The Rings of Power Spoiler Recap: Season 2 Episode 8

What a finale for a brilliant season full of fantastic acting, music, camera work, and special effects. I frequently get annoyed at how long some shows take between seasons these days, but the wait is warranted with The Rings of Power as every shot is beautifully crafted. It also seems to be easy for lore enthusiasts to get frustrated with how much they’re condensing the timeline, but it’s simply the logical thing to do! So I simply like to use the lore to predict what might happen next rather than get too bogged down by the details. And I certainly have some predictions for Season 3, which I’ll get to at the end.

There was quite a bit to wrap up from the battle of Eregion in the previous episode. We saw the tail end of the fighting in this finale, mostly with snapshots of the Uruk demolishing things for fun and the temporary capture of the leaders. I do appreciate Elrond’s effort to save the archives as a book lover myself, though I think the Elves could learn to back up important documents in more than one location… Perhaps their fatal flaw is believing too strongly in their own immortality. Galadriel is more in touch with mortality in this episode as she faces her most demanding struggles yet. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to escape Eregion with the nine rings and was forced to face Sauron despite her best efforts, though I do appreciate her character growth in trying to stay in the background rather than run immediately to the front lines. She’s used to leading the way all the time, but she seems much more open to counsel from others now. This sharing of power is an important step towards eventually building her family.

But before Galadriel and Sauron’s epic showdown, we have an equally awe-inspiring series of scenes with Sauron and Celebrimbor. Our sweet Elven-smith is brutally tortured as Sauron tries to find out what he did with the rings, and Celebrimbor shows his courage until the bitter end. I did legitimately laugh out loud at Celebrimbor’s reaction when Sauron said “All I have done is for you!” after having just shot multiple arrows into Celebrimbor; the Great Deceiver does indeed end up deceiving himself into thinking that he’s benevolent and peace-seeking. Villains obviously never see themselves as villains, but it’s interesting to watch the mental gymnastics that Sauron does to convince himself that he’s doing the right thing for Middle-earth. I hope that Celebrimbor’s prophecy will haunt Sauron later: “The Rings of Power will destroy you. And in the end, I foresee, one alone shall prove your utter ruin!”

Galadriel is initially taken by the Uruk to Adar to hand over The Nine and we see some fantastic special effects of her ring Nenya healing Adar’s facial scars while he’s wearing the ring. Adar may be a villain, but good and evil is a spectrum and he’s not entirely evil. Truthfully I don’t think Sauron is entirely evil either considering how he seems to seek friendship with Galadriel and even Celebrimbor, but Adar is closer to neutral. He is seeking war, but he is fighting for the rights of the Uruk that he leads and there is some nobility in that. He obviously loses his way a little as he’s willing to lose more Uruk rather than give up the fight, but he seems to repent at the very end. Unfortunately, his thirst for vengeance against Sauron costs him the loyalty of the Uruk, and they betray him to return to Sauron’s side. Sauron immediately shows his true colors by killing the Uruk leader Glûg, but by then it’s too late for the Uruk to do anything but continue to follow him. I don’t think Adar could have ever defeated Sauron, but part of me will always wonder if he could have helped the Uruk find peace if only he had led them to a safer land to settle in rather than leading them into battle. We were led to believe that they were only creatures of darkness in The Lord of the Rings, but Glûg and some of the women showed that they’re capable of compassion and peace too.

Sauron finally confronts Galadriel and they have a fight worthy of a finale. Using his crown as a secondary weapon in a swordfight makes for some incredible moments of tension. Their fight is interspersed with Sauron trying to coax Galadriel back to his side, but I don’t think she’ll ever be fooled by him again. As tempting as power is, she now knows to keep herself in check. I admittedly enjoyed seeing Sauron put on his Halbrand look again during their fight; according to lore, he’s meant to keep his Annatar look until he loses his mortal form, but I think we would all be ok with Halbrand instead during Season 3! Galadriel is seemingly mortally wounded by Sauron’s crown and she throws herself off a cliff to escape him, but luckily for her she has friends who see her fall and there are two Elven rings on hand to heal her (and you know, her plot armor).

