I'm going to be inserting in descriptions of the events on screen.

1:11 Ah, yes. I had forgotten, for a week, the sublime intricacies of Numenorian politics, where the guy who gets to the eagle first is king.

4:03 Why do I keep seeing pairs of female names for the directors? Why can’t a woman direct an episode by herself? Is it like going to the bathroom?

King Durin III of Khazad Dum, father of the main Dwarf, Durin, puts on a Ring and is guided through a mine by Narvi, his assistant, who is explaining the shafts are unstable, where they are trying to dig out new shafts for sunlight. Guided by the Ring, to the bemusement of the other Dwarves, he picks spot to dig, and when the others hesitate, takes the pick himself. His son & Narvi hustle the other diggers out to either stop him from embarrassing himself in public or to get them clear of any disaster he might cause. He keeps digging, refusing breaks, until he opens a shaft and sunlight comes in.

6:27 Okay, King Durin is getting insight from his Ring about digging and tunneling and so forth. This is completely against the original source, where the Rings for the Dwarves attracted wealth. On the other hand, it fits slightly with the idea that the Elven Rings are cleansing evil decay from their homelands, which is a hair closer to the purpose and power of their counterparts in the books. Although, you’d think that the Ring would instead be making the mountain more stable and mining operations more viable, if you’re going with the whole environmental preservation power, rather than something that plays to the desires of each race (preservation for the Elves, wealth for the Dwarves and immortality of the Men, along with domination for Sauron).

Also, the king is outraged that someone dares to explain to him anything about delving. Except just a few episodes ago, the other miners were making fun of young Durin for being soft and unaccustomed to the labors of digging, because of his work as a leader of the community. Even though in Season One he was winning rock-smashing contests and mining with Elrond, among others. King Durin, on the other hand, has been seen doing this sort of work even less. So if Prince Durin’s duties have estranged him from the mining, why would anyone think that King Durin’s knowledge is better or more current, to the point that no one is allowed to even question him?

In this case, it’s even worse, because if he’s such an expert on delving, then he is rebuking the miners for being right, and questioning something he only knows to be true, because he has a cheat code

He goes around pointing out places for the miners to dig to open new shafts, while monologuing in voice-over about surface dwellers being slaves to the sun, while the Dwarves are free because they bring the sun to them.

8:58 Where does it follow that people who live above ground are slaves to the sun, chained to its rhythms, while the Dwarves are free of its tyranny? Why is this the voiceover of a montage of Dwarves digging to let the sun into their homes? The whole point is that they need the sun, too, because they’ve been dying without it. Logically, they are even more enslaved, because they have to do so much extra work to get the same benefits. Surface people can just leave crops out and they get sunlight all day, rather than needing to constantly adjust mirrors as it moves through the day.

His monologue turns out to be a speech he is giving to his people as their mirrors bring the sunlight into the cavern. Disa and an another female Dwarf exchange a significant glance after the speech.

9:25 Of course it’s the women who are troubled. For the record, this is the result of Disa’s urging that her husband talk to his father, the King.

Cut to Celebrimbor making a speech to the Dwarves in Eregion, celebrating their working relationship, while 'Annatar' Mirdania, the blonde female subordinate of Celebrimbor watch. Sauron is impassive, but Mirdania is in a good mood and seems like she is trying to engage him in celebration. Celebrimbor calls on Narvi to come forth.

9:52 Now I remember Narvi’s name, he was the guy who made the door the Fellowship uses to get into Moria.

Narvi reveals those very doors, hanging in the workshop, unlit. I'm not that much of a genius. In the book, most editions have a drawing of the doors and a translation of the runic inscription which ends with "I, Narvi, made them".
Celebrimbor tells everyone to watch Narvi closely while he is in Eregion, not just to learn from him but also to make sure he doesn't steal any jewels.

10:42 I GUESS it’s an indicator of how well they are getting along, that an Elf can make a joke about Dwarves stealing jewels, and the mixed audience laughs.

But that’s not unlike making a lynching joke at a meeting with a group of black activists.

Annatar walks out while Celebrimbor toasts the friendship between Elves and Dwarves. Celebrimbor follows him out to a balcony, and they argue about making Rings for men, until Celebrimbor notes that Sauron likes to manipulate others into accepting his ideas as their own, but lets him dodge the accusation. Celebrimbor says Men caused their own problems and anyway, Numenor is taking charge there. Sauron suggests that Numenor's divisions endanger them and says he fears Numenor more than any other land, and hopes Rings can fix them. Celebrimbor says they are too susceptible to corruption and they could make more problems than they solve. Sauron points out that while Men are weak, he cites the great heroes of the past, and suggests they find Men like those to give Rings to. Celebrimbor is shocked at the idea of making nine, but Sauron says it's like, super perfection. Celebrimbor says they've done so well with the Ten so far, they're tempting failure to try to make more Rings. So his answer is no. Sauron is like, okay fine, I'll make them on my own. Celebrimbor doesn't look happy.

13:13 Sauron kinda sucks at this. First of all, his skill and subtlety should have Celebrimbor doing whatever he suggested without being aware of it, which, to be fair, he more or less has been doing. But once caught out, which is not to be unexpected, given Celebrimbor’s status & power, he should be a lot more effective at diverting and defusing suspicions.

Then there is this bit about Men being too susceptible to corruption. If the Rings are a corrupting influence, WTF does Celebrimbor think he's been doing? If he is so far in Sauron’s thrall that he doesn’t care, why is he pushing back against making the Rings?

13:25 “Men are capable of great frailty.” Frailty is not something you do, and therefore not something of which you can be capable.

