With Rings Of Power Episode 5, we’ve crossed the halfway mark for the Rings of Power season 1 and while we’re still waiting for some of the promised conflicts to come to bear, we got some heartfelt moments, a lot of preparing for battle, and a controversial origin for Mithril.
The conflict that exists in the hearts of the elves, men, and dwarves is resolved in Rings Of Power Episode 5. Everyone came to the realization that evil was on the rise and that they needed to join forces if they were to survive its fury. The time has come to stand up for one’s own interests. The High King Gil-Galad, Galadriel, Queen Regent, Arondir, and others were aware that Sauron was one of the greatest Maia and that defeating his army would be a challenging task.
The threat of war was looming over Middle Earth. The situation demanded a union of men and elves. Adar issued a stern warning to the people trapped in Ostirith’s tower. They were given the option of joining the orcish army or dying. Likewise, Numenor was split. While Queen Regent believed the vision she saw in the Palantir was more than just a fabrication of her imagination, she also wanted to please the common populace by refusing to help the Elf.
Rings Of Power Episode 5 Recap
Episode 5 opens with Nori and The Stranger chatting about the harfoot migration and it appears Meteor Man is catching on to the harfoot language fairly well. When Nori mentions there being perils on the route, The Stranger identifies himself as a peril remembering what he did to the fireflies. Nori assures him that he’s good and that he’s here to help.
We get Poppy’s Wandering Day song, with a montage of the harfoots traveling in what I thought was a really nice scene. Now we get hints at where they are traveling and notable here is that we see their route going around the Emyn Muil, where Frodo and Sam meet Gollum. We get a little similarity to the hobbits crossing marshlands in Fellowship of the Ring with the bugs.
We see Adar basking in the sun and one of his orcs says the tunnel is complete. Adar says he wishes the orc could feel the sun as he does and mentions it will soon be gone. Bronwynn attempts to rally her people with a rousing speech and only half of her people abandon her immediately afterward.
Numenor Planning
Back in Numenor, Isildur wants to be on the expedition to Middle-earth, and Elendil is like nah. While Isildur serving would make Elendil proud, he says Isildur made his choice. In the court, we see dissent has broken out in Numenor about sending people to fight for Galadriel as people call to Pharazon. We get some more pretty meh dialogue from Earien and Kemen, where the key advice is speak louder, which, ok sure.
Next we see Sauron candidate number one forging, which is a pretty Sauron-y thing to do. And it turns out he can make some pretty awesome blades. He’s summoned to a meeting with Miriel, Galadriel, and Pharazon, where he points out Ostirith, the tower where Arondir and Bronywn are hiding, out on the map.
Pharazon says he will inform the sea guard and this seems like a good time to say I have no idea what the military situation is in Numenor. They took volunteers to go to Middle-earth, but I don’t know if that’s out of necessity or just because it would be unpopular to use their army to help an elf, so they asked for volunteers instead. We find out Numenor has committed 5 ships and 500 men to reclaim the Southlands, but Halbrand wants no part of it – taking off his necklace pouch and saying “find another head to crown.”
The Stranger Saves Nori And Friends
We’re back with the harfoots in a wooded area and they seem skittish. In a wide shot, we see a torn down statue, reminiscent of the scene in Return of the King where Sam and Frodo see the decapitated statue of a Gondorian King. And just when you thought the harfoots couldn’t be more cutthroat, turns out Malva here wants Sadoc to take the wheels off the Brandyfoot cart and leave them for dead. Yikes, I think maybe we have a new Sauron candidate here.
The wolf-like creatures we saw in an earlier episode attack and corner Malva, Nori, and Poppy, when The Stranger intervenes pulling a kind of shockwave move by slamming his hand to the ground, but in the process injuring his arm. I think what we are seeing here is a wizard who is learning the dangers of being bound to a mortal form.
Nori comes up on The Stranger bathing his arm in the water and the water and his hand begin to freeze over. This happens as he says Cala, which is Quenya for “light”. Nori grabs his arm which is like, a bad idea and she gets tossed away as the ice breaks. It sounds to me like Meteor Man is saying “Envinyata” or some derivation of it, which means “Renew”, which makes sense as he is trying to heal. Nori runs away scared and the trees sway around The Stranger kind of ominously.
Pharazon’s Thinking
Next, we are back in Numenor and we get some more Quenya speech between Elendil and Galadriel, which I rather enjoy. Valandil gets promoted to lieutenant for cutting Galadriel’s sleeve and we are off to Pharazon and Kemen. Pharazon seems like a very cunning man, and clearly wields great influence. He reveals that the reason he is going along with his cousin Miriel’s plan is because if they help reclaim the Southlands, their new king will owe them, meaning they could in return get ores, forests, trades, and tribute.
Next, we travel to Lindon where Durin IV is at a banquet with Elrond, Gil-galad, and Celebrimbor. Here we get Gil-galad and Durin kind of butting heads with neither wanting to reveal any secrets. Elrond cuts Durin off making a joke that elves move so slow it takes them weeks to take a….well, you get the idea.
As tensions go back and forth, Durin says the material the elven table is made from is hallowed by the dwarves and reserved for use in monuments and tombs of their honored dead. Gil-galad says he will send it home with Durin so it can be treated with proper respect.
Elrond Hard On His Oath
Next, we get a scene between Gil-galad and Elrond, where we get what is probably the most controversial lore aspect of the episode. Gil-galad brings up something called The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir. Hithaeglir being the Misty Mountains. Gil-galad says, “recount it, Elrond Peredhel”. Peredhel is the Sindarin world for Half-elven, as Elrond is often referred to as Elrond Half-elven.
