Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 1.

It took two long years, but we’ve returned to Middle-earth at long last, with the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2. Prime Video’s epic, big-budget series left a lot of major threads when Season 1 wrapped up, with all of Middle-earth and beyond cast into uncertainty, as it was revealed Sauron (Charlie Vickers) isn’t actually dead after all, and three of the titular Rings of Power were forged. So where does that leave us now, in Season 2? Kicking off with a three-episode premiere, of course. Let’s dive in.

Following a substantial and much-needed recap, the first episode, “Elven Kings Under the Sky,” begins not in the present day, but rather in the past, where an Orc carries forth Sauron’s crown as the man himself delivers a speech to an assembly of Orcs, as well as Adar (Sam Hazeldine). Yet this is not the Sauron we recognize; instead, it’s an earlier version of the character, played by Jack Lowden. He tells the Orcs that he will lead them into this new age now that Morgoth is gone, offering them a future where they will harness the power of the unseen world to enslave Middle-earth, and this all sounds well and good until he promises many of them will die in the attempt (but I guess this is a sacrifice he’s willing to make).

The Orcs are skeptical, but Sauron ensures them that no other race in Middle-earth will ever accept them, and kills a murderous dissenter to prove a point. Adar takes matters into his own hands, and goes to crown Sauron, even making a show of demanding the Orcs all hail the new leader. At the last moment, Adar flips the spiked crown and jabs it into Sauron’s exposed neck, disarming him long enough for the Orcs to give him the Julius Caesar treatment.

Sauron’s Backstory Is Revealed in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 1
Image via Prime Video

Sauron has one last trick up his sleeve, as before he “dies,” he lets out a blast of power that turns everything to ice. When Adar and the Orcs come to, it’s to find that Sauron has vanished into nothing, leaving only his clothes behind. Accepting the deed as done, the Orcs name Adar their new leader instead. But their celebration is premature, as Sauron isn’t dead, but merely transitioning into a new form. No, not Charlie Vickers’ handsome face just yet — instead, the Dark Lord takes the form of a dark, viscous substance and trickles down into a cave, where he presumably languishes for centuries as a dark pool, feasting on passing creatures until he’s strong enough to form a corporeal mass.

The mass, which looks like a cluster of black worms, works its way out of the cave and flops down into a valley, where it comes across a lone older woman passing with a cart. This final kill is enough to transform Sauron into the figure we all know: Halbrand. It’s unclear how much bearing his final victim had on his new appearance, but it is interesting to note that the two do share similar coloring. Now back in human form, Sauron — who I’ll just call Halbrand in this form — strikes out alone. On the road, he encounters a group of humans, refugees from Orc raids in the Southlands. One man, Diarmid (Nicholas Woodeson), cautions him against going, though Halbrand is determined. Diarmid advises him that seeking out more suffering, when he suffers already, isn’t the way to go, but Halbrand is barely listening, having noticed that Diarmid is sporting a very familiar symbol, the same heraldry Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) sees him with when the two become shipwrecked together.

Diarmid then tells Halbrand that the group is headed across the sea in search of a new life, and invites him to join them. On the crossing, Halbrand confesses to Diarmid that he’s done “evil” in the past, and the old man tells him that finding forgiveness is a matter of choosing good over and over again until it’s a part of you. The moving lesson is put to the test immediately, as the boat is suddenly attacked by a sea serpent and Diarmid is crushed by a beam. Rather than take the man’s advice to do good, Halbrand elects not to help him, disregards his lesson entirely, and steals the sigil of the royal house from him instead before being sucked out into the ocean. From there, he and a few survivors climb on board a raft made of wreckage, where they soon see Galadriel swimming towards them, and it’s with that 20-minute cold open that we finally catch up with the events of Season 1.

Galadriel Deals With the Fallout in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 1
Image via Prime Video

Back in the present day at last, Galadriel chases Elrond (Robert Aramayo) on horseback. It seems harmless enough, like two old friends out for a race, until she tries to snatch a leather pouch off his waist — she and Halbrand have that whole pouch-snatching thing in common — as she wants “them” back. Elrond manages to get away from her, and Galadriel is waylaid by a group of guards, who bring her before High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker). Galadriel tries to explain that Elrond is carrying the three rings that will save the Elves, but Gil-galad is more interested in the whole “our new buddy Halbrand is not who he claimed to be” thing Galadriel failed to mention. She tries to hedge the exact details, but at last confesses that Halbrand was actually Sauron, a truth that shakes Elrond to his core.

