “a friend”, Annatar. Durin is distrustful, especially when Annatar claims Elrond was super nice about him.

While Disa and Durin contemplate what to do, Durin is stubborn and refuses to be the bigger man and confront his dad. At least to begin with. In their absence though, Sauron works his magic with Celebrimbor. He’s spent an age preparing for this and believes this is his moment. He does not want the High King to take it away from him.

Isildur winds up in the Marshes after leaving Shelob’s Lair and rides his horse through the forest until he comes upon a fallen cart and numerous dead bodies. However, one among them is still alive. A girl called Estrid. She stabs him in the thigg, apologizing as she thought he was an orc.

Together, they ride out to the old Numenorean settlement, a place called Pelargir. There are no ships in the harbour but they do walk right into an orc ambush. Thankfully, they’re saved by Arondir. He recognizes Isildur but he’s not interested in helping them out. In fact, he has his own issues to contend with in Pelargir. This happens to be a funeral for his beloved, the human Bronwyn, who died off-screen.

Isildur shows up anyway and Theo patches up his thigh from the nasty knife wound. He promises that the Numenorians will return and he’ll be able to go home. Theo proposes that he meet that night at moonrise in order to get his horse, Berek, back. He also needs to bring a sword too.

As we soon see, Estrid has the mark of Sauron on her back. While she singes the mark, Isildur and Theo show up at an outpost. Isildur takes the horse, eventually leading to an ambush. However, the culprit is unknown, as Theo too is also snatched up. Is this the troll?

Durin eventually heads in to see his father, after initially being so hesitant. King Durin has just opened the reserves up for the others to eat too and things look to be in dire straits. He brings up the news surrounding the Rings of Power… and also apologizes, in a roundabout way. He points out that he’s been stubborn but also wrong to disrespect him. He doesn’t trust the power in Eregion and believes it’s wrong and could lead to greater catastrophe.

Queen Muriel is crowned but before she can touch the staff, people speak up in the crowd and call her the Queen of Lies. Muriel turns and claims she can hear their sorrow and anger. She too shares this and believes they will find their course. Earien suddenly shows though and believes they need to cry out for Isildur. She shows off the palantir and believes truth is in this… but while some think it should be destroyed, Muriel speaks up and believes they need it

A big fight breaks out in the chamber as a result of all this, but stopping it all happens to be an eagle, which shows up in the room. They all see this as an omen, of course, but Pharazon approaches it. He usurps the queen and shows himself as the one who’s going to lead them forward.

Elsewhere, King Durin hands over the mithril to Celebrimbor and decides to go ahead with crafting the Rings of Power after all.

The Episode Review

God damn this show is boring isn’t it? It’s bad enough that the dialogue is poor and there isn’t much action but scenes drag on unnecessarily and there are so many characters here that were so poorly fleshed out in season 1 that following them here makes it really difficult to actually care what they’re doing.

This episode in particular shifts the attention to those in Numenor, Isildur and Arondir and these three tales in particular are just really not very interesting. And the scenes we do get that move the story forward, are riddled with issues.

I mentioned before about the sympathetic orc storyline and this time we see a little itty-bitty baby orc so we feel pity and sympathy for the orcs. The actual embodiment of corruption and evil is getting a humanized story because… reasons? I have no idea why we needed to see this, nor why we’re going the route of manipulating the audience into liking the bad guys but there we go.

I can see why Amazon chose to release 3 episodes at once because honestly, all of this so far has been woeful. So much for there being more action this season!

Hopefully a bit of action in the future can spice things up because this show is not just bad, it’s also boring too.