Rings of Power S1E7 Recap: "The Eye"

Welcome to the Podcast of Power, the only Lord of the Rings Rings of Power podcast ever available on the Internet, ever, past, present, and future. I'm your host, Mike White. I'm joined by, of course, mister Chris Tesshue. I'm actually an AI robot paid for it by Amazon. That's just an like, it's one of those AI bots that just took all my podcasts and just starts stringing it together to make sense.

Hello, ale I like Lord of the Rings. Alexa, did you take over the podcast again? Oh no, I'm sorry, Mike, I mean user. How many times have you watched Lord of the Rings? Mike, I mean user?

This episode we're talking about the eye, the eye you're thinking of. It's not the old brown eye. It's that the old brown eye or the old whispering guy. Even No, no, this is Galadriel's eye that opens up. Or is it the Queen's eyes like get torched in a very dubious sequence, or is it the eye of sorrow?

It's not that, it's not that. No, I don't think it's that. No, No, we don't even say the word very cheesy. Oh it was the Southlands, but now it's oh god, what was that? Don't call it the Southlands anymore.

I'll think of something that's what I was working for, the Southlands anymore. Yeah, well, hey, you know what uhr as ham fisted as that is? Because it is kind of ham fisted, right, I think the episode was kind of fun. Yeah, I had a good time with this one. Now we get all the storyline is shocked what what is going on?

Show? We have? We have ramped it up significantly and actually given gladal something to do. Yeah, other than just mope or say one liners that are going to be in the trailer for the first season of the show. I have a tempest within me.

No, let me repeat this line eight times. Yeah. No, she's actually has given a fair amount of things to do with U with THEO though, I what what what? What were the stakes of the volcano exploding? Can I ask you that?

Are you able to discern what the stakes were? Because I'm having a tough time here, not yet. I don't know how many people are dead, I don't know how many people are alive. I don't know who's lost. I don't know who's found.

I guess removed Galadriel from all this, like what yeah, she got she doesn't get hurt. Fine, she's an elf, but how does it why? Okay, I have a hard time understanding because all of a sudden, some characters are dead, some characters have disappeared, some characters are blind, but nobody dies. Well, there's that one dude who was like, I think I'm going to retire now I'm done with the sailing life. And he's the one that I think they couldn't pull out or he's dead underneath that pile.

Yeah, he eats shit real fast. Yeah, but I look, I honestly didn't expect this episode to pick up right where because I didn't know what to expect. But yeah, it picks right back up where we were and it's like, oh, yeah, so now we're going to separate everybody again. For this episode, we have Gladril and Theo going off on their kind of vision quest together, I don't know, to make right or something. They get separated from the group and then everybody else stands a sealed or because apparently a sealeder is dead but we all know he can't be dead, right, we all know better?

Right, show, Like, would you stop this shit? Like a sealed or my son is dead? So that was a fucking lie like he can't. Yeah, but so so Mariel, the Queen is blinded in all of this, seems to be the only one, so we find out that she's blind and then the rest of the episode really has nothing to do with them, which I was kind of okay with. Yeah, once we pivoted away from Galadriel and THEO and Alendel and Mariel, and for whatever reason, Halbrand is also like half dead offscreen, this attack happens, I guess, Yeah, it's weird.

The We've kind of had this weird issue with the New Menoor storyline up until this point not being particularly interesting, and when it met up with the Rondeer storyline, I was like, okay, like maybe this is going to go somewhere now, and it yeah, I know, not really so kind of spinning its wheels. Now they have to go on a fetch quest of to heal Halbrand and maybe we'll find out who he's supposed to be. But yeah, now Galadriel's task once again with going off to save somebody else again. Okay, but speaking of going on journeys, the hard foots man, I was glad to see them back, and I was glad to kind of see that all of the hard Foots have kind of come around to the stranger. Can't call him Gandolf anymore, because I think you're right, think he's Tom Tom Bomb.

I think you're right. I was. I was pleased to see that the show has kind of pivoted them in an interesting direction regarding him. They're not They're not all just kind of like, oh, he's such a terrible like pox upon us, Like, no, you're about to find out who the Apparently we're finding out who the real pox upon the land is with again introduction of more new character Ray. They've already introduced them, but we still don't even know who they are.

Well, I'll tell you who they are. They're the Nomad, the ascetic, and the Dweller. So yeah, they don't tell us who they are, because who the fuck is the nomad, the ascetic and the dweller. I couldn't tell you. No, me neither.

