Alloyed (episode)

"Alloyed" is the eighth and final episode of . It aired on October 14, 2022.
== Synopsis ==
=== The Stranger and the Harfoots ===
Having departed from the company of Harfoots at the Grove, the Stranger reaches some part of the Greenwoods. He encounters the Mystics there, who, having tracked him believing he is Sauron, attempt to unveil his own identity for him, and help him conjure his true inner power. Nori, Poppy, Sadoc Burrows, and others soon find these four, and, in a skirmish of magical spells, Sadoc is mortally wounded by the Ascetic, and the three Mystics realize that the Stranger is an likely an Istar, not Sauron. With Nori's encouragement, the Stranger wields a magical staff amid the skirmish that the Dweller had been using, and with it destroys the Mystics. Sadoc passes away as the sun rises.
Malva Meadowgrass succeeds Sadoc as the Harfoots' Trailsman. On the morrow, The Stranger reveals to Nori that he is a wizard. Nori chooses to depart from the Harfoots with the Stranger, on their own adventure, northwestward.
=== Númenor ===
In Armenelos, Eärien views a palantír in the king's bedchamber at the prompting of the dying king; what she sees is unknown. Soon, King Tar-Palantír passes away. That day, as the kingdom mourns, Tar-Míriel, Elendil, and their Númenórean battalion return from Middle-earth, and due to her blindness the Queen Regent does not see the black banners set throughout the harbor indicating her father's death.
=== Eregion ===
Galadriel and Halbrand, having ridden from the garrison in the Southlands, arrive at Eregion. While Halbrand is healed from his wound in battle, Galadriel and Elrond reunite, and Celebrimbor has begun the project he had spoken of in the . Halbrand meets him in his workroom, and gives Celebrimbor seminal ideas of creating objects that can bear power "over flesh", as a hopeful antidote to the supposed fading of the Elves that draws near. Celebrimbor proposes to Gil-galad his intention to forge a crown, of mithril and another alloys, that holds an essence of Middle-earth, but Gil-galad rejects it, believing there is not enough time before the Elves die. He commands that Ost-in-Edhil is disbanded, but in spite of this, Celebrimbor, Halbrand, and other smiths proceed. Halbrand influences Celebrimbor with effective advice in metallurgy, and, outside the city with Galadriel, Galadriel voices her mounting suspicions of Halbrand, forces him to reveal that he is in fact Sauron. Halbrand escapes at this moment, leaving Galadriel unconscious in a dream, but speaks to her through the dream of his intention to regain power and rule Middle-earth with her, as king and queen. Galadriel is ultimately unswayed, and, after coming to in the Glanduin, hastens to Celebrimbor's forge and tells him and Elrond that they must forge Three Rings of Power. Celebrimbor requires fine gold and silver for this, as the alloy to be joined with Elrond's mithril gem, and, conveniently, Galadriel has her brother Finrod's knife at hand, made of gold and silver in Valinor. She offers it to the smiths to be melted down. Then, Nenya, Vilya, and Narya are made.
=== Mordor ===
At the end of the episode, Sauron, still in the human guise of Halbrand, enters Mordor alone as Orodruin smokes, having covered the region in darkness.
== Appearances & mentions ==
== Lore deviations ==
In this final episode of , The Stranger storyline ends with the reveal that he is a wizard, but still without a name. The Galadriel and Númenórean storylines split again as Galadriel goes to Eregion with Halbrand and Míriel returns home with her party. The main deviation of the Númenórean storyline is the return of the original character Eärien and her encounter with the palantír. The Eregion storyline diverges from lore in that Annatar has not appeared and Sauron's original incarnation for this series, Halbrand, appears to aid Celebrimbor in the forging of magic rings. While not canon-breaking, the Three Rings appear to be forged before the lesser rings (the Seven and the Nine), whereas the lore implies the lesser rings were forged as practice for the Three.
== References ==
Category:The Rings of Power episodes
fr:Alliés (épisode)
it:L'Amalgama