As Galadriel and the Númenorian army rush to the Southlands, Adar and his orcs lay siege to the remaining villagers of Tirharad, seeking to claim Sauron's sword.
- Alien Blood: All the orcs have black blood, as usual. Notably, so does Adar, showing that he's also closer to an orc than an Elf, in spite of external appearances.note
- Annoying Arrows: Averted. Arrow wounds are treated as extremely serious and life-threatening. Many people and orcs are killed on screen. That being said, a wound provoked by an arrow can be healed, and once the healing process has been completed, little attention is given to the injury afterwards.
- Arrows on Fire: Arondir makes the watchtower collapse by shooting a flaming arrow at the support ropes.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Halbrand is declared King of the Southlands
- The Bad Guy Wins: Adar may have been captured and most of his orcs killed, but Waldreg nevertheless accomplishes his goal of causing Mt. Doom to erupt — blanketing the Southlands in an ash-cloud that blots out the Sun — and Adar escapes in the chaos.
- Battering Ram: The orcs use a wooden battering ram to break into the inn the remaining peasants took shelter in.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Bronwyn traps the Orcs between flaming hay wagons and then the villagers launch a surprise attack on them.
- Battle Cry:
- The war chant of the orcs "Nampat".
- The people of Tirharad have "Fight for the Southlands".
- Big Damn Kiss: Arondir and Bronwyn share one after promising to build a life together if they survive the upcoming battle.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Arondir is pinned down by an orc who's about to drive a blade into his eye when Bronwyn sneaks up and stabs the orc from behind.
- Halbrand throws a spear at an orc who was about to kill Elendil.
- The soldiers of Númenor arrive in time to stop Adar from killing the remaining villagers.
- Bling of War: Queen Miriel wears an elaborate golden armour and a helmet with rich details in the shape of the sun. Justified as she does not fight, she just oversees the battle in case she needs to interfere.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Halbrand has a major grudge against Adar for unspecified reasons, only narrowly being dissuaded from giving him an Impromptu Tracheotomy by Galadriel reminding him that Vengeance Feels Empty. Adar, however, has no clue who Halbrand is and tries to goad him by speculating what he could've done to make Halbrand hate him so much.
- The Cavalry: The army of Númenor arrives just in time to save Arondir, Bronwyn, Theo, and the surviving villagers, routing and capturing Adar and his army of orcs.
- Chase Scene: Galadriel chases Adar on horseback. Halbrand joins the chase by coming from the opposite direction.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The watchtower of Ostirith was build in the past by followers of Morgoth. Turns out, the whole place existed only to release the lake water to the magma chamber and provoke Orodruin's eruption.
- The alfirin seeds are used to save Bronwyn's life after being hit by arrows.
- Chekhov's Volcano: Orodruin erupts with a little help from Waldreg at the end of the episode seizing everything around itself.
- Cliffhanger: While characters like Galadriel, Miriel, Elendil and Isildur will be Saved by Canon, the fate of the other characters is left unknown once the pyroclastic flow convers Tirharad.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Bronwyn kills the giant orc that was fighting Arondir by stabbing him in the neck. Had she not made it in time, Arondir would have been left without an eye.
- Darkest Hour:
- Adar and his orcs overwhelm Tirharad and take Arondir and the remaining villagers captive. Adar has the orcs tortuously kill the villagers one-by-one in an attempt to force Arondir to give up Sauron's sword, only for Theo to break to save his wounded mother. Just as Adar claims the Dark Lord's blade, the army of Númenor arrives to route the orcs.
- Just as the heroes celebrate their victory, Waldreg uses Sauron's sword to cause the lake behind the Ostirith watchtower to drain into the orcs' tunnels and trench, which leads into Orodruin's magma chamber. The volcano erupts, sending lava bombs raining down on Tirharad and a pyroclastic flow sweeping across the Southlands.
- Doing In the Wizard: The inception of Mordor, triggering the Orodruin, is mundane rather than magical.
- Double-Meaning Title: In Elvish Sindarin, Udûn, the title of the episde means "dark pit" or "hell", but is another name for Utumno, the first dark fortress of Morgoth.
- Eye Scream: Arondir pokes an Uruk's eye out quite graphically with a wood splinter. It keeps spurting blood over him for the rest of the fight.
- Face Death with Dignity: Galadriel stands her ground as a pyroclastic flow engulfs Tirharad, although the next episode reveals that she survives.
- Fighting for a Homeland: This episode reveals that the Orcs' whole plan was to create Mordor by causing a volcanic eruption. The resulting ash would protect them from the sun's rays, allowing them to prosper.