15:10 "If you won’t help, I understand. I’ll make them myself.” Wow, that sly trickster. Reverse psychology, in its most obvious and least subtle form.

This is the most I’ve liked Celebrimbor in the whole show, just because he’s been showing opinions and having agency, rather than being a prop and a plot device. And he’s probably going to walk it all right back for no real reason. They cannot write characters. The only motivation they could find for him is “I want to make something awesome.” The only motivational concerns when writing him were that he was going to make the rings, and that’s that. They didn’t try to decide what kind of person he is, or how and why he would go about doing it, they just strung together a sequence of plot events to make the rings happen and then made Celebrimbor do whatever made it happen. And now he’s only objecting to making Rings for Men, to check off a box that they think they need, because a writing handbook told them you need conflict in stories.

And, wow, Celebrimbor is wrinkly for an Elf.

In Numenor, Pharazon, is gazing out over his new realm, pontificating to his son, whose name I can't recall and shall refer to as Phara-son, until they say it on the show. Pharazon is giving backstory about how far off in the west you can just barely see the White Tower of Eressea, the gateway to the Undying Lands. He thinks that the Elves put it there to taunt Men with a reminder of their mortality, and that there are limits to what Men can achieve, with the implication that these limits are imposed externally. Phara-son reminds him that he's king now, and isn't that enough? Pharazon says he thought it was, implying that now that he's king, he's not happy. Phara-son urges him to use his power to build the Numenor he has always dreamed of. Pharazon looks really pleased by this, before telling his son, while beaming like a lunatic, that Phara-son's mother once, while nursing him, prophesied that he would come to a bad end. Phara-son looks a little disturbed and asks what she said, and Dad says he'll tell him if he impresses Pharazon in the job he is about to be assigned. If he fails, Pharazon will have to find other uses for him, still said with an unsettingly jolly expression.

16:01 Having spent all this time in Numenor, completely omitting any mention of the driving motivation of the King’s Men faction, and presenting the political strife in Numenor as being entirely about mundane matters, and the sympathies and personality of the ruler (except when they made all that go away in order to allow an expedition to be sent to the relief of the Southlands), having suggested the presence of factions, without ever really defining them, now, suddenly, Pharazon is ranting about spiritual matters and expressing an envy of the Elves’ immortality.

If these clever girls and boys think they are doing a Trump allegory, that’s basically the exact opposite of his arc – when he was campaigning, he was all about the big picture and spiritual issues, and once he was in office, it all turned to mundane matters and he was too busy for the big projects he hyped on the campaign trail. If they were doing Pharazon as Trump, he should have been stoking the fires of anti-Elf paranoia and promising to make Numenor great by sailing to Valinor and kicking some ass, so that everyone in Numenor could be immortal. The Faithful would be ridiculed as Elf-lovers and traitors to humanity, and he’d get a lot of tacit support, or at least a lack of resistance, from people who did not believe he would REALLY sail to Valinor, or that if he did, the worst that would happen was that he’d find that it was just another country and at most it would just be a minor diplomatic incident. And then the disaster that results when he does what he said he would is how they can make their Trump points.

Then it's night in Numenor and we pan over the city where people can be very very faintly heard chanting Pharazon's name, and go to a very high tower, where Miriel and Elendil are listening. She is bummed about Pharazon's popularity and Elendil tells her she has support, that Valandil (Isildur's buddy, who, last season, won a commission by tagging Galadriel during a sparring match and rebuked Pharazon & his coconspirators when they were plotting in the same restaurant as he) tells him in the Old Quarter people are on her side. He says they will put this right at her command, and that the Sea Guard is still loyal to her, basically proposing a rebellion or coup. Miriel cuts him off mid-rant. He reminds her that she got him back on Team Faithful and they were going to fight for the cause, but now she wants to do nothing "while the wolves are licking the cradle".

18:00 Elendil says that it was Miriel who opened his heart again to the Faithful. We have not had any firm exposition on the show as to what or who the Faithful are, exactly. And when exactly did this happen? Was this some backstory before the show (that does not seem to fit with their early interactions last season)? Or are we supposed to take that away from their interactions so far? How DID she open his heart to the Faithful? Why? What happen to change his mind?

Miriel asks what he saw in the palantir, I guess when he touched it after his daughter rolled it through the room during the coronation, and we cut to a scene of him riding through a misty forest, with the sky lit up behind a city behind him. Elendil says he saw himself, lost, riding from the city to he knows not where. Returning to the present day conversation, Miriel is disappointed that he did not see what she did, and speculates that it has changed. She says that you don't always win by fighting, and sometimes "maintaining stillness of heart is the greatest victory of all, the greatest act of faith one can perform" and goes on to tell him that for years, the only thing she saw in it was the Downfall of Numenor. She thinks that what he saw means the future has changed to a new path, and Pharazon's kingship changes the downfall, and that Elendil is a part of it. Because he was the one who touched the palantir when the vision changed? She says "You want orders, those are my orders." He takes her hand off him and starts to go, but she grabs his arm and tells him not to jeopardize this new timeline, no matter how the opposite faction provokes him, to stay calm. Then she orders him back to his ship.

19:08 This is just ridiculous. Just because Elendil saw a different thing than Miriel, it does not follow that Miriel’s visions are no longer operative. It’s just a different person, with a different future. Book knowledge, of course, leads one to the point that there is nothing for Miriel beyond the downfall of Numenor, while for Elendil, it’s just a prologue to the much greater deeds for which he will be known. Put it this way – the Downfall of Numenor is a major event in the Second Age. The battle where Elendil is the joint supreme commander, and falls, is the END of the Second Age.

