{"id":119329,"date":"2024-09-09T20:51:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T01:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=119329"},"modified":"2024-09-09T20:53:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T01:53:49","slug":"recap-and-review-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-episode-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2024\/09\/09\/119329-recap-and-review-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-episode-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap and Review: The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power Episode 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Webcrawler is back this week to break down the events of Episode 4 of The Rings of Power. Read and enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Staffer Demosthenes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recap: The Rings of Power Episode 4<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by TORn Discord moderator Webcrawler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season 2, Episode 4<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Titled “Eldest”, a direct reference to Tom Bombadil calling himself Eldest in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“\u2018Don\u2019t you know my name yet? That\u2019s the only answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless? But you are young and I am old. <\/em>Eldest<\/em><\/strong>, that\u2019s what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn.”<\/em><\/p>\nThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring. Book 1, Chapter 7: In The House of Tom Bombadil<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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There are also other references to \u201cEldest\u201d in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings that may be worth mentioning:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Hoo now!\u2019 replied Treebeard. \u2018Hoo! Now that would be telling! Not so hasty. And I am doing the asking. You are in my country. What are you, I wonder? I cannot place you. You do not seem to come in the old lists that I learned when I was young. But that was a long, long time ago, and they may have made new lists. Let me see! Let me see! How did it go?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn now the lore of Living Creatures! <\/em>
First name the four, the free peoples: <\/em>
Eldest<\/em><\/strong> of all, the elf-children;<\/em>
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses; <\/em>
Ent the earthborn, old as mountains; <\/em>
Man the mortal, master of horses:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Book 3 Chapter 4: Treebeard<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Then Treebeard said farewell to each of them in turn, and he bowed three times slowly and with great reverence to Celeborn and Galad- riel. \u2018It is long, long since we met by stock or by stone, A vanimar, vanima \u0301lion nostari!\u2019 he said. \u2018It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Celeborn said: \u2018I do not know,<\/em> Eldest.<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 But Galadriel said: \u2018Not in Middle-earth, nor until the lands that lie under the wave are lifted up again. Then in the willow-meads of Tasarinan we may meet in the Spring. Farewell!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\nThe <\/em>Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Book 6 Chapter 6: Many Partings<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Synopsis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four plots we follow in this episode — the Rh\u00fbn storyline gets split.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rh\u00fbn<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stranger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last time we saw The Stranger, he had conjured up a sandstorm to blow away the Gaudrim riders, inadvertently lifting away Nori and Poppy with his uncontrollable power. We see him searching for the two harfoots, when he comes across and follows a baby goat. The goat leads him to a goat herder tending to a garden while singing and humming to himself. The Stranger asks this herder about the harfoots and the map of the stars; a gust of wind then blows away the map which lands on a tree. The tree has a branch which looks like the staff in the Stranger\u2019s visions; he attempts to snap it off, at which point the tree (a Huorn) awakens, grabbing The Stranger and entombing him inside. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The Gaudrim Rider, Br\u00e2nk, is talking to The Dark Wizard, telling him the Stranger and the harfoots have been separated. The Dark Wizard tells Brank to go after the harfoots, and then he stands up and proclaims he will handle The Stranger. Meanwhile, the goat herder pulls the Stranger out of the Houron and reveals himself to be Tom Bombadil. Tom invites the Stranger in, and after a bath and a meal, The Stranger asks questions of Tom. It is revealed that the Dark Wizard is an Istar who had come to Tom in the past, seeking him in mastering a wizard\u2019s staff. Tom reveals that the Stranger is meant to face the Dark Wizard, and Sauron.