Episode Two of RINGS OF POWER: Season Two, titled “Where the Stars Are Strange,” is one of the best episodes so far in the series.

In the episode, the evil Sauron, posing as Halbrand, returns to the Elf Lord Celebrimbor (“Kell-a-brim-bore”) in the elf city of Eregion to sweet talk him into making nine rings of power for men. King Gil-Galad has sent a note to Celebrimbor warning him that Galadriel has learned that Halbrand is really Sauron, but the elf lord apparently never got the message.

Meanwhile, after learning that Sauron has left Mordor to travel to Eregion, Galadriel asks King Gil-Galad to let her go to Eregion to confront Sauron. However, the King and Galadriel’s friend, Elrond, note that Sauron once deceived her, which likely will make it easier for him to do so again. Galadriel counter argues that the King could send her with someone.

Far away in the wilderness, the Stranger and his two hobbit companions are being followed by five evil men. The men have been sent by a dark “wizard,” a messenger sent by God, like Gandalf in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, to help the peoples of Middle Earth, but who’s been corrupted. The only path available for the Stranger and the hobbits to avoid the men is through a desert.

Finally, in the dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm, Prince Durin is estranged from his father, King Durin III, because he disobeyed his father and helped his elf friend, Elrond. Neither man will apologize, and Prince Durin’s wife, Disa, chastises them both for their stubbornness. The dwarf kingdom’s very existence, however, is threatened when Mount Doom in Mordor erupts and causes earthquakes in Khazad-dûm. The quakes close the sun shafts that give sunlight to the crops that feed the dwarves.

Three female dwarves, including Prince Durin’s wife, Disa, use their power of song to find new sun shafts, but the echo power their “magical” singing apparently uses, doesn’t work, but fails. Disa suggests to the King that their power of song is weak because he, the King, is weak. She suggests to him that it will take more strength for him to apologize to his son and seek forgiveness than to lean on his royal pride and stubbornness. Of course, the same goes for her husband.

The script for Episode 2 of Season 2 is extremely well-written. The dialogue between Sauron and Celebrimbor, among the dwarves, and between Galadriel, Elrond and the Elf King reveals dramatic nuances that superbly portray the episode’s moral themes. For example, as in the first episode of Season 2, the evil Sauron uses his clever but deceitful way with words to seduce elves, dwarves and people by appealing to their flaws. For instance, he suggests to Celebrimbor that the other elves want to keep the power of their rings from him. The artist never gets the benefit of his own work, he says. More powerful people are always cheating and stealing from the artist. It’s the way of the world, he tells Celebrimbor. Sauron’s words awaken the elf’s jealousy and leaves him open to his suggestion to make rings of power for men. Sauron even gives him a reason to give such power to men, who are more susceptible to temptation and evil. How else are men going to protect themselves from evil, Sauron asks?

Meanwhile, during the scenes with the dwarves, the script deftly promotes positive values like repentance and forgiveness and warns against spreading gossip. For example, Prince Durin’s wife admonishes two dwarf women for spreading rumors and conjecture. She says, “A rumor’s like a songbird. It may sound filling from afar, but up close, it’s an empty feast.”

Thus, Episode Two of RINGS OF POWER: Season Two has a strong Christian, redemptive, morally uplifting worldview. It promotes being on your guard against evil, temptation and gossip. It also extols wisdom, humility, repentance, forgiveness, fighting evil, and protecting life. However, the dangers and temptations of evil in RINGS OF POWER are real and palpable. This depiction of good and evil in RINGS OF POWER originates from the Christian perspective of Tolkien, the original Christian author of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and the stories in THE SILMARILLION, which was published after Tolkien’s death by his son, Christopher.

The creators of RINGS OF POWER are contractually obligated to only use material from the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and its appendices. However, much of the background material in the appendices is portrayed in depth in THE SILMARILLION. That content can be a bit darker than the content in LORD OF THE RINGS, which focuses on the heroes who fight against Sauron in an actual war with many battles small and large. That’s because, in many ways, THE SIMARILLION and its content shows readers how the world of Middle Earth came to be in such a bad state. That said, the stories in this background material have a tragic poignancy that THE LORD OF THE RINGS is not designed to have. Even so, there are tales of spectacular heroism and perseverance against evil in the appendices and in THE SILMARILLION that are just as powerful as those that fans of LORD OF THE RINGS have come to love.

In fact, there’s a striking, profound, spiritually uplifting scene in Episode Two of Season Two. Elron goes to visit the wise elf, Círdan (“Kier-den”), to ask him for advice about the three elven rings and Sauron. Círdan reminds Elrond that one of the greatest, most beautiful poems written by an elf was written by a drunkard. Like Sauron, the drunken poet was a flawed being. Yet the poem, like each of the three eleven rings of power, is a thing of beauty. “Judge the work,” Círdan says, “and leave judgment concerning those who wrought it to the Judge who sees all things.” This is clearly a reference to God who, in THE SILMARILLION creates Earth and is active during the historical periods of Middle Earth. The elves in Tolkien’s stories about Middle Earth call God “Ilúvatar,” or Father of All. Happily, the script in this scene is calling God the ultimate omniscient Judge of everyone. In doing so, the script is acknowledging two of the major attributes of a Theistic God, attributes that are also mentioned in the Bible.

However, Círdan also tells Elrond in this scene that the rings are much too powerful to let Sauron have them. Thus, the elves must keep the rings away from Sauron, who clearly intends somehow to use the rings to reign over Middle Earth in an evil “beyond reckoning.” Círdan ends by urging Elrond to guide his friends while they wear the rings and not abandon them.

This scene echoes the best of the powerful, exquisite, sublime themes media-wise readers can find in Tolkien’s work. The best of those themes not only warns readers of the power of evil, but also discloses how to overcome evil with good. In this particular case, we should use wisdom, rely on God, the Judge who sees all, and never abandon our friends. (All this said, it should be noted that the creators behind RINGS OF POWER have changed some of the details behind the forging of the three rings for the elves and have taken some creative license into how the other rings came to be made. So far, MOVIEGUIDE® doesn’t think they’ve gone too far beyond the “spirit of the text,” but others may disagree.)

Episode Two has some scary, violent moments. The most intense physical dangers faced by characters in Episode Two come from the malevolent men following the Stranger and the two hobbits, Nori and Poppy. The men wear scary masks and eventually attack them. An intense battle ensues between them.

There’s also a scene where the “Dark Wizard” summons a demonic looking helper. One of the Wizard’s young acolytes cuts her hand, and the Wizard uses the blood to conjure up the helper from a bunch of fluttering yellow moths. The helper appeared in the first season but was magically banished by the Stranger in a scary confrontation. The Wizard summons this helper only to chastise her for failing him.

MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children regarding the scary villains and action violence in Episode Two of RINGS OF POWER: Season Two.