And this is something that I think I would have figured out without the book, not least because pointing out flaws in characters’ interpretations of visions of the future is kind of my thing (even if some of you got all sorts of put out when I did it with Flashforward), but mostly, because it’s not a good argument for driving the actions of a character. We need something else to support Miriel taking a Pollyanna approach to Pharazon’s kingship.

Also, I can’t help but notice that Elendil here, and the prior episode, both strongly tied the support of the Faithful to certain neighborhoods, instead of the canonical region of the country. The only point to the change that I can see is how the one sort of geographical base is coded with leftwing politics and the other with rightwing.

Down on the streets, it's day time and a Sea Guard is turning in his uniform and dagger and told he is no longer a Sea Guard.
There is a long line of men holding folded uniforms, in front of a couple of helmeted soldiers at a desk, with Phara-son and Missildur (Elendil's daughter, whose name is some incomprehensible mess of vowels I mostly can't remember) watching. Valandil is in the line, and Elendil walks up and asks him what is going on. Valandil tells him anyone who is loyal to the Queen Regent is being stripped of rank. What we see is men getting discharged, which is not what he said, but these writers don't have the greatest command of words.
Elendil asks on whose authority, and Missildur says "On mine," with an incredibly obnoxious smirk, while Phara-son smirks behind her. We cut to father and daughter standing off to the side, and she says she wanted to tell him earlier and that Lord Belzagar, Pharazon's supporter, wanted to charge them all with treason.
Elendil says "And yet, overthrowing a queen has earned you a promotion."
Which, yeah, that's how coups work, but I think he is trying to say that she has actually committed treason and been rewarded. She gets mad at that and says how dare he call her ambitious when she is doing this out of grief, because Miriel followed the palatir to get her brother killed.

20:37 Yeah, no. You don’t get to play the martyr when you were acting all smug a moment ago about your role in a political purge of the officer corps.

He warns that she is mocking sacred things and she retorts that she's mocking absurd things. In a slightly more kind tone she says that Ar-Pharazon is the king and begs him to accept it. When he turns away, she warns him he is walking a treacherous path. He uses a RoP trademark metaphor to basically warn her that her own course of action is not secure and dangerous, with fatal consequences if she missteps, and seems more angry at her, than concerned for her safety.

20:55 Elendil warns that Missildur’s path is made of seawater, but I thought the sea is always right?

Walking away from his daughter, Elendil goes up to the head of the line and hands in his sword. As he turns to go, Valandil calls out behind him, "Captain leaving deck," and all the men in line stand at attention. Phara-son whines that he's not a captain anymore. Elendil isn't happy with this, but clearly recalling Miriel's orders swallows his bile, smiles and steps back to Phara-son, who, with his guards, braces for a confrontation. Elendil smiles again and says that Phara-son is right, he's not a captain. Valandil steps up from where he had been standing, with Missildur having come to his side, and addresses him as "Captain" anyway. Elendil nods and walks off with his men calling out farewells, thanks and blessings to their captain. Phara-son tries to shut them up, but they keep calling out and saluting. Elendil pauses, clearly moved, but leaves the scene, while Phara-son watches in frustration. Missildur offers to intercede with the king to keep Valandil's post. He asks if she would really do that, she says he's one of her oldest friends. He says she's made it clear who her friends are and leaves.

22:30 That almost feels like a good scene. It might have helped if they had done ANYTHING to set it up or establish Elendill’s reputation and authority among the rank and file. They could have made a point that Miriel was courting his support because of his popularity, they could have had Pharazon and his lord buddy express concern about Elendil representing the rank and file and how they are going to have to be careful working around him, and maybe Missildur reassure them that he’s not the type to lead a coup and will follow orders if they can pull of a fait accompli, something like that.

Also, I kind of think the scene went on a bit long and got redundant. Maybe it should have just ended with Elendil saying he isn’t a captain anymore, and just walk out to subtle salutes and Phara-son and Missildur start getting lots of sneering or contemptuous looks as the men keep turning in their kit. Or maybe when Phara-son says “He’s not a captain,” and then tries to order him to stand down or depart, he can then say “You’re right. I’m not a captain. And I’m not under orders anymore.” Or just have all the men calling him captain as he leaves and he just acknowledges them and keeps going while Phara-son just protests impotently and is ignored.

Ar-Pharazon (since the show is keeping the royal prefix ) approaches the palantir, veiled on a stand, and uncovers and stares at it.

We cut to Lindon, where Gil-Galad is reading a letter from Celebrimbor, saying he's happy to hear the Rings worked and that he's closing up shop as ordered. The voice-over continues as we go to Eregion where no such thing is happening. Or, at least, the fires are lit and Elves are lifting an anvil with a rope. Who knows why. Celebrimbor says that everything is great in Eregion and maybe Gil-Galad would like to visit? Gil-Galad looks up from the letter, looking kind of annoyed, but he always does, so we can't tell if he doubts it or not. Then he is looking out a window while another Elf urges him to order the attack on Mordor, but he is getting disturbing visions from the Ring. The military Elf questions if he is going to ignore everything because of the Ring.

Then we see Elrond and his companions running through the forest in day time, and Elrond takes off his cloak while he runs.

25:00 Why is Elrond dropping the cloak? Have they not perfected the concealment magic of their Elf cloaks? Do the writers not understand which direction magical progress goes in Middle-Earth? You might shed a cumbersome garment if you are in a short-term foot chase, with enemies hot on your heels. For the long run, you don’t know if you need it.

