Rings Of Power Season Finale: It’s Finally Over

This abomination of a show is finally over. The Rings of Power Season 1 Finale has come at last, and I couldn’t be any happier that I don’t have to subject myself to another hour of this nonsense for a while.

Never has there been a show in film history that has had so much money poured into it, worldwide promotion, intense speculation, uncontrollable anticipation, and rabid criticisms before it even hit out screens. If Rings of Power Season 1 will be remembered for anything, it should be how divisive it was from its inception.

Well, also that it was a huge failure with the general public.

This season of Rings of Power had an uncanny knack of rushing through character motivations and plot developments, but also feeling like it was moving at a snail’s pace. I don’t think there has been a clearer example of pacing issues in a Hollywood project today if you looked for one.

Whether it was the show stubbornly sticking with the Harefoots as their storyline progressed slower than a sloth in a 100-meter sprint, or the show’s invention of fast travel for the Numenorean’s as they traversed half the world in less than an hour twice, the showrunners and writers, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, showed that they have serious flaws in their own writing skills with plot and pacing.

You can’t spend six episodes with one storyline in the same place, and then speedrun around the planet in two episodes for another. There needs to be consistency, regardless of the storyline’s importance to the plot.

Speaking of consistency, none of the characters in this showed displayed any resemblance of it. You’ve heard me moan and groan about how awful a lot of these characters have been for the past seven weeks, so I’ll just keep my complaints contained to my thoughts on the finale. I’ll get into how I felt about the characters as a whole later.

So, as for the episode, it started out with a huge reveal as the cultists of Sauron find and confront the Stranger to tell him that he is…Sauron. Yay, the mystery is finally over! It only took us nearly nine painful hours to reveal what we all knew: that the Stranger is definitely not Sauron and that this is just another fake out.

Yeah, the Stranger was not Sauron, which we all knew. The Dark Lord is evil, but not a bumbling fool. Why would he shoot down from the sky and forget everything that happened to him before Morgoth’s defeat? He wasn’t captured by the Valar (in this version of the lore), just “defeated” by Adar.

Anyway, I’ll skip ahead a little and say that the Stranger is none other than Gandalf. After defeating the idiotic cultists, who somehow confused Sauron for Gandalf (how is that even possible? Don’t they know what he looks like?) with the help of Norri, Poppy, Sadoc (who dies), and Norri’s mother, Gandalf regains all of his memory and vows to travel east to Rhun, where the star constellation on his map leads.

Let me just say that 1. Why did the writers have Stranger act like a fool for nine hours? His actor did a really good job when actually portraying Gandalf, and 2. Why is Gandalf even here at this time in the story?

According to Tolkien, all of the wizards, and Gandalf in particular, came to Middle Earth in the 3rd Age when the forces of Men, Elves, and Dwarves were at their weakest. Now, I get wanting to put a wizard into the story for the audience’s sake, but why did it have to be Gandalf?

We already know a lot about him. Why couldn’t it be Saurman or one of the Blue Wizards? It would have been nice to see Saurman as a good guy, or to learn more about the Blue Astari.

Sure, the Stranger might still be one of these three as his name was never revealed, but he said exact quotes Gandalf said from the Lord of the Rings novels while talking to Norri (ex: “When in doubt, follow your nose.”, “Go back to the shadow”.)

We all know it’s Gandalf, even if Amazon wants us to believe he might not be.

As for the Numenor plotline, nothing happens besides the old king’s death. Elendil’s daughter does gain entry into the room where the Palantir is hidden, but the show doesn’t make any use of that fact. In fact, we never even see her again for the rest of the episode until the king is lying blue-faced and cold in his death bed.

Plus, all of the flags of Numenor were changed to black upon the fast-travel return of Miriel and Elendil, which probably just signified the death of the king. Though, it could also mean that the Kin’s Men faction led by Ar-Pharazon has taken over control of the government.

Now, for the big reveal of Sauron, it is shown that everyone’s favorite Southlander king, Halbrand, is the Dark Lord himself. Yup, Galadriel has been traveling with Sauron to find Sauron for this entire season and she never suspected the guy of being the Dark Lord once. Are you kidding me?!?!

