Rings of Power 2.07 and Agatha All Along 1.03
Rings of Power 2.07:
Now that was clearly where most of the season's budget went. I'm usually not one for big battles, but this episode (or mini movie) managed to wield the action to lots of character goodness, so I was captivated all the way through.
Celebrimbor and Sauron, A Gaslight Story: I think my favourite detail is that Celebrimbor manages to reason himself out of the mindspell by observing the mouse and realizing this detail just doesn't fit and happens in a loop. And then tests his theory by marking the candle. Such stories where one party literally has nother in his (or her) thrall always is a tricky balance to strike, it has to be suspenseful and not so hopeless that it feels like misery porn, and Celebrimbor showing his intelligence in the midst of all the thrall and obsession ensured that. My next favourite detail is that Sauron, like many a villain, sees himself as the biggest victim and goes all "ah, if you knew what Morgoth did to me!" after Celebrimbor has broken the spell, absolutely means it when he says he learned a lot from Celebrimbor, including self sacrifice (and the reveal that the "Mithril" that went into the Nine is actually Sauron's blood is perfect) and can't understand why Celebrimbor is still upset about being gaslit, bespelled and having his city destroyed.
Adar, A Vietnam Story: Adar has reached the "we had to destroy the village in order to save the village" stage with the Orcs. In classic tragic irony, he started this whole thing to prevent them from ending up as Sauron's canon fodder, but now is willing to sacrifice more and more of them in order to defeat Sauron. And I love that we get to see the Orcs reacting to their Father, previously the sole creature to show them love, getting them killed in increasing numbers. No wonder they will end up with Sauron, figuring he at least doesn't claim to love them while using them. (It's not that Adar doesn't love them, but like I said: like many a character, he's become increasingly narrow-focused and doesn't see he's losing the very thing he's fighting for by his methods.
(Prince) Durin, Disa and the Dwarves, or, Mutiny in Khazad'dum: alas, poor Durin as well. Here he is, having successfully engineered a takeover by civil disobedience and impressed the rest of the Dwarves by his and Disa's example so they switch sides and are set on deposing King Durin - and then Elrond shows up, asking for help. Durin promises his bestie - and then finds himself between Skylla and Charybdis as King Durin goes beserk with his axe, powered up by his ring, so Prince Durin can either save his people or he can save Elrond and the people of Eregion, but he can't save both. Durin chooses his people, and I am impressed the show didn't give him an out of this one.
Elrond and Galadriel: A Spy Story: Now, of all the characters to pull the "kiss for distraction of the enemy while transferring vital equipment" maneouvre, Elrond wasn't the one I'd have thought of. Which is probably why it works. I bet this gets the show even more hate from a certain contingent of viewers because of the "future mother-in-law" factor, but honesty, the kiss didn't come across as sexually interested to me. Which isn't to say it's unemotional. In many ways, it's what the season's enstrangement between Elrond and Galadriel has been building up to, but it's not the only thing - the other thing is the silent understanding between them earlier in the scene when Adar thinks he has the upper hand because he has Galadriel hostage. Elrond knows Galadriel will always prioritize their people over her life, but also that as this stage of her lifef she will fight to escape for as long as she has breath, and Galadriel knows Adar is underestimating Elrond, that Elrond will fight regardless of the threat to her life (as she wants him to), but also, because he's Elrond, that he's going to try to help her anyway. And that these things are true regardless of their arguments. So in many ways, the kiss is one of reconciliation as well as of distraction (while he slips her the key highly useful pin she can get out of the chains with).
BTW, that an escaping Galadriel later observes Adar crying for the fallen Orcs is another great detail; it's part of Adar's tragedy that he is truly and sincerely the one person on Middle-Earth who really cares about the Orcs and that he could have saved them - if he hadn't lost sight of the means versus the end completely and thus played into Sauron's hands.
Galadriel and Celebrimbor: A Meeting of Sauron's Exes: no, but seriously now, Galadriel's mixture of compassion and strength here as she temporarily saves him is something that shows RiP! Galadriel's growth as a character from season 1, and I appreciate that what caused this and the conclusion both she and Celebrimbor draw isn't "I was deceived" but "I was deceived because I really really wanted to be, because I wanted what he had to offer". It's that last bit of self reflection Sauron himself is incapable of, see also his "now look what you're making me do!" speech to Celebrimbor that starts with "Morgoth tortured me".
No Harfoots and Stranger at all this week, but there really was not room, and given Celebrimbor gave Galadriel the very obvious forehadowing as to why Hobbits will save the world in the next millennium, I expect them to play an important role in the finale.
Agatha All Along 1.03: RIP Sharon, aka "Mrs Hart". Mostly a comic relief character, but capable of unexpected and all the more hard-hitting pathos, with that "let him breathe, Wanda!" as she's the first to be confronted with her greatest fear, and it's (very understandably) still that time she spent under Wanda's hex when she and everyone else were forced to play out sitcoms as part of Wanda's therapy and her husband started to choke. Sharon actually dying also shows that for all that this so far has been a primarily witty show, the stakes are really real.
Which isn't to say that Agatha's unabashed selfishness doesn't continue to be delightful; it's part of what makes the character, though I also like the occasional flash of something else (more about this in a second), as well as a reminder Agatha is good at getting to people and reading them if she wants to be, as evidenced here in giving Jen the pep talk about her potion brewing being important.
We learn a bit more about the otherh witches, i.e. the new characters, in this episode, and even more if we read the credits, because when it came to Lilia's (Patti LuPone) vision I wasn't sure whether she was seeing someone else or herself (in the past) in this vsion, and the credits which name the young actress in Renaissance clothing playing "young Lilia" while the older actress (looking like a reanimated corpse with a real death figure behind her) is credited as playing "Lilia's Maestra" set me straight on this account. As a Renaissance lover I do hope for a proper flashback, but presumably death (or Death) is at the heart of Lilia's greatest fear. Jen's has a (male) Doctor (though his dress can't be earlier than early 20th century) waterboarding her, while Alice's fear hallucination shows her her mother talking about feeling the death of Alice's grandmother and the family curse. All while everyone is dressed in beige dominating beach house gear as their current trial comes with costumes, which contributes to the show's surreal charm.
But th main emotional beats come from Jen telling the Teen that Agatha supposedly sacrificed her son for the Darkhold (something that we later see basically confirmed when Agatha gets her halllucination, though I expect there will be another twist to it), which he at first refuses to believe. Later, however, he shows he's not so fannish that he missed out (as opposed to everyone else) that Agatha didn't drink the wine, and then uses an interesting gamble to make her drink it - by volunteering to drink it himself otherwise. The amazing thing is that it works. This is the second or third time we've seen Agatha behaving somewhat protectively of him. Now I don't think it necessarily means he is her long lost son, but that it means she thinks he could be. (Especially if, as Jen indicates, no one knows exactly what Mephisto did with the baby.) In fact, I still think it would be most interesting if the Teen is neither Nicholas nor Billy but an amalgan of the two, though if he's Billy and Agatha realizes this late in the show it would be also a great character exploration opportunity - i.e. will she at that point feel genuine affection regardless of who he is or is this all repressed guilt over her son (which evaporates if he's not her son)?
All the actresses still have a blast playing these witches, and I'm continuing to be glad I tuned into this show. Next week: trial by fire, I guess? Bring it on!