Let me start differently this time.
Unlike others, I am not at all bothered by the Palantíri (or by their absence, as it were). We'll see if they resurface. My only problem is - if I understood Míriel correctly - that the remaining ones are ALREADY somehow in Middle-Earth? Why??? Isn't that one of the few things established in LotR? "Tall ships and tall kings... what brought they from the foundered land over the flowing sea? Seven stars and seven stones..." They should be somewhere on Númenor, maybe Pharazon should have one and Elendil could have one or whatever, and eventually Isil, that good-for-nothing rascal should steal them and ferry them from the destruction.
Ahem, okay, so much for me not being bothered about the Palantíri. But honestly, overall, they do not interest me that much in terms of plot. (At most, it's again a wasted opportunity. But I hope they resurface later.) Moving on.
Unlike others, I am also not bothered by Elrond being a slimy politician, because he does not seem to me like a slimy politician at all. He seems to me like a nice basic dude who is trying to find out why is friend is lying to him and such.
Now for my more traditional order.
The Good
Dwarven plotline continues to be fairly good. I am happy that there has been no more burping and smashing rocks. If the Harfoot plotline has the best worldbuilding (or culturebuilding), then the Dwarven one has the best characterbuilding, relationships and all. Durin-Disa, Durin-Elrond, Elrond-Disa, Durin-Durin.
I like Disa, even though I don't understand the leg-revealing clothes. The singing was amazing.
And now for something completely different. Adar is cool. Whatever he is supposed to be. A dark Elf? Like a literal Dark Elf? Non-canon, but ok. What was that asking about Beleriand? He was there then? Is he an Eöl-like figure?
Or with his scars, is he some sort of pseudo-mutated Elf halway to becoming an Orc? Is he called "Adar", "father", by the Orcs, because he was the first Elf captured by Morgoth and then kept like a "breeding bull" for all the Orcs ever? Is he currently here to populate Mordor?
Or is he... something more sinister *dun dun dun*? Okay, let's ask it aloud, is he Sauron? It would make a LOT of sense: the Elvish name, the fact that it is not a proper name but just a nickname. But perhaps also the fact that Arondir sees him as an Elf, but maybe it is what it SEEMS like... after all, was it not Sauron's prime "ability", at the beginning of the Second Age, to appear to others like he was one of them?
(But then, if he is Sauron, then what about the mention of the Meteor Man?... more on that in
Legate's
amazing theory that will turn your head full Legate 180°!)
Whatever Adar is, even if he turned something completely uncanonical (say, really an evil Elf), I do not mind, because it is well delivered. He has a personality, he has charm (well, that probably means he is actually Sauron after all).
I still love all of Míriel's headdresses. Whatever that thing with blue stones (sapphires?) was in the departure-scene, I'd wear that too.
And last but definitely not least, while I am not one for dramatic reveals, the, as someone named him, "evil Barliman Butterbur" in the final scene was just delightful. (Also incidentally suddenly having about 90% more personality than half the main characters.) I dig this (ha! Not anymore, quoth th' Orc!), I want to see what becomes of this.
The Bad
I said Adar is cool, but he should not be Adar. I always understood it the way that Orcs don't like using Elvish. Even if his name were Adar, they should, in my opinion, opt for a Sharku-style nickname.
More slow motion, slow motion everywhere! That is just plain awful. It feels like Bezos just ran out of money and needed to fill five extra minutes, so decided to lenghten every scene by a minute by making it slo-mo. The only thing we're missing are the Naruto-style scenes that recap half of the previous episode in every episode.
And more ripping off PJ imagery during absolutely unrealistic flight through the woods. Also, the boy was in the well during the day. Then the Orcs started searching, so he waited until dusk. Because Orcs move around so much less and see so much worse at night, right? Okay but anyway, so the dusk comes, so the boy climbs out, then sneaks around for a bit, then runs, then it's dawn. Nope, the timing in this scene was just completely all over the place.
Míriel's "Legate 180" on helping Galadriel was super random and swift. A bit more buildup, perhaps? This also seems like it is speeding up too much. What are they going to do for the remaining X seasons? Okay: I presume that this is not (I hope!) yet the thing where they capture Sauron and bring him to Númenor, only a sort of minor incursion, possibly the sort of Tar-Minastir thing that pushes Sauron back somewhere, but leaves him running about?
Or perhaps it will end up being "whoa, we see no Sauron here, but we see plenty of lands ripe for colonising! Hmm, profit!" And the Númenoreans will begin establishing their colonies on the shores.
The... Okay
I originally intended to criticise Bronwyn appearing to save her son. I mean, it was absolutely random and useless - as in, if she at least had appeared with five other armed dudes, you know? But thinking about it... she did not
know that there would actually be that many Orcs (if any) or if her son just, say, fell into a ditch. And more importantly, it actually it is nice, as it shows some affection for her son. So that is one piece of what I have been demanding all the time: some sort of showing the personalities of the characters, interaction that establishes relationships. Well, better to remind us that a mother cares for her son in 4th episode than never, I suppose.
Tar-Palantír... okay. That was unexpected (I did not know he was mentioned in the material they had access to, but in fact, he was! Nice). Still, he did not really do much? It was kind of underwhelming.
And so mithril was only discovered now for the first time in history, or what? Elrond, your dad's ship would like a word with you. I mean, again, yes, a narrative shortcut. But let's not make too many of them. There is this little canon info you have rights to, so why not keep faithful to the little you have?
Pharazon's son. He is so far mostly a basic young dude and him hitting on Isil's (sic) sister would put him into the category of character types I couldn't care less about. But there is something about his behaviour that makes it feel like he has much more personality than, say, Halbrand or Bronwyn. Even if one of his major defining characteristics is "the guy who wants to date the girl", there is some believability to it and it makes him more-dimensional than just "Pharazon's son who wants to dabble into guild politics or whatever". I hope he will turn out ot have an interesting character development.
I kind of like the constant feeling of uncertainty and ambiguity of "Sauron can be here, there, everywhere". I just hope the writers will keep it only until as long as to not overstay its welcome.
Overall
I liked the fourth episode possibly on the average a bit more than the previous ones, some of it owing to Mr. Evil Barliman in the last scene. It seems like something is about to start moving, and we might see the stories start to converge... or will we?