The latest episode of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Regent Míriel’s long-running arc to its first of likely many more climactic moments to come. Right before Lloyd Owen’s Elendil is set to stand trial by abyss, Míriel steps in to stand the trial in his place. As her power-hungry husband Pharazon (Trystan Gravelle) watches on, Míriel is brought under by the sea creature, the surrounding residents of Numenor watching on with baited breath. Unexpectedly, Míriel is thrashed back to the surface, surviving the trial by abyss, resulting in both an innocent verdict as well as a flashy new royal title.
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Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Climactic Rings of Power Scene
All hail the Queen of the Sea.
Speaking to ComicBook, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson reflected on Míriel’s journey to reach her newfound royal status.
“In Season 1, really, for me, it was about just learning who she was, establishing her and being able to then move her forward into future seasons,” Addai-Robinson said. “In Season 2, by the time we were starting, I didn’t actually know what the arc was going to be at all. The number one question I got from people is, ‘Is Míriel still blind?’ People were shocked when she was blinded at the end of Season 1. What were the implications going to be for her moving forward? Was this a sort of permanent condition? What did that then mean, not just for her as a character, but even for me as an actor?”
Míriel’s absolution in The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6 truly begins in the scene before she stands the trial by abyss. When speaking to Elendil, her longtime friend and the original man set to stand the trial, Elendil reinforces his belief in Míriel to be “this kingdom’s true heir” and challenges her to stare death in the face by noting that he would “rather die with a heart that is whole than one that is broken by cowardice.”
“He and I spent a lot of time once we got our scripts and we got these scenes. We would go off to our little corner and really kind of discuss what ultimately these scenes are about in the bigger picture,” Addai-Robinson said of working alongside Elendil actor Lloyd Owen. “It goes without saying that the idea of faith, and not just religious faith, but really having a belief in something. There is that tension between the sort of thing you are supposed to believe, potentially blind faith, versus what your heart and your soul and your gut are telling you. It becomes a question of, ‘Am I meant to believe in something that is distasteful to me just because I’m supposed to believe it, if every fiber of my being says this is wrong?”
Not all were thrilled to see Míriel emerge victorious in the trial by abyss. Pharazon, Míriel’s husband from a forced marriage and the current king of Numenor, is seen watching his wife with frustration and fear as she is showered in “Queen of the Sea” chants.
“Certainly her victory is a humiliation, right?” Addai-Robinson said of Pharazon’s reaction to Míriel’s innocence. “This is now, as a matter of public record, the people who are witnessing this as much as people are turning away from their more traditional beliefs, these sort of markers and tests. It kind of feels like, ‘How do you refute her victory?’ It’s going to be difficult for him to explain that away or say, ‘Just kidding! She survived the trial, but I’m still the ruler!’
“What I really loved, and obviously I wasn’t present for it, even though I read it, is when Pharazon goes to the palantir himself,” Addai-Robinson continued, alluding to Pharazon utilizing the mythical object that showcases glimpses of the future. “Everything that we’re sort of setting up in Numenor, we’re sort of slightly separated from some of the other parts of Middle Earth, but as evil spreads across the land, we soon are going to get our own visit and our own sort of connection and link to this evil. This flash of what fares on I thought was quite interesting personally because that is sort of laying the groundwork for something down the line.”
And what comes down the line, considering what’s come up to this point, is anyone’s guess. The Rings of Power has made some pivots within the source material, especially evident in Míriel’s arc in particular. On the page, Míriel is rendered relatively redundant by the time Pharazon takes power. The show makes an added effort to give her a true sense of three-dimensionality and her own personal story rather than just have her be auxiliary to others’.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a departure because at the end of the day, this isn’t the end point,” Addai-Robinson said of Míriel’s changes in the series. “What happens after this doesn’t necessarily stray from the lore. We can sort of, I would say, add to things that don’t change the outcome. That really comes more from what the showrunners establish as opposed to anything that the actors can guide. Because this isn’t the end point, we can’t necessarily say that it is a departure. It might be a detour, but we’re still going in the direction that we’re going, and I myself don’t necessarily know what happens after what we’ve established in this season.
“What always continues to impress me is that the showrunners again can take a circuitous route but still sort of hit the points of the lore that they need to hit,” Addai-Robinson added. “I would say that even though she triumphs in this moment, it’s not necessarily a definitive triumph.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 airs new episodes every Thursday on Prime Video.
