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This review contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The rings of Power season 2 episode 8.
The Rings of Power season 2 episode 8 is a bit of a mixed bag, as season finales often are. There are some epic scenes and beautiful moments in here, along with some slightly wobblier ones.
One of the most exciting scenes in this episode is the opening, in which we get to see how the Balrog got its nickname, Durin’s Bane. It’s great to witness the Balrog in all its glory, with all Tolkien’s contradictory bits and pieces of physical description, including the fact it has wings but cannot fly, being honored. Like Peter Jackson’s version, this Balrog has shadowy, smoky wings as well as its flaming sword and fiery whip. The Balrog fight and the tear-jerking final scene between Durins III and IV (Peter Mullan and Owain Arthur) is all very well done and a great start to the episode.
The other particularly effective scene is poor old Celebrimbor’s swan song. Charles Edwards has put in a brilliant performance as Celebrimbor this season. He will be much missed, and as ever, Celebrimbor and Sauron’s (Charlie Vickers) scenes are a highlight. Seeing Celebrimbor being used for target practice is a useful reminder that Sauron is Evil with a capital “E,” no matter how attractive or well-intentioned he makes himself appear to be. And at least Celebrimbor gets a great death scene, predicting the entire Middle-earth saga in a few words as his last dying attack on Sauron. Even a slightly cheesy double title-drop of both “the Rings of Power” and “the Lord of th