But so so early on in like the stuff that they were showing for the show, they showed that one character, the one with the close cropped hair, and it was like the nomad Edith Poor is her name? Everyone's like, that's Saron. I guess everybody forgot that that was also a female actor. Well, she does have a little bitter androgynous very much so with that very short haircut and stuff, because I mean, I think I referred to her as eminem the last time we spoke about it. I thought she was I thought it was a male character.

Yeah, And then it's made very clear in this episode that it is a female character, which is interesting because now I really no idea these characters are supposed to be. But they seem to have some connection to the stranger. They seem to be looking for him and continuing to follow him, and he heals all the trees and then leaves. Yeah. Yeah, he makes like a tree and leaves.

Yeah. Wow, sorry, And yeah, we get this trio and they're after him. And when she puts her the fire out with her hand, I was just like, Oh, that's kind of badass. And then when she's just like, oh, and by the way, I'm going to torch this fucking village, I was like, oh, I didn't expect that. To me, that was more of a conflagration, more of a horrible thing than all the stuff that just happened in the Southlands aka Mortor.

Yeah. I agree, And there were some stakes to do it, Like, that's that's why I asked the thing about the volcano, explained, like, what are the stakes of this? Like, now that orcs can walk around in the daylight, so we have to worry about them fifty percent more of the time, because apparently it was just, you know, fifty percent of the time you had to worry about them fifty percent of time there was hanging out dude and whatever. So okay, so I guess still try. I mean, we know where what more door becomes.

So that's what the important thing is is more door is where Saron forges the ring and where the ring of power can be destroyed. A da da da da. Fine, But the show has not done a good job of establishing what it being more door means other than it is now more door. That's it, Like it doesn't what does that mean for the show? And they haven't told us yet, and maybe that's going to be focus of one of the seasons.

But like I would just like to have known, Like they didn't know what they were preventing, I think is the problem. And so therefore the stakes can't be inherently obvious right out of the gate, at least not in this first episode post the explosion, and I didn't realize that the I guess maybe I kind of realized that the ruin that the Stranger puts up in the sky is the same ruin that was on the sword, basically that mark of Moore door. And when Lenny Henry hands him the little scrap of paper, I'm just like, oh, oh yeah, now I remember it was that same shape and that's basically that map of Mordor that Gladiel found in the library there on newman Or. And I was like, oh, okay, all right, so is he trying to find more door?

I don't know, you're really enjoying saying I am. I am almost as much as when Hugo Weaving says, I'm just like, yes, I will get thousand years ago in mor before when that was when I was a nerd with God oh lord, I like, I like that guy, and I don't know, he just looks like a dorky guy. He looks like Ron. He really does that haircut. Look They're going to have him have a different haircut in the second season.

There's no way, right. He looks like a due and I really like him. He's super endearing. Robert Arameo as el Rond is Actually I mean everything with him in the Dwarves is the best part of the show. Yeah, still like hardcore best part of the show.

But holy Cow, speaking of the Dwarves, my goodness, missus Duran, Wow, I was going on, Wow, it seems like she's just been like pouring poison into the young Duran's ear. I'm just like, holy Cow made her eyes in that scene. Oh yeah, they were yellow. I'm from man. They were yellow with avarice for gold.

I don't know, that's what it. I feel like, Okay, the show look like I was talking about this on the Game of Thrones podcast and the Lord of the Ring show in this first season has a very unique problem that I do not like. It's not a unique problem, it's a problem we've seen before. The question is who is Saron? Like who?

Right, because that's the question, like who is who is he? He's somebody on the show, right. They've said that he's well that's what they've essentially, the showrunners and stuff, like he's in the show. So people are taking that to be like, well, he's in the show already, so who is he? And so it's like, is it the stranger is it?

How brand? Is it? Da da? Dada? Is it Dada?

And It's like, I feel like the best way to do Saron would be to have Saron be less a person and more like a force of will and of nature that influences people to do things that set the pieces in motion. We know what now as an audience member, you know what's going to happen in Kaza Doom. Before it was all you know if you read the books, if you seen the movies, if you know that what Kaza Doom is, and Maria like, if you knew that before, you knew where this was going. But now the show has made it explicitly clear what is going to happen with Kaza Doom in the show, And I'm actually fucking shocked. That is episode eight of the first season of the shows.

