# Where Is He?

"Where Is He?" is the sixth episode of the second season of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Set thousands of years before the novel in Middle-earth's Second Age, the episode builds up to the climactic events of the season. It was written by Justin Doble and directed by Sanaa Hamri.
J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were set to develop the series in July 2018, and a second season was ordered in November 2019. Filming began in the United Kingdom in October 2022, with Hamri joining the series to direct multiple episodes. Production on the season wrapped in June 2023.
"Where Is He?" premiered on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on September 19, 2024. It was estimated to have high viewership and received generally positive reviews.

## Plot

Following Adar's Orc army towards Eregion, Arondir comes across several defectors who are carrying a map. In Eregion, Celebrimbor is increasingly focused on making Rings of Power for Men. Sauron, posing as Annatar, offers to take care of Eregion's administration. Outside the city, Adar tells Galadriel that Morgoth's crown was able to destroy Sauron's previous physical form. He believes that together, the crown and the Elven Rings of Power could destroy Sauron for good.
Ar-Pharazôn offers to spare Elendil's life if he pledges his loyalty to the new king, but Elendil refuses and stands by his belief in the ways of the Faithful. Ar-Pharazôn chooses to let the Valar decide Elendil's fate, planning to drop him into an abyss in the sea where he will face a giant sea monster called the Sea Worm. Míriel claims the right to be tried in Elendil's stead due to his crimes being committed in her name. The Sea Worm spares Míriel's life and the Faithful hail her as the "Queen of the Sea".
Tom Bombadil takes the Stranger to a forest of dead trees where he is meant to find a magic staff. The Stranger has a vision of Nori Brandyfoot and Poppy Proudfellow being threatened by the Dark Wizard and wishes to help them; Tom says he must decide between helping his friends and fulfilling his destiny.
Sauron goes to Khazad-dûm to ask the Dwarves for more mithril, but is turned away by King Durin III. While there, Sauron senses the presence of a Balrog. Prince Durin IV attempts to take the Ring of Power away from Durin III out of concern for its influence on him. He is unable to, and is unwilling to take further action against his father. Disa convinces him that they need to prevent more dangerous actions and the two of them block the entrance to the mithril mine.
Galadriel realizes that Sauron has lured Adar's army to Eregion because he does not have one of his own. She pleads with Adar to not go ahead with his attack, but he ignores her and begins besieging Eregion. Celebrimbor hears the siege alarm and investigates. Sauron creates an illusion which convinces Celebrimbor that all is well and the smith returns to making the rings for Men. Sauron gives him a container to use in making the rings which he claims to be mithril from Khazad-dûm.

## Production
### Development

Amazon acquired the television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, ordered a series based on the novel and its appendices to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema. It was later titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Amazon hired J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay to develop the series and serve as showrunners in July 2018, and Justin Doble joined as a writer by the following July. The series was originally expected to be a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) film trilogies, but Amazon later clarified that their deal with the Tolkien Estate required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films. Despite this, the showrunners intended for it to be visually consistent with the films. A second season was ordered in November 2019, and Amazon announced in August 2021 that it was moving production of the series from New Zealand, where Jackson's films were made, to the United Kingdom starting with the second season. The season's all-female directing team was revealed in December 2022: Charlotte Brändström, returning from the first season; Sanaa Hamri; and Louise Hooper.
The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings. Because Amazon did not acquire the rights to Tolkien's other works where the First and Second Ages are primarily explored, the writers had to identify references to the Second Age in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices, and create a story that bridged those passages. After introducing the setting and major heroic characters in the first season, the showrunners said the second would focus on the villains and go deeper into the "lore and the stories people have been waiting to hear". The season's sixth episode, titled "Where Is He?", was written by Doble and directed by Hamri.

### Casting

The season's cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Míriel, Owain Arthur as Durin IV, Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir, Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor, Trystan Gravelle as Pharazôn, Ciarán Hinds as the Dark Wizard, Markella Kavenagh as Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot, Peter Mullan as Durin III, Sophia Nomvete as Disa, Lloyd Owen as Elendil, Megan Richards as Poppy Proudfellow, Charlie Vickers as Sauron, and Daniel Weyman as the Stranger. Also starring in the episode are Sam Hazeldine as Adar, Rory Kinnear as Tom Bombadil, Amelia Kenworthy as Mirdania, Will Keen as Belzagar, Leon Wadham as Kemen, Ema Horvath as Eärien, Tanya Moodie as Gundabale Earthauler, Gavi Singh Chera as Merimac, Kevin Eldon as Narvi, Simon Haines as Malendol, Arkie Reece as Kilta, Peter Landi as Marmadas, William Chubb as the High Priest of Númenor, Robert Strange as Glûg, and Kai Martin as Zhor. Josh Dyer, John Macdonald, and Luke Tumber play unnamed Orc defectors in the episode.

