On Thursday, September 19, Where Is He?, the sixth episode of eight in the second season of The Rings of Power, was released on Prime Video. And if you’ve seen it, you’ll have noticed that this episode showed us action and machinations from every corner of Middle-earth.
If you need a refresher, or if you still have some doubts, we invite you to read our episode recap. If you haven’t seen it yet, stop here because it’s full of every possible spoiler.
Spoiler-free review of Rings of Power 2
The release schedule and episode titles
The cast list divided between canonical and new characters
How The Rings of Power 2×06 Begins: Arondir Keeps His Promise to the Ents
In Eregion Annatar replaces Celebrimbor
Adar and Galadriel at dinner to test the alliance
In Numenor Elendil refuses to swear fealty to Pharazon
The Stranger Uncertain Between Stick and Nori
Nori wants to surrender, Poppy and Merimac kiss
Durin III raises the price of mithril, Disa and her son want to stop him
Elendil does not give in, Miriel replaces him and is saved
Galadriel understands Sauron’s deception but does not convince Adar
How The Rings of Power 2×06 Begins: Arondir Keeps His Promise to the Ents
The episode begins with Arondir, who is present in this one scene. Our elf friend runs into the woods, to keep his promise to the Ents to stop the orcs who are devastating the trees. He is attacked by three orcs, but of course he kills them in a few seconds and on one of them he finds the map of Eregion.
In Eregion Annatar replaces Celebrimbor
And in Eregion there is Celebrimbor, increasingly frustrated and paranoid, who can’t find the key to make the nine rings for men. Mirdania tries to tell him that lately he hasn’t been himself, but he doesn’t even remember the name of his assistant (like when he couldn’t get the right advice in the last episode). He would like to dedicate himself only to the creation of the rings, but Mirdania tells him that the mithril is finished and the dwarves are late in delivering it.
Annatar/Sauron intervenes, telling him that the people of Eregion (of which Celebrimbor is the ruler) want to talk to him, but also convinces him to give him the government delegations to focus only on the rings, so he will go and ask the dwarves for the mithril and he will manage the court matters. And he begins by telling the smiths that the master needs to be left alone.
People are worried because the usual coming and going of traders and craftsmen has stopped, and Mirdania shows them the corpse of the only soldier who returned (dead) from the mission to understand what happened. On the body of the corpse there is a writing, and as Annatar tells Mirdania the meaning is “where is he?”, but he certainly does not explain to her that the he in question is him, in fact. Indeed, Annatar takes Mirdania’s “cold little hand” and reassures her that he will take care of raising the master Celebrimbor.
Adar and Galadriel at dinner to test the alliance
In the orc camp Adar tries to convince Galadriel to ally herself with him against Halbrand-Sauron. Adar recognizes Galadriel’s persuasive qualities, her ability to enter other people’s minds and make everyone believe they are powerful and can have everything, like the army Galadriel wanted (she has it now) or the children Adar asked for (and she has them, even if they are not beautiful).
Adar’s idea is to unite the crown of Morgoth, which he still possesses and with which he once thought he had mortally wounded Sauron, and the rings of the Elves with their power. Galadriel is tempted by the proposal, but there are doubts that she must still resolve.
In Numenor Elendil refuses to swear fealty to Pharazon
Meanwhile in Numenor Elendil is on trial on charges of high treason and of having started the rebellion that cost Valandil his life at the hands of the ignoble Kemen.
Pharazon says that he will be sentenced to death unless Elendil renounces his crimes and swears fealty to the true king of Numenor. Elendil renounces his crimes but does not swear fealty to the one he believes has usurped the throne of Miriel, and is thrown back into the cell to await the death sentence, which will be carried out in the tradition of the “faithful” by summoning a sea worm to devour him in the ocean.
The Stranger Uncertain Between Stick and Nori
We move on to Rhun, where the Stranger has a dire vision with Nori as the protagonist. He tells Tom Bombadil about it, who reminds him that his task now is to find the famous wizard’s staff and that if he fails this mission he will have no other chances.
Tom then takes him to a valley full of dry trees and tells him to find the staff that belongs to him there, but faced with the possibility of taking months to complete the task, the Stranger asks if he can postpone that search until after he has found and saved Nori. But Tom tells him that no, if he wants to save Middle Earth from Sauron and the Dark Wizard he must accept the risk that Nori will die to dedicate himself to finding the staff. And so saying Tom disappears, leaving the Stranger facing the dilemma.
Nori wants to surrender, Poppy and Merimac kiss
Meanwhile, Nori talks to Gundabale, asking why they don’t escape from the raiders by becoming nomads like the Harfoots. But the leader of the Stoors replies that that place is their home, of which they know the history, and they cannot abandon it.
