Lloyd Owen's Elendil is not having a good time in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, and his broken family is one of the biggest weights on the sea captain's shoulders.
While Sauron is off causing trouble in Eregion and the Khazad-dum, Numenor is having its own troubles. The city just got taken over by a terrible leader, its former Queen is now blind and stripped of her position, Elendil's son is believed to be dead, and his daughter is siding with the enemy.
By the end of Episode 6 of Season 2, Elendil has made peace with sacrificing his life to upload his values. Good thing for him that former Queen Miriel, played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson (who also spoke with The Direct), steps in to take his place in the sea monster trial, and they both walk out of it alive.
Lloyd Owen Talks About Elendil's Broken Family and Hopefully Reuniting With Isdilur
In an exclusive interview with The Direct's Russ Milheim, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actor Lloyd Owen, who plays Elendil in the series, helped break down where his relationship with his family stands after the events of Season 2, Episode 6.
As it currently stands, Elendil's daughter, Earien (Ema Horvath), has sided with King Pharazon's (Trystan Gravelle), and she cannot understand why her father won't give in and go along with his rule. Needless to say, the relationship between the two seems broken beyond repair.
"I definitely think it's reparable," Owen noted, adding that Elendil has certainly "given up trying to convince her:"
"I definitely think it's reparable in the sense that there is—the path to him is hopefully always open. He can always walk towards her. But I think he might have given up trying to convince her; that's the sad thing for them both. But her greatest act of love is to then introduce her mortal enemy, Miriel, to try and change his mind because she wants to save him so much. She loves her father; she's going to be orphaned."
Elendil is so strong in his morals that he's even willing to die for it, something that Owen described as "a lesson for Earien:"
"It's almost a lesson for Earien. If you can give her any lesson at that point, I will say all I can do rather than tell you the right way because you won't hear me. I will demonstrate what it is to believe. I will demonstrate to you that when you believe in a principle, and you have integrity, this is the end to which you have to go."
Owen strongly believes that "you could write a four-season show about Earien and Elendil in this moment:"
"You could write a four-season show about Earien and Elendil at this moment. The discussion between them could be a whole episode in itself about where she's going. But I think what happens is that she comes to that dungeon, and she says, 'You're gonna die tomorrow.' And he says, 'Fine, I have no problem with that.' And then, in seeing his certainty, she breaks, and he gets his little girl back, and he's relieved to get his little girl back."
Continuing the same thought, Owen added that "there isn't a conversation long enough to undo the brainwashing:"
"But then she speaks like she drank the Kool-Aid in it, and it's like there isn't a conversation long enough to undo the brainwashing, actually, and so the choice comes for him. Just all he's got left, as I said earlier, is he can only show her what it is to hold on to one's principles, and it will demonstrate that dying for the right things is the way to live one's life."
As for what is going through Elendil's mind while he's waiting to stand trial, "he's seen the light" and "knows exactly what he's got to do:"
"He's in the dungeon, and he's seen the light man. He saw the light in the trial, and he deeply believes... If you think of the difference between faith and belief... You can believe something sort of intellectually. But the faith is when it drops into your heart. And I think in that trial sequence, It drops into his heart. He knows exactly what he's got to do. And that means slightly rejecting Miriel's order for the first time in his life. She's saying, toe the line. He's like, No, it clearly is this. And I think he's not scared, and he's sure that he needs to..."
Despite that steadfastness, Owen playfully quipped that once Elendil got to the water's edge, he may have gotten a little frightened:
"However, I suggest that probably at the water's edge he might be frightened at that point. He's human. You know, he's the same guy that I reckon, if he, rather than Isildur got The One Ring, he's not throwing it in either. I just don't think he is. I don't think he is because he's as fallible as the rest of us."
While Earien may be a problem, Elendil's son, Isildur, is another issue entirely–everyone thinks he is dead.
When asked if that reunion scene might happen by the end of Season 2, the actor pivoted his answer to talk about the hypothetical nature of that reunion if and when it occurs.
Owen described how "very few" humans ever have to "go through the complication of that set of feelings" that occur when reuniting with a loved one you once thought was dead:
"Very few of us think that our loved one is dead and then get reunited with them. It's a very rare set of human beings that go through the complication of that set of feelings, and so I mean, hopefully, we can be as truthful as we can with that, and then when that happens, it gets given the space for that to happen. It's very interesting, isn't it?"
He offered up a story about a theater director that he once worked with that helped sum up the unexpected direction that emotional reactions can take:
"There was this terrible bus accident, and one person died because the glass from the window of the bus was literally decapitated. It was an awful story, and everyone else was crying their eyes out. All the people who didn't know this person and this woman's best friend said to my friend, 'I don't know what to feel. What am I supposed to feel? Tell me what to feel.' So the one person that knew this person better than anyone couldn't cry and didn't understand just had the shock... You'd think the reaction is to cry your eyes out. But actually, there's this other thing that happens."
"Isildur's gonna be like, 'Why the fuck did you leave me," Owen admitted while adding that there will, of course, be some "relief [and] joy:"
"And so this is what is interesting about discovering the reaction because also Isildur's gonna be like, 'Why the fuck did you leave me?' And Elendil's like, 'I can't believe it's you. It must be a mirage. It must be--Why [haven't] you tried to find me? And all of that is going to be in there as well as relief [and] joy. And then, of course, he's not going to put the top on the toothpaste, and he's going to drive me nuts, so I'm just going to have an argument with him."
While not immediately part of his family, Elendil obviously shares a deep connection with Cynthia Addai-Robinson's Miriel, who stepped up into his place for the sea trial, saving his life and surviving herself.
When asked about the potential romance, the actor explained how, for Elendil, he doesn't believe that it could ever happen, given that "she's the Queen and he's just the sea captain:"
"To a certain extent, it can't happen because she's the Queen, and he's just the sea captain. For him, it's an impossible idea that this would happen. It doesn't mean they don't have a deep intimacy of shared values and goals. But who knows what the boys are going to write in the future."
"Even if they have those feelings for each other, I don't think they think the other person has," the actor further elaborated:
"They are the only two people in the world who can feel those feelings together [about their shared experiences[. And there's this crossover between that sense of bonding, the sense of shared faith and shared values, and a shared vision for what Nuemenor will be that brings them closer. But I don't think either of them feel, even if they have those feelings for each other, I don't think they think the other person has."
Owen pointed to a moment in Season 2, Episode 5, where Miriel places her hand on Elendil a little too long, and he doesn't realize what it might mean until it's too late:
"So, like in Episode 5, there was this wonderful moment where Cynthia [Addai-Robinson] stopped me speaking. The hand stayed on. And it stayed on too, too long. And it was like, Oh, I think Miriel means for me to touch her hand. So he starts to go there, and she takes her hand off because she thinks I've had my hand on his chest too long. You know what I mean? So it's like, it misses..."
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is now streaming on Amazon Studios' Prime Video.
Read more about what's happening in Season 2 here:
Gandalf's Role In Rings of Power's Storyline, Explained - Will He Show Up?