Episode seven of the first season of the show where we are seeing a boo rog on screen. Holy cow man, what Yeah? I was pretty happy and that bow rock looks really good. Oh my god, it looks better than it. We haven't seen a boo rock since since a fellowship.

I mean they showed it when they were talking about how Mythra was made, which again, like to forget that as much as possible. Yeah, but but this is the first time we've seen a modern CGI beall rogue and it looks fucking amazing. I know it was only it was being lit essentially from itself, but it looked great. The fire effects look great. I mean, look, i know I'm not some sort of cg idylatant or anything, but I'll take what i can get when it comes to stuff like this looking good.

And I'm sure they're going to overuse it and it's going to be a big deal at some point in the show. But right now, that was a really effective moment. I mean, Barox, aren't that tough? Right? You just thrown through the entire world and have a wizard beat him up and they're pretty much taking the care of you just fall to the bottom and fight all the way to the lowest fucking point into the highest peak of the minds.

Yeah, and then he just dies after you die in the process of trying to kill it, right, right, Yeah, And at least you get to come back from the dead, right right with the new outfit, right saw Ramon as he was meant to be. It's funny to me the other thing that I was really surprised by is how quickly everything is going with l Round and the Duran story, and especially Duran with his father. Oh yeah, it's it is sped up and taken kind of a quick turn to I guess major conflict. Yeah. I couldn't figure out the last two episodes, like what the conflict was because it didn't seem like it was that big of a deal.

And now it's a big deal all of a sudden. Yeah, it feels like they really went into high gear. And then I'm I'm just like, well, does Galadriel and Erondeer did they know that the elves are in trouble? It doesn't feel like it, Like, is it just like the elves that hang out by this tree or what? It's the elf cogniscente that No?

Oh okay, I think that's the way I interpreted it. It's like the like the Elf because el Rond is like elf royalty because his dad is gil Galid and like, you know, he's Elf royalty, So I guess he would theoretically be privy to these kinds of problems where it's like a overarching, big issue that the elves are going up to deal with as a race at large. I would think he would like of anyone to know that, it would probably be el Ron than el Ron's dad and kill a brimbre. But yeah, it's it's weird because the idea that mythril like brings the elves back to life is it's very It's shown very ham fistedly. It's shown in a very dorky way in this episode that feels like a show not well, not as well written as this show can be.

It feels like a very dorky show where it's like we have the mythrill on the table and we have the leaf on the table, and the leaf starts coming back to life, Like what the hell? But yeah, and so I'm just like, so since el Ron has a piece of mythril, will he just like be like, oh cool, I'm gonna keep this in my pocket and I'll be healthy for lots of years, almost like I had a ring of power in my pocket, right, Like that's what it's. What I don't get is the stakes of mythral are what that if somebody else gets it, they prevent the elves from sir viving? Or is it that the the or the dwarfs would never give it up. Is it that the dwarves just don't want to give it up because of them knowing something's down there, or I just can't figure out what the stakes of mythri are because if you're the elves, you just go and take it by fours.

Yeah, yeah, right, I don't understand, like if the if the survival of your races is at a crossroads, you just go take it by fours pretty much, you have to. I mean that's what we did with Iraq. We had to take all that oil. I mean, aren't the elves and occupying force in Nitch Joe? They are totally I mean, that's that's all I wonder is like, like you said, like who knows outside of this like small group of like decision makers in the world of the Lord of the Rings, because there, yeah, there are elves that are just common elves that probably don't don't know anything, don't think anything of whatever is going on, and they may not even have any idea that that's going on.

Like I think to your point, like do they know that these things? Like do they can they feel themselves dying? So I don't know. There's a tree with leaves that have black oil on them. I don't know.

Wow, I just did an X File's crossover, I know, right, And I guess the other thing I again, just not not to pick at the episode, but just kind of the bigger qualms that I had with it was that the way that they treat Bronwyn's character, like, stop giving us like, stop making her dead but not dead. What is the deal with that? Like, stop using the death of this character as motivation for anything, Because now you've done it twice in the span of two episodes. It's more unbelievable that she survived the volcano explosion while looking the way she did last episode. Yeah, like they should have done it now, not then when it's like they've baited it twice now that I just think that's really lazy screenwriting.

Yeah. And the whole thing of US's dad just like, oh, hey, it's oh, just another guy, okay, oh and his horse, and we're gonna let his horse go and then follow his horse like I don't understand, Like you know, his horse has like bonded to him, so follow his goddamn horse. And it kind of reminds me of Bregel from The Two Towers where it's just like Oh my, master fell, I'm going to go down here and help him out and take him back to helm Steep. Right. It's like that always felt like to me.

