Udun
Adar’s army of orcs arrives at the guardhouse to find it abandoned, only to be ambushed by Arondir and a couple of others. ..
Arondir cuts a single rope, locking all the orcs in and running away, managing to take out a fair few in the process from the falling febris.
Meanwhile, on the three little boats out at sea, we see the three ships sailing for Middle Earth. It’s worth remembering how small these boats actually are as that will be important later on. Up on deck, we meet Galadriel, amazed that she can see landfall already and he can’t. And then, when the camera zooms out, we can actually see landmass on the horizon.
Elendil tells Miriel that it will be several days before they reach land and can then ride to the east. ..
The East has been giving the group an advantage in the Battle of Helm’s Cheap. They set up traps and give a rallying speech, preparing for the night to close in before the orcs attack. But then it arrives. The Battle of Helm’s Cheap. Or, The Battle of Helm’s Cheap you could say? Sorry, I’ll see myself out!
The orcs continue on despite the fire and the traps the villagers have put in place. Arondir is ambushed from behind, despite the fact he should have excellent hearing and vision. Arondir spins and flips around, kicking a large orc he ends up going one on one with. Eventually it holds Arondir up and chokes him out, until our elf is saved by Bronwyn.
Villagers manage to best all the orcs and save the day… or do they? It turns out that the orcs are actually quite smart and the villagers realize, with horror, that they’ve been killing their own men and women this whole time. No wonder they were so easy to beat! ..
The orcs laugh evilly from above and begin firing arrows, taking out several villagers and striking Bronwyn too. Everyone flees inside the tavern as all the orcs come out of hiding and rush on their position. After taking out the arrow from Bronwyn’s chest, which is absolutely pissing with blood, they cauterize the wound which seems to do the trick as she regains consciousness and seems to be on the mend.
Bronwyn and Theo find a sword hilt under their feet as they walk through Adar. They hand it over to the orcs, who are terrified of what they may do with it.
The Galadriel army suddenly marches on their position, with an impressive force and litany of soldiers. They ride into the small village where Adar hurries away with the sword hilt under his arm. Galadriel gives chase.
Halbrand, flying in from the front, manages to stop Adar from getting away. Just before killing him, Galadriel stops Halbrand and demands he be kept alive, telling him “one cannot satisfy their thirst by drinking seawater.” ..
Galadriel contemplates bringing the orcs she’s kept captive into the sunlight in order to torture them. The threat of this sees Adar speak up and admit that he killed Sauron himself. Galadriel doesn’t believe him though and instead decides to wipe out every single orc but keep Adar alive in the process so he can see his own children die before his eyes.
Adar turns to question Galadriel about her evil nature, but she almost slits his throat before Halbrand intervenes. This evil little madam soon leaves, but Adar knows what we’ve known since episode 2 - Halbrand is probably Sauron. ..
Bronwyn looks around the room before asking if Halbrand is the king. Everyone seems to be in agreement that he is, so she moves on to her next question.
As the episode ends, Theo realizes that the sword hilt isn’t actually in their possession, it’s been switched! Waldreg, that old man, is actually the one with it and he drops the sword and causes chaos to ensue.
A rumbling on the horizon signals the start of an orcish ritual known as Udun. This ceremony is used to funnel all of the water into a volcano, which then erupts and creates a pyroclastic cloud. The villagers all panic, but Galadriel stands her ground and faces the cloud head-on. Just as it’s about to engulf her and the villagers, the episode ends. ..
The Episode Review
The episode starts strong with a great action scene, but quickly falls apart as the logic behind it is revealed. Thevillagers are being held hostage by a group of rebels, and the rebels want to use the power of the Rings to control the world. But how do you get the Rings? You have to find them first! But how do you do that when everyone in the village is dead? And what happens when you finally find them?
Elendil tells Miriel that making landfall would take “a full day’s sail into the mountains, and from there another day’s ride east into the vale.” So, 2 days after the opening scene of Arondir destroying an entire tower with one rope and besting the little legion of orcs.
The next night, the people of Rivendell arrive with no word on how they managed to muster up all the horses and get everyone onto land, or even how long it would take to get there once they started riding. There’s just this feeling that something is going to happen very soon, and that nothing will be able to stop it.
The episode was poorly planned and executed, with a lack of coordination between the various departments. The teleporting armies and logistics didn’t add up, and it’s clear that HBO didn’t have the same level of planning as they do for Game of Thrones.
This episode feels like it was made without any plan or consideration. Arondir takes everyone out of a well-fortified guard tower and goes to fight in a tavern, where he can easily be stopped. This is just idiotic? I mean, in Two Towers Edoras was up on a hill and Theoden and the others realized it wasn’t a defendable position against the orcs and left. Here though, there’s no tactics or thought put into this at all.
Speaking of The Two Towers, the number of recycled scenes from that movie is insane. From Bootleg Helm’s Deep, complete with torches on the horizon, to these Eastlands being similar to Rohan in that villagers are tasked with fighting, all the way over to the little shots of the tavern’s interior, everything here is designed to be a callback to The Two Towers; I half expected some Ents to show up and save the day. ..
On a more positive note, Adar’s character is easily one of the best in this show and the addition of orc morality into the fold is a fascinating one. At the same time, it also makes Galadrel look even more evil than she already is and it’s amusing to think she almost killed Adar herself after telling Halbrand that he can’t do it as it won’t satisfy his revenge. But I guess Halbrand is king because he said so? ..
Despite the stunning visuals at the end of the episode, the writing leaves much to be desired. Will the next two episodes improve on this? We’ll have to wait and see. ..