Next, we’ll see why Gil-galad is so keen on Mithril. He takes Elrond to their sacred tree which he says is decaying, though it looks like some black War of the Worlds type gunk is growing on it. Gil-galad says he sent Galadriel away hoping that the last vestiges of war leaving would stop it, but that the light of the Eldar is fading. Elrond stands his ground on not breaking his oath to Durin, which I’m very thankful for. I thought for sure after last week they were going to make the oath the reason Elrond and his family experienced such sorrow in the age to come, which would’ve been really lame in my opinion.
Elrond looks to the sky as if looking to his father for guidance and we transition to his father’s statue in Numenor, where we can see there’s a representation of a silmaril on his brow. Director Wayne Yip said in an interview that at an angle in Numenor it looks like Earendil is pointing to his star, so I wonder if this is that shot.
Isildur Wants In Isildur’s friend Otamo tells his fiancée the battle will probably be over by the time he’s off the boat, which probably means he’s a dead man next episode. The three friends meet in the same alleyway Halbrand beat up people in episode 3 and Isildur wants on the boat. Isildur smells what the Valandil is cookin by trading 2 punches for making things right between them.
Kemen sneaks on the boat to go all pyro and finds Isildur stowing away. They struggle and start the boat on fire and sidenote. Kemen shows cool guys don’t swim from explosions as Isildur hauls him out of the water and they come up with a story about Kemen being in a fishing boat and Isildur saving him.
Back with Elrond, Celebrimbor reveals that they believe that by securing vast quantities of mithril they can saturate every elf in the light of the Valar, which would be the elves’ salvation. Again, we’ll get deeper into this in a minute.
Not Becoming A Monster
Next, we visit Halbrand who has a worthless broom, and Galadriel comes to apologize a bit before again trying to convince Halbrand to go back to Middle-earth, and Halbrand is like “you don’t know me.” Galadriel then tells him that her king and even her friend couldn’t distinguish her from the evil thing that she was fighting, so they sent her away. If Galadriel does in fact learn from this, I believe that her confession of this may be a positive learning moment.
Her rage being her only trait has been my biggest complaint all along. If she learns to move past it, that would actually be really nice – it would be a great lesson of not becoming a monster while hunting monsters. If she doesn’t, well, it’ll just be more of the same and she’ll remain pretty uninteresting of a character, unfortunately.
Then Halbrand says he’s sorry about her brother and for all of it. Again this would be super weird if this dude is Sauron saying this stuff – unless he’s lying…or the witch king…
Adar Is Not Sauron
Waldreg and the deserters join Adar, whom he calls Sauron, and womp womp, I guess he’s not Sauron. Waldreg then says I’ll serve you, whoever you are, which is kind of funny.
Now I’ve never thought Adar was Sauron, but it’s worth noting that in The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn says Sauron does not use his right name, nor permit it to be spelled or spoken. We only see a couple of instances – one is the Mouth of Sauron and one is the Messenger sent to Erebor that says the name. So while I don’t think Adar is Sauron, it could be read as him reacting to someone using that name.
Adar makes Waldreg kill Rowan to enter his service. Pretty heavy bad guy stuff. Back in Ostirith, and we some respect develop between Arondir and Theo, and Arondir remains a great part of the show. I’m a fan of the character and I think we’ll see some cool elven action from him next episode.
Theo reveals the shard to Arondir and behind some vines, he reveals some kind of monument depicting the blade. I’m not sure, but I think this might be Sauron’s helm in the background. The sword is shown stabbed through someone’s stomach. It’s revealed in the X-Ray view that the tower in Ostirith was originally built by the people loyal to Morgoth, which explains why this statue would be in an elven-controlled tower.
Arondir says it is a key to…something. I’m still banking on this possibly being related to the Morgul blades that bring people into the Unseen World. Arondir also reveals they’ll be attacked in days, maybe hours and Bronwyn is like “maybe those deserters were onto something,” and says they should go serve the darkness in a pretty big 180. They get a lightbulb moment when Bronwyn says the tower will fall, so they’re probably going to try to rig up some catastrophe next episode. Adar and his forces begin their march to Ostirith as the orcs chant Nampat
Sailing For Middle Earth
Next, we are back in Lindon and the elves are carrying away the table to take back to Khazad-dum. Durin reveals he totally made up the whole thing about it being sacred stone because Disa has been wanting a new table for years, which is hilarious. Elrond comes clean to Durin, revealing that without mithril the elves must either sail west or they will perish.
Back to the story, Durin jokes around about the fate of the elves being in his hands, but I love that there’s never really any question that he’s going to help his friend and his people. Durin’s a good dude, through and through. Elrond and Durin set off for Khazad-dum and to convince his father.
Halbrand snatches up his pouch and appears to embrace going back to Middle-earth to reclaim whatever kingship might await him, and we get a precessional scene as the volunteer soldiers leave the city to cheers and applause, which is quite the difference in tone compared to Faramir’s leaving Minas Tirith. It kind of makes me wonder if this volunteer force isn’t about to get their butts kicked in the battle to come.
So we see these three really cool-looking ships of Numenor – oh, right I totally forgot – they’re down to 3 ships now after the explosion. I guess they don’t have any spares? This is another thing I was wondering about, because they presumably still have the volunteers, but you’d think they’d have more ships they could use. I don’t know, but might be another reason to think they might get their butts kicked a bit.
Next week seems like we are going to get the action-packed battle many have been waiting for as the Southlands and Numenor stories collide.
Also Read: Rings Of Power Episode 6 Release Date: Sauron Will Be Revealed
