The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Southlands’ true name is revealed

After the shocking eruption of Mount Doom that seemingly ravished the Southlands, the fierce warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) found a way to survive in the penultimate episode of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power… which reveals that The Sounthlands are in fact now the dark area known as Mordor.

The seventh episode’s title – The Eye – teased the eye of Sauron, though the powerful enemy has still not been fully revealed yet, though the episode did offer a glimpse at the powerful yet unnamed character played by Bridie Sisson.

The episode also reveals the diminutive Harfoot’s reaching their destination with the mysterious (and massive) Stranger (Daniel Weyman) while tension rises between Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and Durin (Owain Arthur) over the mining of mithril.

The episode begins exactly where last week left off – with the destruction of the Southlands by the eruption of Mount Doom.

The final shot of last week’s episode showed Galadriel standing tall in the face of this destruction, though the episode left her fate unknown.

The very first shot of The Eye shows Galadriel opening her own eye, her body covered in ash but somehow still alive as she slowly makes her way to her feet.

Small fires are seen burning all around her as she’s startled by a horse galloping through… its entire back on fire – as Galadriel gets out of its way.

She sees the bodies strewn across the ashen landscape, as some are heard calling for help while Galadriel calls for Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) and Elendil (Lloyd Owen).

Instead she hears Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) calling for his mother Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) as Galadriel goes to him, asking if he’s hurt.

He’s clearly dazed by her presence but he says he isn’t hurt as they walk off together as we see more of the fiery destruction.

Isildur (Maxim Baldry) is seen trying to pull a pinned Valandil (Alex Tarant) out from under a collapsed roof, as he asks where Ontamo (Anthony Crum) is. 

Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai Robinson) emerges and helps Isildur lift the roof and allow Valandil to get free… but then they find the unresponsive Ontamo beneath him.

Both Isildur and Valandil watch for any movement but Miriel tells them he’s gone and lead them to help others who are trapped.

They remove the door of a home while the roof is on fire, trying to get them out before the roof collapses on top of them.

Isildur tries to brace the roof with another beam as Miriel leads the others to safety, and while they get out, Miriel goes back for Isildur when the fiery roof collapses… though Valandil pulled her out as he calls for Isildur, who was still inside during the collapse. 

The episode cuts back to the beloved Harfoot’s, as Poppy (Megan Richards) sings another song as they continue forth.

Largo (Dylan Smith) notices ‘The Grove up ahead,’ adding, ‘I think this is it!’ though Marigold (Sara Zwangobani) mentions, ‘You said that three days ago.’

Nori (Markella Kavenagh) insists that her father Largo is right, adding, ‘Do you smell that? Wood smoke! The others must’ve started baking!’ 

A giddy Nori helps Poppy pull the cart up a hill… though they’re stunned when they see the smoke is from a torched tree, as Sadoc (Lenny Henry) inspects the damage – clearly from the eruption of Mount Doom.

Poppy asks Sadoc what happened and he tells them, ‘My great-grand used to speak of mountains to the south that could spit fire-rock.’

‘He said they go to sleep. Sometimes for hundreds of years. Only to wake again when a new evil is rising,’ a worried Sadoc tells them.

The Stranger arrives with his cart, looking around, as the Harfoots start picking the charred fruit remains from the trees.

Sadoc approaches Nori and asks her about The Stranger a.k.a. ‘the big fella’ asking if maybe he could ‘fix’ the charred tree.

Other Harfoots chime in and try to get Nori to ask, when Poppy chimes in adding, ‘He’s done so much for us. It’s a might rude of us to ask more of him.’

A frustrated Sadoc says he will ask The Stranger himself and storms off while we see The Stranger examining one of the remaining trees, speaking in another language.

The Harfoot’s wonder what he’s saying, while Sadoc surmises he’s speaking in ‘little words’ so the trees can understand but others suggest that trees can’t talk.

Suddenly thunder rumbles and the tree starts shaking as Largo proclaims, ‘Great-goats. It’s working.’

The bark of the tree starts crackling while an awestruck Dilly Brandyfoot (Beau Cassidy) steps forward and says, ‘He’s fixing it. Just like Sadoc said he would.’

The Stranger screams and one of the huge branches of the tree breaks off as Nori shields her younger sister Dilly as the huge branch falls on both of them.

