Reminder of what the map looks like:
A few more comments, now that I've caught up. Gorlim is made captive while visiting his old homestead in Ladros. The location of the slaughter of Barahir's band is going to be Tarn Aeluin. In the published
Silmarillion, Beren catches up with the orcs who slew his father at Rivil's Well. The location of the death of Gorgol the Butcher is not mentioned, though Ladros and Drûn are mentioned in the same list of Beren's deeds in the Lay. (Drûn is north of Tarn Aeluin, according to the Index of
HoME III)
We could, of course, invent a storyline where the orcs are mining in Ered Gorgoroth, and Beren has to hunt them down there, leading to his immediately travelling south when fleeing the scene. But that is not the starting point - that changes several key details of the story. Rather, we are most likely to keep the details of Beren immediately tracking down the orcs that attacked the camp, and shooting with an arrow the orc who killed his father, to get the ring back....but probably will make
that unnamed orc be Gorgol the Butcher.
As we have seen the refugees of Ladros traverse the Pass of Anach to leave Dorthonion at the end of last season, we likely do need to 'explain' why Beren does not go that way. For some reason, it needs to be impassable, and an orc camp (placed there to build a road in preparation for invading Beleriand, perhaps) would be enough to explain why he needed to go another way. If there is an attack on Doriath this season, any mobilization we see in Doriath could be the preparation for it.
Pacing will no doubt determine how some of this plays out. For instance, if Episode 1 sees Barahir's band doing their thing, the story of Gorlim, and ends with Beren discovering the camp where everyone is dead...then Episode 2 would focus on Beren hunting down the orcs, as well as the orcs hunting down the lone outlaw Beren. He would eventually be forced out of Dorthonion (perhaps at the midpoint), and then traverse Ered Gorgoroth and Nan Dungortheb, passing out after crossing into Doriath. The episode might end with Lúthien coming upon a sleeping Beren. So, if it were our goal to have Beren reach Doriath by the end of Episode 2 (with his actual meeting with Lúthien happening in Episode 3), then his time as a lone outlaw isn't going to take up much time on screen. I know that in the text, this lasts for years. We'll have to show his decision to leave, but we probably won't be conveying that quite that much time has passed. It may be a different season when he leaves, but there wouldn't be context clues to say that he was at this for multiple years, most likely. He has no one to talk to, and it's only going to occupy, say, one scene on screen.
More important than the length of Beren's time as lone outlaw is the effect - he gains a bit of a reputation, and this is enough to give other Men
hope. He is continuing to strike blows against the orcs in Dorthonion, and thus he is 'winning' the war that was lost, and he's doing it single-handedly (heh). His legend, as much as his thorn-in-the-side ongoing nuisance, is cause for the price on his head. We won't spend much time with him by himself in the empty woods, most likely. But we might have the opportunity to show others speaking
of him. Not sure, exactly, how his legend spreads if no one else lives there, but, well, we can work that out if we have to.
But why does he leave? He's forced out. Eventually, the efforts of the orcs are too much for a lone outlaw. He can live in the woods and do quick ambush attacks, but eventually, they'll be able to flush him out and he won't be able to find a place to safely retreat to. He goes south because...he has to. Where else can he go? And yes, it's dangerous, but, well, staying would be dangerous, too.