The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Shadows Brought to Light

After a seven-episode journey, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 8 provides a stellar, yet personal, conclusion to a season that’s carefully woven all of these storylines together.

Given the stakes created on The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 7, “Doomed to Die,” you’d wonder how this finale can balance ending multiple storylines and the season. Fortunately, this episode manages to do just that by fully interweaving those narratives.

This way of weaving is presented through the connections between Durin IV’s story and the overarching conflict between Galadriel and her allies against Sauron.

There has been an intense build-up between Durin IV and his father throughout The Rings of Power Season 2, with the Ring’s corruption.

Their constant back-and-forths suggest there’s no going back for them. Sure, that’s true in some sense, but when that moment of forgiveness does happen, it feels a little cliche.

Previously, Durin IV tried to convince his father to stop mining by appealing to his good nature. Yet, this persuasion has never gone anywhere due to the Ring’s power over Durin III. Even with the previous fakeouts, it never seemed like Durin III would let it go.

So, when that moment of hope does happen in the opening sequence, it only feels like it’s been slightly earned. The last heart-to-heart the Durins have is pretty sweet, and it does a great job of setting the stage for what could come for Durin IV in the future.

As a plus, Durin IV and Disa get more involvement later in the episode with Eregion’s siege.

In fact, most of the episode centers around the siege with some pretty intense scenes. One of these involves Adar’s “pure” form being revealed to Galadriel after he puts on Nenya, which makes me feel sympathetic for him.

While The Rings of Power Season 2 truly brought the worst out of Adar, he had that reasonable motivation to justify his decisions. Unfortunately, his means resulted in more detrimental consequences for the Orcs and himself.

Those consequences really present themselves here, both for Sauron and Adar.

They’ve essentially been cursed with this terrible darkness in an endless loop, with Adar getting the brunt end of it. As for Sauron, his confrontation with Celebrimbor is a harrowing moment: the Dark Lord may create his own path, but his fate is inevitable.

Part of his fate in Season 2 comes from this epic and personal confrontation between him and Galadriel. It’s a mind game that plays on those emotional strings as Galadriel struggles and nearly falters by Sauron’s hand. Yet, she rises and does the one thing she didn’t want to, something that Elrond did back on “Elven Kings Under the Sky”: sacrifice herself.

This entire chunk of the story is filled with callbacks to previous moments, whether it be the said falls or Adar cutting down “Annatar” way back when.

However, it feels satisfying because of this narrative’s natural build-up, resulting in more complex dynamics.

The arcs surrounding Elendil and Isildur also get closure by fully interweaving despite not interacting. Pharazôn’s hostile takeover ultimately leads to Elendil’s exile from Númenor, which contrasts with Isildur’s return away from his family.

Even though Elendil and Isildur’s stories might have been shortened to make room for Galadriel and Sauron, there are still a few heartfelt scenes in between.

It is sweet to watch Elendil and Míriel’s final moments together while Isildur makes peace with Astrid. However, they could have been moved to the final few minutes to let the larger battles play out.

As for Nori and the Stranger’s arcs, their isolation from the main narrative makes me feel both sad and optimistic.

These characters are on their own paths now and just seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power make that split is a bit heartbreaking.

Yet, it also felt like it was needed considering the long journey they’ve been on together. They both have different problems to deal with and because of the personal difficulties of those issues, the diverge was necessary.

Plus, those few teases of what the Stranger’s name could actually be and then getting that was a huge relief after all the previous speculation!

When the story finally returns to its epilogue shared between Galadriel, Elrond, and Gil-galad, it’s a powerful moment. With Galadriel essentially being the face for the Elves now, The Rings of Power reminds us that there’s still faith to be had not just with its characters, but with the show in general.

Everything in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 has given us an emotional rollercoaster, showing why this adaptation matters in the larger scheme of J. R. R. Tolkien’s world.

All in all, it has been refreshing and I’m genuinely excited to see where a potential third season could go.

Stray Thoughts:

• The moment where Durin III sacrifices himself to the Balrog should be a wallpaper because THAT looks pretty awesome (plus, just for an opening scene alone?)
• Durin III saying, “It was you getting stronger,” to Durin IV is touching, though I wish they had teased his personality switch a bit more!
• I wonder how they will get Durin IV’s brother into the fold of things, given that Durin IV is the king now. I’m expecting the all-out civil war to happen in a click.
• It feels like the final confrontation between Galadriel and Annatar does a lot of justice for that final fight between her and Halbrand from Season 1. Plus, finally getting that, if short, “Haladriel” moment is so good.
• DAMN, Galadriel dropping the “heal yourself” line to end the third act is awesome — I just can’t put my finger on why.
• Oh yeah, the showrunners definitely know what they were doing with all the setup and the name drop for the Stranger near the end of the episode. I’m just happy they had that little Tom Bombadil tune at the end.

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What did you think of this episode of The Rings of Power? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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All episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 are now streaming on Prime Video.

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