The rest of the Harfoots rush over but both Nori and Dilly are fine, but when The Stranger realizes what he’s done, the rest of the Harfoots are now clearly afraid of him and what he’s capable of.

The episode cuts back to Khazad-dum, where Elrond is with both his friend Durin and King Durin III (Peter Mullan).

‘We ask for something sacred from this mountain. And so we offer something sacred in return,’ Elrond begins.

‘In exchange for access to your mithril mines, the Elves are prepared to furnish this city with game, grain and timber from the elder forests of Eriador for the next five centuries,’ Elrond explains.

Two of the dwarf guards mutter in Khuzdul, ‘Quite a promise, if they can keep it,’ as Elrond turns to them and says in English, ‘I never made a promise I didn’t.’

King Durin says, ‘I see you’ve learned a few words of stone tongue. Impressive,’ before adding, ‘Tell me, why should we trust any Elf?’

‘You should not. But you can trust me. For I am no common Elf, but Elrond Half-elven. And I see in Elves that which they cannot see in themselves,’ Elrond says.

‘That is why I stand before you now alone,’ He adds, before kneeling to King Durin, adding he’s, ‘pleading to save my people. Please, noble King. Help us.’

King Durin looks to his son the Prince, who offers a slight smile, as the King says he will speak to his son now, as Elrond is escorted out.

Prince Durin asks, ‘What is to be your answer, Father?’ as King Durin holds a leaf, stating, ‘It is said that when Aule created out people, he crafted us of two elements: Fire and Rock.’

‘The rock that lives within us hungers for the eternal, resisting the pull of time. But the fire embraces truth. That all things must one day be consumed and fade away to ash,’ King Durin says, as his son shakes his head.

‘We do not dig in earth that cannot support it. Delving into depths beyond the darkness. Tempting shadow, rock and mine, to bury us all beneath the mountain. I will not risk Dwarven lives to help the Elves cheat death,’ King Durin says, which infuriates Prince Durin.

‘Cheat death?! Father… my friend is drowning, reaching for me to pull him ashore. You expect me to swat his hand away because you’re afraid of a bloody rock fall?’ Prince Durin says.

‘The fate of the Elves was decided many ages ago. By minds much wiser, much farther-seeing than our own. Defy their will, and this entire kingdom may fall, perhaps the entire Middle-earth,’ King Durin adds.

‘I am sorry,  my son, but their time has come,’ King Durin says, as the episode cuts immediately to Prince Durin’s home and his wife Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete).

‘Lice-bearded, uncaring, old fool!’ Disa exclaims while forging a new weapon, though Durin softly adds, ‘What if he’s right?’

‘You’re not thinking of lettin’ this happen!’ Disa adds, but Durin says, ‘What choice to we have?’

‘You said the other Dwarf-lords were open to the proposal. If we re-open the mine ourselves, prove to them there’s a safe way to gather mithril, perhaps they’d make him listen,’ Disa passionately adds.

‘Perhaps we could force your father’s hand,’ Disa says, but Durin says he’s not just his father, but their king.

‘What kind of father would I be if I teach our children the will of a king should be counted as dross to be cast to the wind?’ Durin asks.

Disa sighs and drops the scalding hot weapon into a vat of water, adding, ‘All right, fine. I shouldn’t have said he had lice in his beard, or called him a fool.’

She adds that she hates it when he, ‘heaps slag on my mother,’ though Durin adds, ‘In your mother’s case she actually does have lice in… I’m joking, I’m joking.’

The door opens and Elrond enters, as Durin gives him a sigh and he knows immediately that King Durin turned down his proposal.

‘Don’t supposed I can elbow you into staying for dinner?’ Durin asks, though Elrond says, ‘Gil-galad must be informed.’

‘And soon, he will no longer be a king, for there will no longer be a Lindon,’ Elrond says, as Durin adds, ‘So this is goodbye then?’

‘We do not say goodbye,’ Elrond says, approaching a teary-eyed Durin adding, ‘We say Namarie,’ which Elrond explains, ‘It means more than simply farewell. It means, “Go towards goodness.”‘

Elrond gives Durin the small piece of mithril back before leaving his home.