The most visually stunning scene for me involved the Balrog in Khazad-dûm. I was wondering if the showrunners were going to go ahead with the destruction of Khazad-dûm but I’m happy to see that they’re not rushing that plot line. In lore, the Dwarves aren’t chased out of that mountain for eleven more generations, but this show obviously has to speed that up quite a bit for efficient story-telling. Even so, it makes sense that perhaps the Balrog was simply a nuisance for a time, picking off a few Dwarves bit by bit rather than all at once. We open the Dwarven scenes with Prince Durin begging his father to take his ring off, but King Durin continues his mining anyway. There is indeed a huge, beautiful mithril mine, but unfortunately the Balrog was there as well- and this Balrog is appropriately given the nickname “Durin’s Bane.” There were at least three Balrogs initially, who were Maiar corrupted by Morgoth (Maiar are primordial spirits, which include the five Wizards), but this particular one is believed to be the last in existence. King Durin finally realizes his folly and takes off his ring, and his last act as King is to sacrifice himself to the Balrog, hopefully quenching its appetite for now. The shot of King Durin jumping into the Balrog’s grasp was truly great television and the image will stay with me for a long time. Prince Durin immediately goes into mourning, but luckily he’s able to send a squadron of Dwarves to Eregion after all to cover the Elves’ retreat.

Quite a few important steps in Númenor’s story are being developed in this finale as well. Kemen travels to Pelargir to make it the primary Númenórean fort for their future endeavors in Middle-earth. Isn’t it just ironic that Pharazôn, who made his bid for power on the idea that sending people to Middle-earth was bad, is now planning on regular travel there? I’d really like him to explain that reasoning to me. (The answer is power.) Meanwhile Isildur obviously has no idea what’s been going on in Númenor and is in for a shock to hear of his father and the Queen’s political downfall, but lore dictates that he must return to Númenor before its fall and so off he goes! The primary action he needs to take to fulfill lore is to collect seeds from the White Tree in Númenor, which will later become the symbol for Gondor. He kissed Estrid in secret before he left but their future is left undecided for now; as I’ve said previously, Isildur’s wife isn’t named in lore, so this show has a lot of creative freedom there. Pharazôn issues a decree that all of the Faithful in Númenor must be arrested, including Elendil, and Eärian surprises the audience by helping her father escape. I’m very interested to see if she’ll change sides once she sees that Isildur is still alive since that was her reason for turning to Pharazôn in the first place, but she may be too far gone to fully recant. Elendil tries to get Míriel to run away with him but of course she feels like she has to face the consequences of her decisions and she stays behind to face judgment, but not before gifting Elendil a noteworthy sword: Narsil! Narsil was forged by the Dwarven-smith Telchar and was likely given directly to the Lords of Andúnië in Númenor, descendants of the fourth King of Númenor and known as The Faithful or Elf-friends. When The Faithful fell out of favor, it’s possible that Narsil was taken from them, but now returned to Elendil who is a descendant of that line. He will end up taking Narsil as well as the Rod of Andúnië and the Ring of Barahir when he leaves Númenor. Fans of The Lord of the Rings may remember that Narsil is eventually used to defeat Sauron in a grand sword fight between Sauron, Elendil, Gil-galad, and Isildur, who removes the One Ring from Sauron.

And now to one of my personal favorite groups, The Stranger and the Halflings! I would be happy with a show only featuring these characters; they’re like a warm hug. The Dark Wizard threatens the Stoors’ home and then has the audacity to pretend to be a good guy, but Nori and The Stranger figure him out pretty quickly. I did appreciate the Easterling Brânk defending himself against the Dark Wizard’s lies, which unfortunately didn’t end well for Brânk but at least his friends got away. The Easterlings, like the Uruk, are typically depicted only as evil, but I honestly think that shows some racism on Tolkien’s part since they’re the only Men in Middle-earth that he describes as non-white. A lot of them worked with Morgoth and will go on to work with Sauron, but lore also mentions a small group siding with the Blue Wizards against Sauron. The Easterlings and the Uruk are not a monolith, and I’m glad to see any nuance of their loyalties in this show. The Dark Wizard is still not named in the finale but he says that he’s one of the five Wizards, so he must either be Saruman or one of the Blue Wizards. If he’s Saruman, which seems the most likely given his respect for Sauron, I imagine that he’ll probably pretend to be good for awhile to trick The Stranger into thinking that they’re on the same side, before eventually openly following Sauron in The Lord of the Rings; it would be in his character to do that kind of mental calculation. But since we know almost nothing about the Blue Wizards besides that they did work with some friendly Easterlings at some point, it could very well be one of them who was temporarily misguided but comes back around to the light. 