- Final Solution: Galadriel vows to destroy every single Orc. Adar answers that she would make a good successor to Morgoth.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Bronwyn asks Arondir where he will hide the hilt, Theo looks suspiciously after Arondir. Later, Theo is the one who shows Adar where the sword is hidden to save his mother from death.
- Adar tells Galadriel during his interrogation that soon the Southlands will belong to the Orcs. At the end of the episode, Wildreg causes the eruption of Orodruin, a mission given to him by Adar before the Númenorians appeared.
- Foregone Conclusion: We know that Isildur and Galadriel survive given that they appear in the books that are set in the future and that they need to survive for Aragorn and Arwen to exist.
- Giant Mook: Arondir ends up in fisticuffs with a huge Uruk that towers over him.
- God: Eru Iluvatar is invoked for the first time in the show, by Adar of all people, as the One, the Keeper of the Secret Fire.
- The Ghost: Sauron is mentioned quite often this episode. Waldreg asks Adar what happened to him, but receives no answer. Later, Galadriel herself asks Adar where Sauron is and Adar claims he killed Sauron.
- Hard-to-Light Fire: Bronwyn has some problems striking a piece of flint to ignite a hay wagon covered with tar.
- Heal It With Fire: Bronwyn tells Arondir and Theo to cauterize her shoulder wound to stop the bleeding.
- He Who Fights Monsters: When Galadriel declares her intent to carry out a one-woman genocide on the orcs — sneering that they're abominations with no right to exist — and save Adar for last just to watch him suffer, he mockingly says he's not the only elf tainted by darkness. Galadriel flies into a rage and almost cuts his throat, but is stopped at the last second by Halbrand.
- The Horde: Of Uruk. They are primitive, but still can pull effectual war tactics.
- Hope Spot: After defeating the Orcs, everyone is celebrating their victory. The Southrons got their promised King, Elendil and Isildur Man Hug each other, Galadriel and Halbrand become even closer, the Numenorians are seen as heroes, what could go wrong? Orodruin erupting at the end of the episode.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Adar gives Arondir two choices; he either tells him where the hilt is, or the orcs will kill the villagers one by one. It's only when Adar orders the orcs to kill Bronwyn that Theo breaks and gives in.
- Hostile Terraforming: Adar's plan was to set off a volcanic eruption. The ash in the sky would protect orcs from sunlight while rendering the Southlands uninhabitable to everyone else.
- Hypocrite: Galadriel stops Halbrand from killing Adar to avenge some past incident, only to later have to be stopped from killing Adar in a fit of rage herself — and by Halbrand, no less, who is seemingly aware of the irony.
- Idiot Ball: If only Galadriel or Arondir would have bothered to check what is wrapped between the rags.
- If We Get Through This…: Arondir promises to Bronwyn to plant with her and Theo the remaining alfirin seeds if they survive the battle.
- Impaled Palm: Halbrand impales Adar's hand with his spear, revealing his Black Blood.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of the orcs has the misfortune of being impaled by a flying piece of wood.
- Insistent Terminology: Adar regards the word "orc" as a slur, insistently correcting Galadriel that the proper term is Uruk even as she's about to cut his throat.
- Implied Love Interest: The exchange between Halbrand and Galadriel about being able to be themselves only around each other has a romantic subtone.
- Kill the God: When Galadriel demands to know where Sauron is, Adar says that he got fed up with the Dark Lord using his beloved orcs as test subjects for his experiments with dark magic and killed him. Galadriel, quite understandably, doesn't believe him.
- Little "No": Arondir whispers "no" to Theo when the boy gives the hilt to Adar.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: The survivors are shown preparing themselves for another attack from the orcs. They are shown digging holes, and creating swords and arrows.
- Lured into a Trap:
- At the beginning of the episode, Adar leads most of his army into the elven watchtower and find it abandoned save for Arondir, who bars the door to trap them inside and causes the tower to collapse, seemingly crushing them in the rubble.
- Adar pays the villagers back with interest by sending in the villagers he'd conscripted — clad in orc armor so they won't be recognized — with a handful of orcs in order to spring the trap the villagers set at Tirharad, leaving them defenceless against the main assault of his army.
- Made of Indestructium: Arondir tries to destroy Sauron's sword but only ends up breaking the blacksmith's hammer.
- Man Hug: Elendil and Isildur hug each other after having a heart to heart conversation.
- Missing Mom: Galadriel asks Elendil what happened to his wife after meeting his son early in the morning. He reveals she drown, but doesn't give any further details.