A sad Durin sits down and slides the piece of mithril across the table… landing next to the gold leaf with black rot all over it… but in the presence of the mithrill… the black rot starts to dissipate, which Durin immediately notices.

A stunned Disa joins her husband as they see, within moments, the gold leaf is fully restored, as Durin shouts for Elrond. 

The episode cuts back to the ravaged Southlands, as we see the fiery Mount Doom still erupting in the background as we see Theo and Galadriel keeping watch together.

Theo asks why the Orcs did this and Galadriel says, ‘To make this their home. Their Shadow Land.’

Theo suggests they take their land back and drive them off, but Galadriel says they have, ‘neither position nor reinforcement. These lands are dead. We must rally to the living.’

Theo suggests, ‘Or put steel down their throats’  as he tries to run off but Galadriel quickly stops him saying it is over, but Theo insists, ‘It isn’t for me!’

Galadriel says, ‘We must’ and he starts to calm down before asking why she’s so ‘bothered’ adding, ‘it isn’t your fault.’

‘Yes it is,’  Galadriel insists.

Elendil is seen helping move the downtrodden survivors along, though he’s looking for something.

He smiles when he sees a young man walking a horse, calling out, ‘Isildur’ though it isn’t his son, though someone shouts that the Queen is alive and Elendil hops on his horse and rushes over.

He gets off his horse and finds Queen Regent Miriel walking with Valandil, as Elendil offers them his horse, but both Miriel and Valandil are stricken with grief.

Elendil asks where his son is, but they don’t answer, as the episode cuts back to Theo with Galadriel, with Theo asking if everyone is dead, including his mother Bronwyn and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova).

‘What cannot be known hollows the mind. Fill it not with guesswork,’ Galadriel tells him, as Theo asks where they’re going.

‘Numenor set their camp upon that ridgeline, beyond that far peak. That is where they shall hie to, along with any survivors, your mother included’ she tells Theo.

She tells him to ‘be wary’ because now the Orcs will, ‘move in daylight now’ as Theo says he has killed Orcs before.

She says there were no such thing as Orcs when she was a child and he asks how many she has killed and she says, ‘Many.’

Theo says that is, ‘good’ but she tells him not to say that because it, ‘darkens the heart to call dark deeds good. It gives evil a place to thrive inside us.’

‘Every war is fought both without and within. Of that, every soldier must be mindful. Even I. Even you,’ Galadriel tells him as they keep walking… as we see something watching them.

He asks if he’s a soldier then as Galadriel stops and turns to Theo, handing him her sword, adding, ‘Perhaps we can make one of you yet.’

He takes the sword, glancing at it, before continuing to follow her, as the episode cuts to Miriel on horseback with Elendil and Valandil flanking her on foot, with others seen with them.

Miriel asks how much further it is to the encampment and Elendil says it is, ‘just beyond this rise.

She asks how far until they’re clear of the smoke… before rephrasing… ‘How long have we been clear of it?’

‘Nearly a mile,’ Elendil answers as she says, ‘I see,’ when Elendil puts his hand on hers, adding, ‘Do you?’

‘Only grey,’ Miriel says, adding, ‘Guide my horse. No one need notice’ before begging him to keep walking, which he ultimately does.

They keep climbing to the top of the rise as the episode cuts back to the Harfoots, as Sadoc says, ‘They called it Greenwood the Great. Keep your head down and your eye on that line of cliffs. You’ll find the big folk settlements on the far side,’ as it’s seen he’s talking to The Stranger.

Sadoc hands The Stranger a map, adding, ‘With any luck, the people there can help you find your stars,’ as The Stranger unfolds the rudimentary map.

‘Cause all I can tell you is, Harfoot folk haven’t seen ’em since the days our ancestors lived in parts unknown over a thousand years ago. And that’s a long time to wander. Even for a fellow with big legs,’ Sadoc says, as The Stranger nods and stands up.

He gives Sadoc a slight smile and walks down the hill as Sadoc heads back to the rest of his clan… but while he does we see a small sprout growing within the knothole of the tree they were sitting by.

The Stranger finds the Brandyfoot clan – except Nori – who all smirk at him with indifference, when Nori approaches, extending an apple towards him.

He slowly reaches out and takes it, as they share a look before he walks away.

