THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER: Episode 1.2

Episode Two of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER on Amazon Prime contrasts with the first episode that sets up the characters by having lots of jeopardy and action. The episode follows the elf Galadriel who’s still trying to defeat the darkness, in part to revenge her brother’s death, the young hobbit girl Nori, the elf Elrond, the prince of the dwarves, and several human characters, including a displaced king and a mysterious stranger.

The episode starts with a longer look at the meteor or spaceship that fell to Earth causing great damage. Nori looks in the crater, and there’s an almost naked man in a fetal position in the middle. The whole meteor crater is on fire. When Nori’s Harfoot hobbit friend accidentally pushes her, she falls into the fire and is surprised to find out the fire is cold. She climbs up to look at the man, and he awakes to start to bellow in such a way that it causes the whole Earth to tremble, trees to fall and other disasters. However, Nori says in sign language that she’s a friend, and he signs back to her.

Meanwhile, another whole village has been destroyed without any remaining humans, according to the elf who discovers it, with only a hole in the ground that he enters because he is a military elf trying to find out who did this. His human girlfriend begs him not to go.

Meanwhile, Elrond the elf is assigned to the expert elf blacksmith, Celebrimbor, who wants Elrond to recruit the dwarves so he can build the best, hottest, most powerful blast furnace to forge great works. At the same time, Galadriel, while swimming in the vast ocean, finds a raft of people, one of who, takes her aboard, but the others are upset because she’s an elf. Regrettably, a giant sea worm serpent attacks the raft. So, Galadriel dives back into the ocean. Later a piece of the raft with a sail, manned by a human, who turns out to be a king whose kingdom was destroyed by the orcs, picks her up. Clearly, there’s a chemistry between the two of them.

Meanwhile, the dwarves put Elrond to a test of taking one of a pickaxe to see whether he or their prince, Durin IV, can to break giant stones for the longest time. If he fails to do this longer than the Prince, Elrond will be banished forever from the dwarf kingdom. He does intentionally fail, but it turns out the prince was a friend of Elrond’s, though he resents Elrond for leaving years ago. When the Prince takes Elrond home, the Prince’s wife is overjoyed and asks Elrond for dinner. Eventually, the Prince’s attitude is transformed.

Meanwhile, the warrior elf going down the tunnel confronts some scary beings. His girlfriend returns to town to warn everyone. They don’t believe her, but when she goes home, there’s a hole in the floor like the one in the destroyed village, and her brother is hiding in a kitchen cabinet. An orc comes out of the hole, and they have to fight him.

So, the episode leaves viewers wondering whether Galadriel and the displaced king will survive the ocean storm and ocean creatures, whether Nori’s village will escape the elves, what will happen to the man who fell to Earth, whether the warrior elf survives the tunnel, and whether the dwarves will help Elrond and the master elf blacksmith.

Episode Two of THE RINGS OF POWER moves fast and is filled with jeopardy, action and scary moments. The various storylines are woven together well to augment each other, and seemingly to connect all these stories at one point. The special effects are very good, the acting improves tremendously when confronted by jeopardy, and the various storylines encourage viewers into wanting to watch another episode.

There’s upper male nudity and a gossamer dress in Episode Two, but nothing salacious. Happily, Episode Two has no foul language, but there are hints of characters turning bad in what they say, while other characters are clearly choosing the side of the good.

Episode Two of THE RINGS OF POWER is captivating and exciting entertainment, but caution is advised for younger children and for those who don’t like scary creatures popping out of nowhere.