Finishing Episode One of The Rings of Power . . .
SWITCH
While looking at a statue of her brother, Galadriel sheathes her dagger. Elrond approaches her with gentle congratulations of the honor to return home.
(The grove has heroic statues carved in the trunk of every living tree.)
Galadriel expected to become one of these statues, but instead she’s to be sent away. She decides she will refuse this “reward”.
(“You have not seen what I have seen,” Galadriel says to Elrond as explanation why she can’t stop hunting Sauron. Well, we haven’t seen it, either. We desperately need more show and less tell.)
FIVE
Putting up a convincing argument, Elrond asks if another dead orc will bring her peace? Will she lead more elves to die and become statues? Turning down the call to Valinor means it will never come again and she’ll be an outcast, left behind.
Her response is that the horror is not defeated in Middle Earth nor in her. To go to the Undying Lands with this unfinished evil hanging forever on her soul would be torture. Elrond persuades her to go for her own healing. He will genuinely keep watch in her absence.
(A hint, which I don’t think the show intended, of madness is here. Psychosis, schizophrenia, paranoia. First of all, no Lord of the Rings fan would accept a crazy Galadriel. She becomes Cate Blanchett! Second, it’s an incredibly bold choice to make young Galadriel mentally challenged for a while, and it would need much more support in the storytelling.
Think about it, though. What if Jackson’s Galadriel, someone so wise and strong, began as vulnerable and conflicted? So many of us attain peace in our later years after spending our youth in a very dark mindset. I would love to see that portrayed; I just don’t think the showrunners had any intention of doing this. I think they were trying to make a kickass woman-warrior. I think they want us to admire their Galadriel as strong from the beginning, who is only thwarted by a power-focused High King. It’s an uninspired choice, and they missed the mark.
What could a passionate young woman who loses herself to danger and misdirection have represented to today’s society? To a society of any age? It’s a timeless female story. My heart is broken by the missed possibilities.)
We travel the map to the land of men.
A cloaked elf, quiver of elegant arrows on his back, arrives at a medieval-style village. Arondir. He’s been gone for two weeks.
(He appears to be some kind of representative of authority. He asks about the town’s complaint of poisoned grass.)
An angry young man in the pub confronts Arondir: Our true king will return someday.
Stepping outside, Arondir meets up with Bronwyn, an herbalist and a healer. He explains (flirts?) that elven healers are called artificers. Elvish bodies heal on their own, so artificers create beauty that heals the soul.
When the pub door opens, these two startle and move apart, obviously attracted but not admitting it. (Heh.)
As Arondir leaves town he meets up with another elven soldier who knows about and gives him a hard time over his attachment to Bronwyn. Elves watch the humans; he doesn’t want to also watch Arondir. A pairing between elf and human has never ended well.
A runner approaches with momentous news: the high king has ended the war, and all outposts are disbanded. Arondir will be leaving.
(Finally, one story beat earlier in this episode has consequences for a later story beat.)
Arondir, who’s been stationed here for 79 years, takes a last look from the watchtower. (The landscape is spectacular.) We learn from the Watchwarden that these villagers once fought for Morgoth.
In her house Bronwyn has a beautiful, sunny window nook for her herbal preparations. At her table is a teenager, her son Theo. She sees Arondir approaching and steps outside to meet him. He obviously wants to say something romantic to her, but they’re interrupted by a man with a sick cow.
SIX
Arondir helps examine the cow that grazed near the poison grass. He squeezes a dark paste from her udder. (Eww.)
SEVEN
He and Bronwyn will travel together to find this poisoned field.
Theo and the Angry Pub Lad run into a barn. While Theo pries up a loose floorboard, the other teases him about his mother and the “pointy ear”, suggesting that’s why his father ran away.
EIGHT
From the crawlspace Theo lifts a canvas-wrapped talisman. Magical wind blows and Sauron’s mysterious sigil blazes on the hilt. Theo is entranced by the whispered Black Speech.
Cut to a ship on the water. Galadriel stands in the bow, her army arrayed behind her.
Dissolve to Elrond, who says he can no longer elvishly connect with her. The High King (in a conspiracy theory moment) affirms that the shadow is still out there, as Galadriel believed. However, her search might have strengthened it, so he sent her away. Elrond, who didn’t know this, smoothes over his distress. In return, the High King offers him (bribes him with) a boon: the greatest elven-smith, Celebrimbor, will take Elrond as his helper on an important project.
Sadoc of the Harfoots consults his book again about the unusual events. Nori interrupts him, wanting to know what’s happening. “The skies are strange,” he whispers to her.
Dissolve to Bronwyn and Arondir walking through the countryside. He accuses her people of an alliance with Morgoth, and then tries for a tender moment. Smoke in the distance sends Bronwyn running toward it. The town with the poisoned grass is burnt to the ground.
From the map we travel into the Sundering Seas where Galadriel and her former company are sailing. In a ritual, maidens remove the army’s swords from their hands. Armor is unbuckled. One of the maidens tries to take Galadriel’s dagger. After a struggle, she surrenders her weapon.
Clouds part, birds sing, the sunset’s rays illuminate the boat.
The flock circles around them, and the army breaks into a choral hymn. (Yikes.) Eternity rushes toward them.
The dagger on the ship’s deck whines, drawing Galadriel’s attention. Her brother’s voice speaks in her memory and she begins to inch backward.
The High King and Elrond watch a comet cross their sky.
Bronwyn and Arondir see it as it blazes toward earth. (For literally a second, Ents in silhouette watch it!)
Music swells and Thondir reaches for Galadriel’s hand to restrain her.
Nori watches the comet strike earth with an explosion.
Cut to Galadriel exploding into the water as she dives overboard.
NINE
She treads water in the sea as the Undying Lands close after the boat enters.
The High King watches a golden leaf with blackened ooze for veins fall to the ground.
Nori approaches the burning crater. A naked man lies at the center, possibly surrounded by the fiery symbol of an eye.
Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Well, that turned out to have a noticeable structure! The Six, the threatening black milk from the cow, does somewhat mirror with the wolf, a threatening creature at the Three. Neither is explained, but their menace is felt in the beats. Nice work.
The Eight goes on forever, but that’s because many storylines are weaving together.
Nori as the Two is the unusual choice. Why pick the Harfoot plotline over any other? Not until the Nine do we see why Nori is the Trouble. She finds the man (or man-shaped creature) who falls to earth. On my first viewing I saw his corona as a starburst, just a pattern of energy radiating out from the impact point. This time I saw the Unblinking Eye as depicted in Jackson’s films. I don’t know which, if either, is the correct interpretation. Nori herself is only a curious young being; it’s what her curiosity leads her to find that makes her the Two.
So, the episode displays a solid structure throughout, except for that opening Leftover Nine. As I mentioned before, this is the place to explain Galadriel’s motivations and character.
Look at the film Pacific Rim. (I examined it for my book.) The opening of that movie, its Leftover Nine, is a little plot of its own. We meet our hero, learn about the setting of the world and how Jaeger teams drift, and see how Raleigh’s character is changed and formed by his brother’s death. All of it unfolds in a fifteen minute, concisely-told Story Enneagram. It’s interesting, it’s informative, and it launches the protagonist and the movie’s tone. It also sets up a beautiful conflict: Raleigh no longer wants to pilot a Jaeger. However, the whole plot requires Raleigh to pilot a Jaeger in order to save the world. Now that’s how you give an actor a motivation to play!
If only this first episode had used a structure to do the same for Galadriel.