The Rings of Power Season 3, Episode 1: Marnûkh – Recap and Breakdown

Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3, Episode 1.

So it begins…

Theo: have you ever lost someone close?
Galadriel: My brother … and my husband, Celeborn

So begins the ‘previously on’ recap for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3, reaching all the way back to Episode 7 of Season 1. We are given a carefully-chosen selection of old scenes, before a summary by Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), narrating an animated map, fills us in on how the war has gone for the past five years. A welcome introduction/reminder to viewers of the geography and nations at play (for those who haven’t got the Middle-earth map and Appendix B memorised), both the combatants and the so-far neutral kingdoms: Númenor and Rhûn.

We then get to see the scene with the script that was published in pre-season marketing: Sauron (Charlie Vickers) trying his latest ring-forging attempt on an unwilling orc volunteer, who only very momentarily feels relief at the lack of apparent ill-effects. If you like, you can see our team’s dramatic reading of the script pages on a recent livestream, but to be honest, I think our special effects leave something to be desired. Sauron’s otherwise clinical disappointment is palpable, but he finds a new, more willing, volunteer for a different task in Marnûkh (Adam Young): hunt down anyone or anything that survived from Eregion that had any contact with Celebrimbor. Setting off, the camera pans up to show Sauron’s tower, Barad-dûr in all its evil glory while we get a new variant on the ‘Nampat‘ music associated with the orcs since Season 1. Cue the show title, and that’s the first ten minutes.

Love at first sight/fight

We now flash back to the First Age, and a battle-weary Celeborn (Jamie Campbell Bower) at an Elvish woodland party, seeking some quiet, runs into Galadriel for the first time, who it turns out is shadow-sparring. Cue some flirting, then what the director Charlotte Brandstrøm dubbed “flirty fencing” with just a touch of wire-fu to make it a little bit more magical and inhuman. Celeborn gets a lock of her hair, she tells him to keep it, and one romantic discussion about tree-top accommodation later they are engaged….but her acceptance fades into the current day: Galadriel is in a skirmish against orcs that then also involves humans serving Sauron (cue guilt from Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) over Theo), then our first Nazgnagôl: Galadriel just manages to escape after being overmatched.

Back in Barad-dûr, Sauron contemplates Fëanor’s hammer and Celebrimbor’s dessicated corpse hung on the wall. We see a memory-version of the battered and bloodied smith (Charles Edwards) that lives rent-free in Sauron’s head, taunting him for not being capable of achieving his goal, like a guilty conscience for losing control in Eregion and killing the collaborator Sauron needs. Sauron then meets with a delegation from the Dark Wizard, but recruits them brutally (any objectors are instantly killed), and of those Gaudrim left, offers a ring of power—just one today, and drops a sword on the floor for them to figure out who gets it.

The Elvish survivors arriving back in Rivendell are less than expected, and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) is dismayed at Galadriel’s guess this new ‘Ring servant’ was the King of the Lossoth, one-time allies of the Elves from the far north. Galadriel suggests trying to recruit Númenor, bringing up Elrond’s brother as its first king all those years ago, but that’s for Gil-galad to decide. Elrond is resistant to the idea, but heads off later in the night: Galadriel says he’ll only be a short while, so probably not riding all the way to Lindon.

Imperial Númenor

Kemen (Leon Wadham) is looking very imperial and decorated as the boss of Pelargir, as he drips contempt for the place, it’s people, and even the summons from Sauron asking to meet. The woods surrounding the fort are being stripped bare for timber for Ar-Pharazôn’s armada. Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) is one of the workers, his blood-stained clothes testament to past whippings, as he gets another 12 lashes for picking up the scroll from Mordor.

The barely surviving Gaudrim gets his ring of power amid pools of blood and bodies, and he get to see the horrible skin condition he was cursed with vanish away, but not before a painful process that does… something drastic to his fëa (to the extent it is something we can see). We learn this is Khamûl (Zubin Varla), and the massive amount of mounted troops that he could muster are now Sauron’s to command.

It turns out that Elrond is secretly visiting his Dwarven pal King Durin IV (Owain Arthur), who is supplying weapons but not openly joining the fight. He passes on the news that Durin’s brother Thrain (Eddie Marsan) was seen with two other Dwarf lords and heading to Khazad-dûm: Durin is not bothered by the idea he’s going to be challenged, and it’s a Dwarven-only matter.

Look who’s coming to dinner

We are treated to a hilarious domestic scene with the now-teenaged Gerda (Amber Mendez-Martin) and Gamli (Lee Braithwaite), Durin and Disa’s kids, as the family tries to prepare themselves for the welcoming ceremony (Gamli’s horn skills are … coming along), and then get introduced to Thrain’s friends, while he snubs his brother and instead goes for a drink with old buddies. The demands for the Rings are pretty insistent, but Thrain, once he turns up, looks like he’s keeping them in line.

Durin and Thrain bond over a board game and their love for their late father. But once Durin pops out to deal with some business, and Disa has brought some food, Thrain brings up an old fling he once had with his sister-in-law: getting a little handsy though she’s really not wanting it. And, unfortunately, Gamli comes into the room at the worst possible moment, clearly misinterpreting what he’s seeing.

Thrain sees that Durin is supplying arms to the Elves, and is not impressed. Durin realises that Thrain really is not just here on a friendly visit but in the tussle who should they encounter but Marnûkh…

Both Círdan (Ben Daniels) and Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) have had a vision of Marnûkh because of their rings, but are confused by why it’s a single orc. We get an update on the bigger picture: the Elves have fought Sauron to a stalemate, which is why he’s recruiting the Lossoth, the Haradrim in the south, and the logical next step is Rhûn.

And indeed, Khamûl promises a force to Sauron a hundred thousand strong, involving his own people and the Dark Wizard’s followers too.

The episode ends on our first glimpse of Gandalf (Daniel Weyman) in Rhûn, as Círdan says “let us pray there is some other power out there” that could help withstand such a force.