Nori is back in a hut with her mother Marigold, telling her she should have, ‘stayed on path’ and when she saw that star falling, ‘I should’ve just let it alone.’

‘You tried to tell me, Mother, but I couldn’t understand. I’m just a Harfoot. That’s all I’ll ever be,’ Nori says, as her mother asks her to go to bed, she can tend to the rest in the morning, but she stays put as Marigold leaves.

The episode cuts back to Galadriel and Theo taking a rest in the forest as night has fallen, as Theo asks if she’s lost anyone close to the Orcs.

‘My brother, Finrod,’ she says, while twirling his dagger and sheathing it. ‘And my husband. Celeborn, was his name. We met in a glade of flowers. I was dancing and he saw me there.’

Theo turns to her, surprised, adding, ‘You? Were dancing?’ She responds, ‘The war seemed so very far away then.’

‘When he went to it, I chided him. His armor didn’t fit properly. I called him a silver clam. I never saw him again after that,’ Galadriel says with sorrow in her voice.

Theo adds, ‘My lady, what you said before, you’re wrong. It isn’t your fault. It’s mine.’

‘You did not intend for this to happen,’ she tells him, but he adds, ‘I gave power to the enemy. So that makes me responsible.’

‘Some say that is the way of things. But I believe the wise also look upon what is in our hearts. And this was not in yours,’ Galadriel says.

‘Do not take the burden of this day upon your shoulders, Theo. You may find it difficult to put it down again,’ she tells him.

He asks how he can let it go and she says, ‘There are powers beyond darkness at work in this world. Perhaps on days such as this, we have little choice but to trust their designs, and surrender our own.’

‘My home is gone. Where’s the design in that?’ Theo asks, as Galadriel says, ‘I cannot yet see it,’ when they hear the unmistakable grunting of Orcs.

They get lower in the trench and see an Orc battalion walking past, when Theo starts to unsheathe his sword, but Galadriel stops him.

They stop, hearing the sword, as two Orcs start walking below for a closer look, just above Galadriel and Theo… one of them starting to sniff the air.

Another asks what he smells and he says, ‘Ashes. Nothing but ashes’ and they go back to the formation and leave.

Galadriel tells him, ‘Rest while you can. We leave at first light,’ though Theo responds, ‘What light?’

The episode cuts back to Khazad-dum, deep in the mines, as Prince Durin pounds away at the rocks with Elrond behind him.

The mines rumble as Durin says it was, ‘Another tremor,’ and Elrond says they need to give, ‘the rocks time to resettle’  as they take a break and Elrond hands Durin a canteen, but he refuses it.

‘Self-discipline, master Elf,’ Durin says, as Elrond asks if he thinks that will ‘bring him success.’

‘It did in our contest,’ Durin says, referring to their endurance contest when Elrond first came to Khazad-dum.

‘Did it?’ a somewhat smug Elrond says, sitting down across from Durin, as he realizes, ‘You lost on purpose?’

‘My aim was never to defeat you, but to gain your ear awhile longer,’ Elrond says with a smile, as Durin says, ‘Elf lies’ before Elrond admits, ‘I was… winded.’

Durin lets out a sigh and says, ‘Blast it,’ and Elrond hands him the canteen as he takes a drink adding he always thought he was, ‘Dwavish for an Elf,’ and Elrond says Durin is, ‘Elvish for a Dwarf.’

Elrond jokes that he is the ‘Son of Durin and grandson of…’ as Durin says, ‘Scoff if you like. The mightiest thing a Dwarf can do is to be worthy of the name of his father,’ as Elrond seemingly pines for his lost father.

Durin says they do have their, ‘secret names for use only amongst ourselves’ adding they ‘reveal them only to family –  wives, fathers, sisters…brothers.’

Durin is about to say something and Elrond tells him to, ‘save it… for the far side,’ as Durin agrees and gets back to work.

The caves rumble again as Durin strikes his axe… which breaks through to the other side, as Elrond takes a look, seeing loads of mithril leading to the bottoms of the tree roots.. but when Elrond turns back…he sees King Durin waiting.

Prince Durin says, ‘It’s more than we ever imagined,’ as Elrond tries to speak but the King, flanked by guards, shouts, ‘Enough!’

Prince Durin pleads his father to, ‘just look at it,’ but the King tells his guards to, ‘seize the Elf.’

