The Rings of Power – Season 2 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Doomed To Die

Episode 7 of Rings of Power season 2 starts with Celebrimbor crafting his nine rings for mortal men. He’s obviously gone off the rails, and Sauron is quick to step in to make sure his vision is still intact. He’s a couple of days out from finishing the rings, but outside the room, war is raging.

Sauron takes command of the defences, telling Mirdania that Celebrimbor has lost his mind. As for Adar, he focuses the catapults on the cliffs next to Eregion, intending to close off the river. To counter that, Sauron decides to send the troops out for a ground assault.

Arondir, fresh off murdering those two poor elves who just wanted to find their way back to their baby orcs, shows up and sees what’s befallen the city.

Meanwhile, King Durin is not happy that Disa has used bats to scare off the dwarves. He commands them to return and take them down. The dwarves though decide to stand with Durin and Disa. They need to get the ring off King Durin. And word comes in that Durin’s buddy, Elrond, has arrived.

Elrond pleads with Durin for help, to stand by his side and help save Eregion from certain doom. While he contemplates this, Celebrimbor works to finish the rings. However, he’s figured out there’s a pattern to Sauron’s vision. Celebrimbor knows that he’s under some sort of illusion, and asks who Sauron is.

When he throws an axe at the window, it breaks the spell and Celebrimbor heads out and sees Eregion under attack. That special mithril? It turns out to be Sauron’s own blood so he can put his Will into the nine.

Celebrimbor tries to convince Mirdania of his imprisonment and points out who Sauron is. However, nobody believes him. And just like that, Celebrimbor throws Mirdania off the rafters and she’s killed by an orc.

Sauron speaks to Celebrimbor and demands he finish the nine rings. In exchange, he’ll leave the city. However, horns on the horizon bring in the wish.com version of the Rohirrim. The group ride into battle but they have a secret weapon. It’s Galadriel. As she’s held up at knifepoints, Elrond calls off the charge at the last second.

Back at camp, Adar offers an exchange. He’ll get Galadriel back in exchange for the ring. Elrond refuses and instead, decides they need to fight on the battlefield. Elrond is let go… but Galadriel is still imprisoned. And just like that, Elrond kisses Galadriel. Wait, I thought people online were “Shipping” Galadriel and Sauron? And where is Galadriel’s husband in all of this fanfiction?

The fighting on the battlefield continues with the worst loss here being the poor horse Elrond was riding. This is easily the most emotional part of the entire two seasons so far. The Uruk are worried, as they want to go back to their little orc babies and wives, but Adar reassures them, telling them that he loves them dearly.

As for Galadriel, she escapes her bonds and starts killing orcs She sneaks her way through the camp, cloaked to hide her face. She’s not particularly stealthy about it though as they reach the fires, she watches Adar and the others mourn their dead.

Galadriel is eventually spotted, but Arondir shows up and saves her. Now, Arondir wants to kill Adar but knows he’ll die himself if he tries to make a move. Instead, Galadriel encourages him to head over and help her take out Sauron instead.

After rallying the troops, Durin is left with an impossible choice. King Durin is on the warpath, killing dwarves, and if they are to leave, there may not be a Khazud Dum left to come back to. However, if he stays then Eregion will almost certainly fall.

Celebrimbor manages to escape after cutting his thumb off. Galadriel shows up, sees his thumb missing (something that needed to be done to escape his cuffs) and points out how it’s his fault that there are nine rings forged. Galadriel, of course, is the true one responsible here given she never bothered to tell anyone that Halbrand was Sauron.

Celebrimbor is not leaving the city, and after Galadriel’s one sentence, the troops stand by Celebrimbor’s side. Celebrimbor repurposes dialogue from Lord of the Rings (which is a staple of this series) before tasking Galadriel with collecting the rings.

Outside, one of the cosplay elves, Rian, manages to hit a flaming arrow into a pot of gunpowder, blowing them up before being hit and killed herself. The orcs clear a path for a troll to show though.

All the elves focus their arrows on the troll but it hardly budges. In fact, it strikes orcs and elves alike and knocks them into the wall. The troll manages to breach the wall, before being killed by Arondir and Elrond. Gil-Galad also shows up too, knowing that he’s needed on the battlefield rather than hanging around that tree for two seasons.

As sunlight rises, Elrond is convinced that the dwarves will come. For now, they are on their own and as they stand and form ranks, the two groups fight as Elrond hopes that Durin will arrive. Adar kills Arondir though, making Galadriel’s little speech about helping her pointless, while the orcs breach the wall and head on inside.

The Episode Review

Well, the penultimate e[episode of Rings of Power is the best of the season but only because it has the most amount of action. However, there are a number of repurposed scenes, the entire episode is way too long and the dialogue drags needlessly.

The show has been a mess from start to finish and the diminishing returns week on week with the ratings are a perfect indication of this. For a show that costs a billion dollars, this is a monumental waste of time. And if that wasn’t enough, we then get an orc rendition of Slipknot on the music as the credits roll.

Rings of Power is a mess and from start to finish, this show has very little redeeming features. The characters are poor, the dialogue is atrocious, usually repurposed from Jackson’s trilogy, and the whole show is a miserable affair. Hopefully, things will improve for season 3 but that seems very unlikely.