The Rings of Power takes a swift stroll through its plot’s infancy as episode 4 sets up many of its central arcs while the characters brace for the chaos soon to be confronted with.
Recap
The episode kicks off with Queen Regent waking up from a terrible nightmare that entails the destruction of Númenor. Pharazôn’s son Kemen makes his entry and informs him about a bit of a squall at the square.
Tamar, one of the men who had a skirmish with Halbrand, gathers up a crowd he’s trying to get a rise out of, citing how the queen is giving refuge to an elf. However, Pharazôn arrives and makes quick work of quelling up the emotions and reassuring the people.
Meanwhile, his son Kemen, meets Eärien and later on in the episode, convinces her to go on dinner with him. At the court, Galadriel proposes to Queen Regent that Númenor reforge their old relationship with the Elves and unite to fight against Sauron and save the men of the Southlands.
Queen Regent isn’t keen on the proposal, not in the slightest. Galadriel imposes and presses on, crossing the line while asking for an audience with Regent’s father — “the real authority.”
Instead, she receives a jail cellar, not too distant from Halbrand’s, for Sedition charges. Meanwhile, Isildur blanks out while training, and the sounds of the west keep whispering to him.
He deliberately lets slip the helm of the halyard and attracts the ship captain’s wrath, who throws Isildur off the Sea Guard, along with his friends Valandil and Ontamo. His friends are upset and angry at him for dragging them off along with him.
Meanwhile, back at the tunnels in the Southlands, Adar enters the screen for the first time, with clarity. After he properly bids farewell to a dying orc by hurrying the death, he talks to Arondir.
The Silvan elf asks Adar who he is but doesn’t get a proper answer. However, Adar does say he’s not a god, or at least “not yet”. He then tells Arondir to go and warn the villagers at the watchtower. They must either join him or die.
Back in Numenor, Halbrand advises Galadriel on how to go about the more diplomatic ways and get what she wants. Galadriel then breaks out of the cell and goes to meet the king.
Instead, she meets Miriel, who shows her a Palantir, telling her that it bears within it a vision of doom for Numenor and that she is a catalyst for that doom. Miriel then sends Galadriel off to middle earth.
However, she and Elendil are stopped by a divine sign when the petals of the white tree start falling as Galadriel departs. Miriel changes the events and announces that she’ll be escorting Galadriel to middle earth.
Many volunteers come forward to accompany them on the journey, Isildur and his friends being on board as well. Meanwhile, Elrond and Durin are headed to meet Gil Galad and Arondir escapes the orcs with Bronwyn and Theo.
Review
- Episode 4 of The Rings of Power continues to pick up the pace as all action pieces are being set up. Galadriel and Miriel are headed to the Southlands; Elrond and Durin are going to meet Gil Galad; the Harfoots are most likely headed to somewhere near the Southlands as well.
- Episode 4 does away with the Hardfoots altogether, with the ancestral hobbits nowhere to be seen throughout the runtime.
- However, it does not exactly detract from the episode as The Rings of Power hasn’t really added much to the plot by including the Harfoots, at least yet.
- There is an intriguing arc involving the Stranger but it was a good decision for the show to take a break from him and the little ones.
- Adar has arrived and with him, he brings another sack of speculative fodder for the fans to chew upon. The kind of cryptic things he has said so far make him seem like a Sauron in making.
- However, regardless of whether him being Sauron or not, Adar does seem like one of the more interesting characters to follow in The Rings of Power.
- The fragile situation in Numenor, especially after Miriel’s departure, seems to set up a kingdom doomed to fall in the absence of its leader.
- With great pacing, except for the unnecessary slow-motion scene involving Arondir and Bronwyn, the episode does a great job setting the dominoes that will all soon fall and trigger the defining events in The Rings of Power.
The Rings of Power episode 4
Director: Wayne Che Yip
Date Created: 2022-09-16 09:30
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