I don't know how I always that's always rubbed me the wrong way. In Two Towers, that whole Aragorn is dead thing because it works kind of works in the book, I guess, but there's not enough time, no at all. You have to give the audience a moment to grieve the goddamn character. If you're gonna kill the character, give them a moment for pity's sake. Right, It's like, what are you guys doing, I don't understand.

You can't character and then just be like noah, they're back. I mean they did that in that Star Wars movie, like ju Baca's dead. Just kidding, No, he's not, Like he's back on it what like fucking come on. Yeah, it's like, oh my lady, he fell, I'm just kid here to Yeah. I've been playing the Lego Lord of the Rings game.

That's literally how it happens. In the Lego Lord of the Rings. He's like he fell and then he just goes bang it opens the gate in the same scene and it's like, yeah, I can get down with this being the way it would have gone in the movie because it's so unnecessary, and it's unnecessary here. It's like five minutes of a seventy two minute episode that they give time to this like nonsense of trying to convince us that these characters, Oh, maybe Bronwyn's dead, maybe a Rondeer's dead. Now at this point, I'm just gonna assume that they're not gonna die at all in this show, Like we're gonna be watching them have a wrap up at the at the end of this show's run, we're gonna see maybe both of them, but definitely one of the two is still alive.

Like it's it's you've already started coding your characters and plot armor that we didn't know had plot armor. Well, there's some characters we know a plot armor, like el Rond, Galadriel Sealed or Ellen Dill, Like we know that they have massive they have story built in plot armor. Why they're doing that with the characters that we don't know that are created for the show or our new characters, It just seems it seems counterintuitive because to give that scene some to give that scene some weight and some real darkness. They might have wanted to kill Bronwyn, they might have wanted to maybe have another character that could have died there if you really want to kill a character to give it some weight.

But I don't even I'm not even sure that that's a worthwhile argument anymore. Like killing characters to give scenes emotional weight. I feel like it's I don't know. I feel like there are better ways to do to give characters motivation to achieve things per the script. I think there's better ways to do it than killing characters off.

So yeah, I agree, and I yeah, it's like, please just do something, you know, like like you said, we can't just have Bronwyn near death every single episode just to make THEO or Aronder freak out right, and then I've done it twice, like I just I guess. I guess. My overall hope with this show is we have a better understanding after the next episode of what. I still don't understand what's going on really in the show. I don't think the show has made it very clear what's going on.

I think it's held back a lot of the cards. I mean, it held back the cards in what Adar was trying to achieve. We still don't really know what's going on with the mythrow. Outside of that l Rond and Dorian are messing around with it, the character of the Stranger is still a stranger. Still.

I'm surprised we're at the penultimate episode of the show shows for a season and we still don't know who he is. I'm kind of surprised. I'm not surprised. I think that next season or sorry, next episode, they will probably have a whole series of mini reveals right at the end, and I think he will be one of the many reveals. So it feels like each storyline could have a reveal like who is hal Brand, who is the Stranger?

What is Durhan's real motivation? Or like what's going on with Bisa and her sudden turned against the King or her sudden turned to the dark side? Yeah, because gosh she is. I mean she was speaking like Darth Sidius in this episode. I was like, whoa, yeah, her eyes are yellow and she's the king is too old, his mind is filled with boys, and I was like, whoa, hey, hello, yeah, is is She's right?

Right? I mean that would be it would make sense because again to get the Dwarfs out of the mountain. Yeah, I mean, best way to get the dwarfs out of the mountain is just tell them to keep digging for that mythrill so that they can essentially destroy them selves. Yeah. Yeah, too deep, too greedy, Yeah, Duran ordsa or too greedy.

And yeah, she's got him exactly where she wants them. Yeah, I have to go. I'm gonna have to go back and rewatch is she Is there any sense or hint that that was going on up until this point? No, I mean her eyes have always been kind of this weird color. But as far as like her speaking so much against Duran's father and just like, well, he's an old fool, and I'm just like, hmm, this is not the disa I know from the rest of these episodes.

Yeah, I don't want to say that she's Saron, but I think that there is a case that could be made for again, like the multiple implementation of Saron throughout each storyline, I think is probably a better way of looking at it, because there's there's no way you can convince me that Adar is acting of his own volition, like maybe he is. Maybe Saron just takes advantage of it. But I can't help, but wonder like that has to have some play into it. Is Saron is behind all of this? Oh yeah, there's no way.

