'The Rings of Power' Season 2 Recap: What To Remember Before Prime Video's Epic Fantasy Series Returns

Image via Prime Video Published Nov 10, 2026, 7:18 PM EST Kendall Myers is a Senior Author with Collider. As part of the TV and Movies Features team, she writes about some of the most popular releases before, during, and after they premiere. In three years, she has written over 900 articles with topics ranging from classic sitcoms to fantasy epics. Sign in to your Collider account Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is one of streaming's most eventful fantasy series, exploring parts of Middle-earth that fans haven't seen before with an action-packed account of the Second Age. Now that Season 3 promises to pick up after a five-year time jump, refreshing your memory on the story will prove crucial for The Rings of Power's imminent return. Below, we recap the biggest twists, major events, and key characters that are all poised to set up the show's darkest installment yet. 'The Rings of Power' Season 2 Explores the Lands of Rhûn The Rings of Power Season 2 begins with the mysterious wizard known as the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) and his Harfoot companions, Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy (Megan Richards), traveling to Rhûn to discover the truth about his identity. With the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds) and his people in pursuit, the Stranger is forced to use his unpredictable magic, which separates the trio. Nori and Poppy encounter the Stoors, another Hobbit-like group, but their leader, Gundabale (Tanya Moodie), isn't exactly friendly. However, they discover their people share a history, as a caravan of Stoors once left in search of an idealized place to live and became the nomadic Harfoots. While looking for his friends, the Stranger encounters Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), who becomes his eccentric mentor and later predicts the Stranger will have to stop both the Dark Wizard and Sauron (Charlie Vickers). When Tom Bombadil asks the Stranger to choose between his destiny and his friends, the Stranger picks the latter and confronts the Dark Wizard, who destroys the Stoors' village in the conflict. In the aftermath, the Stranger finds the staff from his dreams, proving he passed the test by choosing friendship over power. Nori and Poppy decide to help the Stoors, who start calling the Stranger "Grand Elf" — which eventually becomes the name Gandalf, revealing his identity. Númenor Faces Unrest in 'The Rings of Power' Season 2 Image via Prime Video In the wake of King Tar-Palantir's (Ken Blackburn) death, Númenor is facing a crisis. Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is Queen Regent, but Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) is plotting to replace her, and even Elendil's (Lloyd Owen) daughter, Eärien (Ema Horvath), is among his allies. During Míriel's coronation, Eärien reveals the existence of the palantír Míriel has been consulting, and Pharazôn seizes power. Believing Elendil's recent vision in the palantír hints at inevitable destruction, Míriel orders Elendil not to fight back. However, Pharazôn targets the Faithful, and his son, Kemen (Leon Wadham), kills Valandil (Alex Tarrant) in a temple and places the blame on Elendil's shoulders. Elendil is put on trial, which forces him to face the Sea Worm. However, Míriel takes his place, and though her survival proves her innocence, Pharazôn accuses her of allying with Sauron, seizing control of the throne. Míriel tells Elendil to leave without her and protect the sword Narsil, and Elendil flees the city, just as he had seen in the palantír. 'The Rings of Power' Season 2 Continues To Explore the Struggle of Men Image via Prime Video Elsewhere, Isildur (Maxim Baldry) has survived Mount Doom's eruption in Season 1, unbeknownst to his family, and has been captured by the spider Shelob. His horse, Beric, saves him, and they encounter Estrid (Nia Towle), who is looking for her betrothed. She leads Isildur to Pelargir, an old outpost where the Low Men are staying. The two only survive the journey thanks to Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), who is still grieving Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), the human woman he loved who died between seasons. When Bronwyn's son, Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), is taken while confronting Wild Men, Arondir realizes Estrid is a part of that same group. Their pursuit of Theo leads them to a pair of Ents. Angered by the Uruk's destruction of the forest, the Ents initially want to attack, but Arondir promises to help and frees the prisoners, which include Theo and Hagen (Gabriel Akuwudike), Estrid's betrothed, complicating her and Isildur's romance. Later, Kemen brings the Númenoreans back to Pelargir. While he allows Isildur to return, he refuses to let him take possession of Estrid. Even worse, he forces the Low Men to harvest timber from the trees, endangering Pelargir's peace with the Ents. Sauron Makes Progress With the