Summary: Arondir is captured by orcs and made to dig in the Southlands. He and some others try to escape but fail. Arondir is the only one to survive and he is confronted by an orc chief, Adar. Galadriel and Halbrand arrive in Numenor where they are permitted to stay. The captain who saved them, Elendil, is tasked with watching Galadriel. He takes her to the Hall of Lore where Galadriel realizes that the symbol she has seen is not a sigil - it's a plan to transform the Southlands into an evil realm. Halbrand gets himself arrested trying to create a new life for himself. Galadriel meets him and uncovers that he is the heir to the Southlands running away from his life. Nori finds the constellation for The Stranger in Sadoc's books, but The Stranger accidentally reveals himself to everyone that night. Nori's family is banished to the back of the caravan and seem to be doomed to be left behind. But The Stranger arrives and helps them migrate.
The Good: The introduction of Numenor is lovely. As a casual fan of Tolkien, I am excited to see that Numenor will be a major location in this show, and without spoiling anything, I am interested to see how this TV show depicts the events that occur in Numenor around this time period. The location was a beautifully realized paradise and it was fittingly grandiose and impressive, as befits a kingdom created by the gods for the men who fought on the right side. Galadriel and Halbrand were enjoyable in the first half of the episode. Galadriel was brash, reckless, and prideful, unwilling to work with the Numenoreans and simply wishing to leave. Meanwhile, Halbrand was cunning and clever, attempting to soothe things over with the Numenoreans in order to hopefully carve out a new life for himself. I enjoyed this dynamic, though it does not remain consistent throughout the episode (see: The Bad). The Numenor story also had a few big reveals which I liked. Introducing Elendil and Isildur was a surprise, and I hope that this show has a compelling story to tell with these characters which can better inform who they were when they were mentioned in the history of "The Lord of the Rings". I'm happy that we finally got some plot movement through the reveal of Sauron's sigil being a symbol of his plan to transform the Southlands into Mordor in the event of Morgoth's defeat. This scene was exciting and was a rare moment in this series where the show stepped on the gas to move things along. Finally this show has given me a hook, which I have been begging for in the last two episodes. Lastly, I like the reveal of Halbrand's identity. You always got the sense that he was somebody important, and the reveal that he is the lost king of the Southlands is pretty good. We know that he is doomed to lose his seat, but it should be interesting to see where his story goes. The Bad: I have my problems with Numenor, and with the entire story as a whole. One big factor that has been missing in this series is the sense of wonder within Middle-Earth. In the Peter Jackson trilogies, the settings and locations would take your breath away, and this was amplified when the characters themselves would react in awe to what they were seeing. Some examples include that spectacular reveal of Dwarrowdelf in "The Fellowship of the Ring", and Aragorn appreciating the beauty of the Argonath in the same movie. In this episode, Galadriel and Halbrand arrive in Numenor, perhaps the most beautiful paradise in all of Middle-Earth and... nothing. We get hardly a reaction out of them, and that severely undersells how much of a worldly beauty Numenor is. This show already operates at a slow pace, so it is unacceptable that we do not get to see the characters appreciating the beauty of their own world. If the characters do not think that this place is a magnificent, unique beauty, then why should we? Galadriel had more of a reaction to riding a horse than walking the glorious paths of Numenor, which is laughable. Another problem comes from this show's attempts to shove in more diverse actors wherever possible. The show has received a lot of backlash on this, and I do not think that it is entirely undeserved. Now to be clear, I'm not at all bothered by having greater diversity in the show; in fact I always appreciate efforts to have a more diverse cast. It only becomes a problem when the diversity breaks my immersion when I'm watching the TV show. A prime example is Arondir being a coloured elf with a contemporary haircut being completely against what elves should look like in this story, and against what they have looked like in the Peter Jackson films. Likewise, I was bothered by the fact that Numenor is portrayed to be multicultural with a person of colour as their ruler. This goes against the grain of what anyone would have expected Numenor to be like, and yet the show treats it as if it is completely normal. Multiculturalism only recently emerged in our world, so how can this show expect us to believe that this medieval fantasy world has a multicultural realm without any explanation? What bugs me is that an easy explanation could have been made where Numenor was a kingdom of combined races who all fought against Morgoth, meaning that the kingdom is the only multicultural area in Middle-Earth with people from all parts of the world meeting here. But if that's the case, surely the characters would be fascinated (or in Halbrand's case, confused) at the fact that different cultures are living together in this kingdom. But nobody brings up that this is the case and the show treats it as normal. That's a good message about all races being equal and all that, but it's completely unrealistic within the established world and it breaks my immersion to see that nobody is addressing the fact that this community contains different kinds of people. This is my problem with diversifying the cast. It's obviously better to have a more diverse cast, but that diversity needs to be explained in-universe for it to be accepted. Had this show taken the effort to do that, I'm sure that there would have been less backlash. I do think that fans have been overreacting with the review-bombing; the show is not unwatchable because of its diversification. But I do have sympathy because of the lack of an in-universe