In the Dwarves' home, Durin is arguing with Disa while she trims the tree in their apartment, apparently rebutting her issues with King Durin's new Ring-granted insights, pointing out that she wa the one who was in favor of taking the Rings. She is concerned because her powers, which have been supplanted by Durin's Ring senses, are a gift that takes long training and practice and the Ring is like cheating. Durin argues that his father knows how to handle power, but Disa says even the best might be tempted by this power.
Then we cut to them shopping in the market, and Disa wants to buy a crystal ball she calls a tuning crystal, but Durin says it's too expensive. The merchant says to blame the King's new taxes. There is literally a 100% sales tax that the King calls "Ring tribute."

26:07 So the previously mentioned property of the Dwarven Rings to amass wealth is by providing an excuse to raise taxes. How spectacularly far can they miss the point?

Disa tries to wheedle the merchant, saying it's a birthday gift for their daughter and offers half the list price, which Durin still thinks is too much, and the merchant calls mine-shaft robbery. She smiles at Durin, he gives her money and stalks off, and she offers to split the difference to the merchant. He accepts.

26:16 The fact of the birthday coming up does not alleviate the issue of a sales tax. Not to mention, that sort of thing requires a lot of record-keeping, and when he sells this expensive crystal for cheap, the tax collectors are going to have some pointed questions. Also, it takes a lot of gall to ask for a discount when you’re the family of the King who is imposing these taxes.

26:21 She makes the merchant an offer and he says it sounds like mine-shaft robbery. What exactly IS mine-shaft robbery? Is it a thing? Why does it require its own category? Are the writers just randomly dropping in words about mining to sound all Dwarvish?

Immediately after picking up the crystal, Disa is jolted and it rolls away, through the whole crowd and market and into a side passage.
26:53 What mysterious secret is the rolling crystal going to lead Disa to uncover?

Disa chases into a cavern with a lake, uses her singing to ping the crystal. And hears a roaring noise in addition to the crystal's sound, which startles her, so she drops the crystal and it shatters.

28:25 Since they’re clearly only going to tease this monster for now, let’s ask how this completely unknown cavern is so close to the market, accessible through a passage that is traversed with only mild effort by a person who is, shall we say, not ideally suited to wriggling through tight spots?

Durin III addresses emissaries of the other Dwarven realms, telling them that the changes in Middle Earth are testing them but with the Rings, his people passed the test and so can theirs. Narvi looks a little worried as he goes on about power. Durin won't let the emissaries touch the Rings, saying they are for their masters and to go back and tell them they can have the Rings, for a price. Durin is then shown looking over mine plans, saying they will never want for anything again, because there is lots of gold beneath them. He orders his own restrictions on mining lifted and cuts off suddenly noticing the Ring is off his finger. He is really concerned and starts to blame Narvi, until the other Dwarf points to the Ring lying on the table, saying Durin took it off, because his hand felt heavy. Durin admits this and orders Narvi to begin digging.

30:30 For a show that often takes forever to drag out their points, they are moving really quick to show Durin’s greed. This is three scenes in a row making that point, first the taxes in the market, then demanding payment for the other Rings, and now ignoring restrictions on mining to get more gold.

And yet, the Rings are only supposed to corrupt gradually, over time. The One Ring was ramping up the pressure on Frodo because they were trying to destroy it, and Sauron was actively looking for it, and it was still a more gradual process than we are seeing with Durin.

Also, I feel compelled to point out that the Balrog was only awakened in the reign of Durin VI. This is the reign of Durin III and there were other kings between the Durins. So, given the shot of the Balrog so close to the mining last season, I think they are moving way too fast to get to the Balrog. This is the problem with prequels – everyone wants the good stuff and are way to willing to cut corners to get to it, regardless of how it undermines everything else.

Finally, there is the point that Narvi, one of the greatest smiths, is addressed by what seems to be a title of Delve-Master. I’m not saying that he can’t be good at two different things, but I am saying that a smith who is commissioned to make the magic doors to the kingdom probably shouldn’t be the guy in charge of mining operations as well.

Prince Durin bursts in warning of an ancient and powerful evil under the mines. King Durin hears him out and orders Narvi to dig anyway. Durin tells his son that his Ring gives him better awareness than the stone-singers and that she is mistaken.

31:30 Oh. That wasn’t a cave monster Disa heard, it was the Balrog. This is even more lame.

32:26 And despite the awkward insertion of mine-related expressions and metaphors, when push comes to shove, the coastal-dwelling human writers fall back on using a thimble out of an ocean as the metaphor when a dwarf describes a small part of a vast whole.

32:35 This Ring passed down from father to son through the leaders of the Dwarves all the way to Thrain, the father of Thorin Oakenshield. Are they trying to make us believe that the Dwarves were ruled by Ring-addled psycho tyrants for the rest of the Second and most of the Third Ages?

Also, the Dwarven Rings were failures from Sauron’s point of view, because Dwarves are very difficult to control or dominate. They only had minor effects on their bearers. The danger from those Rings was that they enabled the Dwarves to amass such vast fortunes that they drew dragons to come for them, resulting in four of the Rings getting eaten.

Celebrimbor is looking perturbed in his office when he hears a commotion coming from the workshop. He goes down to see Annatar studying objects on the workbench moving around by themselves. One tool flies off the bench and hits a column as Celebrimbor wonders if he's seeing this. Sauron says they were working on a Ring and Mirdania was doing something. He trails off as more stuff falls off the workbench, startling the Elves. Celebrimbor asks where Mirdania is, when the furnace flares up, blasting out fire and sparks. The master smith who has been working in a forge for millennia flinches and raises his arms defensively from more than ten feet away, almost like he's not so much a smith as a rather effeminate actor who has never done heavy labor, much less any sort of industrial work, in his life. Then we see a rope coming unwrapped from around a cleat, and the anvil that was being lifted in an earlier scene falls to the floor. Then they see a hammer flying around the room, over the heads of a mixed gender group of Elves, including a tall-looking male. It rises over Celebrimbor's head, and he grabs it, then reaches out with one hand, groping around until he pulls a Ring off of the finger of Mirdania, who becomes visible when he does so.