Rings of Power in Season 2 Image via Prime Video One of Season 2's main storylines follows Sauron and the creation of the infamous rings of power. Though he suffers a brief setback in Season 1 when Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) learns the truth about him, he continues his plan in Season 2 by manipulating Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) into creating more rings. When Celebrimbor turns away Sauron's Halbrand guise because of Galadriel's warnings, Sauron transforms himself into the Elf Annatar, a messenger from the Valar. With this identity, Sauron convinces Celebrimbor to make seven rings for the Dwarves and nine for Men, despite Celebrimbor's reluctance. Slowly, Sauron gains more power within Eregion, hiding the imminent attack from the Elves. When Celebrimbor ultimately sees through Sauron's illusions, his people don't believe his insistence that Sauron isn't who he claims to be. On the Elves' side of the story, High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) loses trust in Galadriel after she was taken in by Sauron, while Elrond (Robert Aramayo) opposes using the rings. He seeks out Círdan (Ben Daniels) the Shipwright for help, but Círdan supports using the rings to restore the Elves' fading and ultimately ends up wearing one alongside Galadriel and Gil-galad. Galadriel's ring gives her foreboding visions, and she decides to visit Celebrimbor and verify his well-being. Gil-galad insists Elrond lead the quest to Eregion, but the path is impeded. Elrond defies the advice of Galadriel's ring and takes them through the Barrow-downs, where the Barrow-wights attack. Though they barely make it out alive, the Elves then discover an army outside Eregion, led by Adar (Sam Hazeldine). Galadriel willingly surrenders herself to Adar as his prisoner so Elrond can warn Gil-galad about Adar's invasion. 'The Rings of Power' Season 2 Introduces a New Threat to the Dwarves Image via Prime Video Season 1 leaves Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and his father, King Durin III (Peter Mullan), at odds, and Season 2 explores the building rift between them as Durin's wife, Disa (Sophia Nomvete), tries to make peace. An earthquake destroys Khazad-dûm's lighting system, making food scarce, and the Dwarves struggle to find a safe place to continue digging into the mountain. When Celebrimbor gifts King Durin a ring of power, it seemingly solves this problem, despite Durin's protests, but the king grows obsessed and greedy. COLLIDER Middle-earth Personality Quiz Collider/ Movies/ The Lord of the Rings/ Which Race Do You Belong To Ten Questions · Five Peoples Which Lord of the Rings Race Do You Belong To? Hobbit · Elf · Dwarf · Man · Orc Middle-earth is home to many peoples: the courageous, the ancient, the stubborn, the ambitious and the wretched. Ten questions will determine which race truly claims your soul. The answer may surprise you, or it may confirm what you already suspected. The Five Peoples 🌿Hobbit 🌟Elf 🪓Dwarf ⚔Man 💀Orc Find Your Race Stage 1 of 10Comfort What does your ideal day look like? How we rest reveals as much as how we fight. AA long meal with good company, a pipe, and absolutely no unexpected adventures. BWalking through ancient forests, composing verse, watching the stars emerge. CDeep underground, the clang of hammer on anvil, crafting something that will outlast me. DTraining, planning, preparing. There is always something that needs defending. ETaking what I want and making sure nobody tries to take it back. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 2 of 10Time How do you feel about the passing of time? Our relationship with mortality shapes everything we value. AI have watched ages come and go. Time is a river I observe, not chase. BThe days blur pleasantly. I do not think about it much, and there is always second breakfast. CLife is short. I want to leave something behind: a name, a legacy, a deed worth singing. DTime means little underground. What matters is the work, and the work is never done. ETime is something stronger things take from weaker ones. I intend to be the stronger one. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 3 of 10Instinct Danger is approaching. Your first instinct is to: Fight, flight, or something in between. AHide, and hope it passes. I am no hero, and I am fine with that. BStand your ground. Someone has to, and it might as well be me. CFade into the background and observe. Knowledge before action. DCharge straight at it. Hesitation is just fear wearing a sensible hat. EDig in, fortify, and wait. Ground is everything, and you never cede ground. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 4 of 10Treasure You stumble upon a great treasure. What do you feel? What we desire, and what we do about it, is the true test. AMy heart swells. This is the work of my kin, and it belongs in my hands. BExcited, but nervous. I would rather it not cause trouble. Can I just leave it? CMine. Obviously mine. Why is this even a question? DBeautiful. Something this ancient deserves to be preserved and admired, not hoarded. EA resource, and resources should serve those with the vision to use them. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 5 of 10Community How important is community and belonging to you? No race of Middle-earth is truly alone, but some prefer it that way. AEverything. My neighbours, my village, my people. They are the point of it all. BI cherish my kin deeply, but I feel connected to all living things, not just my own kind. CI will protect my people with everything I have, but I do not need anyone else’s approval. DI prefer a tight-knit clan bound by loyalty and shared toil over any grand fellowship. ECommunity is a pack. You are either dominant or you are used. I know which I prefer. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 6 of 10Ambition How ambitious are you, honestly? Ambition is neither virtue nor vice. It depends entirely on what you want. ADeeply. I want to build something great, reclaim something lost, or leave a mark on history. BI seek mastery and perfection, not power over others but excellence in all I do. CHonestly? I mostly just want a quiet life and for things to not go wrong. DCompletely. I want to dominate, and I see no point in pretending otherwise. EAmbitious within my craft. I want to make the finest thing ever made by my people’s hands. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 7 of 10Nature Where do you feel most at home in the natural world? Middle-earth is vast, and every race has its place within it. AAncient forests, still pools, places where the world feels oldest and wisest. BRolling green hills, good soil, somewhere you can grow things and watch them thrive. CUnderground. Caves, mines, tunnels. The dark does not bother me. It is where things are made. DOpen plains, mountains, the kind of landscape that makes you feel the weight of history. EBlasted wastelands, smoke, ash. Somewhere harsh enough to keep soft things away. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 8 of 10Strength What kind of strength do you most respect? Every race defines strength differently, and they are all at least a little right. AThe strength to carry on when everything is telling you to stop. BThe strength of stone. Immovable, reliable, tested by pressure and time. CThe strength to lead others and bear the cost of that responsibility. DGrace under pressure. Calm, precise, and lethal when it needs to be. EBrute force. Everything else is just philosophy for those who lost. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 9 of 10Legacy What do you want to leave behind when you are gone? Legacy is the story we tell ourselves about why any of this matters. ASongs, poetry, beauty. Something that outlasts the memory of who made it. BThe knowledge that my corner of the world was a little safer and kinder because of me. CFear. A reputation that means nobody ever dares come for mine. DA name remembered. A deed that made a difference at a moment that mattered. EA masterwork. Something crafted so perfectly it becomes the standard all others are judged by. Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext Stage 10 of 10Truth Be honest. What do you want most out of life? The truest question always comes last. APeace. Safety. Good food, good friends, and nobody asking me to save anything. BTo matter. To be part of something larger than myself, even at great cost. CEternity. To witness all ages, to remember everything, and never be forgotten. DDominance. To never again be at the mercy of anyone or anything. EMastery of my craft and the respect of those who know great work from good work. Press 1 to 5 to chooseReveal My Race Middle-earth Has Spoken You Belong To A tie. You walk between two peoples. 🌿 The Hobbits The Shire-folk Heroism does not require ambition, and you are the proof. You are, at your core, a creature of comfort, community and quiet joy, and there is nothing small about that. Hobbits are proof that heroism does not require ambition, that the bravest heart can beat inside the most unassuming chest. You value good food, warm hearths, close friends and a world that stays largely untroubled by dark lords and quests. When adventure does find you, and it will, you rise to it not because you sought it but because the people you love needed you to. That is not ordinary. That is the rarest kind of courage in all of Middle-earth.LoyalGroundedUnassumingBraver Than You Look 🌟 The Elves The Firstborn They mistake your depth for distance. Ancient, graceful, and carrying a weight of memory most mortals cannot fathom, you are one of the Elves. You see the world in its fullness: its beauty, its impermanence, the unbearable ache of watching everything you love eventually fade. You pursue perfection not from pride but because excellence is how you honour the time you have been given. Others may see you as remote or melancholy. They are not wrong, exactly. But they mistake depth for distance. You feel everything, which is precisely why you have learned to carry it so quietly.AncientExactingObservantMelancholy 🪓 The Dwarves The Stone-born Anything worth