The Harfoots race to rescue the Stranger from the Dweller and her comrades, who believe him to be Sauron. As Celebrimbor and Elrond attempt to use what little mithril they have to forge a means to heal the elves, Galadriel makes a shocking discovery: the enemy she has been hunting has been by her side all along.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Invoked by Galadriel in why they need to craft three rings.Galadriel: One will always corrupt. Two will divide.Celebrimbor: But with three...there is balance.
- Best Friend: Poppy considers Nori her "best friend in this whole wide, wild world".
- Big Bad Friend: Upon Galadriel revealing she knows his true identity, Halbrand — or rather, Sauron — claims to have reformed after Morgoth's defeat, and that his friendship with and feelings for her are genuine. Despite his attempts to persuade her to join him as his Queen, a distraught and furious Galadriel rejects him when he reveals he still intends to conquer the world.
- Bookcase Passage: Tar-Palantír has a secret Trophy Room hidden behind a bookcase than can be accessed only with a star-shaped sigil.
- Briar Patching: It's revealed that Halbrand only played the part of the reluctant heir to the throne to manipulate Galadriel into pushing him into power.
- Call-Forward: A number of the turns of phrase that Sauron uses when trying to tempt Galadriel are ones she will use an Age later when struggling with the temptation to accept the One Ring from Frodo.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Galadriel is completely powerless against Sauron who casually blocks her attack and traps her in an illusion.
- Dark Reprise: The second episode introduces Halbrand as a Mysterious Stranger that Galadriel meets in the middle of the see. First hint that he is from the Southlands, comes from the hardanger fiddle performing the same instrumental as the Southlands theme. His theme is melancholic and rustic, but gets a twisted and ominous arrangement in this episode, right before acknowledging he is Sauron.
- Dead Person Impersonation: In an attempt to dissuade Galadriel from attacking him, Sauron uses an illusion to impersonate her brother Finrod, whom he'd personally killed centuries earlier.
- Deathbed Confession: In his last moment of life, Tar-Palantir mistakes Eärien for a young Miriel and warns her that Numenor should return to its old days before is too late. He leads her to his secret chamber where Eärien discovers the palantir.
- Defiant Stone Throw: Just as the Dweller prepares to finish the Stranger, Nori beans her in the head with a pebble.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Miriel snaps at Elendil when he assures her that she's adjusting well after being blinded, threatening him with punishment if he continues "patronizing" her.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Galadriel accidentally gives the solution to process the mithril by suggesting that everyone pushed themselves too hard. Sauron has an epiphany when he hears her and realizes they did the process wrong.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Despite his claims to have had a Heel Realization following Morgoth's downfall and to be The Atoner, Sauron doesn't see any difference between saving Middle-earth and ruling it as a god-king — with or without Galadriel at his side.
- Exact Words: Halbrand said he took the token that Galadriel claimed was proof of kingship off a dead man. He never said when - the last rightful owner of that token died heirless a thousand years ago. He also points out how he'd told Galadriel he'd "done great evil in the past," knowing she'd never realize how much evil that was.
- False Reassurance: Halbrand assures Galadriel that he'll make sure nobody forgets just how much she helped him. Given her rising suspicions that he's Sauron, she barely can force a grateful smile.
- Faux Affably Evil: Upon being revealed as Sauron, Halbrand claims that his friendship with and feelings for Galadriel are genuine and that she even forgave him for the evils he'd committed in the past without knowing what they were. When she rejects him, however, he reacts with rage and traps her in an illusion of her drowning until Elrond snaps her out of it.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Halbrand consults with Celebrimbor on what kind of magic artifact they should develop, ultimately settling on magic rings. In Tolkien's canon, the elves were persuaded to forge the Rings of Power by Sauron in disguise.
- Foreshadowing:
- Halbrand suggests using the mithril to create two Rings of Power, with his proposal implying he intended to use them as wedding rings for himself and Galadriel.
- Galadriel tells Elrond that she didn't swim across the Sundering Sea to drown now. Elrond then saves her from drowning.
- Forging Scene:
- Halbrand sweet talks his way into Celebrimbor's workshop, and helps Celebrimbor and Elrond to find a way to harness mithril's properties and use it to tap into the powers of the Seen and Unseen World. He secretly plans to forge two rings, for him and Galadriel, but he cannot carry out his plans to the end because Galadriel finds his true identity.
- After Halbrand's sudden departure, Galadriel proposes for three rings to be forged in order to balance their powers, and we finally get to see the forging of the Three Elven Rings: Nenya, Narya and Vilya.
- Glamour Failure: When Sauron snaps at Galadriel for rejecting him, his pupils turn into vertical slits and his teeth become more jagged.
- Headbutt of Love:
- Nori and Poppy share a brief one while saying goodbye before Nori leaves with The Stranger.
- Galadriel and Elrond also share one after he pulls her out of the river and the vision Sauron had her trapped in.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sadoc is fatally wounded by the Nomad, but survives long enough to help the others defeat them and to Go Out with a Smile as the Sun rises.