34:08 That was not great direction. I had to rewind to catch Mirdania reappearing and to see that Celebrimbor took the Ring off her finger. It happens at the edge of the screen and only her hand and arm are really noticeable when she reappears. The scene just gave the impression that objects were flying around at random, or under some force. How lightly was the anvil rope tied, that she could just stumble against the rope and knock it loose? Why did the furnace erupt? Why, if it was in the hands of a rather short woman, was the hammer flying so high that Celebrimbor had to reach up to grab it?

Celebrimbor tries to calm down a panicking Mirdania who basically describes being in the Unseen World, like Frodo experiences when he put on the One Ring. She describes seeing a fiery, burning entity. The camera looks ominously at "Annatar" when she mentions this. She thinks it's been here with them the whole time. Sauron reassures her that she's safe now.

Celebrimbor asks what they did differently with this ring, and Mirdania describes how they tried to fix the issue of Men being corruptible, and Celebrimbor sees the problem with their methods, and starts to correct her, but stops himself. Sauron asks for just a hint to save them lots of effort, and Celebrimbor starts to advise them, but guards come in to tell him Durin has arrived from Khazad Dum with a problem about the Rings. Sauron offers to deal with it, but Celebrimbor gives him Mirdania's Ring and goes to talk to Durin.

Durin shares his worries about his father's changed behavior. Celebrimbor denies there is any problem with the Rings, saying they did everything the same as for the Three. Durin suggests the problem is Annatar, and Celebrimbor looks worried, looking up at the tower, where Sauron is actually watching him & Durin. Sauron comforts and reassures Mirdania.

38:04 They are doing it again – having Elves suddenly drop a line in Elvish, as if that is not the language they should be speaking at all times. This one didn’t even make sense as a choice for Elvish. Why suddenly ask in her native tongue if he has seen it?

Sauron suggest thats what Mirdania saw in the Unseen World was Celebrimbor, which he hoped none of the Elves would notice until he, Sauron, had helped Celebrimbor heal. What she saw was how he has been weakened from making the Rings, and he enjoins her to secrecy. Then he goes on to say how much she looks like Galadriel and touches her hair.
38:59 This is much better manipulation than he was using on Celebrimbor. Twisting what she saw to make her suspicious of Celelbrimbor, The “Oh we are so incompetent we NEED your help” card he tried on Celebrimbor is grade school psychology.

Back in Numenor, a ritual to help the dead find peace is being performed in some sort of open shrine on the bay. Elendil and Valandil and a bunch of extras are there, putting tiny candles on seashells to float on the water.

40:10 Why does Hollywood love these stupid rituals of putting candles on the water? How does this work for an island-dwelling, sea-faring people, influenced by the Elves in their understanding of the afterlife? Because we are showing the Faithful at this ceremony, the quotes which the priest or whatever is ripping off borrowing from Return of the King cite the Elvish afterlife**, and that window behind the clergyman looks like a stylized tree, again, suggestive of Valinor or Tol Eressea. So how, in everything we know about the spiritual beliefs and traditions of these people, do we get the idea of putting little candles in a pool? Why wasn’t this a part of Tar-Palantir’s ceremony?

**For the record, Jackson misused them as well, because Pippen’s soul is going to leave his body when he dies and not even the Valar know where he is going, and Gandalf has no basis for telling him that’s what he’s about to experience; Tolkien wrote those words to describe Frodo & Bilbo and company sailing to Valinor.

Also, we are more than halfway through the new season, in which no one of Numenor has died. We’ve had a change of monarchs, and the new regime has begun purging the government. We’re only now bothering to memorialize the dead of the Southlands expedition?

Then the door bursts open, disturbing the ceremony, and Phara-son and a bunch of soldiers storm in. Phara-son announces that the shrine is condemned by order of the king and everyone is to go home, with the soldiers moving among the crowd to hustle them along. He gives the reason that the shrine, which is cited as the oldest in Numenor, is in the way of an aqueduct. Because you run aqueducts down to the bay. Okay, whatever, lit & drama majors. Anyway, Phara-son is all very smug about this, issuing threats and then offering insincere apologies on behalf of the king, Valandil looks pissed, but Elendil kind of nudges him on, and as he passes Phara-son, he gets insulted. Valandil stops him from a physical remonstrance.

41:12 First of all, since none of the Numenoreans are going to say it, Water flows by gravity! Numenor aqueducts would start in the central mountains and run down to places that needed the water. They would NOT run straight to the bay, requiring the bulldozing of an ancient place of cultural significance. There is no one there to bring the water TO, who could not get it more easily right from the bay. And, obviously, they would not be getting the water FROM the bay, because there would be no way to send it anywhere else, given how steep the land is around it.

Next: “How’s it feel to have a daughter who is ashamed of you” is just a poor insult in this circumstance. When you are closing down their house of worship and interrupting the ceremony, over a future construction project rather than any ostensible issue with the service itself, the victims of your actions are not feeling shame or guilt or anything that would make this jab hit home. If anything, it’s likely to result in hardening his heart against his daughter. As it is, he’s mostly just setting up Elendil to get the last word and embarrass him.

Next an old priest-type is about to be physically thrown out by the guards, before Elendil intervenes, and when he yammers in Elvish about the statue needing to be stored properly, Elendil tells Phara-son to hand the old guy the statue, calling him boy.

