A big draw of the fantasy genre is the way it so often presents the world in binary terms: There are good guys, there are bad guys, and not much else in between. Yet it’s this in-between area that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 5, “Partings,” largely concerns itself with, picking up where episode 4 left off, with our heroes continuing to serve as their own worst enemies. “Partings” takes this theme a step further, with several characters now forced to agonize over make-or-break choices not easily labeled “good” or “bad.” The upshot of this is an extra layer of moral ambiguity to proceedings that comes as a welcome addition — not just to The Rings of Power episode 5, but to the show’s wider vision of Middle-earth itself, too.
If this all sounds a bit too abstract for a show pulling from the J.R.R. Tolkien playbook, rest assured that episode 5’s murkiness also manifests in other, more tangible ways, even seeping into the story. We get partial answers to many of The Rings of Power’s major ongoing mysteries — like why the orcs seem fixated on Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) — but we’re also left with plenty of questions, too. How exactly are Adar and Sauron connected? What’s the deal with the Stranger (aka “Meteor Man”) and is he friend or foe? How does the Sauron sword hilt “unlock” the Dark Lord’s return? “Partings” doesn’t say, and the arrival of some suitably sinister Sauron acolytes midway through the episode only muddies the waters further.
This confusion is by design; showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who before landing their dream gig worked for puzzle-box-maker J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot, know that guessing games are a surefire way of keeping us on the hook. Yet while speculating about stuff like Sauron’s true identity is undeniably fun, what’s really interesting about The Rings of Power episode 5, and what ultimately makes it work so well, is the hitherto-unseen uncertainty surrounding its characters. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings featured dubious men, elves, and dwarves — and the One Ring made for the perfect morality-testing McGuffin — but the best, most moral course of action is always clear (to the audience, if not always the characters themselves). This doesn’t apply to “Partings.”
Throughout the episode, director Wayne Che Yip and writer Justin Doble stage dramatic encounters that can’t easily be boiled down to “side with good and defeat evil.” Whether we’re talking about Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) weighing up the merits of a bloody war on foreign soil, Elrond (Robert Aramayo) mulling over his duty to his friend versus his obligation to his people, Bronwyn’s (Nazanin Boniadi) faltering resolve in the face of impending genocide, and Nori’s (Markella Kavenagh) continued faith in the unstable Stranger (Daniel Weyman), it’s hard to say who’ll be on the right side of history once the dust settles. It’s a marked shift from Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s big-screen adaptations, that, if anything, nudges The Rings of Power closer to The Silmarillionin terms of its overall characterization and tone.
Somewhat inevitably, tensions also run higher in “Partings’’ than we’re used to seeing in stately Middle-earth. Forget the raised voices during The Fellowship of the Ring’s Council of Elrond scene or even the tense exchanges between Gandalf and Denethor in The Return of the King — people are straight-up pissed in this episode. From the passive aggression between Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) and Durin IV (Owain Arthur) to the open hostility whipped up by Waldreg (Geoff Morrell) among the Southlands encampment, The Rings of Power episode 5 really hammers home the barely contained resentment festering within this world’s various communities.
