It almost seems like yesterday when amazon premiered ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ in style on Prime video and today it’s time to say goodbye to the first season with the premiere of ‘allies’, the eighth episode of the series. As expected, it has been an episode with great revelations and that has finished planting the seeds for what is to come in Middle-earth.
Beware of spoilers from here.
‘Allies’ has focused almost solely on three open fronts, thus completely ignoring the overwhelming appearance of the balrolg at the end of ‘The Eye’. Well, the fairest thing would be to speak of two, since everything related to Numenor has been resolved rather quickly, first with Elendil’s promise to always stay by Miriel’s side only to come home with signs that the king was dead and then with Eärien’s discovery of the palantir, it remains to be seen what he will do with that information.
sauron
That part of the episode has been purely dedicated to paving the way for the second season, as the real big reveals have come in the other two. And it is that ‘Allies’ has definitively welcomed two key characters from Middle-earth. In the case of Sauron they have not beat around the bush, but with Gandalf they have been a little more subtle when it comes to making it clear that it is him.
Let’s start with Sauron, since ‘The Rings of Power’ has not gone crazy and one of the great favorites of the public to be it has ended up being The Dark Lord: Halbrand. The self-confidence he suddenly showed in everything related to mithril was already surprising and Galadriel confirmed it soon after.
Not that there’s anything revolutionary about the trope that he supposedly wants to heal what he corrupted at the time, since the idea of a villain wanting to fix the world has been used so many times that no one can really believe that’s his intentions anymore. Of course, his talk with Galadriel to try to convince her to work together has been among the best of the episode, both for the detail of the shadow of Sauron apparently characterized by his legendary armor and for the fact that it is the final event that was missing for that the character played by Morfydd Clark evolve. Of course, it will be necessary to see how his allies react when they discover that information that he keeps secret. Elrond has already done it.
In addition, the series has already begun to live up to its title with the forging of the three rings of power of the elves, making it clear that the rest will soon arrive with that song that accompanies the final credits. Let’s not forget either that Sauron is heading towards Mount Doom, where he forges the One Ring. that a long time later would also be destroyed there after an unforgettable adventure of Frodo Baggins.
There it is true that perhaps a little more decision has been lacking in ‘The Rings of Power’ by fearlessly embracing the darkness in those moments that lent themselves more to it, but it is also true that we are in an initial phase of Corruption of Middle-earth. The first episodes focused on showing its splendor and introducing us to its inhabitants, but then, little by little, everything has become more complicated.
Everything points to Gandalf
We have a good example of this in the other great plot line, since it initially plays with the idea that the stranger is actually Sauron. Even those acolytes of his get confused and start an unequal battle against that group of hairy guys who want to defend his friend.
It’s clear that those worshipers of Sauron could easily have ripped the fuzzys apart, but their attention was elsewhere until it was too late. One of them explicitly acknowledges his mistake by referring to him as an Istar, clarifying later to the spectators that they are magicians.
It is true that we are never told who it will be, but all suspicions point to Gandalf and the last sentence he says to Nori before embarking on his journey makes everything completely clear. That “When in doubt, always follow your nose“was something also said by the character played by Ian McKellen in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’…
Definitely, a very powerful season closing that paves the way for season 2, also giving us an answer to the enigma of who Sauron really was and basically confirming that Gandalf is also already there. Now it will be easy to wait until 2024 to see how the story continues.