The Rings of Power – Season 2 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Where Is He?

Episode 6 of Rings of Power season 2 starts with Arondir taking out some rogue orcs in the woods. He finds a note on one, which happens to be a map.

Meanwhile, Celebrimbor starts to lose his patience with the elven helpers. He speaks to Mirdania but he seems to have forgotten her name. At least for a moment. When Sauron shows, he clears the room and speaks to the master smith. He knows how Celebrimbor is feeling and believes his fatigue could be consuming him. 

Sauron also brings up how they need to address the people of Eregion, but Celebrimbor is too busy with his work. So he has Sauron do it and grants him charge of the city. He also tasks him with finding out where the dwarves are too, as they’re late with their mithril shipment.

However, a dead body shows up in town with a message scrawled across their chest. Sauron has the man buried and this kept from Celebrimbor. The message? It says, “Where is He?” Looking out over the battlements, he notices smoke on the horizon and smiles evilly.

Meanwhile, Galadriel sits with Adar. They discuss power and Sauron’s influence. He wants to help take out Sauron, and that comes from storming Eregion. Given Galadriel already knew that Halbrand was Sauron, Adar catches on too after initially letting the guy go in episode 1 with a “trust me bro” pact. She agrees to work with him and they concoct a plan to take out Sauron.

We also get a bit more narrative around the poor little orcs and how they just want a place to stay. Galadriel’s anger and inability to actually think has cost her dearly, as Adar shows her gleefully the war machine they’re currently building up. They’re going to kill Sauron and also completely destroy the city too. Galadriel believes this is Sauron’s plan, luring their army in so he can take it for himself.

In Numenor, Elendil is given a death sentence but the only way out is to swear fealty to Pharazon and renounce Muriel. With little other choice, he decides not to concede and promises that the only traitor here is Pharazon himself. In the end, they decide to let the Valar decide his fate. Earien shows up while he’s in the cell and pleads with Elendil to do what’s needed. However, he refuses. Muriel though arrives and encourages him too. 

As we know, the sea is always right and before Elendil faces his fate, a blind Muriel shows up and decides that she should face the Valar instead. Muriel does and she shows up in this pool of water to face her judgment. Which is pretty funny because she can’t see anything so has no idea how massive this creature is. It spits her out, and she’s deemed the Queen of the Sea.

Elsewhere, not-Gandalf continues to try and learn magic from Bombadil, which stems from finding his staff. Bombadil reminds him he needs to take his time and find the staff within a field of other staffs. There’s some repurposed dialogue here too, as par the course with Rings of Power.

Not-Gandalf is obviously miles away from Nori and the others. Poppy and Merimac continue to get closer together, while Nori contemplates whether she should just hand herself in and stop not-Saruman from attacking.

Down in the mines, King Durin is consumed by the power of the Ring and starts to hoard gold. Sauron is there with him and he brings up the mithril shipment. King Durin immediately decides not to do a deal with him, and that’s because he has more in mind.

Specifically, he has a big plan to deal in mithril and choose his price when war comes to Middle Earth. He believes they can take what they want and make a tidy profit. He also tasks his son with expanding the dig.

Disa shows up and speaks to her husband and decides they need to usurp his father and make sure he doesn’t make any plans to doom them all. While he’s wearing the ring, King Durin is a threat to them all.

Unfortunately, Durin can’t do it and ends up crying. As for Disa, she blocks off the dwarves showing up in the mines and she starts screaming. Apparently she can control bats now and manages to scare the dwarves off. However, Disa warns that more will be coming. Hey, that’s a Star Wars line!

Meanwhile, Sauron continues to weave his magic on Celebrimbor, encouraging him to forge these nine rings using the purest form of mithril he has. It does the trick, especially showing him a peaceful, loving Eregion outside, when in reality the place is clad in darkness and people are screaming, afraid about the impending war. Celebrimbor heads back inside to forge, while war is about to break out.

The Episode Review

Rings of Power has been the biggest waste of a billion dollars, and it’s a shame because this could have been a really solid series. The idea of depicting the Second Age drama of Middle Earth across an expansive fantasy series could have made this as big as Lord of the Rings. And hey, I don’t go into this hoping for the worst TV show of the year. But damn, that’s what we’ve got from cultural vandals like the writers on this series.

This episode in particular is not just bad, it’s also offensively boring. Aside from Galadriel working with Adar and Sauron influencing events, there’s very little going on. And across an hour run-time as well, it just feels like a complete waste of time.

The lack of intensity and passion for anything happening, with paper-thin characters and very little development, make this a really poor series. What a waste