- I Have Many Names: When Galadriel presses Halbrand for his real name, this is his response.Halbrand: I have been awake since before the breaking of the first silence. In that time, I have had many names.
- Journey to Find Oneself: The Stranger decides to journey to the Lands of Rhun to learn about his origins and true purpose.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Galadriel brings Halbrand in Eregion to treats his wounds with Elvish cures. There, in order to gain access to Celebrimbor's workshop, he behaves like a little child meeting their hero for the first time, and quickly gets under Celebrimbor's skin. "The Celebrimbor?"
- Land, Sea, Sky: By the end of the episode, Celebrimbor forges The Three Rings, which follow an "Air, Water, Fire" motif.
- Light 'em Up: The Stranger reveals the Dweller and her comrades as Wraiths and then destroys them with a blast of holy light.
- Lodged-Blade Recycling: Sadoc stabs the Nomad in the foot with the same blade she'd previously struck him in the chest with.
- Meaningful Echo: Galadriel becomes suspicious of Halbrand after she catches Celebrimbor using some phrases that Adar had used in reference to Sauron's experiments during his interrogation during his description of the Ring project - phrases that only two people in Eregion had heard: she and Halbrand.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: When "Halbrand" conjures an illusion of the raft where he met Galadriel, his reflection is that of Sauron's Tin Tyrant form.
- Mistaken Identity: The Dweller and her sisters believe The Stranger is Sauron returned. Having no memory of his own, The Stranger believes them at first. When he turns on them the sisters realise their mistake and that he's actually one of the Istari.
- Moral Myopia: Halbrand points out that Galadriel wouldn't judge him on the wrongs he committed in his past when they first met, but upon finding out that Halbrand was Sauron and the one who killed her brother, she ends their growing friendship based on their past.
- Mythology Gag:
- Elrond and Halbrand comment that they have three weeks to complete a labor that could take three centuries — a nod to the series being a Compressed Adaptation, as that was around how long Sauron spent among the Elves as Annatar in the books.
- The Stranger's magic duel with the Dweller parallels Gandalf's fights with Saruman and Durin's Bane in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
- Sauron's marriage proposal to Galadriel paraphrases her famous Chewing the Scenery moment from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where she exposits what would happen if she claimed the One Ring.
- When Halbrand makes his advice about alloys to Celebrimbor, he says, "Call it... a gift". In lore, Sauron entered Celebrimbor's trust under the guise of Annatar, "Lord of Gifts".
- Halbrand also explains that he learned of Celebrimbor's skills as a smith from his master when he was just an apprentice. After the reveal, it becomes clear Sauron is referring to his first master, the Valar Aüle.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It turns out that Gil-Galad was right in his fears about Galadriel. By doggedly pursuing her revenge against Sauron, she first saved him from dying at sea, gave him the means to return to Middle-earth by convincing the Númenoreans to help him become "King of the Southlands", and she finally brings him into proximity with Celerimbor, whose crafting prowess he desired. At the end, Galadriel proceeds with the creation of the Three in the hopes of gaining weapons to use against Sauron, with all what that will entail for the future (although this is a much more indirect form of "breaking it").note
- Meaningful Look: Halbrand sees Galadriel departing with an underling and a scroll in her hand, a sign that he knows she must be suspecting him. Minutes later, he follows her to Glanduin river to "check" on her and give her the big news.
- Macabre Moth Motif: The Stranger returns the three priestesses to their original wraith-forms, then their spirits turn into thousands of moths flying away.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Galadriel hears Celebrimbor paraphrase Adar's statement regarding Sauron's plans, she quickly realizes her comrade Halbrand — who quickly ingratiated himself with the Elven smith — isn't who he claims to be.
- The Dweller and her followers when it hits them The Stranger isn't Sauron but one of the istari.
- After Elrond pulls her from the river, Galadriel learns she was unconscious for long enough that Celebrimbor may have finished the forging of the Rings and panics thinking that "Halbrand" has gone to steal them.
- Power Echoes: When Galadriel spurns and threatens to reveal him, Sauron shouts that if she does so she will be exiled or worse due to having helped him, his voice growing distorted and echoic with rage.
- Prized Possession Giveaway: Both Galadriel and Elrond must sacrifice something they hold dear in order to craft the rings that will allow them to remain on Middle Earth. Elrond naturally sacrifices the fragment of mithril that represented the bond between him and Durin (which was obviously inevitable given their plan, but he still clearly shows a moment of hesitation before dropping it into the vat of liquid metal) and Galadriel sacrifices her brother's dagger that she's religiously carried with her since his death for its pure Valinorian gold and silver to augment the mithril properties.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Invoked by Sauron when he claims that he is Not Evil, Just Misunderstood and that his goal is to help heal everything he helped Morgoth ruin. Galadriel doesn't believe him, and points out that Evil Cannot Comprehend Good when he says he sees no distinction between saving Middle-earth and him ruling it as a god-king. After her rejection, Sauron returns to Mordor clad in a black cloak and clothes, cementing his relapse into evil.