Adar is just like you know, what's you know, I feel really bad for these orcs right that I can walk out in the sunlight and they can't. Yeah, what am I going to do for these guys? You know? Huh what if I if I darkened the sun somehow? How can I do an explosion?

M I think I might have an idea. Hey, come on over here, but start digging. Yeah again like that, you know, it's funny, like as wild as the Mountain Doom exploding was for the show, Like, I still have no idea what it means for the narrative really large, other than the sky is darkened. That's it, which is not much right And I'm sorry, but like I watched this episode twice because I was just like, wait a second. At the beginning, the queen is saving people and then she's blind.

When does that happen? And it is it just the moment of her being blinded is so met It's like, is that when it happened? Is that how it? Because it's like there's no weight to that moment, and even if they were just like, well, you know, this could have happened at this point, but it just it doesn't feel like it. Well, I think my other issue with her being blind is what does that mean for a character that we don't really care about exactly?

What does it mean for yeah? Like why why does that matter? Because now she goes back to neumanoor to what come supposedly come back when they need them? But I mean good, really yeah good? I you know, does Ellenda leave with her?

I don't know. Yeah, yes he did, because because he's so pissed off about right. So okay, so that's interesting. So the ol Door is just in Middle Earth now, yeah, by himself just wandering around. That could be interesting.

That could be interesting. I would be interested to see where they go with that. Well, especially you give them like a little Dobby sidekick and then they go out and they selve mysteries every week? Great or give him like that he forgets who he is and he's just one and then he looks down and says, do not trust Sammy jamkiss. Oh wow.

I think my other kind of concern with this show going into the last episode is this episode felt like the last episode of the season. It did, Yeah, in a really weird way because they essentially sent everybody out on yet another quest, right right, which is very oldtimate, old final episode of the season. He if that makes sense, Like, it's just that feels like a convention that I expect from something like this, Right, Well, how how else are they going to suddenly save someone from doing something or about to get killed unless there's one group that's out there wandering and there's another person that gets in trouble and then right before they die or something bad happens, this group shows up and say the day, how else are we going to do that?

Yeah, we're going to do that again, over and over and over again. You can only look to the to the east at the dawning of the fifth day so many times apparently, but in this show you can do it a lot. Yeah, it's dawn all over the place. I honestly thought that when those like weirdos burned the hard foots uh huts, that that it would that the stranger was going to come back and stop it, or it was going to be like a vision or something. I was not expecting that.

But yeah, like it has more weight than anything else. And like to your point, like, I guess finally we have something in the show that sticks, that matters, like you said, that matters that somebody doesn't come in and save at the last moment. That feels like the big thing that happened this episode. Even then, I don't know how many of the harf Foots were actually in their traveling things, if any, right, because at the end, it's like all of these harf Foots there, And I like how her dad, Nori's dad gets that speech we're hard foots, we stick together. And I'm just like, oh boy, here comes a big speech coming up.

Like everybody just stops what they're doing and starts looking at him, like okay. I like that actor who plays her daddy. We haven't seen him doing enough on the shows because he's oh yeah, god, I knew it. Yeah, I'm kind of excited to see where that goes with Lenny Henry and the Nori. I guess, yeah, it should be nice.

I felt very fellowship. Oh boy, yeah right, but that whole like we're not going to let our friend, you know, perish, and these bad forces are after them, and I mean talking about fellowship. When those three orcs are up on the hill and THEO and Galadriel are down below and they're hiding from them. I'm just like in the of course, the one orc is sniffing for them. I'm just like, oh, this is so fellowship of the Ring with the ring Raith there, and you know, I was waiting for her to like her eyes roll back in the back of her head and like almost puts on their ring.

Oh no, okay, sure there was a I don't know if you heard it, there was a lord. There was a ring audio stinger. When Galadriel and THEO were talking and she he says something about like, you know, I don't understand why this happened. She says something to the effect of like, we don't know why some of these things happen, but they will have long like they may have an effect on everything everyone in the future. And then you hear the fucking nut Oh oh my god.

Yeah. It's just like a very subtle, like two or three little like two or three notes of it, but it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know this is the story with the mcguffin to end all mcguffins, right, it really is. We are heard the penultimate episode of the first season the show is named Rings the Power and poor colub Ron or whatever. He's just like Lebron James. Yeah, Lebron Rame is way too similar to her husband's name, Collabriel's husband's name.