Elrond then accuses Galadriel of being blinded by her own pride, rather than deceived by Sauron as she claims, and she throws his failure with the Dwarves back in his face. Gil-galad has enough of the children squabbling and asks to see the rings instead. Elrond is reluctant to hand them over, worrying that the rings are corrupted, but Gil-galad tells them that the rings are their last hope of protecting Middle-earth from Sauron. Rather than use them, Elrond suggests they be destroyed instead — poor Elrond, no one ever listens when you want them to destroy their rings — but Gil-galad and Galadriel are insistent. Backed into a corner, or rather against the edge of a cliff, Elrond chooses his only way out, and dives off the waterfall.

Halbrand, meanwhile, has finally made it to the Southlands — now Mordor — where Adar and his Orcs have taken over, forcing their human hostages to swear allegiance to Adar and have Sauron’s brand burned into them for their trouble. Halbrand is brought before Adar in chains, and as before, Adar doesn’t recognize the man he once betrayed and left for dead.Halbrand tries to negotiate with Adar, telling him to let “his” people go before his own die. Adar doesn’t see why he should, but Halbrand tells him Galadriel is working with an “ancient sorcerer” to forge a new weapon to use on them, hinting that this sorcerer is Sauron (which, I suppose, is not technically a lie).

Adar doesn’t take the bait, telling Sauron that he will eventually confess all he knows in time, and has him locked up. Adar’s lackey Waldreg (Geoff Morrell) tries to get an answer about Sauron’s whereabouts out of… well, Sauron, but Halbrand is patient, and when he’s alone, uses his power to domesticate the feral beast locked up with him, ostensibly to keep him in line.

The Stranger and Nori Wander the Desert in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 1
Image via Prime Video

Speaking of ancient sorcerers, the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) and Nori (Markella Kavenaugh) are wandering through the desert, low on motivation and sense of direction and even lower on food. Nori suggests the Stranger try to conjure food from a dead tree like he did before, and while his efforts sort of work — he does manage to draw plenty of bugs to the surface when the tree explodes — he’s frustrated at having lost control again. Following Nori’s request, the Stranger tells her about the dream that’s been haunting him: the stars he’s seeking are there, and beneath them a branch he can’t quite grasp. The rest of it, however, he’s too wary to share. The two of them bond over their shared homesickness — Nori for the Harfoots, and Poppy (Megan Richards) in particular, and the Stranger for the place he can’t quite remember but misses nevertheless — when a single flame in the distance reveals to them that they’re being followed, the sweet moment is over very quickly.

Gil-galad sends a messenger to Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) with the news that Halbrand is Sauron. Once they’re alone, Galadriel thanks the High King for his trust, but he tells her the two of them are only aligned because the rise of Sauron backed him into a corner, forcing him to use the rings, and Galadriel leaves him with the promise that she will do the utmost to stop Sauron. As the search for Elrond continues, Galadriel suggests that her old friend might have gone to someone he can trust, someone who would command even Gil-galad’s respect.

That someone is Master Círdan (Ben Daniels), an Elvish ship-builder living in the Grey Havens. In a stroke of luck born of being an Elf, Elrond has survived his cliff-jumping adventure, and Círdan finds him hiding in his workshop after hours. Elrond confesses he had nowhere else to go. He shows Círdan the rings, and the shipbuilder says Celebrimbor’s aspiration was always to create objects with the power to affect those who hold them. Elrond maintains that Sauron had something to do with the making of the rings, even if he didn’t touch them, and asks Círdan to destroy them. Círdan warns him that this will mean an end to the age of the Elves, and Elrond says that is a risk he’s willing to take. Círdan begins to give him directions to somewhere where he can be rid of the rings, but they’re interrupted by the arrival of Gil-galad and Galadriel.