- The Reveal: The episode has several major revelations:
- The Elven Rings of Power are forged of an alloy of mithril and Valinorian gold and silver extracted from Galadriel's dagger.
- The Dweller, the Nomad, and the Ascetic are unmasked as Wraiths akin to the Nazgûl or Barrow Wights.
- The Stranger is one of the istari and — going by his folksy platitude about following one's nose — is strongly implied to be Olórin, aka Gandalf.
- Halbrand is not the King of the Southlands as he previously claimed, but is actually Sauron in disguise — making him an adaptation of Annatar, Sauron's "fair" form.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Sauron taunts Galadriel that she will be cast out or worse if she reveals his identity and that she helped him, so she begrudgingly only says that Halbrand is a deceiver and not to be trusted should he return.
- At the episode's end, Elrond finds the genealogy of the Kings of the Southlands that Galadriel commissioned. Though he chooses not to confront her over it, the intense gaze they share makes it clear they're on the same page.
- Sequel Hook:
- Miriel and Elendil return to Númenor to discover her father has passed away, with Ar-Pharazôn harboring political ambitions.
- The Stranger — heavily implied to be Olórin, aka Gandalf, — and Nori set out to find the stars he was searching for.
- Sauron returns to Mordor intent on using the knowledge he gleaned from Celebrimbor to forge the One Ring, but lacks the knowledge of the key ingredient of gold and silver from Valinor.
- Ship Sinking: Building off the romantic tension that had been building between them, Halbrand proposes to Galadriel... but she furiously rejects him due to him being Sauron in disguise.
- Ship Tease: A bit between Miriel and Elendil. Miriel tries to comfort Elendil over the loss of his son, and leans her head on him after. And as the dutiful captain that he is, he is the one helps blind Miriel to walk around.
- Skull for a Head: In their Wraith forms, the Dweller and the Ascetic have exposed skulls for faces, while the Nomad merely has a desiccated and wizened but otherwise fleshy appearance.
- Snarking Thanks: Halbrand give his thanks to Galadriel for bringing him where he wanted to be, Eregion. At this point, she knows he is not sincere and lying to her face.
- Solemn Ending Theme: The end-credit song called Where the Shadows Lie. The song is the poem Tolkien wrote about the rings, being performed by Fiona Apple in an ominous, hopeless manner.
- The Teaser: This episode opens up with a scene of the Stranger meeting the three worshippers of Sauron, before the Opening Credits starting to appear.
- Techno Babble: Celebrimbor and "Halbrand" spout plenty of magical techno babble as they discuss the properties of the Rings they are forging.
- Time Abyss: When Galadriel confronts "Halbrand" about having lied about his identity, he confirms that he is Sauron by commenting that he has "been awake since before the breaking of the first silence."
- Together in Death: After revealing that his wound is fatal Sadoc assures Nori, Poppy and Marigold that he'll be fine as he's about to be reunited with his late wife.
- Traitor Shot: After Halbrand gives his Snarking Thanks to Galadriel in a quasi-romantic moment, he makes a dubious face while promising to her that everyone will know what she has done for him. Galadriel tries to force a smile on her face, but fails.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the thousand-year-old smiths of Eregion stop to question how a mere decades old human from the backwater countryside can have so much knowledge of smithing that he can productively collaborate with Lord Celebrimbor, the second greatest non-deity smith ever to live, as a peer and equal. Only Galadriel starts to realize Halbrand's prowess is suspicious, and only after she hears Celebrimbor echoing words she heard from Adar regarding what they're forging.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: This episode reveals that the Dweller can shapeshift at will, taking Nori's form to trick the Stranger, and later she takes the Stranger's form to lure Nori and Sadoc out of their hideout.
- We Can Rule Together: Sauron offers to make Galadriel his wife, saying he would grant her godlike power and make her Queen of all Middle-earth. She refuses, saying he would corrupt her into a tyrant.Sauron: Together, we can save this Middle-earth.
Galadriel: Save? Or rule?
Sauron: I see no difference.
Galadriel: (pulls her dagger on him) And that is why I will never be at your side. - Wham Line: Celebrimbor unknowingly utters Sauron's words while talking about his project with Mithril (then a crown, soon reworked into the Rings of Power). Galadriel, having heard the exact same words from Adar, has the first definite clue of Halbrand's real identity, and so does the audience.Celebrimbor: We are on the cusp of crafting a new kind of power. Not of strength, but of spirit. Not of the flesh, but over flesh. This is a power of the Unseen World.
- Wizard Duel: As it turns out that the Stranger is an Istar, his battle with the Dweller is this.
- The Worf Effect: Galadriel has been shown to be a highly competent fighter throughout the season but it's made very clear that she's outclassed by Sauron in terms of sheer power.
