Spoiler-Free Review Of ‘The Rings Of Power’ Episode 7
Image Source: IMDb
Content warning for this episode: Blood/Gore
Episode 7 of The Rings of Power is one of the most interesting episodes in the series to date. While parts of it, story-wise, are smooth and make sense, others feel disjointed and stray from some of the Tolkien source material so much that it is actually shocking. For being the penultimate episode of the first season, there still seem to be a lot of unanswered questions. Of course, this is only the first season, and not everything will be answered. Right now, the characters are in their “dark night of the soul” moment with no light at the end of the tunnel and no clear path. It will be interesting to see how this season wraps up.
This episode follows the other characters that were not featured in the previous episode, and it is exciting to see how their storylines continue. One of them is not as action-packed and prefers to focus more on character development. The themes of friendship, family, betrayal, heartbreak, and loss flow throughout the episode as each group begins to feel the effects of the evil encroaching on Middle-earth. You might want to have some tissues ready.
Image Source: IMDb
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More questions are brought up with the mysterious characters introduced thus far. Whether we will learn anything about these unnamed characters remains to be seen! Will we have to wait until Season 2 for the answers, or will we find out in the season finale next week? It will be interesting to see what mysteries the showrunners choose to keep a secret until the later seasons. Hopefully not too many because the suspense seems to keep piling up.
In this episode, we get a glimpse of a familiar creature in Middle-earth that fans will be excited about…and perhaps some foreshadowing as well. There is one scene in particular that fans of The Lord of the Rings movies will recognize immediately. This show has been hiding many Easter eggs throughout with little nods to the movies and Tolkien’s many works. While the showrunners may not be able to mention anything from The Silmarillion or any of Tolkien’s other works besides The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, they sure do hide little clues in places that the avid Tolkien fan will notice. Despite not being able to talk about some of the rich history that Tolkien wrote, the showrunners are able to show glimpses of it throughout to build the world of Middle-earth with these additions.
Image Source: IMDb
On the other hand, an avid Tolkien fan will be disappointed to see how this particular episode strays away from the source material. The showrunners have discussed and assured fans that they have been very careful with the writing to make it as close to what they could use of the source material as possible. When the show aired, some of the die-hard fans were still disappointed, but others praised the show for how well it captured the spirit of Middle-earth and much of the source material. Of course, the major problem with doing any story set in the Second Age of Middle-earth is that Tolkien did not write much about the Second Age, so there is a lot of creative liberty one could take with the story. This is how the showrunners were able to add new characters, expanded on the small explanation that Tolkien gave about Harfoots, shortened the timeline, etc. This ends up making the story richer and more exciting. However, in this particular episode, the showrunners dropped some very non-canonical material. It is unclear why they chose to stray so far from Tolkien’s lore with that particular element. While technically speaking, it’s not a huge deviation, it is still a deviation nonetheless that the showrunners and writers will have to explain. It is sure to make a lot of fans very upset.
Image Source: IMDb
It has been an interesting experience watching a series that takes place before a story we already know all about. The showrunners have in several instances (and in this particular episode as well) teased certain Tolkien-canon characters’ deaths or disappearances or something else happening to them. Since we already know that these characters make it past certain points in the Second Age (and some into the Third Age, obviously), it is fascinating to see what they decide to add to the characters’ backstories. There are several moments where fans might have to remind themselves that it is okay that we know they survive. At the same time, since Tolkien didn’t write very much about some of the characters in the show, certain liberties can be taken with character development and backstory, and it still does not usually detract from the story too much.
As always, the production value does not diminish in this episode, albeit, there are some rather slightly unbelievable and improbable moments when it comes to one of the storylines at the beginning of the episode. However, it does not detract too much from all of the new settings and locations we see in this episode.
A trailer for the season finale will be released this weekend. This is a surprising development since trailers are not usually released for a show that is currently airing. Supposedly, we will be seeing a battle next week despite how this episode ends. At this point, anything is possible as we head into the season finale of The Rings of Power.
Catch The Rings of Power Season 1 finale on Amazon Prime Video next Friday at 12 AM EST.
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