'The Rings Of Power' Season 2 Finale Spoiler-Free Review
Image Source: The Collider
A conclusion of epic proportions, surprising twists, and satisfying reveals. This describes Episode Eight, “Shadow and Flame,” of Season Two of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. This episode was quite the ending to a better season, despite some interesting choices along the way that definitely divided fans but made for some great memes and conversations. Overall though, this season was definitely better than Season One. It brought together a story that was pretty disjointed going into the season and ended up with a much more structured and well-written season.
One of the best things about this season has been the difference in the writing between this one and the first one. This season has, overall, been closer to the source material, more structured, and focused on each storyline, concentrating more on the main one than some of the side ones. Which has really helped the storytelling and the character development. While there are still diversions from the source material, which is understandable since the show is putting thousands of years’ worth of material into a projected five seasons, so the timeline has to be truncated, overall, it is doing a good job of bringing Tolkien’s Second Age to life. The character development in this season has been especially good, honing in on the main characters and bringing them to life.
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Along with the character development, the acting was top notch in this season, and especially this episode. We’ve talked about this before, but in particular, this episode has the culmination of character development brought out beautifully by the actors, especially some of the bigger ones. It’s been such a joy to see the actors grow into their roles and bring them to life, especially the ones that we’ve all read about for years. While the interpretations might be different for some of the characters than envisioned, you can’t deny that they are still really amazing to see on screen. In this season, and episode especially, we got to see a lot more deeper character development and breadth of acting.
There is one CGI character who comes into play in this episode that looks absolutely amazing, and despite the circumstances in the scene, was very exciting to see on screen. It was very well done.
In this episode in particular, the costuming of each character had so many details, down to the correct way sleeves used to be attached (by tying them on) and the embroidery on the fancier outfits. The armor, as with last episode, is top notch as well. This episode in particular we got to see a lot more closeups of weapons, and many various ones, which was really neat. And, they did a great job of making them realistic as well, and not just like any old fantasy styled weapon. It gave the scenes a much more real feeling. A special weapon shows up in the hands of someone that we’ve all been waiting to see. And there are some parallels brought back from the first episode of this season as well. The makeup was another thing that was on point in this episode. Because of the battle, there’s a lot of blood and dirt on the characters, and it was done quite well.
Image Source: The Direct
In this episode, we get to see a new place, which to Tolkien fans, is quite iconic…well, it will be. We are just introduced to it, and it will be very exciting to see what it looks like in Season Three. We also had to say goodbye to a place that was such a staple in the first two seasons, and several characters as well. And as always the set design is stellar and helps so much for immersion in the story. They’ve done such a great job.
Once again in this episode there are some really unique and beautiful camera angles and lighting. That has really stood out in this season especially, but in this episode the use of cinematography is particularly amazing with how it helps to tell the story and get shots that aren’t normally ones that many movies/series have. Between Bear McCreary’s utterly fantastic soundtrack for this season, and the cinematography, it’s not just the writing and the actors that tell this story. There are nuances sprinkled throughout, even in the music, that adds depth to the story that you might miss on just the first pass.
There are some very exciting, although one a little lackluster, reveals of secrets kept all the way from the beginning of Season One. One rather large reveal was almost more relief than excitement. It means the speculation around this reveal will finally be done because it was getting to be kind of annoying, but also, because it was drawn out so long by the showrunners, and hinted too heavily that people have been talking about it for over two years, the reveal just didn’t hit the way it probably should have for fans. It’s a sweet scene at the end there, to be sure, and very peaceful, but overall, it wasn’t even that big of a reveal. It probably would have been better if the showrunners had decided to reveal it at the end of Season One or stopped dropping heavy handed hints throughout this season. It was just a little disappointing, although it will be interesting to see where the story line goes next as they didn’t reveal all the answers to the characters yet.
Image Source: GamesRadar
This episode ends hopeful for some of the characters, but not happy. The heroes of the stories have technically lost. Almost all of them are not sure what to do next and displaced. This is really different from most season endings, which is kind of nice for storytelling (even though that is actually what Tolkien wrote and not just the show). There is a beautiful montage underscored by a wonderful monologue spoken by one of the characters that outlines basically the heart of the Second Age of Middle-earth. It’s not a happy age. It’s not like The Lord of the Rings or even The Hobbit. There aren’t a lot of happy endings, and the goodbyes we’ve had to say are just the beginning. It’s much darker. A lot more hangs in the balance. At the end of the first season, the stage was set. Now, the pieces have moved, but they have yet to make any big moves (other than Sauron, of course). However, with the end of this season, those moves are going to be seen soon.
Thankfully, we are for sure getting a Season Three as it was green-lit a while ago. This episode was different because it brought in every single story line of the entire series to wrap up the stories for this season and show where each character is going next, which hints at what Season Three will focus on. But instead of feeling terribly disjointed, like it has in the past, they did a pretty good job with this episode. It wasn’t perfect and still felt a tad disjointed at parts. But it was probably the best episode with multiple storylines that we’ve had thus far.
While it is certainly sad that this season has come to a close, it has been quite a journey and overall, a better story than the first season for many reasons. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait another two years before we get Season Three, and hopefully, Amazon announces soon that we will be getting more seasons. Fingers crossed.
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CultureSlate rates Episode Eight “Shadow and Flame” a 4 out of 5.
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