41:50 This is also dumb, because you’re just giving Phara-son the opportunity to act petty and spiteful, doing something like smashing the relic or tossing it in the water. Unless Elendil is manipulating him to turn public opinion against Phara-son. But I suspect the writers are just trying to set up Phara-son to be a jerk.

Quelle surprise, Phara-son drops the statue so it shatters instead of handing it over. Then he starts to snottily inform Elendil about his promotion and doesn't finish because Elendil decks him. He has the guards hold Elendil and winds up to punch him back, but Valandil grabs him, telling Phara-son that his sort aren't welcome, to which Phara-son retorts he doesn't see Valandil praying.

42:35 Dumb comeback. “I don’t see you praying” isn’t calling him out or demonstrating hypocrisy. He’s not praying, because as he just said, this is for the Faithful, and King’s Men are not welcome here. In fact, THAT comment was a dumb thing to say when he’s stopping Phara-son from punching Elendil. Like, it’s okay for one of the Faithful to punch Elendil? The whole point of this confrontation is that the King’s Men DGAF.

Valandil asks the Valar to forgive him, Phara-son obligingly asks him for what, and Valandil proceeds to kick his ass. While Elendil shouts for them to stop, Phara-son manages to get the upper hand and tries to drown Valandil, by holding his head down in the water. But he's a wuss and Valandil throws him off fairly easily and regains his feet despite Phara-son's ineffectual efforts. He draws his sword on the unarmed Valandil, and lunges at him repeatedly, while Valandil easily evades his blows and judo-throws him to the ground and breaks his sword arm. He picks up the sword and holds it at Phara-son's throat. Elendil shouts at him to put it down and breaks away from the guard holding him, or else is let go, because the guard can see this has gone south. He tells Valandil to "put it down, son" adding "that's an order."

44:01 “You’re not a captain, you can’t give orders!” STAB.

But seriously, the smart way to handle this is to demand a de-escalation and that guard leave, before sending Phara-son out with them.

After a stare-off, where Phara-son whimpers like a baby, Valandil obeys and walks toward Elendil empty-handed, saying "Aye captain," just before Phara-son stabs him through the back with his other arm. He slow-mo falls and dies in Elendil's arms.

44:56 I just want to point out that Isildur has screwed over Valandil yet again. By covering for Phara-son’s crimes last season, he has put him in a position to pull shit like this. And something like trying to burn the fleet is a pretty big indication of more than just youthful highjinks. It’s exactly the sort of thing that suggests he’s pretty extremist.

Phara-son cleans his blade in the pool where the candles are drifting away. Phara-son orders Elendil be jailed and the record to show "he was the one who started the uprising." It's not super clear that he means Elendil instead of Valandil.

45:23 The sea is always right, and now it’s tainted with the blood of the just.

In Eregion, Sauron and Celebrimbor argue, where their workers can hear, about the Rings. Celebrimbor is worried, but Sauron says the Dwarves are blaming the Rings for King Durin's abuse of power. Sauron warns Celebrimbor that someone might be manipulating him, Celebrimbor says he's paranoid and Sauron replies that Celebrimbor is blind to danger. Celebrimbor changes the subject, asking if Sauron changed the Rings in some way, and Sauron that Celebrimbor lying to the High King about stopping work, when he was really making the Dwarven Rings, affected their magic. He tells Celebrimbor he has to go to Lindon right away and confess to Gil-Galad or things will get worse. Celebrimbor doesn't want to, because he's afraid of the consequences.

47:44 Judging by Gil-Galad’s treatment of Galadriel, I really don’t think Celebrimbor has anything to fear from him on the issue of punishment. Especially when you consider the failure of Galadriel and Gil-Galad to inform him of the whole “Halbrand is Sauron” thing.

Sauron says if he's not going to repudiate the work he has done, the only other course is to go forward and try to fix it.

In Khazad-dDum, Prince Durin is trying to convince King Durin that there is something wrong with the Rings and they can't use them. During III seems not be listening, responding instead that while they were estranged, he realized how much he needs his son and that he is proud of him for bringing them the Rings and saving their people. He returns the torc he took from his son last season.

Back at home, Disa is fretting anxiously waiting his return, and is horrified to see him walk in wearing the torc, or maybe reading his failure in his face. He protests he tried to tell the King and she demands that he swear never to wear one of the Rings himself. He does.

49:00 I got nothing. I don’t know how else I can say that the Dwarven Rings are not the One Ring. The Dwarves used them with no noticeable issues for years. This particular Ring was only taken from their leaders shortly before the events of The Hobbit.

That said, the PROCESS they are describing with the Ring making could be kind of Tolkien-ish. Also, Durin III ignoring his son's objections to make his own speech COULD be a demonstration of how the Ring is warping his perceptions and priorities, if it wasn't for the fact that this is exactly how most arguments on the show play out. EVERYBODY ignores what the other person just said and responds with an irrelevant statement. So how is this particular example supposed to indicate a dissonant scenario?

Back in Eregion, Celebrimbor addresses his workers and says they have all failed. Mirdania exchanges a look with Sauron and replies that they carried out the designs. Celebrimbor is like "Did you? Or did you get lazy and stop paying attention?"

51:02 Celebrimbor was told that it was his own dealings with the king that caused the issues, and now he’s gaslighting his minions and blaming it on their shortcomings. Corrupted.

Celebrimbor tells them that the only way to fix the problem is to make the Nine, that it's not just about helping Men anymore, now the Nine must balance the entire project by drawing strength from the Three and redeeming the Seven and all of the workers. Sauron looks awfully but discreetly smug (he could give lessons to Phara-son and Missildur in that) when Celebrimbor says they're going ahead. He says anyone who doesn't give 110% on the work "is a s-s... Sssmith of Eregion no longer." Like he wanted to call them something else. Spy? Servant of Sauron? He says "it starts now" and flounces out of the room, leaving the other Elves somewhat disturbed. Sauron gives them a pep talk, saying that Celebrimbor only seems like he's being a demanding asshole because this is important and because he knows they can do it. He keeps talking as the camera goes to Celebrimbor in his office looking like he's about to have a breakdown. Mirdania and the other smiths look reassured, but Celebrimbor doesn't.

