"Shadow and Flame" Provides Epic Conclusions and Promises New Beginnings in The Rings of Power Season 2 Finale
The Rings of Power Season 2 Concludes With A Splendid and Satisfying Final Episode
*Spoiler-free Thoughts on Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 8 “Shadow and Flame”*
The finale of Season 2 of The Rings of Power is filled with darkness and fire, as Shadow and Flame suffuse each storyline that the finale deftly balances. The main plots crackle with weight and significance as each story reaches a point of resolution and of new beginnings.
But though Sauron is ascendant, many sacrifices are made, and some things that are lost are lost forever, there is still light to be found amidst the darkness.
"Shadow and Flame" is a compelling and satisfying conclusion to this season of The Rings of Power that starts with one of the most epic sequences of the show and doesn't let off the accelerator until the final scene. It delivers in every way you could ask for, bringing many storylines to a conclusion or resolution while seeding future storylines for season 3 and beyond as well.
If you've been on the fence about watching season 2 or The Rings of Power in general, I can't endorse it enough! Based on the journey so far and especially the season finale, you're going to want to give it a chance and experience the magic of Middle-earth for yourself.
*Spoilers for The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 8, “Shadow and Flame”*
Will you be a master or a servant? Choose the way of power or of selflessness? All throughout “Shadow and Flame,” characters are choosing whether to walk the way of domination or of self-denial.1
The title refers most obviously to the Balrog of Moria, who features prominently in the Khazad-dûm storyline. But shadows fall and flames burn all throughout each storyline in “Shadow and Flame.”
Khazad-Doom
Moria... you fear to go into those mines. The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the Darkness of Khazad-dûm: Shadow and Flame!
—Saruman, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
"Shadow and Flame" begins with one of the most stunning opening sequences I've ever had the pleasure of viewing in a television show. King Durin continues to delve too greedily and too deep, breaking through to a vast chamber with innumerable veins of mithril.
“Behold. The dynasty of Durin,” King Durin says to Prince Durin. “But to see our mountain the way I do, you have to wear a ring, my son.”
“It’s not our mountain, Father,” Prince Durin replies. “You taught me that.”
“With these rings, it could be.”
As the Durins contemplate the choice to cease being servants of the mountain and attempting to become its masters, the blue glow of the mithril is replaced by the orange glow of flames. In a moment of clarity, King Durin removes his Ring, sets it aside, says a final goodbye to Durin ("Forgive me, my son, King Durin"), and leaps towards the Balrog.
Their blades meet in an implosion of light and sound, shadow and flame, and King Durin III meets his Bane, sacrificing himself to atone for his own mistake and sealing the Balrog away again temporarily.2
The Faithful Face Persecution
In Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn must somehow delegitimize Míriel passing the judgment of the Valar, so he uses his knowledge gained from the palantír that Halbrand is Sauron as a trump card to cement his own mastery of the island kingdom. He spreads the word that Míriel survived the sea trial because she has allied herself with Sauron.3
The Valar weep as white petals fall from Nimloth while the Faithful are declared traitors and begin to be rounded up. Eärien has a moment of remorse and warns her father that Ar-Pharazôn’s forces are coming to arrest him. Elendil slips away while she distracts them and goes to Míriel, who he urges to leave with him to go to the West of Númenor where more Faithful, including his son Anarion, are.
But Míriel chooses not to fight for mastery of Númenor, instead maintaining that her place is there and that Elendil must go alone. Míriel gives him Narsil to take on the journey. “It is called Narsil. ‘The White Flame.’4 Reclaim your lordship, and with this sword, your destiny.”
Spurred by the knowledge that Sauron is active in Middle-earth, Ar-Pharazôn has sent Kemen to Middle-earth to turn neglected settlements like Pelargir into fortified garrisons that exact tribute and resources from the local populations. Númenor’s armament has begun, as has its colonization and attempted mastery of Middle-earth. This conveniently provides Isildur a way back to Númenor, but unfortunately for him Estrid is not allowed to return with him.
Friendship Or Power?
In Rhûn, the one who would serve the Secret Fire confronts the Shadow. The Stranger has chosen not to seek his staff and gone to rescue the Harfoots and Stoors, who have been captured by the Dark Wizard and the Gaudrim offscreen between episodes. The Stranger confronts the Dark Wizard, who calls him “old friend” and offers him everything that he is seeking if he will follow him: "Follow me and you shall have them: your past, your name, even your staff."