Who is dead question mark? Oh, while he's there in the movies, so like missing, Yeah, god whatever, stop show. Yeah he'll show up when she's about to be stabbed or yeah, he'll block somebody's sword as it's coming down on her head. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's why this show is resorting to cheap tactics. Like that is beyond me.

But okay, I mean I'll make fun of it just the same every time it does it. Yeah, yeah, I think that. You know, the fact that we haven't seen the Rings yet is a little surprising. Yeah oh yeah. I thought that that was going to be the big reveal in the next episode.

But I doubt doesn't have the materials for it. He doesn't have the fire for it. He doesn't have anything going right now. It's like, Okay, your project is going to take a long time. But he's an elf.

He's got hundreds of years. He can do whatever he wants. Yeah, so he thinks, so he thinks, Yeah, so he thinks yeah, there's nothing is nothing with the with that story has really progressed. We've seen Kella Brimbore what twice? Now, Yeah, I mean I assume he's probably gonna show up again next episode in some form or fashion, because el Rond is going back now to um oh god, not Loath Lourian.

It's the other one, the one that we hadn't seen up until this point in the show or in I guess ever anything in Lord of the Rings. But I assume we're going to see his dad, We're gonna see Kella brimboor again. I'm sure he'll tell them about the myth thrill. I think for me, like that's the most interesting storyline still in this show is everything with the dwarfs. And I think I said that the first time we saw them, which was what the second episode, because they weren't in the first episode of the show, right, But I think that was the That was our response then was this is the best part of the show by a country mile.

And I think as we round the bend here at the final episode, you know, the second to last episode of the season, I think it's still the case even when they jam pack all four storylines into one episode. Well, Peter Mullin, that guy amazing, Yeah, right, even under all that goddamn makeup. Yeah, and that fucking beard. How much is that beard way? You think?

Oh, I have no idea, dude, but it's got to be a lot. He looks great in that makeup too, does he? Just And there is something to be said for having an actor with his pedigree, a Scottish actor playing a dwarf, because, for whatever reason, a Scottish accent coming out of a dwarf's mouth just sounds right, like yeah right kind of the way. You know. Again, we don't like the Hobbit, but casting Billy Connolly as a dwarf was pretty inspired.

As bad as that is, yeah, he's him, him as an actor is still something I as a dwarf is something that I enjoyed about those movies. So do you notice the way that they shoot those dwarves too. They give them a ton of headroom, even when it's a dwarf versus dwarf. They give them so much headroom to really help make them feel smaller in the frame, that they're not just two human size people inside of this frame, which I appreciate that. I mean, the show is doing.

The show is doing as good of a job as the movies did in not tricking you, but keeping consistent with the gimmick or the keeping the magic consistent, because it's a magic trick. I mean, this is a matter. This is just a simple movie magic trick of doing forced perspective. And I mean there's a scene with l Ron that's l Rond and Door and that's pretty good. They show them kind of a pretty wide shot of the two of them and he's huge and he's tiny, and it puts in perspective because you know, again, the show is like you said, the show is a pretty good job of it, especially with the dwarfs.

I mean the hard Foots too. I think, well, especially this episode when the one person is putting her hand on the fire and you see, I mean they're also on like a rise and the hard Foots are below, but it makes them even smaller. And yeah, it's like, oh, these people are towering over these hard Foots, and it really makes you appreciate how the hard Foots feel in the world that everything is a threat to them, because I mean a warg is like four times as big to them as it is to a regular sized person. So it's like, all right, God, they're barely a snack to a warg And that is what I've always appreciated about the Jackson films and now this show is they really do a good job at keeping it consistent with the way the races look and interact with one another.

The production design. I don't think anyone's ever gonna, you know, as much as those Hobbit movies kind of stink, at least the third one, they're still really good from a production value like value of the production. The quality of the production is just don't get any better than Weta Workshops and Peter Jackson's eye with those things, and they've kept it consistent with the show. I really this episode, for whatever reason, looks more Jackson than a lot of the other ones we've seen. But I think that the show's a big success of this first season is really staying true to a source material interpretation that a large portion of the fan base enjoy.

Because I'm not gonna I mean, we both know that not everybody likes Lord of the Rings via Peter Jackson, and there are problems with it versus the source material, but I think more than more fans Lord of the Rings that not like the movies, which is why this show is an extension of the movies tonally consistently throughout throughout, I think even when the show is kind of hewing closer to horror, like it did in the one episode with the Orc kind of coming in through the ground, which I forgot was this show and that this was this season and it was like fucking five episodes ago, it's still I think Hugh's very close to what Jackson's initial idea was for the world that Lord of the Rings exists. Yeah, we'll see.

