It's been two years since The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power aired, and given how many new TV shows there are all the time, you'd be forgiven for having forgotten loads of the plot details. But with The Rings of Power season 2 premiering on Thursday, August 29, it's time to catch up.
To save you re-watching the nearly 10-hour first season of this The Lord of the Rings prequel series, I'll summarize it in just 10 minutes, to save you a lot of time (well, just under 7 minutes if you read at the average reading speed of 238 words per minute, but that's not as snappy!).
So that it's easier for you to understand, I've broken down the plot by story-line. While each episode of the show jumped between these, it'll be easier to understand in bite-sized pieces.
Obviously you'll miss lots of the character moments and smaller details this way, but it'll remind you of all the major characters and events of the series.
An introduction to the world
The Rings of Power takes place well before The Lord of the Rings. The Elves live a peaceful life but when the Dark Lord Morgoth poisons the tree that sustains them, they leave their home to go to Middle-earth. There, they wage a war against him, and then his servant Sauron, in a war that goes on for centuries.
Our hero is Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) whose brother was killed by Sauron, and she picks up the task of hunting this creature down. She pursues him with a group of elves for over a thousand years until most people think Sauron has gone. In the icy Northern Wastes she finds some clues to suggest he's still alive, but her companions aren't convinced.
The group returns to Lindon, the Elves' capital in Middle-earth, where the king Gil-galad declares the war over. He grants them permission to travel to their homeland, the Undying Land, and while Galadriel isn't convinced her friend Elrond (Robert Aramayo) talks her into giving up her quest.
However when the boats are nearly back, Galadriel changes her mind and jumps into the ocean.
Galadriel's quest
Galadriel is rescued by a raft of humans who are fleeing their home-land, which is being attacked by orcs. After a sea monster attacks there's only one other survivor: a man called Halbrand (Charlie Vickers).
The two sail to Númenor, a land that used to be allied to the Elves but isn't any more. The land's queen regent is Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) as the actual king, her father, is ailing. She tasks Elendil (Lloyd Owen) with keeping a watch on Galadriel, but due to getting in a fight Halbrand is locked up.
Galadriel learns that Halbrand is the true king of the Southlands, which is the land Sauron wants to claim, and asks him to travel there with her to reclaim it.
Elendil has a son called Isildur who's training to be a naval cadet, but is dismissed after making a mistake during training. If those names sound familiar to you, it's because they're both prominent in the introduction to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Míriel sends Galadriel to return to Middle-earth alone, but open seeing an omen, decides to actually send an expeditionary force of soldiers, sailors and herself. Some Númenoreans aren't happy including Halbrand, who only reluctantly goes, and Elendil, who forbids Isildur from going (though Isildur sneaks onboard the ships anyway).
The mithril mines
The elf Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) needs workers for a forge he's making so he gets Elrond to visit the Dwarven land of Khazad-dum to visit his old friend, the prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur). He's initially not welcome but has to repair his friendship for his quest to be a success.
In the city of Eregion the elves and dwarves work together to create a forge, and Elrond learns that the dwarves have discovered a new magical ore called mithril. He's sworn to secrecy about it, shortly before the mine is closed down due to an accident.
Gil-galad hears about the ore and decides that its properties could counteract the fading power of the Elves in Middle-earth, and Elrond teams up with Durin to convince the latter's father, King Durin III, to give the Elves some. He refuses.
Instead Elrond and Durin IV mine the ore in secret but they're found out. Durin is stripped of his prince hood and Elrond is banished. As a result, they don't have the mithril they need to save the Elves.
The Southlands
In the Southlands stands a human village, populated by the descendants of Morgoth's allies. Due to this the elves keep a watch on them, with Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova one such soldier. He befriends the human healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and her son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin).
Arondir and Bronwyn travel to a neighboring village to find that it's been burnt down; there are no bodies but a warren of tunnels underneath. Arondir ventures into the tunnels but he's captured by orcs.
Bronwyn returns to her village but she's only able to convince them of danger when orcs pop out of similar tunnels by their village to attack. The villagers flee to a tower called Ostirith, which was until recently where the elves held garrison.
Arondir is put to work at an orc camp, where they dig trenches to allow these creatures to travel about during the day. He's not the only captive, and after a failed escape attempt he's taken to the orc leader Adar (Joseph Mawle). He's then released, but he has to give a message to the humans: bend the knee to Adar or they'll all be killed.
While this happens, Theo discovers a broken sword that bears Sauron's mark and draws power from bleeding wounds on the wielder. The orcs discover that he has it and they want it.
Some humans defect to the orcs upon hearing Adar's message, and the rest stand their ground for the oncoming attack. The orcs raid Ostirith but the humans aren't there, having laid a trap instead. The orcs then attack the village, and kill lots of humans and take the broken sword. However the rest of the villagers are saved when the Númenorean expeditionary force arrives to save them.
During celebrations, though, we learn that one of the defected humans escaped with the broken sword. He uses it to trigger a nearby volcano, turning the once-verdant land into Mordor (from the movies).
The rings
The volcano scatters the Númenorean forces and blinds Míriel, with Isildur feared dead. Most of the humans return to their island, with the surviving villagers taking up shelter in an old ruin. As the islanders sail home, their king dies.
Halbrand is wounded in the volcano blast and Galadriel rushes him to Eregion to be healed, where he soon recovers. He makes a plan with Celebrimbor to use the small mithril they have to create two objects of power, which they decide will be rings.
Galadriel starts to get suspicious about Halbrand, despite their growing romance, and does some research into his past. She learns that he's been lying about being the true king of the Southlands. He reveals himself to instead be Sauron, and he offers her a place at his side, but she refuses and so he flees to Mordor.
Not telling anyone about this revelation, Galadriel tells Celebrimbor to make three rings, not two.
The harfoots
Somewhere in the wilderness, a small community of hobbit-predecessors called harfoots carry out a nomadic lifestyle. However one day a meteor crash-lands nearby and it's discovered by the young Nori (Markella Kavenagh)... as well as the stranger (Daniel Weyman) who's in its crater. Nori nurses him back to health and learns that he's trying to follow a constellation.
When the stranger is accidentally revealed to the wider harfoot community, they're initially distrustful, but he proves himself useful when they undertake a migration. He also slowly gains magical powers, like healing and the ability to heal an orchard which is damaged by the volcano.
However three mysterious women begin to track the stranger, and when Nori misdirects them, they attack the harfoots' camp. These women think the stranger is their lord Sauron but when they catch up to him, he uses his magic to banish them, revealing himself to actually be a wizard. He wants to travel east to the land of Rhûn to learn more about his purpose, and Nori joins him.