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nori & Poppy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two harfoots awake far from The Stranger in the desert, after being blown away in a sandstorm. They learn the Gaudrim are still searching for them, so Nori and Poppy attempt to escape; after jumping over a small cliff, they run into a Stoor named Merrimac, who reluctantly takes them to the Stoor Village. Nori tells the leader of the Stoors, Gundabel, that The Stranger is an Istar, a wizard; but Gundabel assumes they must mean the Dark Wizard and locks them up. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Gundabel asks Nori more about the Harfoots, and after Nori mentions Sadoc Burrows, Gundabel takes her to see a cave painting highlighting the stories of the Stoors. One painting shows Rorimas Burrows, an ancestor of Sadoc,  who set out with a caravan of Stoors to search for a new home for them alll. Nori realizes he never found it, and that is why all the Harfoots just became wanderers instead. Br\u00e2nk comes to the Stoor Village, demanding they turn over the harfoots; when Gundabel refuses, Br\u00e2nk threatens to return with The Dark Wizard.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pelargir<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isildur, Arondir and a company of Southlanders are in a forest at night, searching for Theo. Arondir comes across axes, tools, and severed limbs, concluding that it was not Wildmen who attacked this camp and kidnapped Theo. Back in Pelargir, the Southlanders and our heroes discuss where to look for Theo next; Estrid mentions looking up in the north because \u201cthat part of the forest is old\u201d. Later, Arondir questions her about a mark on her back, revealing that she is one of the Wildmen who bore the mark of Adar. They use her to find the Wildmen\u2019s camp, and along the way discover a trail of cherry blossom petals.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As Isildur, Estrid and Arondir track Theo, they come across a muddy swamp; Isildur falls into quicksand and Arondir tries to get him out. They both get pulled in, but luckily Estrid is able to coax the mud monster out, allowing Arondir to cut their way out through its belly. This allows Isildur and Arondir to trust Estrid again. Isildur sets Estrid free, but she draws a sword on him and attempts to escape. Suddenly two Ents, Winterbloom and Snaggleroot attack the trio, but Arondir is able to talk to them, and seek forgiveness. The ents free their captives, including Theo, and inform the party that an army of orcs were seen marching west. Arondir makes amends with Theo and takes his leave, to go confront the army and Adar.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Grey Havens\/Road To Eregion<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A contingency of elven soldiers begin to board ships at the Grey Havens; Galadriel and Elrond discuss the team required for their secret journey to Eregion. They decide to take a small group of 6 elves across the Axa bridge, but when they arrive, they find the bridge destroyed by lightning. Their map-reader, Camnir, recommends taking Tyrn Gorthad to cut across and shorten the journey; but Galadriel\u2019s ring, Nenya, shows her visions of ghostly figures and chains. Elrond however, refuses to heed Galadriel\u2019s advice from her ring, and they attempt through Tyrn Gorthad (Barrow-downs) with the company. Something has brought the bodies in the tombs to life, and the Barrow-wights attack the company, killing the elven warrior Daemor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Elrond though, they manage to defeat the barrow-wights. While the other elven soldiers mourn and honor Daemor, Elrond and Galadriel have a conversation about the ring, and Sauron. Camnir warns them of drums nearby, and they discover an orc encampment. The orcs notice them and fire arrows, hitting Camnir. While trying to tend to his wound, Galadriels finds that Nenya heals Camnir completely; she gives Elrond the ring and tells him to take the company and leave. She creates a diversion allowing them to do so, and is captured by the orcs. Then, Adar comes forward, greeting her and calling her Altariel. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Overall Thoughts on Episode 4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first I felt that this was largely a set-up episode, similar to season 1, episode 5, \u201cPartings\u201d; This episode moves characters into position for their story arcs in the latter half of the season. Arondir is headed towards Eregion, The orc army is already there, Galadriel has been captured, the Stranger knows his purpose, and Elrond now has Nenya, etc. A lot happened in this episode, but none of it seems tied to the main plot, that of the rings being made in Eregion, or of Sauron\u2019s machination. But I noticed there is a theme throughout this episode. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is Tom Bombadil, \u201cEldest\u201d, who talks about being there \u201cbefore the river and the trees\u201d, of knowing \u201cthe dark under the stars when it was fearless\u201d; The Ents who talk about knowing peace as \u201cWhen the only sound here was light upon the moss.  Both of these invoke the memory of an ancient past, for Tom, long before evil or darkness touched the world, and for the Ents, before Melkor irreparably marred Arda. <\/p>\n\n\n

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“For even if we under Eru have the power to return to Middle-earth and cast out Morgoth from the Kingdom of Arda, we cannot destroy all the evil that he has sown, nor seek out all his servants\u2014unless we ravaged the whole of the Kingdom and made an end of all life therein; and that we may not do.”<\/em><\/p>\nMandos, from The History of Middle-earth: The Peoples of Middle-earth<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On the other side you have the barrow-wights poem, which is used in the soundtrack by Bear McCreary, with the following last four lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the black wind the stars shall die,<\/em>
and still on gold here let them lie,<\/em>
till the dark lord lifts his hand<\/em>
over dead sea and withered land<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is looking forward, forward to a future where darkness has taken over the lands. It stands in stark contrast to the world as described by Tom in his memories, or the Ents in theirs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also Galadriel and Elrond\u2019s conversation, about the rings and Sauron. Throughout the season we’ve seen them have this discussion, twice in Episode 1, once in Episode 2, and now reprised in Episode 4. In their conversations lie the thematic link; Galadriel fears the future shown to her by Nenya, as envisioned by the barrow-wights poem, where darkness wins and reigns over Middle-earth. And so she would use the rings to preserve Middle-earth, maybe not as Tom Bombadil or the Ents remember it, but as the Elves remember Middle-earth.

As such, when later in the episode, Galadriel defiantly tells the orcs surrounding her, \u201cThese are Elven lands!\u201d, one can read it to mean not just the area surrounding Eregion, but a claim by the elves upon all of Middle-earth. The Elves are the \u201cEldest\u201d of the Children of Illuvatar (and immortal), and as such have a relationship with Middle-earth unlike the dwarves or men. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Yet, there is one who is obviously missing from this episode, whose actions are driving the plot; It is Sauron\u2019s vision for Middle-earth\u2019s future that puts the Ents, the Elves and even Tom, all of Middle-earth at risk for being without peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rating: I would give this episode an 8\/10.<\/strong> Overall a good episode that does the work to setup the plot for the second-half of the season; characters like Arondir and Galadriel are moved into the parts of the stories they need to be in. There are some disappointments; for one, the barrow-wights fight sequence did not really live up to the hype; it was a very short action sequence, not very special or significant fight choreography, and it also ended kind of abruptly. On the other hand, Galadriel\u2019s solo fight against the orcs at the end of the episode was well-cut, well-paced, with great choreography and angles, and a surprise ending sure to leave everyone anticipating the next episode.

In terms of other plots, Pelargir has shaped up to have interesting moments, although it\u2019s hard to say where it goes from here now that Arondir is headed to Eregion. There\u2019s an opportunity for a compelling exploration of Isildur\u2019s motivations for sticking around the region that one day becomes Gondor; we\u2019ll see if the show can maintain the audience\u2019s interest in that plot. The plotline with Estrid and her supposed betrothed being alive is also intriguing; Could these be the Men of the Mountain whom Isildur will one day take an oath of fealty from?

Lastly, Tom Bombadil somehow managed to fit into the story and feel right; much of that success belongs to Rory Kinnear, who brings a light touch that hints at the more playful and jolly Tom we know from the books, while still grounding him in the show so as to not be too distracting. Nori discovering more depth to the backstory of the Harfoots seems to be setting up a plotline we all expected; but we\u2019ll see where this idea of the \u201cS\u00fbzat\u201d goes by the end of this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the author: Webcrawler is a full-time data analyst and a part-time Tolkien aficionado and moderator on TheOneRing.net\u2019s Discord Server<\/a>.<\/em> When he\u2019s not working or in the discord, Webcrawler is horsing around on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Webcrawler is back this week to break down the events of Episode 4 of The Rings of Power….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":119334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,3769,3734],"tags":[1788,4274,2082,3731,4189],"class_list":["post-119329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-tv-series","category-lotr-on-prime","category-the-rings-of-power","tag-library","tag-recap","tag-review","tag-rings-of-power","tag-the-rings-of-power-season-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-41.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-v2F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119329"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119351,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119329\/revisions\/119351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}