doing is worth doing properly. Stubborn, proud, fiercely loyal and possessed of a work ethic that would exhaust most other races before breakfast, you are Dwarf-kind through and through. You do not ask for approval and you do not offer it cheaply. Your loyalty, once given, is given for life. Your grudges last longer. You love deeply and defend ferociously, and the things you build, with your hands and your sweat and generations of accumulated craft, are made to last. Not for glory. Because anything worth doing is worth doing properly, and you have never once done anything by half measures.StubbornLoyalExactingImmovable ⚔ The Race of Men The Mortal Kind You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you. Mortal, ambitious, flawed and magnificent, you belong to the most complicated race in Middle-earth, and that complexity is your greatest strength. Men are capable of cowardice and extraordinary bravery, of cruelty and breathtaking sacrifice, sometimes within the same breath. You feel the urgency of your finite years and it drives you. You want to matter. You want to leave something behind. You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you. Tolkien called mortality the Gift of Men, not a curse but a fire that burns bright precisely because it does not burn forever. That fire is you.AmbitiousMortalDrivenUnfinished 💀 The Orcs The Broken Kind You have made your peace with a world that is not kind. Brutal, survivalist and contemptuous of anything that cannot defend itself, you answered with the instincts of an Orc, and there is a certain savage honesty in that. You do not dress up your desires in polite language or pretend you want things you do not. You want power, survival, and to never be at the bottom of any hierarchy again. Orcs are not evil by nature. They were made from something that was once good and broken into this shape by forces they did not choose. What remains is fierce, territorial, and deeply aware that the world is not kind. You have made your peace with that. The question is what you do with it.TerritorialBluntRelentlessUnsentimental Your Closest Matches 1 2 3 ↻ Retake the Quiz Copied to clipboard Quest recorded by COLLIDER Collider.com · Middle-earth Disa's discovery of a mysterious threat in the caves beneath Khazad-dûm pushes Durin to a breaking point, and he publicly rebels against his father to stop the miners. However, when Elrond asks for help in the upcoming battle, Durin leaves his post to rally the army, and King Durin digs toward the danger, uncovering the Balrog. Durin's protests finally get through to his father, who leaves behind his ring and sacrifices himself to protect his son. This leaves Khazad-dûm in chaos, especially as Durin's brother gains support to oppose him in becoming the new king. 'The Rings of Power' Season 2 Builds to an Epic Battle at Eregion Via flashback, The Rings of Power establishes the power struggle between Sauron and Adar. When the two ultimately clash, Adar tries to kill Sauron and believes he has succeeded. Sauron changes his form, leading to his Season 1 arc, but in Season 2, Adar serves as a major threat to Sauron's plans. When Adar leads his Uruks to Eregion and takes Galadriel prisoner, he argues that Sauron is a mutual enemy, and they could destroy him by combining Morgoth's crown and Galadriel's ring. Neither Galadriel nor Elrond falls for Adar's words, but Elrond does give Galadriel the means to escape before going to battle. Galadriel teams up with Arondir, who has been following Adar's forces, and convinces him to fight with the Elves. Meanwhile, Celebrimbor briefly escapes Sauron, passing several rings of power to Galadriel before sacrificing himself in a confrontation with the Dark Lord. Unfortunately, the Elves' plan is impacted when the Dwarves fail to arrive at Eregion. Although Adar attacks Elrond for Galadriel's ring, he returns it to her in exchange for her help against Sauron. During the battle, Adar's obsession turns the Uruk against him, and they ally with Sauron instead before killing Adar. Galadriel and Sauron face off, and Galadriel is wounded by Morgoth's crown but successfully escapes with her ring. The Dwarves ultimately arrive and put an end to the battle as the Elves evacuate the destroyed city. Gil-galad, Arondir, and Elrond find Galadriel and, at Elrond's suggestion, use the ring to heal her. In Season 2's final moments, the Elves flee to a protected sanctuary that will eventually become Rivendell. With Sauron now leading his own army, the Elves resolve to fight him, setting up the war that will engulf Middle-earth by the time The Rings of Power returns. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is streaming on Prime Video, with Season 3 premiering on November 11. Release Date September 1, 2022 Network Amazon Prime Video Showrunner John D. Payne, Patrick McKay Cast Ismael Cruz Cordova Arondir Directors J.A. Bayona, Sanaa Hamri Writers Patrick McKay, John D. Payne, J.R.R. Tolkien, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Stephany Folsom, Nicholas Adams Franchise(s) The Lord of the Rings