‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Recap – ‘Adrift’

Written by Joel T. Lewis

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Two of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. To revisit the series premiere, click here.
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​‘Adrift’ is all too apt a title for the second episode of The Rings of Power as all our characters scattered across Middle Earth and beyond further deviate from the comfort and security of the lives they’ve always known. Galadriel, unshipped in the great sea joins an unsteady raft of shipwrecked humans, weary from their devastating encounter with “the worm”, an enormous water dragon. Tensions and suspicions are high as they drift slowly back towards Middle Earth. Galadriel and only one other castaway (the grim Halbrand) survive a second bout with the massive sea monster before being “rescued” by a ship from the Island of Numenor. 
 
Nori enlists her friend Poppy to help her care for the mysterious Stranger who fell from the stars while trying to keep his existence, and wild magic a secret from the rest of the Harfoot tribe as they prepare for their departure festival. 
 
Arondir pursues the unseen culprits behind the destruction of a human village and Bronwyn tries to warn her own village of the mounting threat. She and her son Theo cross blades with a terrifying orc whose tunnel led the creature right under their home. Theo, who found the broken hilt of a seemingly cursed blade last episode, discovers that the blade seems to feed on blood. 

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As for the elves; Master Elf-smith Celebrimbor shares with Elrond his grand design for a tower-forge and laments that High Kind Gil-galad sent Elrond alone in place of the army workforce he asked for. Elrond suggests that perhaps this grand design has room for collaborators outside the elven race. Elrond visits the realm of Durin at Khazad-dum and encounters an unexpectedly aggressive reception from his former friend Prince Durin. After a dwarven test of endurance, which leaves the reception ground covered in splintered pieces of stone and ax, Elrond manages to extract from the Prince the cause of this uncharacteristic hostility: Elrond’s long absence from Durin’s life. 
 
This is such an important and as yet unexplored touchstone for understanding race relations in the Second and Third Ages of Middle Earth. The tension between Dwarves and Elves is one of the central elements of Lord of the Rings lore, and here is an exploration of one of the most poignant reasons that tension exists, how the passage of time impacts the two peoples differently. 
 
Meeting Durin there was a familiar thorniness I usually associate with meeting Dwarves for the first time in these stories, but it was really refreshing to process that brusqueness through Elrond’s confusion. Owain Arthur delivers an earnest and pained performance as Prince Durin IV who finally tells Elrond that he’s so hurt because the elf he considered so close a friend missed 20 years of his life. The uphill battle of Legolas and Gimli’s friendship in the trilogy is mostly characterized by generational tensions that essentially reduce both races down to stereotypes: Dwarves are obstinate and greedy, and Elves are condescending and out of touch. However, the writing of this scene and the brilliance of its performers strikes so much closer to how those peoples could misunderstand and hurt each other unintentionally and also it provides a framework for how those fundamental differences could lead to the prejudices evident in the trilogy.

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When it comes to this series, what I continue to marvel at is this sort of casting back, or perhaps triangulation between the Silmarillion and LOTR texts. The series is an exercise in speculative anthropology: tracing what we know of what Middle Earth became in the Third Age back to what might have caused it in the Second. In practice across lore, architecture, political dynamics, and in-world race relations this series strikes a great balance between authenticity and creative liberty. 
 
We get our first glimpse of the orcs of this age in this episode, and it was a brilliant move to introduce them in a home evasion sequence. So often we see hordes of orcs moving over great battlefields, so it was effective and clever to bring that threat closer to home and it reminded us that one orc is a formidable threat. Their bone armor tribal aesthetic is so well executed and really contrasts well with the Elven influenced costume designs. 
 
I’m really enjoying the ride of this series, there’s so much to discover and I can’t wait to dive into what comes next!

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