One of the funniest things about the title The Lord of the Rings is that, within the classic novels, there’s really only one ring everybody is worried about. The rest of the rings, the nine for Men, the seven for Dwarves, and the three for Elves are, in theory, what comprises the entire purpose of The Rings of Power series on Prime Video. While Season 1 didn’t get into the forging of these rings beyond the elven variety, Season 2 is certainly giving us way more varieties of ring action, much more than ever before, and oddly, more varied than even Tolkien’s novels.
Still, the paradox of the Rings saga is the simple fact that the plural is all headed toward a singular. We’re not really thinking about the rings as a group of magical objects, we’re often thinking about them as a means to an end. And that end is simple: The One Ring, the ring to rule them all.
Interestingly, Rings of Power Season 2 seems slyly aware of this paradox. And with the repetition of one specific word in the latest episodes, the real endgame of the show already seems surprisingly close — while adding a new wrinkle to the lore surrounding the One Ring itself.
Spoilers ahead for Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 6.
“Precious”
Twice within the sixth episode of Rings of Power Season 2, different characters utter the word “precious.” The first time this happens is in the context of Annatar/Sauron (Charlie Vickers) trying to force the Dwarves to hook him up with some extra mithril in order to forge more rings of power. Annatar offers the dwarves extra timber to make mineshafts but also suggests he could give them something “more... precious.”
Annatar/Sauron doesn’t specify what he means by this, but the use of this word is very pointed. This is the term that Gollum ascribed to the One Ring starting in The Hobbit and throughout The Lord of the Rings. That eventuality is about a thousand years in the future from the point of view of The Rings of Power, but the foreshadowing is fairly clear: Sauron clearly imbued the rings with certain magical trigger words, and the word “precious” is one of those words.
Interestingly though, the word “precious” is used in a totally different context elsewhere in the same episode. Before facing the judgment of the Valar, Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) tells Elendil (Lloyd Owen) that she wants him to stick around and be “a man who will champion all that is precious.”
Míriel is talking about keeping solid values and morals in the kingdom of Númenor, mostly because she knows that corruption is spreading. But, the thing is, we know her seemingly good intentions won’t matter long term. And that’s because just like the Dwarves, Elendil is headed for some rough times ahead.
Rings of Power needs the One Ring soon
Although it probably won’t happen this season, eventually, The Rings of Power will have to introduce the One Ring, otherwise, all of this talk of “precious” will start to feel strange. In the long term, we know that Elendil won’t stick around in Númenor at all, and along with his son Isildur, will end up creating the kingdom of Gondor. This detail creates a shocking amount of plot armor for Elendil in Rings of Power. Almost nothing can happen to him because the larger lore needs him to fight Sauron, get slain, and have Isildur take up his father’s sword.
Will we ever see the “precious” on Sauron’s finger in this show? Will we ever get to this moment where Elendil — side-by-side with Elrond — is taken out by the Dark Lord? In Season 2, that moment felt very, very far away. But with the preponderance of the word “precious” in Season 2, and Sauron getting very close to cooking up the rest of the titular rings, suddenly, that tragic future doesn’t seem so distant.
The Rings of Power isn’t quite to that point in the larger story yet. But by dropping this one word over and over again, it’ss clear that Season 2 is lighting the One Ring fire in a way that seemed impossible in Season 1.
