Pride Comes Before The Fall in "Where Is He?"
The Storm Breaks in The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 6
Mae govannen, friends! Below is my latest Rings of Power episode review, but before that, just a quick note to say that this Sunday, September 22, is Hobbit Day!
The date of both Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday, Hobbit Day is a day where fans can celebrate all things Hobbit-y! For my part, I’ll be hosting a Hobbit Day Giveaway! Look in your inboxes this Sunday for the info on prizes and how to enter.
Pride Comes Before The Fall in "Where Is He?"
The Storm Breaks in The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 6
*Spoiler-free Thoughts*
"The fate of [Eregion] now rests on your ability to set aside your pride," Adar counsels Galadriel in one of the opening scenes of "Where Is He?" Here and in many other moments of this episode, accusations of pride precede what looks more and more like disaster for Eregion.
In Episode 2, Círdan referred to humility as "the truest form of sight" but called it "difficult for most." In "Where Is He?" we see how the blindness of pride and the shadows of Sauron's schemes keep almost every character, save for Sauron, in the dark.
Who will swallow their pride and admit that they have not seen clearly? And who will have what others saw as pride vindicated as faith and true sight? The answers will determine the fate not just of Eregion but of Middle-earth.
Though not as superb as the highlight of this season so far, "Halls of Stone," "Where Is He?" was another strong entry in this season that raised the stakes and effectively set up the climactic confrontations in Eregion, Númenor, and even in Rhûn. But for as many flashes of brilliance as the episode showed, there were several elements that just didn't work for me.
Rings of Power is maintaining the momentum going into the final two episodes of the season and by the end of the episode the storm that has been building since the season premier breaks upon the walls of Eregion.
*Spoilers for The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 6, “Where Is He?”*
Pride Comes Before the Fall of Eregion
The Episode title "Where Is He?" is a bit of a misnomer: many of our key players know exactly where Sauron, the "he" in question, is. The real question is what to do about him. Everyone thinks they have the answer and sees any other effort to counter him as folly, pride that must be set aside if Sauron is actually to be defeated.
"What pride is woven in your inmost self that you resist my hand?" Celebrimbor asks the failed results of multiple attempts to make Rings for Men. He is increasingly not himself, acting distracted, snapping at his smiths, and even forgetting Celebr...I mean, Mirdania's name. Annatar dismisses the other workers and tells Celebrimbor that he will handle everything, including procuring more mithril from the Dwarves, while Celebrimbor continues to focus on forging the Rings.
"Until the Nine are complete, nothing else matters."
This is, as nearly everything Annatar says is, both true and false. This task is crucial to Sauron's plans to conquer Middle-earth and therefore the most important to him, but there are other things that should matter to Celebrimbor. Chief among them is Adar's army of Uruks, which are now on Eregion's doorstep.
Annatar usurps Celebrimbor's role in administering Eregion, telling the assembled people Celebrimbor is not to be disturbed and hiding the graphic message that Adar's forces send carved into the body of one of Eregion's scouts that reads "Where is he?"
Across the river from Eregion in the forest where Adar’s Uruk army lurks, Galadriel and Adar find their roles reversed from last season when it was she who was the captor and he who was the captive. The Dutch angles employed in both scenes heighten the sense of tension, disorientation, and clashing perspectives of each, but while the former was an interrogation, this scene takes on more of the feel of a negotiation.
They sit across from each other at a feast table, but the focus is not consuming the food before them. Instead, Adar discusses their shared consuming desire to find Sauron and destroy him.
Galadriel protests that they are not that similar: “You know nothing of my mind. You yielded to him. I resisted.”
Adar is not convinced. “For a while, perhaps. But sooner or later, he sees you. Not just who you are, but who you wish to be. His eye bores a hole while the rest of him slithers in. For a while, he even makes you believe that his power has become yours. Irresistible power, that makes every desire's fulfillment seem inevitable. An ocean of color against which everything else feels forever thereafter…”
“A dark grey,” Galadriel finishes, confirming they are not so different as she would like to believe.
Adar offers to help Galadriel destroy Sauron, answering her disbelief that he could provide her any actual help by revealing Morgoth’s crown,1 which was the opening shot of the very first scene this season and which Adar used to slay Sauron.
Adar’s plan to finish the job he began that day and kill Sauron permanently is to replace the Silmarils that were pried from Morgoth’s crown with the Elven Rings, imbuing the crown with an added layer of power.
All he needs (aside from the Elven Rings) is for Galadriel to confirm his suspicion that Halbrand truly is Sauron.
Galadriel takes a calculated risk and makes to join Adar’s conspiracy, confirming Halbrand’s identity and informing Adar that her Ring is with Elrond, who is on the way with the army of Eregion at his back.
But though they share the same aim in destroying Sauron, there is no shared future for the Elves and Uruks following the accomplishment of that goal. Adar raises this point to Galadriel, adding, “In the end, your drive to prove your virtue will work right into Sauron's designs” and claiming she has already revealed to him everything that he needed.
She counters that it is Adar who has actually fallen into Sauron’s schemes, being lured to attack Eregion because Sauron has no army. “Do not take his lure,” she pleads.
“I will make him choke on it,” he retorts. Is it hubris or simply confidence to walk into what you and others can see is likely exactly what your enemy wants? Time will tell.
As Adar's forces move to attack at the end of the episode, Annatar returns from Khazad-dûm without having procured any mithril. After slitting his own hand with a knife, he attempts to keep Celebrimbor attending to his work. "I have the affairs of the city well in hand," he tells him in another truth simmering with multiple layers of meaning. But Celebrimbor will not be pacified again...at least not in this way. He barges out, shoving Annatar out of the way and going outside to investigate what he thought were siege alarms ringing.
Annatar closes his eyes and draws upon the power of the unseen realm as disembodied voices whisper.
Celebrimbor exits the forge to find...a peaceful scene. Residents of Eregion mill about, enjoying music, conversation, art, and a beautiful sunny day.
Annatar follows him, handing him enough Mithril powder to complete the Rings (perhaps conjured or created by some magic done after he slit his hand? Or did he visit the Balrog’s bodega offscreen?) and saying, “We are close now, Celebrimbor. So close to achieving what we set out to do. I give you my oath, upon my immortal being, when the history of this Age is written, the Silmarils, well... they will merit little more than a whisper. But your Rings, the Rings of Power, they will be deemed the most precious creations in all Middle-earth.”
He then hands Celebrimbor Fëanor's hammer.2 Appealing one last time to Celebrimbor’s pride, he says, “Use it, my friend. Best Fëanor. Best yourself. One last time.” Celebrimbor accepts this challenge and flattery, returning once more to his work.
But in a stunning dreamlike transition, the peaceful daytime scene is revealed to be a deception. Day turns to night and tranquility shatters into chaos. Eregion is under siege.
Annatar strides towards a battlement to gaze out upon the approaching army and raises his hands to his sides like a conductor as the sound of multiple orchestras tuning stacked into a cacophony plays in the background.3
The symphony begins, the siege commences, and the storm breaks upon the walls of Eregion.
Faith in The Old Ways and Secret Fire is Tested
It's not just in Eregion where our characters are asking "Where is he?" The Dark Wizard's servants are still searching for the Stranger while the Stranger is (still) looking for himself and Nori and Poppy aren’t given much to do except wonder what to do about it all.
This week the Stranger plays the part of Luke Skywalker completing his Space Wizard training on Dagobah. Tom Bombadil, apparently the Yoda of Middle-earth, cautions the Stranger that if he flies away to Cloud City to rescue Nori it will take him away from his task of facing Darth Vader and the Emperor, I mean the Dark Wizard and Sauron. “Your friend or your destiny. The choice is yours.”
The Númenor and Khazad-dûm storylines are more substantial and serve as interesting foils for each other: Eärien is wondering where the father she thought she knew went as Elendil refuses to bow to Pharazon and is sentenced to the judgment of the Valar. Prince Durin too is wondering where the father he knew before King Durin accepted the Ring has gone. But Elendil is acting out of virtue and in obedience to an ancient way of faith, while King Durin is using a new power that is gradually but completely corrupting him, encouraging him to indulge in his own vices and self-interest.
Both children take decisive action to try to save their fathers. Eärien bows before Pharazon, pleading with him to let her bring Míriel to Elendil so she can convince Elendil to stand down.
Prince Durin, meanwhile, pleads with his father to prove he is not being influenced by the Ring. “You belong to it [the Ring]. If it is otherwise, please, prove it. Take it off.”
Both Eärien and Durin are heartbroken by their father’s stubborn refusal to repent. In a profoundly moving scene, Durin confesses to Disa: “I can't do it. I can't do it, Disa. I look at him, and in his eyes, I...I still see my father. Lost and far away, yes, but he's still in there.”
“After everything this family has lost, I cannot lose you too.” Eärien pleads. “Please, Father. Please. Swallow your pride.”
Neither Durin nor Elendil relent. King Durin refuses to take the Ring off, throwing Prince Durin back and sneering, “I have nothing to prove to you, boy.” And Elendil recoils at being told to swallow his pride, saying, “If after all this, all you see is pride...then there are no words for us to speak.”