explanation for why people of colour are popping up in places where they should not exist in this world. Anyways, I will not harp on this for too long, and I doubt I'll repeat this sentiment in future reviews, but I stand by the fact that the diversification of the show should have been handled much better. As for the actual story, this is still very flawed. The Numenor story started off as promising and it quickly fell off into absurdity once the characters started to split off. First we have Galadriel. The ruler of the kingdom informed her that she is not to leave the palace, and yet somehow she is able to go around the whole island freely without any issues. No guards notice her absence, it seems that nobody is even watching her, and to make things even worse, Elendil inexplicably manages to take her outside of the city on horseback without a single soul wondering where they went. How incompetent are these people? It's so unrealistic that any of this could happen in a functional kingdom, and I'm baffled that Elendil did not face serious consequences for doing this. The Queen was suspicious that he was still an elf-friend, so surely a trip to the Hall of Lore would be really bad for Elendil. Halbrand is even worse. The episode's beginning painted him as clever, cunning, and opportunistic. He follows this up by making some of the most bone-headed decisions imaginable. First, he steals a weapon from Elendil to give to Galadriel. Why? I have no idea at all, this seems like a needless risk for him to take. Even more stupid is the fact that Elendil does not even notice that this happened, and neither does anyone else even though Halbrand does this in full view of literally everybody. What's Halbrand's follow-up? He wants to forge a new life in Numenor by becoming a smith, but he learns that he needs to get a Guild Crest to forge steel. His solution? Steal it from someone and hope that nobody notices. Seriously, what the hell!? Even if nobody notices what he did, in what world would the smith accept him back, knowing full well that this guy stole the Guild Crest since there's no way that he earned one in a day. Then Halbrand gets in a fight, and things get even more absurd. It seems that the victim he stole from was going to let him off with just a punch, but then Halbrand goes crazy, breaks arms, and attempts to murder these people. Again, what the hell man!? This is completely against what the character initially seemed like, and I went from liking him to hating him because he's a reckless, prideful idiot that managed to go from being a guest of honour to being an imprisoned murderer in 20 minutes. Am I supposed to like this character? He would be a horrible king, no wonder he left. Furthermore, the man running away from his position as king because he's scared of the weakness within his blood is a literal copy/paste of Aragorn's story. Let's see something more original please. I've hardly mentioned Arondir and Nori's stories much and I don't intend to talk much about them because they are dull. Arondir working for the orcs is pretty uninteresting, and there are a lot of bland scenes where the episode squeezes in some gory action, which has never been a necessary aspect of "The Lord of the Rings", but we get it here anyways. I dislike how this story portrays the elves. Arondir looks to be the only capable elf, and all of the others are just men with pointy ears instead of the legendary warriors that elves should be. Isn't it great when the main character is inexplicably way better than everyone else? All of the elves dying was portrayed and shot as a devastating moment for Arondir, but I did not care at all. Nori's story is starting to frustrate me. It's so disconnected from everything else, and it kills the pacing of the episode whenever we cut to her. The Harfoots have quickly gone from a fun nod to hobbits to irritating. Hobbits were a well-rounded culture where they had no taste for adventure because they had so much fun with their farming, eating, drinking, smoking, and partying. Even though they were gossips that frowned upon those who did not fit in with everyone else, there was enough upside to make them loveable. The Harfoots ham up all of the bad aspects of hobbits with none of the good. I find myself massively irritated by them and their culture, which is clearly being hammed up so that Nori can get more "empowering" moments where she stands up to the society. The Harfoot society doesn't feel realistic, and I struggle to connect with the story being told because of this. I was also perplexed that nobody was doing anything about The Stranger. Where was he staying? How did Nori ensure that he did not leave? What were the Harfoots planning to do with him when he revealed himself? We have no answers to these questions. The Unknown: Who is Adar? What are the orcs digging for? Are they creating a safe world for themselves, or are they actually looking for something of significance? Could it be connected with what the dwarves have found? Could it be Theo's sword? Why did the Numenoreans break the alliance with the elves? Who is the old king that has been imprisoned? Is it the current queen's father? What is their relationship like? How does rulership of this kingdom work? Including Elendil and Isildur in this story is a curious choice, especially considering how this breaks the timeline. Surely there is a reason that these specific characters were brought in. What story will be told with these characters? Is the South Lands going to become Mordor? How will the orcs manage to turn these lands into a barren wasteland? Will the Harfoots allows The Stranger to stay with them? What will they do with him after they migrate? Best Moment: Galadriel finally uncovering Sauron's plan. It felt like the story finally got underway with this moment. Character of the Episode: Halbrand. Conclusion: This was more of the same: slow-paced storytelling with many problems, but a few redeeming qualities that make me hope that this show can maybe become stronger as it goes on. There could be a promising future, but so far, this has been underwhelming and unsatisfying. Score: 53
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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