Image: Amazon Studios

Despite its faults, The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power remains a treasure trove of Tolkien lore for superfans of the fantasy franchise—and season two episode four succinctly showcases the Amazon Prime series’ love for its source material. From the debut of a fan-favorite character to a series of delightfully daft dialogues, the latest episode of Rings of Power is a strong one—something the wildly expensive (yet mostly middling) series could use right now.

After watching the first three episodes of season two back-to-back, it’s clear that the showrunners sought to streamline the disparate plots in the wake of a very disjointed first season. And though Rings of Power has been mostly successful in focusing its runtime on the strongest stories (Galadriel and the elves’ fight against Sauron and The Stranger’s quest for self-discovery), it can still feel a bit spread thin as it tries to cram in tales of the dwarves and humans of Middle-earth. But this latest episode feels like it’s truly starting to pull them all together in a sensible way, and often does so with a playful glint in its eye that feels so decidedly Tolkien, capturing the same giddy, childlike wonder that Peter Jackson so effectively imbued his films with.

Though there is a lot of proper drama and spookiness going on in this episode (including a scary trek through some haunted woods and the capture of Galadriel by Orc leader Adar), two storylines stood out to me: The Stranger’s quest to reunite with Nori and Poppy, and the Harfoots encountering the other race of hobbits, Stoors.

The Stranger, having conjured up a dust tornado to ward off attackers, is wandering the lands in search of the two missing girls when he stumbles upon a goat. He follows that goat to a hut, and sitting in front of it is a man humming gently to himself. When he tries to get his attention, the man turns and swiftly throws a branch at his face. The plucky music only adds to the scene’s playfulness, and it soon becomes clear exactly who The Stranger has just met: Tom Bombadil, the iconic and mysterious Lord of the Rings character who has seemingly lived longer than anyone else in this world. Bombadil is played brilliantly by Rory Kinnear, who imbues him with a kind of absentminded sageness that is a joy to watch. Seeing him play off of Daniel Weyman’s stranger has the lightheartedness and fun that you’d expect from any Gandalf scene in the original films. There’s whimsy, there’s wonder, there’s wisdom—I couldn’t stop smiling anytime the two of them were on screen.

It’s clear that Bombadil has incredible power and that The Stranger is meant to learn quite a bit from him, though getting information out of the notoriously spacey, singsongy character might be difficult. He keeps trying to get answers about the star map they’ve been following this entire time, but Bombadil turns the map into a loaf of bread, and hands it to The Stranger to eat. And rather than give him concrete facts or advice, he can’t stop waxing poetic about the sands of time, saying: “Tom was there before the river and the trees, Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless. This whole place used to be green, now it’s all sand. I had to come see for myself to believe it.”

Eventually, The Stranger asks Bombadil if he’ll help him learn how to wield the kind of power he’s been casually throwing about (while Bombadil is adorably holding a baby goat). The Stranger wonders aloud if he was meant to meet Bombadil all along, rather than find a staff, then asks if it’s his task to face Sauron and the riders working for the dark wizard we’ve been seeing. He wants Bombadil’s help fighting against the darkness threatening to take over Middle-earth, but the hermit replies that he’s “a wanderer, not a warrior.” When The Stranger asks if it’s his task to stop the fire spreading through Middle-earth, or to stop Sauron, Bombadil replies solemnly, “Your task is to face them both.” It’s a powerful and poignant scene, which feels thoroughly Tolkien.

Image: Amazon Studios

Then there are the Harfoots, Poppy and Nori, who have gotten lost as well. Though they quickly run into who they believe is another Harfoot who’s just been stealing water from a well. We get a hilarious back-and-forth between the three of them, with the newcomer (who first introduces himself as “nobody”) agreeing to take them to his village after Poppy threatens to turn him in for being a thief. He can bring them there, but he says they have to follow the four rules: “One, never look her in the eye. B, always stand three steps back, 4, don’t ever ever, no matter what call her the Gund,” he says solemnly. “Was that three rules or four?” Nori asks. “I wasn’t really paying attention,” Poppy quips.

It’s a hilarious and light scene that leads directly to the girls learning that there are other races of hobbits out there, known as Stoors. Though it seems that both of them come from the same ancestors. The Gund tells Nori that a man with the same last name as the Harfoot’s former leader set out from this place ages ago, searching for a land where cold water always ran through rivers, where a family “could dig a hole and live in it for a month.” She’s talking about the people who eventually become known as the Hobbits, the same ones who live in Bag End. It’s a lovely little connection to the Lord of the Rings we know and love, and it’s done so with a pitch-perfect tone that feels like sipping a warm cup of tea on a cold day.

The Rings of Power season two episode four felt tonally perfect for a tale inspired by Tolkien, and it gave me a ton of hope for the rest of the season. The next episode airs on Amazon Prime on September 12.