The following review contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Episode 3. Check out our spoiler-free review of the two-episode premiere here.
While the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power took us to the beginning of many journeys, the third episode takes some more time on building the grand world of the show. The show continues to look great, never being short of a visual feast. When the second episode left off with Galadriel waking up inside a boat, the third episode picks up right after that.
We find that she and Halbrand – the human from the Southlands of Middle-earth that she met on a raft back in the seas. It turns out that they have been rescued by a ship captained by Elendil, who is Isildur’s father. They are then taken to Númenor, an island where the relations between the inhabitants and the Elves are not friendly anymore.
Númenor has gone through several changes over the centuries. It was raised from the sea by Valar as a reward to the humans who fought against Morgoth. She recognises the people who worked on the ancient building, which hammers home how old elves can live to be. Even without her armour, Morfydd Clark still exudes the aura of a fierce, tough warrior who is fearless. Even at Queen Regent Míriel’s court, she doesn’t let her pride waver which spells potential trouble for her. The contrast is brought by Halbrand, who negotiates and settles things down. He is also shown to be a very skilled fighter and thief, himself getting in trouble in Númenor.
We also finally see The Stranger getting revealed to the rest of the Harfoots. While the rest shun him, Nori wants to continue helping him. This is despite the fact that Nori and her family have been sent to the back of the cart.
As for Arondir, he is in deep trouble. He is taken captive by the orcs and is forced to dig the tunnels with other captives so that the orcs can travel without coming in contact with sunlight. This results in the best fight of the show yet. The group of people along with Arondir who are under the orc’s captivity, decide to break free from the (literal) chains and using the daylight they bring down the orcs after an intense game of tug of war. However, this all ends badly for them anyway, as the orcs release a creature called the warg and end up overpowering the group.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s seamless transition of storylines continues to be impressive. It is becoming clearer every episode that these different worlds are going to converge together to tell an epic tale, or one would hope, at least. The series is keeping the action on the low for now, while showing us more of the personalities of the characters and taking its sweet time to build its world.
