Much of the first three episodes of Rings of Power‘s second season are all about the despair that came out of the climactic disasters of season one. But for all the grimness that has come for Middle-earth in a broad sense—like we said in our recap of the premiere, if your name’s not Halbrand, Sauron, or Annatar, you’re not having a good time right now—there was only one of Rings of Power‘s storylines that had to grasp with a really tangible loss.
That is, of course, in the village of Pelargir as we catch up with Elven ranger Arondir and the survivors of the battle for the Southlands… at least the ones that haven’t been enslaved by or sworn loyalty to Adar, as he now begins to rule the wastelands he’s named Mordor. Although we get a brief glimmer of hope when Isildur manages to make his way to the village with another survivor, Estrid, after he escaped the skittering clutches of Shelob and her children, those hopes are quickly dashed when it’s revealed to us and him alike that he’s walking in on a funeral ceremony: Bronwyn, the village healer who had rallied her fellow humans to defend their homeland in the first place, had succumbed to her wounds after all.
On the one hand, Bronwyn’s death wasn’t too out there for the show—we knew coming into the season that Nazanin Boniadi would not be returning, having largely stepped back from her acting career to become an advocate for womens’ rights in Iran—but it’s arguably the first really significant one we’ve had from Rings of Power‘s main cast up to this point. And even as things get increasingly dire throughout season two, it’s a loss that is going to form a major part of its core, especially for Arondir and his complicated feelings for both Bronwyn, and now her surviving son, Theo.
“It complicates everything tenfold for him. But one of the things I think that, as deep as the guilt of it was, he was warned of the Elven and human relationships always ended in tragedy and even in death. And still he went forward with it,” Cordova, who plays Arondir, recently told io9 at a press junket for season two about how Bronwyn’s passing will define his journey this season. “Love, man, it’s exactly that. And because of that, there’s this guilt of ‘Did he bring this upon her, did he bring this upon Theo?’”
When we re-encounter Arondir and Theo in the opening episodes of the season, it’s very clear that the latter feels that way. But for Cordova, Arondir finds himself in a challenging position where he has to put aside both his guilt and Theo’s hatred of him over his mother’s death to do the duty he’s long had: defend the Southlands and its people. “It just gives you a very clear picture of who he is. He knew that, and he still decided to love no matter what. As the season goes, [in episode three] he’s faced with yet another decision: do I go and rescue this kid when he comes up into trouble? It’s like he has to make that decision and he keeps his promise.”
Rings of Power season two is now streaming on Prime Video.
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