I’m going to blaspheme and endure the negative reaction: I only like Sauron’s narrative in Rings of Power. Isildur irritates me because I know he’s going to cut the ring, but he won’t get rid of it when he can. I already know that Sauron will dominate Middle-earth for a while and will be defeated by Elves and Men in a great alliance. There’s very little to motivate me to follow how the Hobbits came to be or the drama of the dwarves. But I’m simplistic. I know. And Sauron’s total absence in this fourth episode was very felt by me.

Purists, however, are celebrating because the ignored Tom Bombadil has finally arrived, whom Peter Jackson apologized for having eliminated from the trilogies. Look: Bombadil left because Jackson came to the conclusion that, although interesting, he was not a step forward in Frodo’s long journey to destroy the ring. So I don’t see any reason to celebrate seeing him here. Nice, different, blah blah blah, but precisely because he is immune to the effects used by Sauron, he will probably be of little help here. Right?

The fourth episode was a little less dense than the first three, thanks to Bombadil. Furthermore, there are the Ents (who I always found boring) with Theo being reunited by Arondir, Isildur and Estrid with these beings of nature. They are always complaining about the Orcs and the mutilations of the forests, a worthy cause, but dragged out like their speech and pace. They oppose Adar, of course.

Because he owes his freedom to Arondir, Theo is a little better with him. Isildur is falling for Estrid, who is forced to confess to having been marked by Adar and apparently redeems herself and is actually on their side.

Far away, Galadriel unsurprisingly has difficulty adjusting to her role as Elrond’s subordinate. How annoying she is! She keeps undermining her friend’s leadership, instilling fear in everyone and talking about visions of attack. Of course, the ambush is real and the elves end up fighting a band of zombies, the Barrow-wights: the slender, ghostly remnants of the dead royalty buried in the Barrow-downs who can only be killed by the blades with which they were buried. At the end of the fight, Galadriel volunteers to face Adar and his orc army, leaving her ring with Elrond. Her companions believe that Galadriel heroically intends to save them, but a bitter Elrond is not so sure. “She did it to save the ring,” he growls. That’s right, Elrond. Galadriel is incapable of not thinking about anyone other than herself.

In the far-off side of the story, Nori and Poppy survive yet another of the Stranger’s uncontrolled magic and meet a young man named Nobody who takes them to the Harfoots, who live in a small community carved into the desert rocks. This entire part of the series is to show what the Hobbits’ ancestors were like before they migrated to the Shire.

And what really mattered in episode 4 of season two was the arrival of Tom Bombadil, a jovial and ageless man who lives in the forest with his wife, near a grumpy tree called Old Man Willow. A great opportunity for the always friendly Rory Kinnear to now show himself in a more lively role.

In his conversation with the Stranger, Rings of Power finally has a welcome lightness. The music, the fact that Bombadil is always singing and that he can finally help the Stranger, teach him a little about the nature of magic and warn him about a potential alliance between Sauron and the Dark Wizard.

Didn’t you get the feeling that we took a very small step? Yes, I’m sure we did because that’s Tolkien’s dynamic on screen. What stands out, once again, are the songs that Bear McCreary introduced into the universe of the series because they are extremely relevant to the author of the story. The credits feature Old Tom Bombadil sung by Rufus Wainwright. Yes, Tom’s arrival is welcome!

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