Coming off of two weeks of Rings of Power, where I said we had the worst and best of the series to date respectively, the sixth episode of season two lands somewhere in the middle of the quality scale. The pieces are in place for the Siege of Eregion next week, but this week the show made sure to check in on almost all the plot points, creating a very busy episode that was frustrating thanks to its inconsistencies.

We all know it by now but the harfoots continue to be a problem for me in this Rings of Power. Whenever we cut back to Nori and Poppy, I feel the show’s momentum coming to a screeching halt. I think the main issue is just how disconnected that storyline is from all the others, it makes the story feel pretty aimless. This sensation is bolstered by the fact that the duo are hiding with the Stoors and the Stranger, who definitely isn’t Gandalf, wink wink, is off doing his own thing. I’m not sure what the point of the harfoots was in this episode, to the point where I felt their screentime just felt like padding. I really can’t say I’m interested in Poppy’s romantic interests with Nobody or the reason why the Stoors aren’t nomadic.

The Stranger’s arc is at least more interesting but the heavy-handedness of the Gandalf reveal is getting pretty irritating, both in the sense that it makes no sense canonically and how thinly veiled it is. Tom Bombadil makes reference not only to the Secret Fire but says a line that Gandalf himself will say to Frodo about Gollum in Moria about those deserving life. It feels way too on the nose while also holding back on the confirmation. And then if he’s not Gandalf, for whatever reason, then all the winks will feel unearned. Tom Bomadil, while played with much love by Rory Kinnear, kind of feels more like Yoda in Empire Strikes Back than he does Tom from Fellowship of the Ring book.

Sauron continues his manipulation of Celebrimbor, using some pretty intense sorcery to create the illusion that everything is normal in the city of Eregion when in fact, it’s moments away from an orc invasion. It’s pretty neat seeing Sauron use his magic for once; he is the Necromancer in The Hobbit after all and in the texts, was a powerful sorcerer in his own right. I really hope he teleported himself to Khazad-dûm, that being said, as the distance between the dwarf kingdom and Eregion is pretty far away and having Sauron be in one location in one scene and then the other later on, while other events seemed more static, did throw me off a bit, but I’ll chalk it up to magic for now. I am curious as to how Sauron will bend the orcs to his will, considering they’re all loyal to Adar in this moment and the orcs are there to destroy him specifically.

Númenor’s plot line felt like it undid a lot of the momentum from last week’s episode. While it wasn’t an issue narratively speaking, it did feel a bit inconsistent as well as convenient. More importantly, it felt a bit anti-climactic watching the buildup to the trial of Elendil, and subsequently, Miriel, only to have both of them survive with the latter now being recognized as Queen again. It’s made the whole arc feel a little too flip-floppy for the time being. Khazad-dûm’s arc was brief as well but always fun to watch thanks to the performance of the actors in that storyline, even if the story does feel like it’s spinning its wheels a bit since the last episode.

Because so much is happening in this episode, we’re not given enough screen time to allow a lot of these moments really resonate. Arondir opens the show with a quick action shot of him dispatching a few orcs and finding a map, but he’s never seen from again in this episode. We don’t follow up with Pharazôn really on how he’s feeling after the trial, apart from him looking into the palantír. I’d like to see what Narvi thinks about Durin III going mad thanks to the ring and being pushed further into the depths, but the show is so jam-packed we don’t really have the time for this. Once again, trimming or eliminating certain subplots would work in the show’s favour. In fact, if the show was less a saga about the people of the age and instead told solely from Sauron’s POV, I think this show would soar. We’d still have all the elements that work, such as the elves and dwarves, but considering this show is about the titular rings of power and that he’s the architect of the plan, focusing more on him would make sense, especially as how the Sauron scenes are by far the best part of this season.

Next week promises to be an action-packed episode and hopefully, the spectacle of it all still ties into the narrative beats established in the show. Here’s hoping the show doesn’t cut away from the action too much that being said and gives us updates on, say, Theo or Poppy, as keeping the focus on Eregion should be the focus. Let’s hope it delivers, I’d like to have another episode that’s solid from end to end. As it stands, this season so far has been very patchy, with some great highs, but some frustrating lows.