- Moody Mount: Berek is a very moody horse, and Isildur has troubles bonding with the animal. Elendil tells his son that the horse is not troubled, but his rider is.
- No One Could Survive That!: Arondir tricks Adar into leading his army into the watchtower and then collapses it, seemingly crushing the dark elf and his army of orcs in one fell swoop. The villagers celebrate, believing that Adar and his army have been killed, but Adar and most of his orcs are revealed to have survived.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Adar observes that, after Galadriel makes a vow to kill all Orcs and save him for last, she has much more in common with Sauron than she'd like to admit.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: By the time Arondir and Bronwyn kill the giant orc, the villagers already won the fight offscreen.
- Oh, Crap!:
- After the Tirharad villagers cut down the horde of orcs, Arondir realizes that the corpses are bleeding red blood, not black like the orcs should be. He and the other villagers remove the attackers' masks and helmets to discover that the vast majority of them were the villagers who had defected to Adar's side. A dying orc cackles and asks "Thought we'd take 'em in for nothin'? Had to pay the toll... and now, all of you will." Adar promptly attacks with the rest of his army, who prove to be much more of a serious threat and massacre a good number of the remaining villagers.
- When Theo confesses he is drawn to the power of Sauron's sword, Arondir entrusts him with the duty of tossing it into the ocean. Sensing something is wrong, Theo unwraps the blade only to discover a hatchet in its place — the blade having been stolen by Waldreg, who uses it to fulfil Adar's goal.
- One-Gender Race: Subverted. The orcs seem to be only males in the show much like in the books, but Adar mentions in his Rousing Speech "brothers and sisters". It is possible that the deformation makes it impossible to distinguish male from female, or that he was referring to some of the attackers being female Southlanders.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Adar warns the Orcs in his Rousing Speech that their victory will come at a great cost. Indeed, most of the Orcs Adar cared about died fighting the people of Tirharad and the Númenorians.
- Red Shirt: Treadwill, a citizen of Tirharad who seems to be setting up to be the non-racist Good Counterpart to Waldreg, is killed in the end by arrows in a surprise attack launched by the orcs.
- Relationship Upgrade: As the villagers of Tirharad prepare to face Adar's orcs, Arondir confesses his feelings to Bronwyn and they kiss.
- The Reveal:
- Some of the "orcs" that the Southlanders fight turn out to be their friends and neighbours, who were made to "pay the toll" by Adar by fighting against them.
- Adar is revealed to be one of the Moriondor (elves corrupted by Morgoth), making him a first-generation orc.
- Adar's plan wasn't to use Sauron's sword to become a god himself, but to use the orcs' trench to cause Mt. Doom to erupt, which Waldreg accomplishes in Adar's stead.
- Rightful King Returns: For the Southlands. The Southrons receive Halbrand with open arms after learning that he is the king that was promised. They all start to chant "All hail to the true King of the Southlands".
- Rousing Speech:
- Adar encourages his children through a powerful speech by reminding them everything they had to endure before attacking Ostirith.
- Arondir also gives a speech to the surviving villagers in order to prepare them emotionally to confront the orcs.
- Shown Their Work: Turns out the method of using water to cause Mount Doom to erupt is actually scientifically possible
and is called Phreatic eruption. - Title Drop: When the orcs realize that Orodruin is about to erupt, they gleefully chant the word "Udûn." In the Elvish Sindarin, Udûn means "dark pit" or "hell"
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Adar claims that this was Sauron's intent after Morgoth's fall, to heal the damage done to Middle-earth in the War of Wrath and create a new, perfectly ordered realm for all beings to prosper in.
- Villain Has a Point: It's hard to disagree with Adar when he says that orcs have an intrinsic right to exist, and to have a homeland. The problem is that the conditions that orcs thrive under are ones that are abhorrent to other races, and that there are already people living in the land they want to settle in.
- Wham Line:
- Galadriel reveals the name of the Elves enslaved by Morgoth and turned into the first Orcs, the Moriondor.
- Adar telling Galadriel he killed Sauron. She does not believe him.
- Wham Shot:
- Arondir touching the wounds of a fallen "orc" and realizing his blood was red, not black, leading to the discovery that the villagers were fighting their own people the whole time.
- Orodruin erupting is a sight to be seen.
- The barn where Adar was kept as a prisoner is empty, indicating that he escaped off-screen somehow.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Adar insists that as living, thinking beings, the orcs have the same right to live and prosper as any other people. This is also notably the first time in the franchise where orcs have surrendered and been taken captive, rather than being butchered to the last.