### Filming

Filming for the season began on October 3, 2022, under the working title LBP. Episodes were shot simultaneously based on the availability of locations and sets. Directors of photography included Jean-Philippe Gossart. The production wrapped in early June 2023.

### Visual effects

Visual effects for the episode were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Rodeo FX, Outpost VFX, DNEG, The Yard VFX, Midas VFX, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, Untold Studios, Atomic Arts, and Cantina Creative. The different vendors were overseen by visual effects supervisor Jason Smith.

### Music

A soundtrack album featuring composer Bear McCreary's score for the episode was released digitally on the streaming service Amazon Music on September 19, 2024. McCreary said the series' episodic albums contained "virtually every second of score" from their respective episodes. The album was added to other music streaming services after the full second season was released.
All music is composed by Bear McCreary:

## Release

"Where Is He?" premiered on Prime Video in the United States on September 19, 2024. It was released at the same time around the world, in more than 240 countries and territories.

## Reception
### Viewership

Luminate, which gathers viewership data from smart TVs, said the series was watched for 346.4 million minutes in the week ending September 19, which included several days of viewership for the fifth episode in addition to the sixth episode's debut. This was a small drop from the previous week and placed it fifth on the company's chart. Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, listed the series third—behind Hulu's Only Murders in the Building and Disney+'s Agatha All Along—on its US streaming chart for the week ending September 22. Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on US television screens, estimated that The Rings of Power had 829 million minutes viewed in the week ending September 22. This made it the third biggest original streaming series of the week behind Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and The Perfect Couple. Samba TV, which also gathers viewership data from smart TVs, listed the series eighth on its chart of top streaming programs for the week ending September 22.

### Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated that 83% of 12 critics reviews were positive and the average rating for the episode was 6.8 out of 10.
Matt Schimkowitz of The A.V. Club graded the episode a "B". He was frustrated by the use of Tom Bombadil as a "plot cog" and the fact that the Stranger's journey to find a staff was not actually shown in the episode, but was positive about Elendil's role and the performance of Keen as Lord Belzagar. Schimkowitz also praised the discussion between Galadriel and Adar about their respective experiences being deceived by Sauron. Arezou Amin at Collider gave the episode 8 out of 10. She said the scenes in which Sauron deceives Celebrimbor were the scariest of the season so far, praised the way that Sauron's threat was bringing most of the season's plots together, and was also positive about Elendil and Míriel. On the other hand, Amin felt the forward momentum of different storylines was being unevenly distributed. Keith Phipps of Vulture gave the episode three stars out of five and noted that the season was moving even faster in its second half than the first, with this episode feeling particularly fast due to it including most of the season's storylines. He said there was a "trade-off", not liking that the Stranger's storyline "feels truncated" but being happy with the reduced focus on Númenor scenes. He was also happy with some of the episode's slower scenes, such as the dinner conversation between Galadriel and Adar.
Writing for Gizmodo, James Whitbrook was more positive about the episode than the previous one. He highlighted the Eregion and Khazad-dûm storylines and particularly praised Arthur's performance for Durin IV struggling with turning against his father. Whitbrook was less positive about the Númenor storyline, saying: "If last week was about how inauthentically sudden Pharazôn's rise to power felt, this week is mostly about how inauthentically sudden his momentary comeuppance feels". Leon Miller of Polygon found "Where Is He?" to be the least satisfying of the season's last few episodes, though he praised the visuals for helping "even the less well-conceived story beats in [the episode] go down smoothly enough". His review focused mostly on the portrayal of "power plays and political wheelings and dealings" which he felt were more appropriate for fellow fantasy series House of the Dragon than an adaption of Tolkien's works, and which he said the writers of The Rings of Power often rushed or oversimplified. Samantha Nelson at IGN gave the episode 5 out of 10 and called it frustrating, feeling that some characters—particularly Adar—were making out-of-character decisions simply to let the story build to the season's climactic battle. Nelson considered the scenes with Durin IV and Disa to be the highlight of the episode.

## Companion media

An episode of the aftershow Inside The Rings of Power for "Where Is He?" was released on September 19, 2024. It features actress Felicia Day, the host of The Official The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Podcast, interviewing Hamri and McCreary about the making of the episode, with some behind-the-scenes footage.