I hope that. I hope that the show sticks the landing. It chose to not do a full ten episode offering. It chose to do eight Game of Thrones as another week I think past this, So Lord of the Rings has taken itself off the table one week early, So we'll see. I think again, like it's got some weird energy going into this last episode, because this episode felt pretty much like a finale, like and I read some reviews online and everybody's echoing that, like, everybody's like, this episode's weird, only because it feels like all the stories kind of meet a logical conclusion to jump off for a new season, so maybe the next episode is going to be, like you said, it probably will just be a bunch of reveals or something like that's something is going to recontextualize the season.

I feel like they want us talking about this for the next two years. You know, this is you know, the best of both worlds season finale from Star Trek the Next Generation. This is one of these like they have to build this up to a cliffhanger so that when you watch this, you know, in a binge watch, you know, ten years from now, and you're just like, oh, this feels like it must have been the end of the first season or something. And then they like hit you with this next one and you're just like, oh, this was the end of the first season. That's right, And I feel like that's what's going to happen, right.

It feels like they're they're planning something big for the final episode. And maybe they haven't been revealing the names of the episodes for this episode alone, maybe the final episode of the first season. It's maybe its name means something or matters to the plot more than we know. I don't know. I mean, it's been weird in my opinion that they have not told us the names of the episodes.

It feels very intentional. Maybe it's intentional for a reason for this last episode, but I agree, it feels like they've, like you said, anymore in the day of kind of I don't know, entertainment through spectacle, because that's kind of what Lord of the Rings is like. It's a spectacle, right, like it is. It's a high fantasy, you know, fantasy opera of all these characters, whatever. It feels like they need to give us that to stand out because Game of Thrones is going to you know, they're going to Anyone who's seen that show knows they're gonna have to and this show has to as well.

Yeah, because like you said, it needs to end on a very very very strong foot, a horror strong foot, a strong, hard foot, a brandy foot. I'm just waiting for that flash forward at the end of the show where it morphs Nori's face into Frotos and then we both are just like slamming our heads on the table, going, I swear the fucking god, no, no, no, it's not going to happen. So as we come into the final episode of the season, what are you what are your hopes for what we get out of the final episode. Well, I'm hope that the Stranger puts on some yellow boots and starts singing, Oh God, damn it, me too. Frankly, I'm hoping, you know, I don't know what I'm hoping for versus what I expect, you know, Like, okay, well let's say what are you hoping for him?

What do you expect? I'm expecting that Calebron will be like, oh, and here are my plans and like unrolls this thing and here's like the ring shot. It's just a circle, and he's like, you know, for kids, what's that a ring? Yes, it's a ring. Stop asking me about do you have everybody's ring sizes?

How did you get those? Yeah? Did you ask Duran like what size ring are you? Yeah? For like a ring of power?

Right, yeah, I just want I want to give you a gift. Yeah, yeah, I mean but yeah, like I was saying earlier, I think there's going to be a lot of reveals. I think we're finally going to find out who the Stranger is. I think, yeah, it's your point, We'll find out who's playing eight our strings. Um, if you know, like I think we will find out I'm sorry, I didn't realize the buzzwords.

Your brownies are ready. Yeah, I think we will find out who hall Brand is or a little bit more about his story. And yeah, I mean we're going to have the Harfwitz I guess rescue the Stranger, but yeah, I think I think that'll be the big reveal next time, So the Stranger, the Stranger. Yeah, and then I kind of don't give a shit about a lot of the other stuff. I mean, I don't know where we're going to go with the dwarf story to wrap that up, unless it does continue on with that disa as Evil be stack going on, right, which I think that would be interesting.

I'm a game for that, Like, yeah, wouldn't that be weird? Yeah? Because I love her character and right now all the internet racist can be right, Yeah, exactly right. It would be out of left field. It would be completely but but it would be completely earned because like, yeah, it's only one unseen but like it didn't up until a moment, up until it didn't, it felt okay, and then all of a sudden it was like, oh no, this this took a very hard turn.