They shove Elrond out of Khazad-dum as he sits on a rock, revealing he’s holding a small piece of mithril in his hand.

Prince Durin is speaking with his father, who tells him that when his mother birthed him, ‘something inside you was ill-formed.’

‘Your breathing was ragged and dry. A tiny, pitiful sound, like scraping chalkstones. Folks said you’d never see your first winter. And every night, after your mother’s weeping eyes had found refuge in sleep, I held you to the firelight, kept your chin up all night long. Seemed to ease the burden a little. And one night, I gazed down on your tiny, naked face, and I saw upon it the great grey beard of an old Dwarven-king,’ King Durin says.

‘Mighty and terrible as an army with banners. And when your mother woke, I told her she need cry no more. Our son would live and he would move mountains!’ King Durin adds.

Prince Durin turns to his father and says, ‘How do you expect me to move mountains when you fall to pieces when I dig a single hole?’

‘You speak of greatness in me but you suffocate in me any ambition, any desire, any thought that does not originate in you,’ Prince Durin says.

‘The Iron that must bear the most heavy of burdens must also endure the most rigorous tempring!’ King Durin adds.

Prince Durin adds, ‘Consigning your allies to death is not tempering! Elrond is as much a brother to me as if he’d been fired in my own mother’s womb.’

King Durin solemnly says, ‘How dare you. How dare you invoke your mother’s memory to defend your decision to betray your own kind?’

Prince Durin angrily stands up and says, ‘No it is you who betrayed our kind! Squandering our future so you can cling to the past! You profane the crown you wear!’

The King approaches his son the Prince and removes his gold neckplate and tosses it aside before walking away from his son. 

Prince Durin picks it up but King Durin stops and says, ‘Leave it. It’s not yours anymore’ before walking away.

The episode cuts back to the Harfoots, as Poppy is singing away as Nori wakes up and chides her for eating an apple, saying they have to save them.

‘Why don’t you take a look outside, then we’ll talk,’ Poppy says with a smile, as Nori gets out of the cart and finds all of the trees now fully in bloom with plenty of fruit for everyone, and then some.

Sadoc says,’ We’ll go to market with that crop, won’t we?’ as Nori says, ‘I don’t understand. How?’

‘How do you think? He fixed it,’ Poppy says, as Largo finds Nori and says, ‘Can you believe it Nori? There’s enough bounty here to feast tonight and still have enough left over to last to Frozen Fish.’ 

Poppy adds that Malva is going to make something called applesauce as we see several Harfoot hands picking apples from the many trees and filling their baskets.

Poppy is down by a stream, singing away as usual as she fills up her bucket with water, when something stops her in her tracks.

She bends down to take a closer look and finds a rather large footprint, which causes her to run off and leave her bucket in the stream.

The stream current carries the bucket… as  the mysterious character played by Bridie Sisson (whose name has not yet been revealed) finds it and and examines it, while flanked by two others (Edith Poor and Kali Kopae).

Later that night, Poppy brings Nori back to the stream, as they watch those three mysterious characters gather near a tree.

Bridie’s character puts her hands on the tree, plucking the small flower than has grown from it while another character points a finger straight ahead.

They all start walking away from the tree as Nori runs after them and says, ‘Wait! You’re going the wrong way!’

All three stop as Nori points the opposite direction and says, ‘He went that way!’ But when she turns back, all three have vanished without a trace.

Dylan rushes up and shouts for Nori when the three mystery characters pluck something from her hair as she turns around to find them towering over her.

Largo and Marigold and Sadoc rush up with torches telling them to, ‘Leave her alone,’ but the trio are unfazed.

Largo says, ‘You harm a hair on her foot and I’ll brain the lot of ya’ while brandishing a torch… but the main bald character simply puts her hand on the torch and extinguishes the flame in an instant.

She blows the embers from her hand as fires ignite within the makeshift Harfoot village behind them while Poppy embraces her mother.

The Harfoots can do nothing but watch everything they have burn.

The episode cuts to the Southlands, where Elendil has made it back to the Numenor camp, as a soldier fails to control Isildur’s beloved horse Berek.

Elendil calms the beast down immediately, telling the horse it’s going home… but the horse stands its ground.

