It took five hours of television to reach this point but we’ve finally gotten a resolution to a major story arc. The sixth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, titled “Udûn”, wraps up the Southlands storyline in the predicted fashion. Instead of focusing on multiple disparate plotlines, this episode focused squarely on the conflict between the orcs of Adar and the humans of the Southlands.
Spoilers ahead, so don’t read if you haven’t watched the latest episode of The Rings of Power.
Right off the bat, I want to levy one potential criticism. The amount of time Galadriel and the ships from Númenor spent on the sea to reach the Southlands felt rushed. A similar criticism about travel time was levied against Game of Thrones in the latter half of the show’s life. Fleets and armies seemed to move across vast oceans and entire continents as if they were on vacant expressways, which made zero sense. My gut feeling is that the events in Númenor were not happening concurrently with the events in the Southlands. I haven’t seen anything conclusive about that from the showrunners, so it’s just a pet theory on my part. If that isn’t the case, though, then the writers drew out the Númenor plotline longer than was necessary and then compressed the trip to Middle-Earth.
The battle of Tirharad was handled quite well, with the ragtag group of humans bringing down the watchtower overlooking the village to great effect. There was a back-and-forth feel to the conflict, which took up much of the episode’s runtime. Arondir, Bronwyn, Theo and the rest of the villagers proved up to the task (at least at first) of repelling Adar and his orcs. For his part, Adar never seemed to lose his cool, even with the setbacks that cost him the valuable lives of his army.
There were a some quiet, character-driven moments during the episode that I quite enjoyed, even if they felt predictable at times. The kiss shared between Bronwyn and Arondir had been building since the first episode and it was nice to see it consummated here. Arondir showed himself to be a capable battle commander, organizing the villagers and laying a trap for Adar’s forces. But the crafty corrupted elf showed off his own battle acumen. Instead of sending in his orcs to attack, Adar dressed the Southlanders who had joined his ranks in orc armor and sent them against the village. Then, once the trap had been sprung, his orcs attacked, leading to a near rout of the village.
This led to one of the more unbearably predictable moments in the episode. With the villagers captured and Bronwyn’s life threatened, Theo turned over the dark blade he’s been obsessing over since the first episode. The fact that Theo followed Arondir as he attempted to hide it and stole it back is another version of the “idiot ball” plot device that I’ve talked about in previous reviews. Even after showing a level of maturity by turning it over to Arondir, Theo just can’t help himself. Because of that, everything that follows is on his shoulders.
Of course, Galadriel, Halbrand, and the Númenóreans arrive to save the day at daybreak. What follows is a well-choreographed battle sequence, with all of the Númenóreans we’ve seen up to this point getting a chance to shine, including Isildur. We also got a fantastic chase sequence as Adar attempted to escape with the cursed blade, only to be captured by Halbrand and Galadriel.
I quite enjoyed the interrogation scene between Galadriel and Adar. It becomes increasingly clear as the scene goes on that Galadriel’s obsession is taking a dark turn. Halbrand is able to temporarily keep her from going over the edge but the cracks are beginning to show. The scene between Halbrand and Galadriel afterward was quite a moving one, as the pair spoke of their admiration for the other. A triumphant moment was shown shortly after that, with Halbrand being hailed as King of the Southlands.
However, that enjoyment was short-lived. When Arondir hands the bundle holding the cursed sword to Theo, ostensibly to get rid of it with the aid of the Númenóreans, we find out that the sword has been stolen. The thief is none other than Walgred, the old man who is a devotee of Sauron. The sword is a key but not in the way Arondir first suspected. Instead, the blade fits into a locking mechanism in the watchtower. The mechanism breaks down the dam holding back the mountain lake next to the watchtower, causing a flood to surge to the valley below. The tunnels dug by the orcs that we’ve seen throughout the season all lead into the magma chamber for the volcanic mountain nearby.
I had to look this up but the method used here to create the volcanic eruption is called a Phreatic eruption. By sending a torrent of fresh water into the caldera, the resulting creation of steam would cause an eruption to occur. Given that magic is always rather nebulous in Tolkien’s universe, I half expected the birth of Mount Doom to involve a magical solution. Instead, we get an environmental one, which fits much more evenly into Tolkien’s own visions of environmentalism inherent in the Middle-Earth stories.
The resulting eruption sends out a pyroclastic cloud that devastates the surrounding area, including the village of Tirharad. The birth of Mount Doom spells the ends of the Southlands and the creation of the blighted landscape known as Mordor. I knew this was coming as soon as the positioning of the Southlands was established in the first episode. Why it took nearly six hours of television to reach this point is beyond me but I’m glad we finally reached it. Where things go from here is up in the air at this point. No doubt a good portion of the Númenórean host has been lost, along with a substantial portion of the Southlanders. I’m intrigued to see how the penultimate episode leads into the first season finale.
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