THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER: Episode 2.1

Name: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER: Episode 2.1
Item: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER: Episode 2.1
Author: Review

"Beware of Strangers Bringing Gifts"

Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

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Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

Episode One of Season 2 of THE RINGS OF POWER on Amazon Prime starts with what happened to Sauron before he met Galadriel. After being betrayed by the orcs, he changes form and emerges as Halbrand. Then, he meets Galadriel, an immortal elf, when he’s shipwrecked. Cut to the end of Season 1. Galadriel has a disagreement with Elrond about whether the three rings of power recently acquired by the elves are tainted with Sauron’s evil. Meanwhile, the young hobbit woman, Nori, travels with the Stranger as he heads West to recover his memory.

Episode One of THE RINGS OF POWER: Season 2 shows how cleverly Sauron is able to warp the desires of elves and other creatures to suit his own evil designs. The episode encourages people to make sure they’re doing the right thing and not to be easily swayed. However, the opening scene is very violent. Happily, the violence in the next two episodes isn’t as strong. That said, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for the violence in the first scene of RINGS OF POWER: Season Two: Episode One.

Content:

(CC, BB, VVV, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong Christian, moral worldview gives multiple warnings about recognizing evil manipulation and taking the necessary precautions to fight it and shows that evil can sometimes come in a false guise, plus encourages people to examine whether one’s motives are good or evil, and celebrates true friendship;

Foul Language:

No foul language;

Violence:

There is quite a bit of unnecessary gore and violence vividly portrayed in the first few minutes of Episode One, with one major villain stabbing one minor villain in the eye and then slitting his throat, a group of scary looking humanoid villains converge on the major villain and literally stab him to death, but the major villain’s blood dribbles down through some stone and forms a glob of black blood filled with worms, the blob slithers down a mountain and down the foothills, the blob consumes two animals, the villainous blob enters a traveling cart where a woman screams as her bones are heard breaking, and the villain from Season 1 emerges from the cart, the villain is captured by an army of orc villains and he’s beaten and held prisoner, the villain threatens another man with death and later is seen to smile when the man screams off screen after a vicious wolf creature attacks him in the orc encampment, a character leaps into a river after grabbing three bejeweled rings which he believes are tainted with the evil power of the villain, two characters are followed, they throw a blanket onto their follower, but the follower turns out to be one of the character’s harmless friend;

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Villain uses a lot of deception and manipulation against others often by using their own selfishness against them, and two friends have a major disagreement.

More Detail:

Episode One of Season Two of THE RINGS OF POWER kicks off with what happened to Sauron before he met Galadriel in Season One.

A coalition of angels, elves and men has just defeated and banished Morgoth, Sauron’s evil satanic boss. Sauron makes a bid to rule over the orcs in Morgoth’s place. One orc objects, but Sauron brutally slays him. However, the chieftain of the orcs, Adar, decides he should rule. So, he and a bunch of orcs attack Sauron and appear to kill him.

However, unknown to them, Sauron, appearing as a black mass full of worms, slithers away. In the appendices to the novel, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Sauron doesn’t reappear in Middle Earth for another 500 years. The first episode of RINGS OF POWER: Season Two doesn’t say how much time elapses after Adar and the orcs attack Sauron. Eventually, however, Sauron slithers into a cart being driven by a woman. He apparently kills her off screen and emerges in the human form of Halbrand. He then makes his way to a caravan of men, who take a ship. The ship encounters a storm. As Halbrand, Sauron does nothing to help the people, and that’s where he survives the storm and eventually meets Galadriel on the open sea as he clings to a raft.

At the end of Season One, Galadriel learns that Halbrand is Sauron. Still posing as Halbrand, Sauron leaves the elves and travels to the Land of Mordor. There, he’s taken prisoner by Adar and his orcs, who have enslaved a bunch of humans. As Halbrand, Sauron lies to Adar and tells him Sauron is still alive but promises him he can tell him where he can find Sauron if he lets him and the other humans go.

Meanwhile, Galadriel and her friend, Elrond, argue with one another over whether the elves should use the three rings of power. The elf lord, Celebrimbor, forged the rings with Sauron’s help when Sauron was posing as Halbrand. Elrond believes the rings are tarnished with Sauron’s dark powers, but Galadriel believes the rings can restore the dying golden forest that gives life to the Elves.

At the same time, the young hobbit woman, Nori, travels with the Stranger as he follows a constellation in the desolate West. The Stranger hopes that, at the end of their wanderings, he will remember his true identity and why he came to Middle Earth.

RINGS OF POWER is set about 6,000 years before the events that occur in THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Not counting its violent beginning, Episode One of RINGS OF POWER: Season Two nicely captures the fantasy and the major moral conflicts in Tolkien’s overall story of the conflicts among the elves and between the elves and Sauron.

However, the series adds some characters and situations. For example, there is no orc chieftain who challenges Sauron. Also, after his master, Morgoth’s, defeat, Sauron just slips away and hides. Finally, the story of the Stranger and the young hobbit woman is a total invention.

That said, the story in Episode One is given a really nice development in Episode Two, where the deceit and cunning of Sauron reaches the depth that Tolkien gives it in THE SILMARILLION, his masterpiece follow-up to LORD OF THE RINGS. As a lead-in to Episode Two, Episode One begins to show how deftly and cleverly Sauron is able to twist and warp the desires of elves and other creatures to suit his own evil designs. For example, Adar, the chieftain of the orcs, forces Sauron as Halbrand to swear an oath to serve him, but Sauron says, “I vow to serve the Lord of Mordor to the end of my days.” Of course, Adar thinks he’s swearing allegiance to him, but by saying “the Lord of Mordor,” Sauron is actually vowing to serve himself, not Adar, because Sauron is the true Lord of Mordor. This scene clearly depicts the evil cunning that Sauron displays.

The sets, scenery and costumes in Episode One are beautiful. Also, the writing and performances are pretty much spot on.

The biggest drawback to Episode One, though, is the extreme violence in the first scene. Happily, the violence and scenes of peril in the next two episodes are not as extreme. However, MOVIEGUIDE® advises strong and extreme caution for the violence in Episode One of THE RINGS OF POWER: Season Two.

Meanwhile, stay tuned to MOVIEGUIDE® for reviews of the remaining seven episodes of Season 2 as they become available.