The Season One finale of The Rings of Power continues . . .
SWITCH
Sadoc goes “a-wandering off-trail”. (He dies.)
FIVE
A galley at sea in full sail. Valandil walks the deck. Elendil is down below, helping the Queen count steps in her blindness.
(He says, “I have you.” She replies, “Who has you?” Aaaagh! Immediately when I hear that line I think of Lois Lane when Superman takes her flying. Maybe everyone doesn’t think of that moment, although Margot Kidder’s delivery is iconic. It is a terrible choice to include it in anything ever again.)
The point is for Elendil to speak of his grief and regret while the Queen tries to brace him.
(Again, WE KNOW that Isildur isn’t dead. I have no sympathy for Elendil because this storyline will be reversed at some point. Every stricken look and wobbly chin is a false emotion that defies his character. You’re a soldier, man! You know loss is part of the job, and this isn’t real loss!)
So, after telling the Queen — the woman who just lost her sight — that the cost has been dear, they decide to struggle onward. “Come what may.”
(Aaaagh! Could the showrunners think of no original lines for this scene? Now I have Ewan McGregor singing the theme song from Moulin Rouge in my head!)
They’re home. They’ve arrived at Númenor. Elendil, leading the Queen, steps past her in surprise. A fleet of elven galleys are anchored in the harbor. (It’s a beautiful reveal.)
Cut to the (not dead yet?) King in his bed, the Chancellor standing watch. His face is in shadow, his gaze intense.
An explosion in the tower that houses Celebrimbor’s workshop. He tells Galadriel that the mithril is “proud”. It doesn’t want to merge with lesser ores. Halbrand suggests that they coax rather than force the metals together. Celebrimbor chuckles, his enthusiasm renewed. When the librarian delivers to Galadriel the scroll she requested, Halbrand gives her a suspicious look.
Cut to Galadriel, the open scroll hanging from her fingers, standing in a pleasant garden. Halbrand enthusiastically joins her to tell about their latest discovery. They need to make two objects, not one. She tosses the scroll at his feet, saying, “There’s no King of the Southlands.” Who are you?
An intense scene follows. He’s coy, claiming he’s had many names over the years. (Over the centuries?) She realizes he’s played her ever since the rescue on the raft. She swings her dagger at his head, and he knocks it aside.
As she’s tossed, the scene jump cuts. In the white nightgown dress, Galadriel falls to the grass. Her brother’s voice is heard. It’s the location from when she was a child. Whimpering, she tells him to get out of her mind, and then she looks at him. It’s Finrod. As he helps her rise, he takes back his dagger. Speaking to her as he did when she was a child, Finrod persuades her that his task and Sauron’s were the same: to bring peace. We see Galadriel struggle with this dream reality, trying to remember. He gaslights her until she resists and walks away.
Jump cut, and now Galadriel’s on the raft with Halbrand. He argues, using her own words, that their past was forgotten and they should look to the future. That’s all he’s doing, trying to heal his past mistakes. The perspective swirls around the raft until the silhouette of the two of them in the water is seen. Her hair streams to the side and he wears the crenelated crown of Sauron. He gently touches her chin, dancing around a proposal of marriage, saying she would be a Queen. (We are reminded of Galadriel’s vision if she were to accept the One Ring from Frodo.) Halbrand says, “You bind me to the light and I bind you to power.”
The water becomes rough and storm clouds blow in. The two of them speak, their voices reverberating. He says, “Sauron lives because of you.” Lightning strikes, and Galadriel goes into the water. She is, once again, drowning, the rope from the spar around her waist. No Halbrand is coming to save her.
Elrond wakes her from her dream. She rises from the pond in the garden, dagger in hand, and demands he prove his identity. When he does, she weeps briefly, then dashes to stop Celebrimbor. In the tower, she won’t explain about Halbrand, but she tells Celebrimbor to make three. One will corrupt, two will divide, but with three comes balance. And these three are for the elves alone. In order for it to work, though, Celebrimbor needs the purest gold and silver from Valinor. Galadriel looks with sorrow at her brother’s dagger.
SIX
Nori and The Stranger sit on a green hillside overlooking a dale. He can now speak in full sentences, and he knows he must go to the place of the stars. She asks if his name is Istar. The word, he says, means wizard. He uses Gandalf-like wisdom to try to convince her to share the journey with him, but she’s had enough adventure.
SEVEN
With Sadoc gone, Malva takes over as leader. When Nori returns to her family they present her with a backpack and tell her to go on with The Stranger.
EIGHT
She says goodbye to everyone. Her parents give Nori an emotional send-off. The last farewell is with Poppy, who really won’t be going with her. As The Stranger and Nori prepare to set off, neither exactly knows the way. He says, “Always follow your nose.” They head one way, the Harfoots in the other direction.
Galadriel gives her dagger to the forge. It’s obviously a defining moment for her. The mithril shard is added to the molten metal. The liquid swirls, the violins play fast arpeggios, and the ethereal choir begins. Celebrimbor concentrates on the mold as the liquid is poured. A hint of Jackson’s dark theme from The Two Towers mixes into the soundtrack. While the alloyed pieces are shaped by the jewelers, Elrond goes back to the garden pond, looking for a clue. At the edge of the water he finds the librarian’s scroll and reads it. Crosscut him racing back to the workshop while the rings are crafted. When he returns, the rings are finished. Continue the dark theme overlay as the music swells. He and Galadriel share a look.
NINE
The rings dissolve into a shot of an iris. It’s Mt. Doom reflected in Halbrand’s eye as he walks into Mordor. Roll credits, while “Gollum’s Song” plays with One-Ring-to-Rule-them-all lyrics.
CRITICAL NOTES
This song is a great example of what’s wrong with this series. The original version plays over end credits for the second movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. As with all great trilogies, the middle movie is the one where things feel most hopeless for our heroes. The lyrics are poetic and mysterious. Each viewer can watch the visuals, hear the music, and experience an individual reaction. How the song is used in this series, though, has the lyrics on-the-nose. They’re specific, telling us what to feel and deduce. They’re pedantic. No one in the history of Tolkien has ever forgotten the lore of the One Ring. We all probably memorized the poem at some point. Throughout the series, this tendency to go on-the-nose has been consistent. To gently call back to the Jackson trilogy is one choice; to batter us over the head with references is another that I consider a mistake.
Let’s look at the Two and Three from the first part of this episode. As you know, it’s The Witches with whom I have much trouble. They feel inserted without any build-up to their role in the final episode. I’ve marked the Two as the moment when The Witches pretend to be The Stranger’s friends. It’s a trap they’re about to spring on him, and it involves a fake Nori. At the Eight, we have the authentic Nori with a real friendship. I’m not particularly happy about this Two/Eight, but I’ll count it. The connection is clumsy, but it’s there.
The Three/Six is better. At the Three, The Stranger is named as Sauron. At the Six, the record is corrected. He’s a wizard. At the Eight, when he advises Nori to trust her nose, as Jackson’s wizard does, he conveys to us that he’s Gandalf. Throughout the first season we’ve wondered which of the two characters he is; now we know. The Three/Six Mirror is too tricksy for me. If we’d learned how The Witches operate, the Rules of their Magic, it would’ve been more interesting when they mistake The Stranger for Sauron. How can evil not recognize evil (except as a false lead for the audience)? Structurally this episode is sound, but the motivations are an absolute mess. No one — not The Witches, not Elendil, not Halbrand — follows a consistent arc. Their characters are manipulated by the showrunners to produce certain feelings. As I said about “Gollum’s Song”, mystery is empowering. This is different; this is smoke and mirrors.