‘The Rings Of Power’ Season 2 Ending Featured a Very Unexpected Death
Sauron befriends the orc army attacking Eregion and, off-screen, convinces them to join him and betray/murder their father and leader. RIP to the dark elf Adar–sorry we only got to see your yassified face the one time. Once that was done, Sauron confronted Galadriel and demanded she give him both the nine rings for men and her own ring, Nenya. They dueled. He taunted her. He proposed to her (basically) for a second time, promising to crown her and bind her light to him. “The door is still open,” he says, but Galadriel resists. While he does manage to get the nine from her, she jumps off a cliff before he can take her own ring. (These two are nothing if not dramatic.)
What’s next for Sauron? My best guess, based on what I know about the lore, is that he’s heading back to Númenor. He has nine rings to give to men, and the most powerful men and women at this time are there. Mark my words: his next target, after Galadriel and Celebrimbor, will be Pharazôn.
The elves descend on Rivendell.
Gil-galad, Elrond, and Arondir rescue Galadriel. Elrond even uses Nenya to heal her injuries, which is a big deal considering how ring-skeptical he was at the beginning of the season. The survivors of the siege of Eregion take refuge in an idyllic valley just North of their former home. Anyone with a map of Middle-earth can tell you that they are in what will become Rivendell, the elven haven where the Fellowship of the Ring forms.
In the final scene of the episode, the elves debate whether to go on the offense or defense. The most important part of this scene (to me at least) is they finally ask Galadriel for her advice. “It is not strength that overcomes darkness,” she says, “but light, and the sun yet shines.” That’s kind of a non-answer IMHO. But it is inspiring.
Míriel gives Elendil one heck of a parting gift.
At the end of Episode 6, Númenor’s most notorious opportunist Pharazôn peeped into the Palantir and saw Halbrand, aka Sauron, unmasked. In the finale, he spins that in his favor. Without revealing his source, he announces to the court he believes Míriel “bewitched” the sea worm with Sauron’s help. He also declares all members of the Faithful, including Míriel and Elendil, are traitors and orders them rounded up.
Elendil makes for the Western shore where the Faithful are not (yet) persecuted with the help of his daughter Eärien and the Queen, who opts to stay behind. She gives him Narsil, the ancestral sword that will eventually be passed down to Aragorn, and tells him to reclaim the lordship he lost when the people of Númenor first rebelled against the Faithful. He reluctantly escapes. The next and last time we see Míriel, however, she’s in handcuffs, so things went from bad to worse for her.
Isildur’s love triangle gets even more complicated.
For once, it seems like Elendil’s son Isildur is having a good day. He’s packing up to head back home to Númenor. His crush Estrid comes to tell him she no longer loves her fiancé. They kiss a little. She agrees to run away with him. Everything is looking up!
But then friggin’ Kemen, Pharazôn’s smug Draco-meets-Joffrey son shows up in Middle-earth. He rudely forbids Isildur from taking Estrid home with him. That awkwardly leaves her with her fiancé, who had no idea she was planning to leave him. Kemen also tells the people of Palagir their colony is now a military fortress and in order to live there they need to become lumberjacks and supply Númenor with timber.
It’s a low-key cliffhanger until you remember the surrounding forest is full of Ents who do not like it when you kill trees. That might create an issue in season 3.
And The Stranger loses his friends and gains a name.
Our wizard goes looking for his halfling buds, Nori and Poppy. When he finds them, they’ve been captured by the Dark Wizard, who makes a really unconvincing argument for really being a cool and chill guy just looking to chat. The Stranger refuses, so the Dark Wizard destroys the Stoor settlement. Nori and Poppy help their new halfling friends pack for their first ever migration, saying goodbye to The Stranger.
The Stoors call the Stranger “grand elf” on their way out, which sounds suspiciously like… you guessed it! Gandalf. The Stranger has been Gandalf this whole time, as many have theorized.
You Might Also Like