But we do finally get confirmation of The Stranger’s name! It’s Gandalf!!! Since the Dark Wizard destroyed their home, the Stoors are forced to migrate for the first time and they all call him Grand-Elf as they leave, prompting Gandalf to realize what his name is when chatting later with Tom Bombadil. It’s heartbreaking to see Nori say goodbye to Gandalf since they both have different paths to take for now, but I don’t doubt that they’ll see each other again. And of course Gandalf goes on to make friends with many generations of Halflings over time. It was also beautiful to see Gandalf find his wizard staff from a broken branch of the Stoors’ central tree. I would like to continue to see Tom Bombadil in the future guiding Gandalf, but I also wouldn’t be surprised to not see him very often at all since he prefers to stay out of the larger narrative and tend to his plant and animal friends instead.

We end the finale with a hopeful scene of the Elves deciding on their immediate future. After fleeing Eregion, they take refuge in the future site of Rivendell, which Elrond will build as his home. King Gil-galad and Elrond manage to use the rings to save Galadriel, but I bet she’ll have a permanent scar from her wound; with a device such as Sauron’s crown, it may take continual wearing of Nenya to keep the wound fully at bay. And Arondir apparently wasn’t mortally wounded either, which I’m definitely grateful for. They have to decide what the Elves will do next: retreat to Lindon or continue to fight Sauron. As much as they would probably like to retreat, there isn’t really another group of people capable of fighting Sauron like they can. There isn’t yet a large enough population of Men to help in the fight, and the Dwarves are notoriously stingy when it comes to offering aid in battle. But it’s also an issue of timing. Lindon is the western-most part of Middle-earth and Rivendell is basically central-north, so if they were to go all the way back to Lindon to regroup and then go East/South again, they would lose a lot of time in catching up to Sauron wherever he’s headed. Presumably he would head South to Mordor, but the show has a lot of leeway with that part of the timeline. And so the Elves decide to continue to fight despite their weariness.

Which brings me to my personal predictions for Season 3! Many people have been talking online about the fall of Númenor but there’s still quite a bit of plot to get through first, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the focus of the Season 3 finale. The next big move for Sauron is to travel back to Mordor to build his fortress Barad-dûr and create the One Ring; I initially thought they might save that for a finale, but the speed of the show so far makes me think it needs to happen much sooner. Sauron must have those two things complete before a grand battle with the Elves and Númenóreans, at which point he will be captured and taken to Númenor. His corruption of Númenor is what brings their downfall and the destruction of his physical body, so he has to have the One Ring to keep his spirit/essence alive. Thus with so many progression of steps, the fall of Númenor for the finale makes the most sense. So if we have another 8 episodes, perhaps we see the creation of the One Ring by episode 5 at the latest, though sooner wouldn’t surprise me. That would give enough time for a big battle in episode 6, corrupting Númenor in episode 7, and the fall in episode 8. If they have the creation of the One Ring a bit sooner, that would give them time for a longer battle and power displacement in Númenor.

For the Dwarves, there will surely be a lot of political wrangling at the beginning, perhaps followed by increasing attacks from the Balrog and the Dwarves exit from Khazad-dûm in the finale. Gandalf and the Halflings’ story is the most unpredictable as there isn’t much information on what any of them did during this time period. Gandalf will eventually meet the Elves and become friends with some of them but the showrunners may choose to take their time with that development. I’m sure we’ll see a sweet reunion of Elendil and Isildur, though I’m a little worried they’ll initially miss each other on ships between Middle-earth and Númenor and thus prolong their reunion. I’m really hoping to see Celeborn finally as well; Galadriel’s husband never went missing in lore but I don’t necessarily mind this dramatic reinterpretation as it could provoke some fascinating character growth for Galadriel upon his return. We have a long wait ahead of us for Season 3, which hasn’t officially been announced yet but likely will be by the end of the month. It may be time to dust off some books to help the wait feel shorter. As Sauron is a prisoner to his rings, we are a prisoner to a streaming show’s timetable. “Now let the song begin!”