Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 2.
Peter Jackson’sTheLord of the Ringstrilogy dabbles in horror when the situation calls for it, and does so with an edge no doubt influenced by Jackson’s previous experience as alow-budget horror director. The Nazgûl rampage through humble towns, the grimy creation of the Uruk-hai, and there’s the living nightmare that isShelob’s lair, to name some pointed examples.The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerSeason 1 proved it wasn’t afraid to push boundaries after the appropriately bleakeruption of Mount Doom, and Season 2’sflashback prologueis as grim as can be: both the sheer violence ofAdar (Sam Hazeldine)and his orcs murderingSauron (Jack Lowden)and the ominous implications behind Sauron’s eventual resurrection. Compared to Episode 2, that brutal opening is just a teaser.Rings of Power’s second season reserves the series' most visually and atmospherically impressive moment yetfor Sauron’s “debut” of hisAnnatar form (Charlie Vickers)— a scene that falls somewhere between dark Gothic fantasy and a demonic horror movie.
‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2’s Annatar Scene Builds Psychological Tension
Effective horror lives or dies on the building of tension.No amount of jump scares can supplement a situation that lacks mood or stakes. So far,Rings of PowerSeason 2’s suspense comes from the dramatic irony ofthe audience being in on Sauron’s secret. The franchise’s greatest threat is hiding in plain sight, worming his way into select individuals' circles by earning their trust and preying upon their vulnerabilities. This season specifically, Sauron turns his gaze uponelven-smith Celebrimbor(Charles Edwards). Sauron needs Celebrimbor’s acumen and resources toforge the Rings of Power, andEpisode 2’s structure breeds apprehension through Sauron’s evolving pursuit.
For one, even thoughSauron can’t accomplish his conquest goalswithout Celebrimbor, there’s no telling what the Dark Lord might do to the elf. Sauron’s veneer of polite patience conceals an ancient entity capable of tormenting — or killing – Celebrimbor at any given moment. In turn,Celebrimbor unwittingly invites a predator into his home, the place where he’s at his most vulnerable. To that end, Vickers injects more blatant menace into his expressions but never overplays his hand by mugging for the camera, even when it lingers on him. Achieving this highly specific tension — the “we know, but the characters don’t” kind — is difficult.Rings' success lendsSauron’s nuanced psychological manipulationsthe sinister quality they require. He reads his targets like an open book and ruthlessly, intuitively pursues them.
To wit, Sauron first approaches Celebrimbor as Halbrand, the mortal man Celebrimbor knows fromtheir shared time in Eregion. He refuses to leave even after Celebrimbor denies him an audience, content to stand outside in a gloomy nighttime downpour. Once his persistence wears Celebrimbor down,Sauron plays uptheir comfortable and reciprocal acquaintance. He shows a faux concern, a hesitancy, to which Celebrimbor compassionately responds — the emotional equivalent of Sauron getting his foot in the door. He lays a solid foundation in Celebrimbor’s mind, pretending to confide in his insightful friend before lying about Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) andHigh King Gil-galad’s (Benjamin Walker) recent actions.He plants seeds of doubt and resentment, implying that the people in power always cast aside those who toil in service behind the scenes — and the fear of being forgotten is one of Celebrimbor’s Achilles' heels.
‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Smartly Uses Horror Tropes
Once Sauron realizes that winning Celebrimbor over requires an undeniable display of force, he improvises. His request becomes grander: now Celebrimbor’s charge isn’t just saving the elves from an encroaching threat, butprotecting all of Middle-earth. He targetsCelebrimbor’s unsatiated desire to create something glorious and enduring, and appeals to his vanity by arguing thatthe Valar, the god-like beings whom the elves revere, have chosen Celebrimbor as Middle-earth’s worthy savior. To prove his point,he transforms Celebrimbor’s already low-lit room into the elvish equivalent of a haunted mansion. He enhances the outside storm with abrupt slashes of lightning. Peals of ominous, bass-rumbling thunder emphasize key statements and cut off Celebrimbor’s baffled protests. The doors distract him entirely when they fling open, banging off the walls as the wind-whipped rain pours in.
Once Celebrimbor has shut the doors, an act removing Sauron from his eyeline, he turns back to find that his friend has dramatically vanished. It’s unsettling,especially when the minimal lighting provided by sconces and candles suddenly, inexplicably plummets into pitch black. Celebrimbor wanders the eerie darkness, callingHalbrand’s nameinto the echoing silence like a slasher heroine naively venturing into the exact place she shouldn’t go. The remaining lights flicker off one by one until the only illumination left is the forge’s simmering fire.A scene like this would automatically be unnerving, butthe horror tropes couldn’t be more classic or appropriately paced.
‘Rings of Power’s Charlie Vickers Reveals How That Season 1 Proposal Affected Sauron
“It can’t be underestimated the impact that she has on him.”
These steps all lead toSauron reappearing with the production value grandeurone might imagine of aterrifying villain— or a religious messiah. Smoke plumes pour from the forge. The flames spike high and wide. But the fire doesn’t consume Celebrimbor’s chambers. Nor does it consume Sauron as he emerges from their burning depths untouched, now clean-shaven, blond, and elven-eared — like the fire has purged away his crude disguise.His regal approach has the slow gait of a stalking killer. His voice echoes as he proclaims an array of lofty promises to Celebrimbor, but his lips never move.
‘The Rings of Power’s Annatar Reveal Is Both Terrifying and Beautiful
Sauron concludes his display by projecting a geographically impossible image of himself centered, surrounded, and backed by golden-colored smoke. And, just to make sure Celebrimbor doesn’t miss the point (and not to be undone in the atmosphere department), two rays of light break through the above clouds and bracket him on either side. Due to the narrative focus of Jackson’s films andRings of Powerthus far, we haven’t seenSauron truly flex his god-like powers. Now, we’ve witnessed a taste, andit’s as appropriately terrifying as it is beautiful to behold— which suits Sauron.
Even thoughJ. R. R. Tolkiendidn’t styleLord of the Ringsas a religious metaphor,his legendariumcasts Sauron in a classically Satanic, “fallen angel” role. Sauron, one of the first beings to ever exist,turned away from his creatorto follow Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. The Christian Bible also describes angels as grotesque enough to terrify the humans who see their unfiltered faces. Annatar is Sauron’s fair form, but the religious connotations of this particular iconography feel intentional onRings of Power’s part.
Faced with all of the above, it’s no wonder Celebrimbor bows to Annatar, overcome by awe and perhaps some fear. Transforming Halbrand into Annatar requires a convincingly impressive show on its own. Swaying Celebrimbor, asympathetically flawed but loyal elf, demands multiple escalating layers.Common horror tropes, dramatic irony, andSauron’s intentionscombine into an unsettling and cinematically jaw-dropping momenton a scale worthy of Jackson’s most eye-catching spectacles. Compared to this, Gandalf the White could learn a thing or two about entrances.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
The first three episodes ofThe Rings of PowerSeason 2 are available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S. All eight episodes of Season 1 are available to stream in the U.S.
