Adar and his army match on Ostirith.

Wow, this is more like it. After the promise of episode 1, which subsequently wasn’t delivered on, the Lord of the Rings prequel TV show finally gives us what we wanted… and more. Of course, you can’t have spectacular battles every week, and there’s a need to build up the back story, but the previous pace was far too laboured. Not so this week, which hits the ground running and never lets up.

It’s very much an episode of two halves, and I’ll be careful to stick to the opening half hour, as what happens in the final 30 minutes is unexpected and worthy of discovery without any spoilers from here, though those familiar with Tolkien talk may extrapolate something from the episode title.

The multi-part battle between the humans and Orcs is well rendered, very much this series’ version of The Two Towers’ Helm’s Deep finale. While the outcome and twists are probably no great surprise, there’s some great stunts, horsemanship and gory Orc decapitations. It’s also great to see Jed Brophy as a featured Orc (he was in both of the movie trilogies in the same role) as this helps with the continuity.

Verdict: A significant battle and some sleight of hand that sets things up not just for the rest of the season but the years to come. 9/10

Nick Joy