But The Dark Wizard overplays his hand, freeing Nori and Poppy by killing one of his own servants, the Gaudrim. When he asks Nori if she pities the man “whose blade was at your throat,” she replies with a simple, “Yes.”
"Pity will not defeat Sauron," the Dark Wizard warns (spoiler alert: it’s the pity of Bilbo and Frodo that rules the fate of many and leads to Sauron’s defeat!) but the Stranger rejects walking with the Dark Wizard and the answers he promises if it means becoming successors to Sauron and seeking to subjugate Middle-earth instead of serve it.
The Stranger then saves the Harfoots and Stoors from the magic of the Dark Wizard, but he cannot save the Stoors' village from being destroyed.
Prisoner of the Rings
Back in Eregion, smoke fills the air as the city burns. Orcs pour through the city, sacking it and leaving little untouched in their wake.
Sauron is busy torturing Celebrimbor. He wounds him physically with arrows and continues his mental torture by trying to convince him this is all his fault and that only by cooperating can he end his own suffering and the suffering of all Elves in the city.
Celebrimbor continues to refuse him, and with his final words speaks with clarity and prophetic sight:
CELEBRIMBOR: Your only craft is treachery. So pure, it shall betray the very hand that forges it.
SAURON: Your words are empty.
CELEBRIMBOR: No. No, hear me. Hear me! Shadow of Morgoth. Hear the dying words of Celebrimbor. The Rings of Power shall destroy you. And in the end, I foresee, One alone shall prove your utter ruin.At this, Sauron lashes out in anger, gruesomely impaling Celebrimbor on a spear and hoisting him up like a banner. “You're wrong. I am their creator. I am their master.”
But Celebrimbor knows that Sauron, no equal in his skill of crafting, is will be mastered by the very objects he wishes to master. “No. You are their...prisoner. Sauron, Lord of the Rings.” The title ‘Lord of the Rings’ has gone from a promise of glory whispered by Annatar to Celebrimbor to a prophecy of Doom Celebrimbor flings back in Sauron’s face.
Celebrimbor is spent. He exhales, closes his eyes, and dies. Thus ends Celebrimbor, greatest of Elven craft since his ancestor Fëanor. Sauron, considering the finality and significance of what has just happened, sheds a tear.
Glûg and other Orcs burst into the room and ask who he is. “Are you him? Are you Sauron?”
“I have many names,” Sauron replies again. “What is yours, Uruk?”
Sins of the Father
Elsewhere in Eregion, Galadriel leads a band of survivors in a desperate flight from the city, but orcs are waiting in ambush for them. She bargains with them to let the others go and bring her—and the Nine Rings—to Adar.
She finds Adar transformed, completely healed by wearing Nenya and restored to his original Elven form. But it is a tragedy and not a triumph, for this healing has physically separated him from his children just as his hatred for Sauron had already begun to separate him from them.
He gives Nenya back to Galadriel, offering her forgiveness and the chance not for more shadows and flames but to extinguish the dark and the fire: "I forgive you. No more flames and no more darkness. Let this Ring heal the rift between Elf and Uruk. Let us create a lasting peace in Middle-earth, now and forever."
But it is too late for that vision to come to pass. Sauron has drawn the Uruks, including Glûg, into his service. They betray and violently murder Adar in a reversal of their murder of Sauron in the opening episode of the season. Where Adar held Morgoth’s crown and stood over a dying Sauron, now Sauron holds the crown and stands over a dying Adar.
Sauron Victorious
Sauron has ascended, the new Dark Lord and heir to Morgoth, hailed by Adar's children who are no longer children.
Galadriel now faces Sauron alone in a battle not just with their swords and Morgoth's Crown but also of their minds and wills. Just like the conclusion to Season 1, he manipulates her with illusions and visions. He shifts from his Annatar form to Halbrand, Celebrimbor, even a mirror of Galadriel herself. "I would have placed a crown upon your head,” he tells her. “I would never had rested until all Middle-earth had been brought to its knees to worship the Light of its Queen"
Sauron physically overcomes her, impaling her on Morgoth's Crown as he was impaled by Adar. He reclaims the Nine Rings from her and stands victorious. He began the season with no army, no Rings, and no crown, but now he possesses the army of Orcs, the Nine Rings, and Morgoth's crown. His triumph is nearly complete.
Out of Catastrophe, Eucatastrophe. Out of Darkness, Light.
Horns blow. There are still some yet who resist him. The Dwarves have come, delayed but not deserting their friends. They are too late to save Eregion but they help the survivors escape to a valley north of Khazad-dûm.