Nori then replies that she will take care of giving herself up to the Dark Sorcerer’s men, so that the Stoors will be left in peace. Gundabale explains to her that in this way she would put her friend Stranger in danger and would nullify all the efforts made so far. The same speech that her friend Poppy makes to her, who in the meantime has sealed her feelings for Merimac-Nobody with a sweet kiss.
Durin III raises the price of mithril, Disa and her son want to stop him
Meanwhile, in Khazad-dum, the excavations ordered by the increasingly gloomy Durin III continue, surrounded by gold even on his throne. His son Durin III arrives before him, as well as Annatar, who has come there to ask for more mithril to be delivered in exchange for wood useful for the mines.
The king rejects the offer and dismisses a peaceful Annatar, who for a moment sees the image of the balrog in a flame in the room (we’ll come back to that later). Durin IV is happy that his father has rejected the offer, but his father tells him that he has done so only to raise the price, now that Middle-earth is close to a bloody war.
The prince tries to ask his father to take off the ring that changed him, but his father refuses and, when his son tries to force it off, he reacts with a push that sends Durin across the room.
Disa doesn’t take it well, and convinces her husband to do whatever it takes to stop the king, even if it means showing his madness in front of the entire population. Shortly after, Narvi and other miners arrive at the excavation area, but Disa repels them with a song that attracts a flock of bats that attack the miners.
Elendil does not give in, Miriel replaces him and is saved
In Numenor the time for execution is approaching. His daughter Earien tries to convince her father to put aside his pride and swear an oath to Paharazon, but Elendil rightly refuses. Then Earien pulls out the ace from her sleeve by introducing Miriel directly into the cell, who orders Elendil to yield, but he responds something like “if I gave in and swore allegiance to Pharazon I would cease to be the loyal man you want to save, but rest assured that perhaps the Valar will save me”.
At dawn Elendil is then brought to a pool in front of the ocean where the sea monster has been summoned (who knows how, exactly…). At the last minute Miriel intervenes again, who according to the law asks to take Elendil’s place since he was condemned because of her.
Our Queen of Hearts is then lowered into the pool, where the sea worm soon arrives and drags her under the water, looks at her, recognizes her, screams because that is not what she wanted to eat, and spits her out, where the people recognize her as innocent and acclaim her as “queen of the sea”. Much to the chagrin of Pharazon, who later goes to consult the palantir, which shows him a vision of Halbrand/Sauron.
Galadriel understands Sauron’s deception but does not convince Adar
Back at the Orc camp, where Galadriel explains to Adar that Sauron is in Eregion to create the Rings of Power to further his evil plan to conquer Middle-earth.
Galadriel also explains that Elrond is coming from Lindon with an army to capture Sauron, and then they will be able to destroy Sauron. But when Adar realizes that it is unlikely that the Elves will allow his dear orcs (or rather, uruks) to return to Mordor and live there peacefully, he decides that it is time to attack Eregion with his vast army of orcs.
And it is here that Galadriel realizes that all this is Sauron’s plan, who has lured the army of orcs there to make them fight against the Elves while he, who does not even have a soldier in his service, stands by waiting for the elves to defeat Adar and for him to take his place as leader of the army of orcs. But Adar will not listen to reason and has Galadriel locked up, even if the orc Glug, the one who “has a family”, hears the conversation and has his doubts as he passes to his lord the horn with which Adar sounds the charge.
Annatar tricks Celebrimbor as Eregion is attacked
The walls of Eregion are then alarmed by the attack of the orcs. Celebrimbor also hears the din, and despite Annatar’s resistance he stops his ring drawings and goes down to the street to understand what is happening.
Sauron is then forced to concoct a deception so as not to alarm Celebrimbor. While chaos rages in the city, before Celebrimbor’s eyes one sees children playing, artists at work and various pleasant scenes.
Celebrimbor is then reassured, but he cannot start making rings again because he lacks mithril. Annatar then takes a box of mithril powder “prepared by Narvi himself” out of his pocket. But we know that the dwarves did not give him anything, so the only possibility is that it was the balrog glimpsed in the flame that gave him the mineral.
But it matters little, because now Celebrimbor can go back to forging the rings for men. And Sauron can break the spell and return to cross the elven court attacked by the army of orcs. Sauron looks at the chaos, raises his arms and smiles: his plan goes forward.
The recap of the first three episodes of Rings of Power 2
Rings of Power Episode 4 Recap 2
Rings of Power Episode 5 Recap 2