Elendil pleads with the horse but Valandil says, ‘He won’t listen to you. He won’t listen to any of us,’ as Elendil pets the horse’s mane.

Suddenly Berek takes off running into the woods as Elendil reflects on his choices, adding, ‘I should have never pulled the Elf on board. I should’ve left her in the sea where I found her.’ 

Galadriel and Theo approach the camp from the hillside, as Theo rushes down but Galadriel seems to be in no hurry.

Theo walks through the camp, entering a tent where the wounded are being treated… some with minor injuries some with quite severe injuries.

He finds a woman with a pony tail but it’s not hiss mother and sees another dark-haired woman under a bloody blanket.

‘Theo?’ Bronwyn says from behind her as the mother and son embrace, as Theo also sees Arondir and gives him a big hug.

Galadriel enters the tent and Arondir bows to her, as Galadriel asks if the Queen Regent is there.

We see Miriel sitting high up in the mountains… a crimson blindfold covering her eyes, as Elendil arrives and tells her that preparations are complete and they can leave within the hour.

‘What of the Southlanders?’ Miriel asks, as Elendil says, ‘One garrison will remain behind to escort them to a safe settlement… and search for our missing.’

Galadriel approaches, as Elendil finds it hard to hide his contempt. Galadriel approaches and wells up when she sees the Queen is blinded.

Galadriel drops to one knee as Miriel reminds her, ‘No one kneels in Numenor,’ though Galadriel reminds the Queen, ‘You are not in Numenor. Neither of you are. A fault that is mine alone,’ though Elendil interrupts and says, ‘Our ships are waiting, my Queen.’

Elendil shoots Galadriel a dirty look and says, ‘Let us put this land behind our sails,’ though Miriel reaches out and puts her hand on Galadriel’s face.

‘Do not spend your pity on me, Elf. Save it for our enemies, for they do not know what they have begun,’ Miriel says with conviction.

Miriel puts her hand in Galadriel’s and she helps the Queen Regent up, who adds, ‘For I, Miriel, daughter of Ar-Inziladun, vow this. Numenor will return,’ which clearly upsets Elendil.

Galadriel tells Miriel, ‘Then the Elves will be ready,’ while Miriel tells Elendil, ‘Captain, we sail with the tide,’ though no one answers.

Elendil is seen fighting back tears as the episode cuts back to the Harfoots, cleaning up what’s left of their village.

Largo finds Nori just sitting down and commands her to get on her feet and help gather what she can.

When she doesn’t respond, he says, ‘Nori, now. Don’t let this splinter your spirit, it will be all right.’

Marigold tells her husband not to lie to Nori, adding, ‘She’s too old for that now,’ but he insists, ‘I wasn’t lyin’. It will be all right.’

Sadoc approaches and tells Largo to, ‘give us a moment to weep,’ though Largo says, ‘Weeping? Is that all you think we have left in us?’

‘We’re Harfoots! Look, we don’t slay dragons. Not much for diggin’ jewels, but there’s one thing we can do, I warrant, better than any creature in all Middle-earth. We stay true to each other. No matter how the path winds, or how steep it gets, we face it, with our hearts, even bigger than our feet. And we just keep walkin’,’ Largo says, as Nori gives her father a nod.

They all go back to gathering what they can as Nor gets up and grabs a satchel and puts it over her shoulder, as Marigold asks where she’s going.

‘To help my friend. Warn him what’s comin’. He deserves at least that,’ Nori says as Sadoc says, ‘Going off-trail? Now? Alone?’

‘She won’t be alone,’ Poppy says, grabbing a satchel herself and joining Nori, adding, ‘We’ve left enough folk behind. We’re not leaving him.’

Marigold speaks up and says, ‘You girls aren’t going anywhere… not without me,’ as Largo asks if she’s sure about this.

Vilma (Maxine Cunliffe) says if they go into those woods they may not come out alive, while Malva (Thusitha Jayasundera) adds, ‘They might, if a trail-finder were to go with them. Brandyfoot girl was right to help him. Was right all along. And if you think that Malva Meadowgrass is too proud to admit it, well what’s the good of livin’, Saodc, if we aren’t livin’ good?’

Sadoc looks at Malva and says, ‘You know Malva, once it would be grand if you weren’t right all the time,’ as Malva gives him a smile.

