“True creation requires sacrifice.” This is the simple yet profound truth that Sauron drops at the end of The Rings of Power season 2, episode 7. It’s a striking line and, fittingly, it doubles as a quasi-mission statement for what ends up being the best episode of the second season. By grounding its blockbuster action scenes in the difficult choices faced by the ensemble, episode 7 is perhaps the best of the entire series, full stop — an engrossing blend of spectacle and archetypal drama that we always knew the Lord of the Rings show could deliver.
(Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, episode 7.)
Unsurprisingly, much of the episode’s story, fueled by sacrifice, is more rooted in destruction than the creation that Sauron calls for. And kudos to 2nd unit director Vic Armstrong and writers JD Payne, Patrick McKay, and Justin Doble: they’ve come up with a fresh take on elf versus orc combat. It’s not something we’ve seen before in a live-action Middle-earth battle. Same goes for the horses stuck in the mud, exploding torches, and chained battering rams; these are all new flourishes that set Siege of Eregion far apart from previous ones. Lord of the Rings clouds of dust.
It’s a lot of fun. It’s also a useful backdrop for episode 6, in exploring the overarching motif of sacrifice. Some of this stuff is pretty obvious: Adar’s cannon-fodder tactics as he sends wave after wave of his orc “children” to die on the front lines, ostensibly for the good of wider Mordor. The martyrdom (perhaps) of Arondir, after a failed attempt to take Adar out one-on-one. Sauron secretly giving his own blood, his own essence, to create the Nine—an effective, extra-canonical precursor to the production of the One Ring—and casually overthrowing those around him as needed (RIP Mirdania) to complete his long con of world conquest. It’s not hard to see where Payne, McKay, Doble, and director Charlotte Brändström are going with this.
Yet much is also given up in Rings of Power the latest entry in season 2 that isn’t quite so immediately obvious. Elrond completing his transition from bookish to military commander is a form of sacrifice—it’s his true self that he’s shedding. (He also loses his awesome jump-kicking horsey, but I digress.) The same goes for Adar’s arc; the determination of his “Sauron Must Die” stance ironically completes his transformation from the orcs’ savior to their new oppressor. Is it a nuanced, or even original, journey? Not really. But it works, partly because of Sam Hazeldine’s understated performance, and partly because it actually pays off the seeds sown in season 2. Plus, it’s in line with what Lord of the Rings writer JRR Tolkien had to talk about power in a way that last week’s episode didn’t. Adar’s downfall is a very Tolkienian demonstration that even the best intentions can easily be twisted. No one says this in episode 6 (despite Adar’s lackey Glûg’s face saying “Do you really mean that?”), but it’s there anyway.
Also unspoken is Durin IV’s late-game abandonment of Elrond: he sacrifices their friendship—and his code of honor—for something he cares about more. Despite all his grand speeches about dwarven loyalty, our man abandons his best friend when it becomes clear that the price of saving Eregion is the potential loss of Khazad-dûm. He may hate himself for it, but he’d make the same decision again. This is Durin’s home, these are his people; they will always come first, even over the best of friends. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like hell.
Collectively, these mysteries give the events of Episode 7 real weight. The Siege of Eregion is worth a season-long wait not for its impressive cinematic scope and staging—or at least not alone. It’s for what all the fighting and its attendant fallout tells us about our characters and their stories.
Moreover, it brings much-needed thematic coherence The Rings of Power Season 2 in a broader sense. The Prime Video series’ second run has often struggled to find a clear unifying thread, but the question of whether the ends ever justify the means – what price is worth paying in the service of a worthy cause – has been brought to bear enough this season that it finally finds its expression in episode seven. It’s there in Galadriel’s continued willingness to embrace the rings of power if it means defeating Sauron at a later date, and Adar’s aforementioned brute-force battle plan. Let’s also not forget poor Celebrimbor, whose increasingly pitiful plight (that guy’s got a finger too short, for goodness sake!) marks him out as a poster child for the inevitable downsides of the Machiavellian mindset.
And then there’s Sauron, who, to hear him tell it, is the man who has given the most back to Middle-earth this season — even if much of what he has given has belonged to others. As Celebrimbor notes, the “great deceiver” has fooled himself into believing that every twisted thing he’s done is in the service of the greater good. Using lies, mind games, and outright violence to get his rings? In true gaslighter style, he won’t take responsibility — if anything, he’s the Real victim. Setting in motion the downfall of a city full of innocents that puts the Renaissance to shame? Nothing in the grand scheme of things, when Sauron’s evil ex-boss Morgoth left so much of Middle-earth to repair and improve. This is not rather Tolkien’s Sauron – he saw the dark lord more as a control freak on steroids – but that’s not the point, because it ensures that at least some of what the showrunners had to say with The Rings of Power Season 2 finally breaks through. Sauron is the living endgame of the “at all costs” mentality; whether he’s fixated on fixing the world or healing it, our heroes and even our villains follow his lead at their own peril.
That this message comes across so clearly speaks to yet another kind of sacrifice, too. Episode 7 is all about Eregion and its subterranean neighbor. That’s it; there are no cutaways to anything else happening elsewhere in Middle-earth (or beyond). As such, there’s so much room for character arcs to unfold properly and themes to take root, without skimping on the epic action a Lord of the Rings series is obligated to deliver. Imagine a season – an entire series, even – where this Eye of Sauron-esque laser focus is applied to every entry, where the events of Rhûn, Númenor, and Pelargir were truncated (or drastically reworked) so that the main, Sauron-centric plotline could get the attention it deserved.
It’s a frustratingly tempting prospect, especially with the Season 2 finale just around the corner. That episode will almost certainly disappear from Eregion and its immediate surroundings. It has no choice; Season 3 demands that we keep an eye on the Stranger, Elendil, Isildur, and the rest before we leave Season 2 behind. And when that happens, all the clarity of Episode 7’s story disappears, like someone putting on a magic ring. If only this extraneous material weren’t there. Sure, if you throw it away, you lose some great characters, vistas, and settings, or you have to wait longer for them to arrive (especially when it comes to Númenor). But that’s the trade-off when you’re telling a story like The Rings of Power: you must kill your darlings for the sake of the greater good. True creation, as Sauron so astutely observed, requires sacrifice.
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Written by Susana Polo and a number of Polygon staff, The year of the ring brings together our year-long editorial package that revisits Tolkien’s work and Peter Jackson’s epic film adaptation. Although the book doesn’t arrive until November, you can save 7% if you pre-order.