While Eärien is left to watch as even Míriel cannot convince Elendil to back down, Durin and Disa are able to take more agency in their struggle. They chase off Narvi and his workers, taking a stand against the expansion that King Durin is commanding.
Míriel takes Elendil’s place in the judgment and is dragged out to sea by the sea-worm…but is then thrown back. Elendil’s faith is vindicated and she is hailed by the crowd as “Queen of the Sea!” A showdown with Pharazon, who consults the palantír in desperation and is shown that Halbrand is Sauron, for the rule of Númenor is imminent.
Just like in Eregion, the final confrontations are set in Númenor, Khazad-dûm, and Rhûn. “The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of season two.”
Read my review of Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 7 here:
Read reviews of previous Rings of Power season 2 episodes in Jokien with Tolkien here:
Episodes 1–3:
Episode 4, “Eldest”
Episode 5, “Halls of Stone”
Unfinished Tales
Where I share likes, dislikes, stray observations, quotes, and speculation/theories that didn’t make it into the above
After loving the Harfoot/Stranger storyline in Episode 4…I was disappointed in it here. Especially with Tom, who I liked well enough last time but wasn’t blown away with. I just don’t love how they used him this episode. Not enough whimsy and song and randomness for me. Also didn’t really like that they gave him the “Many that die deserve life…” line from Gandalf. Which is another not so subtle hint the Stranger is Gandalf, isn’t it?
We got the blue jacket though! And the hat!
“Nori!”
“Snorin? Who's snorin'?”“How do I learn to master its power? To fight back against the darkness?”
“What does the Secret Fire need with you as a master?”
Alright, this was my favorite line of Tom’s this episode.You'll find your true staff only when the vision of your heart is single to the service of the Secret Fire. (Second nod to Gandalf in this episode, as Gandalf says “I am a servant of the Secret Fire” during his confrontation with Durin’s Bane in Fellowship)
Speaking of Durin’s Bane, the brief flash of the Balrog when Annatar looked into the fire in Khazad-dûm! Were the two of them on a magical Zoom call of sorts? Just Sauron realizing he’s there? Probably more than just a coincidence.
“I see the Seven are serving you well, Prince Durin.
They're serving someone well. I'll give you that.”Durin and Disa are the heart of the show. So authentic and honest and real with each other and thereby with us as the audience. I need as much of that as the show can give!
A lot of “It is mine” and “precious” talk about the Rings in this episode that I noticed
Do the Númenóreans cultivate ocean power and ride the sea-worms?
“Faith is not faith if it is not lived.” Man, I love Elendil.
“The sea is always right” YEAH IT IS!!
So by summoning those bats Disa is Batwoman confirmed, yeah?
Going to start saying “This is what Sauron wants!” anytime someone asks me to do something I don’t want to do.
CELEBORN WATCH:
Was Celeborn mentioned in Season 2, Episode 6? no
Was Celeborn IN ROP Season 2, Episodes 6? Still no
(I did this each week last year on Twitter and had too much fun with it, so I’m continuing the tradition)
Appendices
Again, reminder that I’ll be sending out Giveaway details on Sunday!!
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According to The Silmarillion, Morgoth’s crown was fashioned into a collar for him before he was cast into the Void. Galadriel seems familiar with this tale (The Silmarillion is after all a history of Middle-earth written by the Elves) but Adar answers her objection “I was told…” with “There are many stories of what happened after the Silmarils were pried from its settings, but I was there when Sauron re-fired it to fit himself.” In the canon of ROP, does this make this detail in The Silmarillion more legend than true history? Or perhaps Elven embellishment? Perhaps both are true, but it is interesting to contrast their shared appeals to authority: “I was told…” versus “I was there.”
Revealed to not just be a hammer of great significance but also an example of Checkov’s Gun after being introduced in Season 1.
A detail composer Bear McCreary confirmed on Twitter
Agreed that the episode wasn’t as strong as last week. However, it did have some great moments. Prince Durin and Disa really are the heart of the show, even with their slightly wobbly Scottish accents 😁
What I thought was most impressive was the score in the early scenes with Annatar and Celebrimbor. It was all high strings and was similar, in many ways, to the theme in John Carpenters The Thing. Now, I’m not sure if it was deliberate, but certainly brought to mind the idea that the monster is hiding in plain sight whilst disguised as a friend
Continuing to really enjoy this season and your brilliant write ups. Thanks very much 🙏
As someone who has only been following Season 2 through Substack, when I saw the title was "Where is he?" I wholeheartedly thought it would be referring to Celeborn. The search continues...