Galadriel goes to speak with her old friend before Gil-galad gets involved. She tries to convince Elrond to believe in the promise of the rings, claiming they forged the path together. Elrond doesn’t see it that way; furthermore, he doesn’t understand why she isn’t considering that the rings might be corrupted. He speculates she may have been under Sauron’s influence even longer than she realized, to turn her back on the chance of sailing to Valinor. Their conversation, as it turns out, was all a diversion on Elrond’s part. As Galadriel tires of it and seeks out Círdan to get the rings from him, she realizes the man is long gone, sailing away to the place he tried to tell Elrond about. Out on the water, Círdan tries to dispose of the rings, but a lurch in the boat stops him from dropping them in. His curiosity piqued, and, perhaps drawn by the power they hold, he takes them out of the pouch to consider them at last.

Back in the desert, Nori and the Stranger learn who’s been following them: Poppy. She arrives not only with food for them but also one of Sadoc’s (Lenny Henry) old maps that advises Harfoots to remember the words to the Walking Song if they don’t want to lose their way. The advice is sound, and the trio soon pulls out of the loop they’ve been stuck in, and make it to Rhûn. Poppy, however, isn’t their only pursuer; the group is also being followed by mysterious hooded and masked figures.

In Mordor, Halbrand wakes up to Adar hovering over him. Because this episode has been relatively light on backstory, Adar decides to share his, revealing he was one of thirteen chosen by Morgoth to be blessed with power. He tells him that back then, he was led to the top of a mountain, chained, and left there until Morgoth’s servant Sauron came to him, and offered him wine. He doesn’t reveal what the consequences of that were just yet, but he does work in the fact that Sauron’s face was “beautiful,” which must be a delight for the man himself just lying there.

Adar goes on to tell Halbrand that his people have been freed, and asks for information on Sauron in exchange. Halbrand coyly tells them Sauron is back, in a new form, but isn’t sure what shape he’s taken. He does, however, offer to act as a spy for Adar, saying he can go to the Elves to seek Sauron out and lead Adar to him. Adar agrees to the terms, and while he may not recognize the face, the cunning is at least setting off some alarm bells. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Sauron’s pledge of loyalty was not to Adar specifically, but rather to the “Lord of Mordor.” This is enough for Adar to have Halbrand followed as he leaves the camp. Halbrand doesn’t go without a parting gift, though: the beast he tamed is now unchained, and ensures that this is the last we see of Waldreg.

The Elves Finally Put a Ring On It in ‘The Rings of Power’s Season 2 Premiere
Image via Prime Video

With the rings presumably gone, the Elves gather under the tree in Lindon to mourn it as the last gold leaves begin to fall. Gil-galad declares the Elves’ time in Middle-earth over, as the light of the Eldar has faded, and urges them to return to Valinor before they diminish. Everyone’s attention, however, is drawn by the arrival of Círdan, holding two of the rings and wearing the third. He tells Gil-galad that Celebrimbor has forged “perfection” with the rings, and the High King is intrigued, but an outburst from Elrond causes him to drop both the unworn rings. One remains before Gil-galad, but the other lands at Galadriel’s feet — fortunately in all cases, they end up with the ones that best suit their outfits — and this is all the sign the two of them need to don the rings. The act is enough to, as Galadriel promised, bring the golden tree back to full, blooming life, but Elrond departs anyway, not sharing in anyone’s relief. We’ve talked a lot about Celebrimbor, but haven’t checked in on him yet. Over in Eregion, the Elven-smith is overseeing the finishing touches on his new forge when someone comes to tell him that a messenger has arrived from the Southlands to speak with him. He goes from curious to alarmed to learn that it’s Halbrand who has arrived.

With such a densely packed first episode, I cannot help but wonder at Prime Video’s decision to premiere it alongside two more big episodes when this one absolutely would have benefited from giving audiences a week to chew on it. Yes, we’ve yet to circle back to some key characters, but with an ensemble, and frankly, a world, this expansive, I think that’s to be expected anyway. There’s no time to breathe, though, as we launch right into the next episode!

The first three episodes of The Rings of Power are streaming on Prime Video now.

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