Elrond, Gil-galad, and a very much still alive Arondir (“I’m not dead yet!”) escape their captors and join the fight.
Sauron attempts to bring Galadriel under his power and take her Ring from her. Galadriel holds out Nenya to Sauron, but closes her fist around it and falls backwards off the cliff rather than surrender it to him. Glûg informs Sauron of the arrival of the Dwarves...and is promptly slain by him. Welcome to Team Sauron.
Gil-galad, Elrond, and Arondir find Galadriel who has fallen to the earth and lies in a shot evocative of The Stranger resting in his impact crater.
The wound from Morgoth's crown is festering and even Gil-galad cannot heal her alone. But Elrond puts Nenya on, finally embracing the power and goodness of the Elven Rings, and together they heal Galadriel.
Something New
The Stranger bids farewell to Poppy and Nori, who are going with the Stoors to guide them on their first migration.
Poppy shares something Sadoc Burrows passed on to her when she lost her parents:
Some things can't be fixed. Some things lost are lost forever. No matter how hard we fight. How much it hurts, or how much our hearts yearn to put them back together. Cause this world's so much bigger than any of us. And sometimes the winds blowin' against us are just too strong. At those times, Mister Burrows said, we've just got to accept it. What's broke is broke and won't fix. And all anybody can do is try and build something new.
As Poppy gives this monologue, a montage flashes by:
The Durin, Disa, and the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm before an empty throne
Elrond looks back on a ruined Eregion before continuing on with the Elven survivors
Theo, Estrid, and her fiancé at the docks in Pelargir and Isildur on the Númenórean ship headed home.
Míriel in chains before the throne of Pharazon
Elendil riding away from the Númenórean capital in flames
Sauron holding the hammer of Fëanor
"It's high time I walked my path and you walked yours," Nori tells the Stranger. She leaves with the Stoors and as the Stranger turns to go too, he notices a very staff-like wand on the ground. He picks it up with a look of wonder and then returns to Tom Bombadil's house to share his insights on what just happened.
GANDALF: It was all a test, wasn't it? Another one of your riddles. I was meant to choose friendship over power. I was meant to help them. I was meant to find this.
TOM BOMBADIL: A wizard does not find his staff. It finds him. Like his name.
GANDALF: Gandalf. That's what they're going to call me, isn't it?
TOM: Now let the song begin.
GANDALF: Let us sing together.The camera pulls back and pans to the stars as Tom and Gandalf sing, revealing the constellation that guided Gandalf here since season 1. From this angle, it looks like the ‘G’ rune Gandalf uses in the letter for Frodo he leaves with Barliman Butterbur.
In the final scene of the episode, the Elven survivors gather in the valley that will become Imladris, or Rivendell, "A sanctuary. Protected by the Elven Rings."
Gil-galad and Elrond look to Galadriel for counsel. Should they go on the offensive against Sauron or fall back and fortify themselves? Wield the sword or the shield?
Galadriel is transformed after her escape from Sauron, falling and almost dying like Gandalf falls and dies in his confrontation with Durin’s Bane. She too is reborn, wearing white and radiant, “Galadriel the White.” She has become the Lady of Light, a light through all the coming darkness.
"I would remember the counsel of our dear friend, Celebrimbor, greatest of Elven-smiths,” she tells them, “and remind our people, that it is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light. And the sun yet shines."
Gil-galad draws his sword and holds it aloft, rallying the remnant of Eregion in a symbol of hope and defiance against the Shadow.
Galadriel has touched the darkness, and she has found the light. Yes, Darkness has risen this season, but so has the light to meet it.
Previous analysis of Rings of Power season 2 in Jokien with Tolkien:
Episodes 1–3:
Episode 4, “Eldest”
Episode 5, “Halls of Stone”
Episode 6, “Where Is He?”
Episode 7, “Doomed to Die”
Unfinished Tales
Where I share likes, dislikes, stray observations, quotes, and speculation/theories that didn’t make it into the above
I was so impressed by this episode! I thought they did an excellent job balancing everything that needed to get wrapped up while setting up season 3 at the same time. As they have been all season, I thought the Eregion and Khazad-dûm storylines were fantastic and found the other storylines anywhere from fine to very good. So overall a highly satisfying and enjoyable episode.
What about you? How did you feel like the second season finale was?
On first viewing the final sequence of Elrond, Galadriel, Gil-galad, and Arondir standing above the cheering Elves didn’t quite work for me, but in considering it a bit more I’ve come around to it and appreciate it more.
We will sorely miss the gravitas and stellar performances from Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor), Peter Mullan (King Durin), and Sam Hazeldine (Adar) next season. I loved each of their performances and found their character arcs satisfying and yet already wish we had more time with them. Adar especially was one of my highlights of both seasons: to have a compelling and fascinating character with believable motivations also be almost entirely original was so wonderful.
So Sauron’s totally going to use Fëanor’s hammer to forge the One Ring, isn’t he?
Alright, it’s official, The Stranger is Gandalf. It’s not what I really wanted, but I’m going to do my best to accept it and appreciate this version of his story for what it is. Still hoping the Dark Wizard is a Blue Wizard. Recent comments from the showrunners make it seem very unlikely he is Saruman, which is a relief:
McKay: I'll say something on the record. Given the history of Middle-earth, it would be highly, highly, highly improbable that this could be Saruman.Payne: If not impossible. (via Vanity Fair)
This episode reminded me of The Empire Strikes Back at points: Galadriel falling away from Sauron like Luke falling away from another Dark Lord, Eregion falling like Hoth, ending on the shot of the Elves regrouping at the site of Rivendell like the Rebel Alliance meeting at the rendezvous point outside the galaxy.
Got chills when Elendil drew Narsil.
CELEBORN WATCH:
Was Celeborn mentioned in Season 2, Episode 7? NOPE
Was Celeborn IN ROP Season 2, Episodes 7? STILL NO
Another season has come and gone and still no Celeborn. I thought perhaps he was one of the masked riders in Rhûn, forced to serve the Dark Wizard or something, but it doesn’t look likely now. Celeborn Watch will continue…in season 3!!
Appendices
This wraps up my coverage of season 2 of The Rings of Power! Thank you to everyone who has followed along, contributed, read, shared, and more! I’ve really enjoyed not just the show but getting to share all this with you all!
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Showrunner J.D. Payne had this to say in an interview with Vanity Fair: “If everyone is a master, everyone is also a slave because we're in this constant struggle for supremacy over each other. A radical solution to that basic human problem is being a servant, as Gandalf is. He becomes a leader in the sense that his job is to inspire fellowship amongst the different peoples of Middle-earth. That fellowship, that service, and that loyalty will ultimately overcome. And so Galadriel is learning her own version of that: it's not strength, and mastery, and force that are going to bring peace to Middle-earth but it's light, which is just a whole paradigm shift.” This servant-leadership sounds very Christian, appropriate as Tolkien’s faith influenced his work on both subconscious and conscious levels.
In the same Vanity Fair interview, showrunner Adam McKay said about the Balrog: "When you think about society-ending dooms, quite often it's not all in one fell swoop. It's a process...We think that Balrog can function similarly. It represents that kind of a generational doom rather than a bad thing that happened once."
It’s not exactly clear why everyone believes him: the evidence he shows is on a paper that we never see or have read in its entirety. But his word plus whatever evidence he manufactured is enough to start a persecution of the Faithful.
As “a combination of the stems NAR ("fire"; cf. nár "fire") + THIL ("white light")” ‘Narsil’ apparently means ‘red and white flame’ and “pointing to the Sun and the Moon, the "chief heavenly lights, as enemies of darkness" (via Tolkien Gateway)
I have mixed feelings overall.
What worked (Eregion, the Dwarves) continued to work. (Though I'm kinda confused as to what precisely Durin was hoping to achieve by fighting the Balrog.)
But man, the Stranger/Nori stuff feels like the writers realizing that they have no time for this and giving up. In addition to a bunch of things happening off-screen, the actual confrontation between the Wizards seems to pack an entire episode's worth of development into two scenes. And yet again, there is all this teasing but no real payoff.
I'm hoping that Nori and Poppy's story has been wrapped up - that's certainly what it felt like, so if the show returns for S3, we'll have only the Gandalf storyline to follow. It's weird though how the episode didn't tell us where they were going. Presumably, they're gonna try to find the Shire now, but still weird that this point wasn't really established here.
In retrospect, I wish they'd never had this thread and instead gave the real estate over to the other plots, especially Numenor, which was so much more engaging this year, especially with Elendil. I wish they'd actually do something to clearly establish that Adar's transformation into an Elf was the last straw for Glug. Too much connective tissue here seemed absent.
Here's hoping S3 fares better.
Unrelated, but I wish everyone would link their footnotes on Substack. *chef’s kiss*