53:00 Annatar might be certain they will complete the Rings of Power, but I don’t know if Amazon will.

We pan out over the night in Eregion to the nearby woods where the orc armies are on the move, with the Elves completely ignorant. In the daylight, the orcs crest a rise and gaze out at the city.

Then in Lindon, Elrond has arrived to tell Gil-Galad that the orcs are not in Mordor, but are attacking Eregion. He shows Galadriel's Ring, saying she was right and they have to send the army to Eregion. Gil-Galad refuses saying he thinks this is Sauron's plan. He says their armies cannot defeat Adar and Sauron, not alone.

Back near Eregion, the orcs have decided not to attack just yet, and are pushing a cart with a tall narrow cage, covered by a tarp into their encampment. They whip off the cover to expose Galadriel, in what the camera seems to think should be a surprise reveal. The main orc brandishes his spear before suddenly using it to knock the door open. Galadriel and the orc stare at each other, and he grabs her and goes to cut her hair, before Adar grabs his arm. She whips out a tiny holdout knife, and threatens Adar, before holding him in front of her, hostage style. He tells her in Sindarin that he brought her here not as a prisoner but as a potential ally, saying that they share common enemy.

Cut to Sauron looking at a crucible spinning.

56:00 Galadriel might just be dumb enough to team up with Adar.

So this was a lot of back and forth navel gazing about the Rings, with them ramping up the dangers to such a degree that it's a wonder that they were used right up into Bilbo's lifetime, or that the Elves kept them all the way to the end of the next Age, and carried them to Valinor when they left Middle Earth. Their powers are amped up and distorted too, all of which is going to cause problems down the road, either making retention of the Rings seem utterly ridiculous or else have other problems arise that the powers of the Rings, as shown so far, should utterly vanquish with minimal effort. It's the classic Prequel Syndrome, where the writers/producers/audience don't have the patience to deal with the characters at a lesser-developed stage or with less power than they acquire or grow into in the original story.

All of this extreme depiction of the Rings is to accelerate the debate about using or destroying them, making more or calling off the work, which is sort of pointless, since we know the outcome and this does not thing to add depth or nuance to the choices that brought us to this pass. It's all pointless melodrama, and it's rushed, because despite the enormous budget, the CEO's claim of affiliation with the show, and the seeming guarantee of five seasons, they could not be patient and pace these events properly. Rather than leave the forging of the Rings, the subsequent war between Sauron and the Elves and the first alliance between the Elves and Numenor in one period, with the Downfall of Numenor and the lead up to the Last Alliance a millennium and a half later, where they belong. They could not be patient enough to show the Rings as seemingly benevolent, with the negative effects gradually being discovered, and Sauron's plan revealed with the creation of the One. They could not be patient and show the Numenoreans gradually turning against the Valar and the Elves, pushing out the Faithful, and turning from benevolent helpers of the Men of Middle Earth to profiteering traders and then conquerors and colonizers. No, they have to jam everything together in a short span of time, with the King's Men initially presenting as ludicrous anti-immigration activists worried about Elves taking their jobs, and then enacting an equally-ludicrous seizure of power and emerging as moustache-twirling bullies. Phara-son went from being a vague non-entity who had unrevealed reasons for opposing the war in the Southlands and randomly tried to burn the fleet for Middle Earth to a smug, sneering parody of a nepo baby going mad with power. His father went from an illusion of nuance as a capable professional politician navigating the opportunities that arose and the shifts in public opinion, to a power-mad caricature who takes the throne by authorial fiat and causes the whole political conflict to degenerate into an idiot plot.

I can’t tell whether this arc of Missildur is the most ham-fistedly villainous arc they have ever written, or if they think they are depicting a legitimate alternate perspective. And of course, it’s completely out of nowhere for her. What IS Missildur’s character, aside from being a blank slate for people to project as a girlboss addition to the family or a stalking horse for the anti-feminists?

Last season she was sort of close to Isildur, but not enough for her to matter at all in his story. Cut her out of season 1 and what changes for Isildur (or Elendil), aside from the verbiage of a couple of conversations?

She struck up a conversation with Phara-son over their being opposed to the expedition to the Southlands (Why? Don’t know! ). She urged him to intercede with his father, he said Daddy doesn’t listen to me, she told him to speak louder, leading to another conversation with Pharazon who stated the war was popular, and he planned to wring the most advantages for Numenor by going along with it. So naturally, Phara-son tried to burn the fleet. He got caught by Isildur who prevented him from burning more than just the one ship, but also saved him from the explosion and covered for him, for some reason, which Isildur was able to parlay into a slot in the expedition that had previously been denied him. We get absolutely no information about Missildur’s reaction to, or opinion of, this event which involved her brother and love interest**, who are more than just important people to her, they are two of only three characters with whom she has exchanged dialogue by that point in the show.

**Not that they have given any indication of romantic feelings or interest; it’s just that dating Pharazon's son is the only explanation for why she was sharing a table with Pharazon, a high-ranking politician with royal blood, and Belzagar, a powerful nobleman.