But up until the moment, right before it took a turn like it was believable, like she was making sense and you could understand why she would be upset. But it's like that turning of the dial further that feels like maybe there's maybe there's something else going on. Maybe it should have been called the Eyes not the Ie. Yeah. I think for me, my hope is that one of the unnamed characters or misnamed characters gets a correct name or be like you mentioned with how brand, like a better direction given and yeah, I'm kind of with you, Like the Galadriel stuff, Yeah, okay, like the hard Foot stuff with the hard foots I think is like you said, it's going to be a big part of it.

And I think the stuff with l Rond going back to the Elf City is also going to be a big part of it. I hope they have revealed there's some reveals, But if they don't reve who the strangers at the end of this season, like does it wind wind, do they then? Because if you make it out of this season without revealing it, like all bets are off, right. Yeah, Well, if they go through the entire first season of Twin Peaks without revealing who killed Laura Palmer, I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself. Fair Yeah, but at the same time, like this show has done it to itself in a lot of ways.

Yeah right, yeah. I mean it's like anytime you have a character who looks like a character that half of if not everybody in the world knows, then you can't blame us for wondering who the fuck he is throughout the entire first episode or first season of the show. Like, that's not on us, that's on the creators of the show. That wasn't intent. So I hope they answer it.

But if they don't, like yeah, and then it'll be a reveal down the road. And hopefully that reveal I would assume has some value in waiting. So who knows, fingers crossed. All I know is we're not going to get a title until we're talking about Jesus Jesus christ Man, give it a rest. Amazon.

Next season, they just reveal all the titles. So just like this is that a week before we air, here's all the titles. I mean, are we supposed to think that, like the who cares? I guess they care. I guess Amazon cares.

Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you man. The way that they ended the episode with with the thing with Mordor was pretty cheesy. They should have ended it with that goddamn beal rogue reveal, because that was fucking great. That was just to show that little just to show the flat of the flower, the leaf falling and falling and falling, and then it gets burned up by the bow. You can't.

You can't write that scene any better. That's why they wrote it the way that they wrote it. It was that was a perfect reveal. And then they have this like dorokey Indiana Jones blazing saddles, burning of the map. It's like, oh, dear whatever, whatever, fine, Yeah, yeah, had a good thing.

He gilded the lily just a little bit. Yeah. I mean even if Adar was just like this is no longer the Southlands, this shall now be known as Mortor, I was just like, oh, I'd like that. But having it as a graphic reveal, I was like, Okay, I get it, get it. It's more to or get it, get it.

That's where the third movie takes place. Like yeah, yeah, I know, I think we know that. You didn't even have to tell us. It was more like Jesus, what do you think of what what do you think we think it is even Yeah, and the line he's like, this is no longer the Southlands, go up, go off, go back to the minds of Morea and show what's going on, and that's it. Yeah, Yeah, you don't need that.

Yeah, I wonder, I wonder who made that call because that feels like a misstep because they had a really compelling way to leave this episode on a cliffhanger with that bow rog. That's not a cliffhanger. We know it's bored or that bow rog is a hell of a cliffhanger, and you know what, that might that might not come to fruition for a season or two. No, if that like it's it's all the like that leaf falls for a while at Boalt Rocks, not climbing out of there in the next five minutes type thing, which is again now now it kind of introduces like a little bit of a ticking clock mechanism to the Dwarf storyline because now, you know what, Now everybody audience knows what's going on and where this is going, so now they can start building towards the In the initial I guess introduction of the ballot rog to the dwarfs because they don't know it's there.

They just they don't know what that They think. It's just the mountain reacting. It's reacting, all right, Well until next week when we wrap this thing up with the cleverly titled episode one point eight. Chris, where can people find you and what you're working on? Should plug?

We should plug our things like Amazon plugs their TV show. We work at website name dot com. Now you can find most of the things, if not all, the things that I work on, over at Weirdingway Media, which we have nineteen shows, eighteen including eighteen plus one this one that you're listening to right now. So yeah, nineteen including this show. Over Weirdingway Media, all kinds of stuff, movie, pop culture, you name it, you can probably find it.

If you can't, we're adding new shows all the time. So that's where you can find most of the stuff that I work on. If you want stuff that I work on specifically, see stashu dot com. But weirding Way Media is where you're gonna want to find most of the stuff that I work on. What about you, Mike, same thing, absolutely, the same thing.

You can find all the stuff that I'm working on over at weirdingwaymedia dot Com. It's almost like we were in this together, Chris, Yes, it is. It's almost like we're door in an l run. I don't know which one of us is door, and I don't know which one of us is all round, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask