Sauron Revealed in The Rings of Power Finale

After weeks of foreshadowing, Sauron finally revealed himself in the finale of The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. It turns out that Sauron was hiding under our noses the entire time, as Galadriel learned that Halbrand was actually the Dark Lord during last night’s episode. After going to Eregion for elvish healing, Halbrand quickly takes an interest in Celebrimbor’s project to use mithril to create some sort of artifact that can be used to pass on the light of the Simarils onto the elves and prevent them from fading from Middle-Earth. Halbrand suggests a solution – combine the mithril with other metals to form an alloy and then use that new amplified metal to create a crown. Although Halbrand is never named as Annatar (a nom de plume meaning “Lord of Gifts”, which Sauron used in The Simarillion), he does offer this advice as “a Gift.”

Galadriel started to get suspicious when Celebrimbor started to describe this proposed crown’s power not as a way to save the elves, but rather as a powerful weapon that could control the power of the “Unseen World.” That power sounded identical to what Adar described Sauron’s true goal was, so Galadriel did some more research into the King of the Southlands. She learned that the line of the Southlands kings died out a thousand years ago and confronted Halbrand. During a sequence in which Sauron invades Galadriel’s mind, he pointed out that Galadriel was the one who pushed him into accepting the title of King and that he never technically lied about his identity. While Sauron wants to “heal” Middle-Earth by controlling it, he does offer Galadriel a place by his side as his queen. She rejects the offer and when she comes to, Halbrand/Sauron has disappeared and made his way back to Mordor. 

However, Halbrand’s help does bear fruit, as Celebrimbor combines the mithril with Galadriel’s dagger (the one which originally belonged to her brother Finrod) to create the three Rings of Power for the elves, which went untouched from Sauron’s influence. 

We’ll have to see how these Elven Rings are used in the battle against Sauron and how Sauron ends up crafting the remaining rings in upcoming seasons of The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.