Then, in a scene with absolutely no relevance to anything else in her story, Missildur was left alone with the King to make a sketch of his face to enter in a competition to sculpt his funereal effigy, he conveniently mistook her for his (taller) daughter (of a different race, with a very different build), and revealed to her the existence of the secret chamber housing the palantir. She was able to smuggle an object the size of a small melon out of the bedroom of a king, after having been inexplicably left alone with him. Because that ever happens, especially with a king who has been deposed and is under effective house arrest because of the unpopularity of his views.

Nothing about the setup makes sense. Why do they not have any other images of the king handy to use? Why is his memorial going to depict him as he is dying, rather than in his prime or at his peak? Why is this not a duty for which the greatest sculptors in the realm are competing, rather than giving a bunch of apprentices a shot at showing off? If the king is so unpopular that they want to show him dying to denigrate him, why bother getting it right, or why not sketch his corpse? If he is in such bad odor that none of the great sculptors want the job, we are now in the realm of Stalinist censorship & repression, in which case the establishment can have any damn fool do the job.

In any event, if the King is so mistrusted that he is locked away from all contact with his subjects, there is no way anyone would be left alone with him, especially not the daughter of a man named “elf-friend” or, if some technicality compels it, whoever IS left alone would absolutely have been searched upon leaving. Something the size of the palantir should be revealed to even the most perfunctory examination of her person.

And now, she is carrying out purges of the military, because she provided Pharazon the elements to expose Miriel and seize power, and she has enough authority and influence in the regime to oppose a powerful nobleman who seems to speak for Pharazon’s entire constituency.

I should also point out that we know NOTHING about the government and monarchy of Numenor. We don’t know what authority the Queen-Regent had, or the King, or what Pharazon’s powers and responsibilities entailed. Last season, he was pressing the flesh in the city streets, and made it clear to his son he considered this an important aspect of his power. So is he elected? How, and by whom? What powers does Belzager have and where does his authority derive? How did Pharazon take real power by coopting the symbolism of the coronation ceremony, to the extent that he can purge the military with no concern about blow back? Why is his power so strong that the only course of opposition hinted at is an open revolt by the Faithful in Miriel’s name? There is talk of Pharazon having a blood claim to the throne, that might be stronger than Miriel's, but then why does he have no royal title before his accession? Why is he a councilor? If blood claims matter so much, why is his (only known) son allowed to consort with a woman of the artisan class, whose father has no title and only a distant claim to aristocratic blood?

In the books, it was very simple. The king, who died on this show, Tar-Palantir, had a mother who was secretly Faithful, because her mother was from the leading Faithful family, the House of the Lords of Adunie. He followed her beliefs, but his younger brother did not. He had a daughter, Miriel, and his brother had a son, Pharazon. Pharazon’s father predeceased them all, leaving him as the next male in line to succeed Tar-Palantir, but by the established succession, Mirial was the rightful heir. Pharazon claimed the throne when Tar-Palantir died, by marrying Miriel by force. How is this narratively unacceptable? Why complicate it with all these half-assed politics? Why not have Elendil offering to make Miriel a widow to restore her to the rule of the realm, and have her refuse that offer as she does in the existing scene? Do they want Pharazon to have a popular mandate? If their goal is to add nuance to the politics of the downfall of Numenor, having him carry out purges, with a key member of his base lobbying for execution of dissidents, does not make him a more sympathetic or nuanced tyrant. If you’re so anti-monarchial that you need to write in democratic elements or make a mockery of the coronation process, well, the end results of Pharazon’s reign are a plenty strong argument that monarchy is a deeply flawed means of government. You could write it all absolutely in line with Tolkien and emphasize how this is all the predictable outcome of a strong monarchy. You could also write it as a critique of demagoguery that is recognizable to modern audiences, by having Pharazon stir up a groundswell of popular support for his usurpation. You could even code them as Trump and Hilary Clinton, and compound his sins by his forcible marriage.

What's more, in the first season, the opposition to Miriel and the Elves, was framed as anti-immigrant bigots. The analogy here puts them squarely as MAGA types, but now they are purging the opposition from the military, and overriding ancient customs, and oppressing the traditional religion. This is the progressive model. If you are going to be so direct by having the bad faction agitating against immigrants taking their jobs (regardless of how little sense it makes to put Elves in that slot), you can't have them turn around and act like a left-wing popular front using a narrow electoral margin or technical victory to get to power and start imposing sweeping ideological changes. FFS, Elendil fits right in as a January 6 defendant, jailed for rebellion, despite an unarmed scuffle with Numenor's own Hunter Biden.

The only explanation is that these guys are complete morons who don’t understand political science, Tolkien or the basics of writing. There is just no explicable benefit to the changes they have made.
Tolkien has broad popularity because his morals and values are broadly accessible. In reading the fall of Numenor, left-wingers can read the sins of jingoistic nationalism, imperialism and colonialism coming home to roost. The worship of Morgoth Sauron introduces is religious extremism infesting government. Conservatives & libertarians can read the country turning against the values and religion of its founding fathers, adopting the views of the foreign tyrants they are supposed to be fighting, and persecuting the religious traditionalists who hold true to their values and escape the apocalypse. Neocons and tankies think Ar-Pharazon is the unsung hero of the whole thing. But the writers are so clumsy and ignorant, they can't even try to rewrite it for their own political slant without it blowing up in their face. I don't think they can see how the Akallabeth resonates with their opposition, much less effectively highlight the parts that work for them or neutralize the opposing view.

The best thing about this episode is the minimal involvement of Galadriel and the total lack of Harfoots or Meteor Man (which also shows how irrelevant they are to the main story, and that maybe we wouldn't have the pacing problems if they had just been left out from the beginning). Even the Durin family stuff isn't too bad, taken out of the context of the rest of the nonsense and ignoring the transgressions against the source material. Overall, it's just a clown show now.