Weyman had a few episodes’ worth of screen time to really play with the physicality of The Stranger. His final words (“When in doubt….follow your nose”) to Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) are a mirror of ones spoken to another smaller traveling companion while stuck in Moria. “Rings of Power” stops just short of using that name explicitly, but it was another film trilogy nod that sealed the deal.
It didn’t take long after The Stranger ( Daniel Weyman) did a bit of palm whispering for folks to assume that this tall gangly miracle-maker dressed in grey was our old pal Gandalf. It’s a tactic the show used for its other season-capping explanation. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” - Credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video That handshake between adaptations and source material, coupled with the way that director Wayne Che Yip helps bring to life those quasi-dream sequences, is a key middle ground that the show can take advantage of going forward. That specific phrase is taken directly from Tolkien, and “Rings of Power” goes a step further by adding in some extra phrasing (“fair as the Sea and the Sun”) that Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson chose to reword in their version of the Frodo-Galadriel temptation sequence. The phrase “stronger than the foundations of the Earth” is enough to set off a totalitarian alarm bell or five, and it’s also a direct nod to one of the more striking moments in the 2000s film trilogy, when Galadriel herself echoes those same words. And he uses some memorable language to do so. In one of the more sinister proposals in this or any other universe, he shows her the prospect of them commanding the darkness together. Halbrand (Sauron? Saubrand? Halron?) toys with Galadriel’s consciousness, porting into her memories to sway her to his cause. It’s curious that both of the finale’s big character reveals take place in altered realities. He’s the Dark Lord looking to rule them all. Halbrand ( Charlie Vickers) isn’t in search of repairing some broken line of kings. But as Galadriel finds out in a streamside confrontation not too far from the forges where those Rings of Power are being made, the real Sauron was the friends we pulled out of the sea along the way. A cold open fakeout pointed three witchy fingers at the guy who came crashing down on a meteor. As anyone looking to dissect the finale has no doubt seen by now, “Alloyed” ripped off the Sauron mask with a wry smile.
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