Galadriel is supposed to be one of the most powerful and clairvoyant elves alive and she couldn’t even get a hint of evil from Sauron! Either Sauron has upped his game, or the writers made Galadriel and utter idiot. In my opinion, it’s the later.

Still, Galadriel brought Halbrand to Eregion, introduced him to Celebrimbor, and the pair worked together to use the mithril in forging the three elven rings of power. Meanwhile, Galadriel has some scribe research the history of the Southlander people to discover Halbrand’s true identity as he convinced Celebrimbor to make a weapon of the “unseen world”. You know, the whole reason he abandoned the frozen mountain fortress from episode one.

A little convenient choice of wording for Galadriel to pick up on, right?

Obviously, the scribe comes back and tells Galadriel that there is no Southlander king as the last one was slain one thousand years ago and that Halbrand is a liar.

I’ve got to be honest, I find it extremely hard to believe that Galadriel didn’t realize the last Southlander king was slain one thousand years ago by the forces of Sauron earlier.

Not only is she over 2,000 years old and has been living in Middle Earth for a long time, but she has also been traveling around Middle Earth trying to find the Dark Lord. How could she not have visited the Southlands and then heard about the death of their king by Sauron’s hand in that time?

Anywho, Galadriel then confronts Sauron, who strangely just admits his true identity without rebuttal, and then the pair engage in a mental battle. Sauron tried to convince Galadriel that’s he’s a force for order and strength, while also promising to make her his queen if she joins him. Galadriel is tempted at first (just like she was in the Lord of the Rings with the One Ring), but then refuses him as Sauron flees Eregion before she awakens.

First, let me just say that I really liked Charlie Vickers portrayal of the “fair Sauron”. He honestly did a great job of trying to corrupt and seduce Galadriel to the shadow, though I really dislike the context around his character’s revelation.

I still can’t get over how Galadriel didn’t even get the slightest of hints that he’s the Dark Lord even though she traveled with him for months across two different continents.

Nonetheless, Elrond finds Galadriel, the pair hug, and then Galadriel allows Celebrimbor and his smith apprentices to forge the rings, but adds that there should be three of them. One for Celebrimbor, one for High-King Gil-galad, and one for Galadriel herself.

And then the episodes ended with a shot of the rings of power (which looked great), Celebrimbor looking proudly over his work, Galadriel focused on re-finding Sauron, and Elrond angry/dumbfounded with the Southlander linage scroll in his hand as Galadriel never actually told them that Halbrand was Sauron.

All she said was to not let Halbrand back into Eregion when asked by Elrond and Celebrimbor, which I’m not even sure Celebrimbor was even paying attention to her as she said it so nonchalantly.

So, as far as I’m aware, every elf in that city (aside from Galadriel) doesn’t know that Sauron was literally walking freely amongst them a few minutes ago. Why didn’t she say anything!?!?

You know what, I don’t really care. I’m just glad this show is over with, and I don’t have to waste another hour of my life on it. The Season 1 finale of Rings of Power gets a 4.5/10 from me. What a disappointment this show has ended up being.

Oh, before I forget, with Sauron getting outed after only three rings were forged, how are the other 16 getting made? It is clearly established that Sauron helped Celebrimbor forge NINE RINGS for the kings of men and SEVEN RINGS for the Dwarf Lords, while Celebrimbor used this knowledge to forge three for the elves in the lore.

Why would Celebrimbor forge anymore rings now that he already has the elven rings made? And how are the other rings going to get forged now that not only is Sauron gone, but also the mithril that’s used to make them has been locked off by King Durin III?

It just doesn’t make sense.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Amazon) (Season Finale Trailer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Prime Video – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Amazon) (Season Finale Trailer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Prime Video – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (Amazon) (Season Finale Trailer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Prime Video – YouTube)

In Text Image 3: (Amazon) (Season Finale Trailer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Prime Video – YouTube)

In Text Image 4: (Amazon) (Season Finale Trailer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Prime Video – YouTube)