After a two-year wait, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 is finally here, continuing the story of the Second Age of Middle-earth as the titular rings are created.
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The first season introduced us to an expansive cast of characters, showed three rings being created, and depicted the creation of Mordor, with some big plot twists at the end which set up season 2. If you don’t remember what happened before, our The Rings of Power season 1 recap will bring you back up to speed.
Now, we’re ready to pick up the story once again, with the season returning on Thursday, August 29 with three new episodes. This episode 1 recap will help you get a grip with everything that happened over an hour and 13 minutes, because you’ve got a lot of watching ahead of you.
While The Rings of Power season 2 episode 1 jumps about between different plot threads quite a bit, I’ve re-ordered them by plot in this recap, for your ease of reading. Obviously, spoilers ensue, so watch the episode on Prime Video if you want to see it for yourself.
So let’s jump in…
The dawn of the Second Age
The first episode of season two of The Rings of Power begins at the beginning of Middle-earth’s Second Age, many years before the first season. After the fall of Morgoth, we see Sauron announce himself as the new lord over the orcs. They’re not all keen to be subservient to him and he foils one assassination plot, but when Adar (Sam Hazeldine) makes to crown him, he actually uses the crown to stab Sauron. The orcs join in, and they all butcher him.
As Sauron dies, a blast erupts from his mouth, turning the land to ice. When the orcs recover, the body is gone, and all that’s left is a black goo running down between the cracks in the stonework. It tricks down into a cave and over time begins to absorb rats and insects, growing bigger and bigger into a vaguely humanoid form. Slowly it crawls out of a cave into the world, where it comes across a road. It waits there until a cart passes it, and it creeps onto the cart, and absorbs the woman driving it. Eventually the cart stops, and the goo reveals itself in its new form: that of Halbrand  (Charlie Vickers).
Halbrand wanders and eventually comes across some humans fleeing from orc invasions on their land, led by an elderly man with the royal insignia (remember, Halbrand bore this in season one). The wanderer shacks up with these people as they take to a ship to escape, but when it’s attacked by a giant sea creature, the boat is destroyed. If you’ll remember this is where we met him in episode two of season one.Â
In the present day
In present day, Elrond (Robert Aramayo) is fleeing from Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) on horse: he is taking the rings that were forged to Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), but she’s trying to stop him. When they get to the High King, Gil-galad forces Galadriel to tell them all who Halbrand really was: she reluctantly reveals that their friend was actually Sauron.
Galadriel insists that Halbrand didn’t touch the three rings that were forged, but Elrond wants to destroy them to stop their corruption. Gil-galad sides with Galadriel and demands Elrond hand over the rings, but the elf jumps off a cliff with them to avoid handing them over.
However after some looking, Galadriel makes a guess as to where Elrond will go with the rings. He’s fled to the Grey Havens, to one of the oldest and wisest elves called Cirdan (Ben Daniels). Elrond explains the situation to him and asks for help destroying the rings, and Cirdan tells about a rift in the sea into which they could be cast.
As he does so, Galadriel and Gil-galad arrive to confront him, and Galadriel speaks to Elrond to try and change his mind. However Cirdan has already sailed off.
Back in Middle-earth, Gil-galad assembles the elves, to give them a speech about about how their people’s time in Middle-earth is over. However Cirdan decides not to destroy the rings, and returns two to Gil-galad, after wearing the third. He drops them, though, and one rolls to Galadriel, who puts it on. The High King puts on the third.
The elven tree begins to glow, sprouting with new life, and a golden aura envelops the forest: the elves are returning to power.Â
Over in Eregion, Celebrimbor is still assembling his great forge, and someone comes to the gate wishing to speak to him. It’s Halbrand, who’s asking for entry.
The new lands of Mordor
Over in Mordor, the newly-created Mount Doom is still bubbling with lava and the orcs are inhabiting their new homeland. They’re taking human prisoners to force them to swear fealty to Adar and one of them is Halbrand, though we don’t know how he ended up in Mordor.
Halbrand tells Adar about a ‘sorcerer’ who could threaten him, and promises to give Adar information on their identity if Adar lets the humans go free. Adar refuses and the orcs worry that this means Sauron is back.
The orcs torture Halbrand for information, but he uses some magic to enchant a warg that’s left behind to guard him. Some time later Adar tells Halbrand of when he was a captive elf before being turned into orc.
Later, Halbrand confirms that Sauron is back in a new form, but pretends he doesn’t know what it is. He offers to go to the elves and find out Sauron’s real identity, and swears fealty to Adar in doing so.
However Adar actually sets him free, though, Halbrand escapes of his own power, and the warg attacks one of his captors when they investigate.
Wandering the desert
In a rocky desert the stranger (Daniel Weyman) and Nori (Markella Kavenagh) are trying to follow the constellation the former is pursuing. The former has a dream of finding a staff, and all the while a masked figure is following the duo.
The two realize that they’re going in circles. They’re hungry so the stranger tries to use his power to bring a dead tree to life; it explodes because he used his power poorly, but there were insects living inside that Nori can eat.
The stranger notices that they’re being followed and so sets a trap to catch the pursuer… but it’s just Poppy (Megan Richards) who decided to join them on their adventure. She brings food, and reminds them of a walking song of their people, which provides directions on how to get them out of their loop.
Eventually, by following the song, the trio get to the land of Rhûn which was their destination. However we see that the masked figure is still watching him, and he’s not alone, with another rider beside him. Both have the eye insignia that Sauron bears in the movies (though the one he uses in the show is different).
