[Huinesoron]

Commenting out of order, because we watched this one last night; but also in no particular order because last night was a long time ago:

• Oh hey the Harfeets are back.
• Whyyyy is there a flagrantly straight scene with Poppy of all people? She just followed her "friend" across half the map purely because she missed her!
• Oh, it's to offset the Energy of the scene with Nori immediately after. That doesn't make it better, gang!
• It was pleasant to see Bombadil again. The Stranger's talk about mastery makes me wonder whether he is Saruman after all. (They're doing this on purpose, obviously.)
• My wife yelled "this is the test!" at the Stranger when Bombadil was saying "you can spend as much time as you want looking for a stick if you just let your friend die". She's not wrong.
• King Durin going full dragon-fever is quite fun.
• "Put your beards into it" is another one of those mangled idioms Form keeps pointing out. Made hilarious by the subtitles going for "put your bread into it".
• I'm frustrated that Durin and Disa have the same interaction every time. "The King is doing the wrong thing!" "We can't go against him." "Yes we can!" All that's changing is who's on which side.
• But I did enjoy Bats Outta Nowhere.
• Elendil's trial and prison scene hit a lot of very cliche notes, though at least "Miriel just wants everyone to surrender" is fairly new.
• Pharazon.
• Pharazon what.
• Pharazon when you usurp a sceptre, you a) do not take no more than five seconds to decide to execute the person you stole it from, and b) do not send the person the Valar sent an Eagle for to face a test of faith in the Valar. That may be the single stupidest decision in the entire show!
• Oh! It's the sea-worm from episode 1! Confirming that it was totally about to eat Sauron until Galadriel showed up and ruined its appetite, I guess? Well done, Team Ulmo, ya nearly got him.
• So Miriel is... queen again? GOOD JOB PHARAZON ya numptynorean.
• Galadriel is more willing to tell Adar that Halbrand is Sauron than she was Celebrimbor.
• Actually, at what point did Adar figure it out? He let the guy go; did he just think about that later and go "***".
• I mean he was sending messages-carved-in-chests fairly recently, so I guess he wasn't very sure.
• THE IRON CROWN OF MORGOTH oh my gods I love it it's so stupid. Sauron didn't just get ganked by a hat; he got ganked by his boss's hat with the bling removed.
• I don't think I'd clocked the Feanor-with-Silmaril statue in Eregion before; it's pretty cool.
• Unsure why Celebrimbor is losing his memory. Last time, Sauron was lying to Mirdania about Brim being spiritually wounded; now it's true?
• It's fun to compare Galadriel's scenes, where she's all about "this is Sauron's plan; he's behind everything; we are puppets on his strings", to every scene featuring Sauron, where things just keep going wrong. His keynote look is frustration that the Elves aren't doing what he wanted, and that's when he's right there with them.
• I said to my wife, "I hate the way he tells the truth". Sauron almost never lies - that's what's made him actually very good in this season. (I was disappointed that the writers didn't commit to this with Adar's line: "It is not his lies that must be crushed" should have been followed with "It is his truths".)
• The vision of Eregion was a good reminder of the power Sauron used on Galadriel at the end of last season. It will be hilarious if the season ends with a whole bunch of people thinking they've met up, but they're actually all in Sauron's head. Brim, Adar, and Galadriel at least are people he could do that to.
• Shortly before the end I said "I'm expecting something profoundly stupid to happen". It didn't, so I expect it at the start of next episode.

I feel like the silliness is starting to ramp up again, like it was with the blood-sword that led to random river-into-volcano action at the end of S1. If we end up with bats-vs-balrogs in the finale I will do quite the face.

hS