What has happened to this show since its great series premiere? Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Episode 5: “Adrift” has completely blown me away…with how bad and contrived the show has become.
This episode RUINED the Elrond-Durin plot. I can’t believe how contrived and ridiculous the showrunner’s logic behind sending Elrond to Khazad-dum ended up being.
I thought they set up Elrond going to Khazad-Dum on behalf of Celebrimbor as a way to ingratiate the elven smith and the Dwarves and create a working relationship that would sprout into some future plotline surrounding the Rings of Power and the Doors of Moria.
That would make sense, right? Especially so considering the fact that, in Tolkien’s lore, Celebrimbor ended up working with the Dwarves to build the Doors of Moria and he had help from the Dwarves while working on rings with Sauron.
But, nope, it turns out the reason why Celebrimbor sent Elrond to Khazad-dum was because he and High-King Gil-galad conspired with one another to find out why the Dwarves, who were supposedly making a lot of smoke from their mining (uh, aren’t they mining underground and under a mountain at that? How would he even see the smoke?), were smithing so frequently.
Plus, High-King Gil-galad all of a sudden realized that some ancient myth claimed that one of the Silmarils’ light was lost in the mountain, so he figured the Dwarves must have found it.
(Amazon-Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power-Official Trailer)
Therefore, with the Elves all of all of a sudden going facing extinction because the tree that is near the king’s ceremony spot has some fungus on it (no, I’m not making this up; it was literally just dropped into the script just like that), he used Celebrimbor to send Elrond into Khazad-dum to find out if the Dwarves found this mysterious, mythical light.
Thus, once the Elves found the light and wrapped/cloaked themselves in it, they would be able to stop their death.
What? None of what I just wrote makes sense? Well, don’t worry as it sounded just as crazy to me when I first heard it too.
The showrunners and writers literally just dropped this apocalyptic doomsday prediction out of nowhere like a Randy Orton RKO. You know what, I think it would have been more believable if Randy Orton snuck up behind Gil-galad and RKO’d him than what actually happened.
None of this ‘the Elves will lose their immortality and fade into nothingness’ was set up AT ALL!!!!
Are the showrunners really saying that just because some decaying leaf falls from that golden tree all the way back in Episode 1 I was supposed to figure out that the Elves are all going to disintegrate come spring, which may or may not be a month or more away by this point?
These showrunners and writers are insane by thinking that would be an appropriate and interesting story plot. It just doesn’t make sense.
Okay, if you thought that was bad, then this next part will shock you. Once Elrond is confronted by Gil-galad and is told the king’s wild, crazy, stupid, inane, and downright nonsensical plot, he is forced to make a choice: either he breaks his oath to the Dwarves and reveals the location of the Mithril or stays quiet about the whole thing.
Well, if you guessed that he basically confirmed the Dwarves had Mithril to Gil-galad by essential saying “I’m not saying the Dwarves have Mithril, but I’m also not saying the Dwarves DON’T have Mithril” and then justify that as not breaking his oath to Durin, then you’d be right.
I mean, how dumb is Elrond? Did he really think that by not confirming, but also not denying, the existence of Mithril, he confirmed the existence of Mithril.
Plus, he ended up outright exposing the existence of Mithril a scene later when he not only showed the small ore Durin gave him in front of a few Elven Guards, but also directly gave it to Celebrimbor (you know, the guy who was conspiring with Gil-galad) to study.
Did the showrunners and writers not review the scripts for structural/plot consistency?
Wrapping up this plot, Elrond and Durin have a dumb scene in which Elrond solemnly expresses the gravity of the situation to Durin and says that “the Elven race’s fate is in his hands”.
Though, instead of being conciliatory or sympathetic like a normal human/dwarf, Durin can only pull a strange, out of place constipated face as he annoyingly has Elrond keep repeating the line “our fates in your hands” like some 3rd grader who has a secret over their friend.
Durin (more like writers), ELROND, YOUR FIREND, AND THE REST OF THE ELVES ARE GOING TO DIE IN A FEW MONTHS! THIS ISN’T SOMETHING TO GLOAT ABOUT!
Anyway, on to the other dreadful storyline, everyone’s beloved, generic Numenor.
Let me just start this off by saying that Galadriel is out of control. There’s not a real person living today, whether they are male or female, that is as obnoxious, arrogant, combative, vicious, and argumentative as the Elven Princess. There hasn’t been one conversation in over 5-6 hours of screen time with her that has not ended up in an argument/confrontation/combative.
She’s a CARICTURE, not some Tolkien or Peter Jackson would have ever of even though of putting in the books and movies, respectively! It’s honestly embarrassing that the actress, Morfydd Clark, has to portray such a one-dimensional caricature as she seems more than capable of playing someone with depth and nuisance.
Even her heart-to-heart moment with Halbrand was marked and overshadowed by her extreme personality. Can she just not give this whole ‘gruff, mean, angry, combative’ ego thing a rest for a moment? Sauron isn’t about to take over the world…yet.
Plus, I don’t understand when she keeps saying “what am I to be” without her sword and vengeance. Isn’t she supposed to be married and have a daughter by this point in Tolkien’s lore?
Surely, if that’s the case, she should probably check in on them if she’s got nothing else to do.
Nonetheless, the Numenor plot pretty much stalled for the entirety of the episode as Halbrand’s ‘will he-won’t he’ hesitancy towards becoming a king again (which was just extremely contrived for Galadriel to discover with in the first place) was only resolved in the final minute with him obviously accepting the journey to the Southlands (we wouldn’t have a story if he didn’t).
Moreover, Isildur’s ever-shifting character motivations (does he want to go out West or not? He has already ruined his naval career, so he might as well) were still stupid, and Elendil was criminally underutilized once again.
If there’s anyone who can take some credit from their work on this show so far, it’s Lloyd Owen. He’s been fantastic, consistent, and stoic throughout every episode we’ve seen him and Elendil thus far. Though, the showrunners will probably ruin his character with some dumb line or motivation with the remaining few episodes.
(Amazon-Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power-Official Trailer)
As for the Southlands plot, is it even worth talking about it anymore?
Somehow, Bronwin, who was despised for being an Elf-lover’ in Episodes 1 and 2, has now become the leader of the Southlands people just because she killed an orc. Now, yes, that’s an impressive feat that the Middle-Earth version of me would be awed by, but that doesn’t mean she should automatically become the leader.
She has zero qualifications and expertise in leading large masses of people.
And if you think I’m being too harsh, she nearly gives up the fight and was resolved to bow before Adar and the Orcs before Arondir talks some sense into her.
It was difficult not to laugh at the sheer contrast between the ‘together, we can survive this’ hopeful Bronwin from the first few minutes of the episode to the ‘we are destined for the darkness’ emo Bronwin only an hour later.
Mind you, absolutely nothing happened to provoke such a drastic outlook change aside from a few, questionable characters fleeing over to the Orcs side. It’s a siege, Bronwin, of course people are going to try to escape in any way possible.
Nevertheless, nothing else happens beside Arondir figuring out that the sword Theo has is important to the Orcs based off a hidden mural in the very watch tower he’s spent 200 years at. You’d think he would have realized the importance of said sword by now.
Regardless, the Harefoot plot was actually the most compelling for a change. Though, I say compelling very loosely.
Like the rest of the story, nothing actually happens other than the Harefoots slowly making their way to their ‘Garden of Eden’, so to speak. Yet, the thing that was interesting was the fact that Sauron’s white cloaked cultists were finally introduced into the story as they were searching around the creator left by the Meteor Man.
(Amazon-Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power-Official Trailer)
I’m beginning to think that Sauron might actually be the Meteor Man, which would be the DUMBEST creative decision ever, as he’s not only attracted the white-cloaked cultists, but also nearly killed Norri with some frost magic. I hope this isn’t the case, but I’m afraid the showrunners and writers are heading in that direction.
Also, the Meteor Man saves the Harefoots from some wolves with a telekinetic blast, which I guess was pretty neat. He’s still got a way to go to get me around to liking him after he spent weeks acting like an imbecile.
As for my score of the episode, I’ll be honest and say that this series has nosedived into the pit of darkness that Gandalf found himself in at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Unfortunately for the showrunners, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, they don’t have the power of the Valar behind them like Gandalf did.
The show had such promise and potential coming from Episodes 1 and 2, but the awful pacing from the start has caused all of this contrived info to be dumped into these final four episodes.
Rings of Power Episode 5: “Adrift” gets a 5.6/10, a new low for the series.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Amazon) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Official Trailer | Prime Video – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Amazon) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Official Trailer | Prime Video – YouTube)
In Text Image 2: (Amazon) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Official Trailer | Prime Video – YouTube)
In Text Image 3: (Amazon) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Official Trailer | Prime Video – YouTube)
