Major Spoilers

Doing what it says on the tin…

A ton of characters die. This is not a surprise by any means. The problem is that it’s boring – and annoying. The only reason Galadriel and Elrond live is because subsequent tales demand they must. Most annoying are the deaths of the horses – although the deaths of Rían, (possibly? probably?) Arondir, and Mirdania are irritating as well. Yes, it’s a bloody, messy battle and ‘realistically’ horses will die. The annoying thing about that is, there’s no real emotion, which means it’s not only blatantly manipulative, worse, that it utterly fails at the manipulation.

Sauron manipulates much more successfully and often cleverly. We see the effects of this in Eregion and Khazad-dûm. In Eregion, Celebrimbor finally sees through the glamors that Sauron is casting and is horrified at rings he has forged in Sauron’s name. As always, Sauron attempts to make it Celebrimbor’s fault, but this time – however belatedly – Celebrimbor isn’t buying it. The elf lord blacksmith does what he can to make amends for his previous blindness and to fight Sauron. Alas the battle is already going incredibly badly for the elves.

The elves reach out to the dwarves for assistance but the situation in Khazad-dûm is already equally dire. The rings’ influence continues to destroy King Durrin, leaving it to his son and daughter-in-law to fight him in order to save him and the realm. The scene between Prince Durrin and Elrond is truly touching. Elrond departs with Prince Durrin’s promise of aid in fighting off the Orc attack.

Galadriel’s small but pivotal role consists of not one but two escapes. Both are nicely done.

A few directorial quibbles:

In Eregion, the battered, bloody and dirty Mirdania is at one point wearing pristine and unmarred robes.

In the course of the battle, elven archers atop the battlements are missing an awful lot, considering they are basically shooting the equivalent of fish in a barrel with so many orcs so close to the wall.

Lastly, since it is so vital to hit that particular target, why is only one single archer aiming at the explosives?

Verdict: A whole bunch of combat setting up next week’s finale. 6/10

Rigel Ailur