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The fourth episode of the second season gives you the sense that Middle earth itself is stirring in response to gathering darkness. Multiple storylines advance with a mixture of quiet wonder, creeping dread and sudden bursts of violence, all held together by the show’s continued commitment to visual splendour and a growing confidence with Tolkien’s deeper lore. Finally this feels like the Middle-earth that you wanted.
The central thread follows Galadriel and Elrond as they lead a small company of elves towards Eregion. Word has not come from Celebrimbor, and the fear that Sauron has already reached him drives the mission. The bridge that would have offered the swiftest route lies shattered, its destruction blamed on the same dark influence that has unsettled the land. Galadriel, wearing one of the rings, senses danger along the southern path and urges caution. Elrond, still wary of the ring’s hold upon her, chooses that route anyway. What follows is one of the series most effective sequences. The company enters the Barrow downs, where the restless dead rise as Barrow wights. Spectral and relentless, these spirits prove almost impossible to destroy until Elrond recalls the old knowledge that only the blades buried with them can return them to rest. The fight is tense and claustrophobic, the foggy woodland and the sudden appearance of chained, skeletal figures creating genuine unease. One elf is lost in the struggle, dragged into a tomb, a reminder that even the immortal are not invulnerable when ancient evils awaken.
Soon afterwards the company sights Adar’s vast orc army moving through the forest towards Eregion. An arrow finds one of their number. Galadriel presses her ring to the wound and the injury closes before their eyes. The revelation of the healing power is a surprise. Realising the danger of the ring falling into enemy hands, she presses it upon Elrond and remains behind to buy the others time. What follows is a another string action scene. Galadriel moves through the orcs with lethal grace, employing blades, arrows and sheer physical force in a display that feels both elegant and ferocious. She is eventually overwhelmed and taken by Adar himself. Elrond’s later remark that she acted to save the ring rather than her companions reveals the lingering fracture in their trust, a tension that the episode allows to remain unresolved.
Elsewhere in Rhûn the Stranger, separated from Nori and Poppy by the earlier storm of his own making, wanders a barren landscape until he encounters a figure who will delight many fans of the books. Tom Bombadil appears, played with an easy, slightly otherworldly charm by Rory Kinnear. When a sentient tree, Old Man Ironwood, swallows the Stranger whole, Tom simply commands the tree to release him. Inside Tom’s modest dwelling the stranger is offered food that appears from nowhere and is treated to the cheerful, enigmatic talk that has long defined the character. Tom names himself Eldest, older than the rivers and the trees, a witness to the first raindrop and the first acorn. He speaks of a time when the land was green rather than sand, and of another wizard who once sought his teaching only to turn towards darkness. The Dark Wizard now rules Rhûn and seeks alliance with Sauron. The Stranger, Tom makes clear, is charged with preventing that meeting, for the consequences would be catastrophic. The scene is allowed to time to breathe. There is whimsy without silliness, power without ostentation, and a sense that the wider mythology has been carefully opened rather than forced. This is a character that is too odd to make work in the films, but here they have the luxury of time.
Nori and Poppy, meanwhile, awaken far from the Stranger and soon meet a community of Stoors, another branch of the little folk who have remained in the desert rather than wandering. Their encounter with these distant kin offers lighter moments and a glimpse of a culture that has adapted to a harsh environment. When riders of the Dark Wizard arrive searching for the Harfoots, the Stoors prove resourceful in hiding their guests. This encounter expands the world of the small folk without feeling like a mere diversion.
In the Southlands the search for Theo brings Arondir, Isildur and Estrid into further danger. Arondir discovers the mark of Adar upon Estrid’s neck and confronts her. She explains that the brand was the price of survival among the Wild Men. Trust is only partially restored when the three fall into a treacherous mud pit inhabited by a large, worm like creature and Estrid helps free them. Later they confront two Ents, Snaggleroot and Winterbloom, who have taken Theo and several Wild Men captive in retribution for the felling of trees. The Ents, voiced with gravitas and a touch of weary sorrow by Jim Broadbent and Olivia Williams, speak of the damage done to their kind. Arondir negotiates their release by promising to protect the forest. Among the freed prisoners is Hagen, Estrid’s betrothed, a revelation that abruptly complicates the tentative romance between Estrid and Isildur. Theo and Arondir share a moment of reconciliation after the boy’s ordeal. Arondir then sets out on the trail of the orcs, leaving Theo with greater responsibility than before.
The episode balances these threads nicely. The introduction of Tom Bombadil is pulled of without it feeling gimmicky, and the first appearance of the Ents ups the fantasy. The Barrow wights sequence succeeds in creating atmosphere, while Galadriel’s solitary stand against the orcs delivers the kind of visceral satisfaction that previous season lacked. Cinematography remains a consistent strength. The misty downs, the sun baked canyons of Rhûn and the deep forest where the Ents dwell are all shot with care and scale. Morfydd Clark conveys both steel and vulnerability as Galadriel, Robert Aramayo lets Elrond’s caution edge towards suspicion without tipping into caricature, and Rory Kinnear brings a quiet authority and gentle humour to Tom Bombadil that feels true to the spirit of the character.
The constant cutting between storylines occasionally softens the momentum of any single plot, and some of the interpersonal tensions, particularly between Galadriel and Elrond, risk becoming repetitive if they don’t do more with it soon. Yet these are small reservations against what is probably the strongest episode so far. Eldest expands the mythological canvas with confidence, delivers memorable set pieces and deepens the sense that the natural world of Middle earth is no longer passive. It is an episode that delivery on the fantasy adventure while still keeping the characters at the forefront.
Where to watch The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power – Season 2, Episode 4: Eldest: