Episode 1 of the second season of THE RINGS OF POWER on Amazon Prime begins with what happened to Sauron before he met Galadriel. After being betrayed by the Orcs, he changes form and resurfaces as Halfrand. He then meets Galadriel, an immortal elf, when he is shipwrecked. Cut to the end of the first season. Galadriel disagrees with Elrond about whether the three Rings of Power the Elves recently acquired are tainted with Sauron’s evil. Meanwhile, the young hobbit woman Nori travels west with the stranger to regain his memory.

Episode 1 of THE RINGS OF POWER: Season 2 shows how skillfully Sauron can manipulate the desires of elves and other creatures for his own evil ends. The episode encourages people to be careful to do the right thing and not to be easily influenced. However, the opening scene is very violent. Fortunately, the violence in the next two episodes is not as strong. Nevertheless, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution regarding the violence in the first scene of RINGS OF POWER: Season 2: Episode 1.

(CC, BB, VVV, M):

Dominant worldview and other ideological content/elements:

A strong Christian, moral worldview warns repeatedly about recognizing evil manipulation and taking the necessary precautions to combat it. It shows that evil sometimes comes in the wrong guise. Furthermore, it encourages people to examine whether their own motives are good or evil and celebrates true friendship.

Swear words:

No swear words;

Force:

There is quite a bit of gratuitous bloodshed and violence graphically depicted in the first few minutes of the first episode: a big bad guy stabs a small bad guy in the eye and then slits his throat, a group of terrifying human-like bad guys pounce on the big bad guy and literally stab him to death, but the big bad guy’s blood drips through a rock and forms a black blood clot full of worms, the clot crawls down a mountain and down the foothills, the clot eats two animals, the evil clot gets into a moving cart where a woman screams as her bones are heard breaking and the villain from season 1 gets out of the cart, the villain is captured and beaten and held captive by an army of orcish villains, the villain threatens another man with death and is later seen smiling as the man screams off-screen after a vicious wolf creature in the Attacking an orc camp, a character jumps into a river after finding three jeweled rings that he believes are tainted with the villain’s evil power. Two characters are being chased, they throw a blanket at their pursuer, but the pursuer turns out to be one of the character’s harmless friends.

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol consumption:

No alcohol consumption;

Smoking and/or drug use and abuse:

Do not smoke or take drugs; and,

Various immoralities:

The villain uses a lot of deception and manipulation towards others, often using his own selfishness against them, and a major disagreement occurs between two friends.

Episode one of the second season of THE RINGS OF POWER begins with what happened to Sauron before he met Galadriel in season one.

A coalition of angels, elves and men has just defeated and banished Morgoth, Sauron’s evil satanic boss. Sauron tries to rule over the Orcs in Morgoth’s place. One Orc resists, but is brutally slain by Sauron. However, the chief of the Orcs, Adar, decides that he should rule. So he and a bunch of Orcs attack Sauron and try to kill him.

Unbeknownst to them, Sauron slithers away in the form of a black mass full of worms. In the appendices of the novel THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Sauron does not reappear in Middle-earth until 500 years later. The first episode of the second season of RINGS OF POWER makes no mention of how much time passes after Adar and the Orcs attack Sauron. Eventually, however, Sauron slithers into a cart driven by a woman. He apparently kills her off-screen and reappears in the human form of Halbrand. He then makes his way to a caravan of men taking a ship. The ship gets caught in a storm. As Halbrand, Sauron does nothing to help the humans. So he survives the storm and eventually encounters Galadriel on the open sea while clinging to a raft.

At the end of the first season, Galadriel learns that Halfrand is Sauron. Still disguised as Halfrand, Sauron leaves the Elves and travels to the land of Mordor. There he is captured by Adar and his Orcs, who have enslaved a group of Men. As Halfrand, Sauron lies to Adar and tells him that Sauron is still alive, but promises him that he can tell him where to find Sauron if he lets him and the other Men go.

Meanwhile, Galadriel and her friend Elrond argue about whether the elves should use the three rings of power. The elven lord Celebrimbor forged the rings with Sauron’s help when he was posing as Halfrand. Elrond believes the rings are tainted by Sauron’s dark powers, but Galadriel believes the rings can restore the dying golden forest that gives the elves life.

At the same time, the young hobbit woman Nori travels with the Stranger as he follows a constellation in the desolate west. The Stranger hopes that at the end of their journey he will remember his true identity and why he came to Middle Earth.

RINGS OF POWER is set some 6,000 years before the events of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Aside from its violent opening, Episode 1 of RINGS OF POWER: Season 2 captures well the fantasy and major moral conflicts in Tolkien’s overall story of conflicts among the Elves and between the Elves and Sauron.

However, the series adds some characters and situations. For example, there is no Orc chieftain to challenge Sauron. Moreover, after the defeat of his master Morgoth, Sauron simply sneaks away and hides. Finally, the story of the stranger and the young hobbit woman is a complete invention.

However, the story in Episode One really develops beautifully in Episode Two, where Sauron’s deceit and trickery reach the depth that Tolkien gives it in THE SILMARILLION, his masterpiece after LORD OF THE RINGS. As a lead-in to Episode Two, Episode One begins to show how skillfully and cleverly Sauron can twist and distort the desires of elves and other creatures to suit his own evil purposes. For example, Adar, the chieftain of the Orcs, as Halbrand, forces Sauron to swear an oath to serve him, but Sauron says, “I swear to serve the Lord of Mordor until the end of my days.” Of course, Adar believes he is swearing fealty to him, but by saying “the Lord of Mordor,” Sauron is actually swearing to serve himself, not Adar, for Sauron is the true Lord of Mordor. This scene clearly shows the evil cunning that Sauron displays.

The sets, scenes and costumes in Episode One are beautiful. The writing and performances are pretty spot on too.

The biggest downside to Episode One, however, is the extreme violence in the first scene. Fortunately, the violence and danger scenes in the next two episodes are not as extreme. However, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution regarding the violence in Episode One of THE RINGS OF POWER: Season Two.

In the meantime, stay tuned to MOVIEGUIDE® for reviews of the remaining seven episodes of Season 2 as they become available.