Sadoc looks at the girls and says he will fetch his provisions and a stick and he’s coming with them.

Sadoc leads the way with Nori, Poppy and Marigold following, as Nori asks if they’re going to find him as Sadoc says, ‘He’s a bloody giant. How could we miss him?’ 

The episode cuts back to the sea as Miriel is seen sailing away, while we watch Galadriel and Arondir watching her leave.

Arondir asks if Miriel will keep her promise and Galadriel says she is ‘certain of it.

Bronwyn arrives and says all of the ‘bones have been set’ and the ‘wounds bound,’ adding they can travel now.

Galadriel asks where they will go, as Bronwyn says, ‘An old Numenorean colony by the mouth of the Anduin. Pelargir, they called it. They say there’s fresh land, fresh water,’ as Arondir adds, ‘A fresh start.’

Galadriel says she will, ‘report to our High King, to face whatever awaits me,’ as Bronwyn says, ‘But what of our King?’

‘Your King?’ Galadriel asks, as Bronwyn asks, ‘Has no one informed you?’ as Galadriel is taken to see Halbrand, telling him she thought he had died.

‘Better for me if I had done,’ he says, as he has a massive bloody wound in his belly, as Arondir says Southlanders found him on the road like that.

Bronwyn adds the wounds have, ‘soured overnight,’ as Galadriel says the wound needs, ‘Elvish medicine’ as Bronwyn says she will gather what provisions she can for Halbrand to ride as Bronwyn and Arondir leave the tent.

Galadriel turns to Halbrand and says, ‘Well my friend. It seems fate has in store for us one more raft.’

Halbrand says, ‘This is not over. I will not abandon these lands and condemn them to burn. Nor will you.’

Galadriel leaves the tent with Halbrand, as everyone bows as he walks past, while Bronwyn says, ‘Strength to the King!’ as others repeat it while Galadriel and Halbrand mount their steeds.

Theo approaches Galadriel and holds up the sword she gave him earlier in the episode, and she smiles and tells him, ‘Keep it, soldier.’

Galadriel and Halbrand start to ride off when Theo yells, ‘Strength to the Southlands!’ as others begin chanting.

The episode cuts back to Khazad-dum as Prince Durin and Disa are drowning their sorrows in ale, with Durin saying he failed Elrond and it’s, ‘all my fault.’

‘No. No it isn’t,’ Disa says, adding it’s his father’s fault, adding he’s grown to ‘old’ and ‘suspicious.

‘His mind too feeble, his eyes too dim to see that now matter how many crests he hurls to the floor, one day this will be your kingdom,’ Disa says.

‘Not your brother’s. Not some other Dwarf-lords. Yours and mine. And together we will rule this mountain and all others before our time is done. That mithril belongs to us. To you and me. And one day together, we are going to dig,’ Disa says as they embrace and kiss.

Meanwhile, King Durin notices the gold leaf has been completely healed, but throws it in the hole that Prince Durin made.

‘Seal it up,’ King Durin says, as the gold leaf  tumbles through the depths of the chasm… before landing on black soil and immediately bursting into flames… which awakens the demon of fire known as the balrog.

The episode cuts back to the now-fiery Southlands as Adar (Joseph Mawle) is walking through the ashes, telling his Orcs to, ‘cast off your sun-cloaks and your helms. You are no longer to be burdened by the day. This is our land now. It is our home.’

Waldreg (Geoff Morrell) says, “Hail Adar, Lord of the Southlands,’ which the Orcs repeat, while Adar sits down and says, ‘No.’

‘That is the name of a place that no longer exists,’ Adar says, as Waldreg asks what they should call it instead.

While he doesn’t answer, Adar looks at the fiery ruins of Mount Doom… as a graphic that reads The Southlands changes to a name Tolkien fans will recognize: Mordor – the dark lands the hobbits journeyed through in The Lord of the Rings trilogy… as the episode comes to an end. 

The preview for next week’s Season 1 finale goes back to Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), who tells Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) that, ‘The Great Tree is all but bleeding leaves.’

There are also shots of Galadriel saying she did not cross the great ocean only to drown now while we see a number of other cryptic shots of the final episode.

The finale of the eight-episode season arriving Thursday, October 13 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.