Rings of Power season 2 finale: Gandalf, Balrog and Celebrimbor die

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for the second season finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The orcs' massive attack on Eregion came to a devastating end in the finale of the second season of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and all elves now stand united against a common enemy: Sauron (Charlie Vickers).

In a shocking betrayal, the orcs murdered their leader Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and swore their loyalty to Sauron, their true dark lord. With Adar's orc army now under his control, Sauron is Middle-earth's deadliest enemy. He represents an almost unbeatable enemy for the elves, but luckily they have help along the way: the newly crowned King Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and his dwarves.

The episode begins with the dwarves in Khazad-dûm, where King Durin III. (Peter Mullan) was corrupted by his ring of power. He searched for more mithril, the ancient metal used to make more rings, ignoring his son's pleas. All the mining has woken up the colossal Balrog, and Prince Durin finally gets to his father and convinces him to take the ring. However, it is too late. When the Balrog unleashes his fiery whip, he seizes the Dwarven King, who sacrifices himself to save his son, and Prince Durin IV officially becomes the new ruler.

The other major death of the episode is Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), the master blacksmith, creator of the rings and Sauron's unwitting puppet. The two have an intense conversation in which Sauron claims to be the Master of the Rings, but Celebrimbor says he is simply her prisoner. With his last breath, Celebrimbor calls him “the Lord of the Rings” – which has a better “sound”!

After dealing with Celebrimbor and Adar, Sauron sets his sights on Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). The two have a strange showdown when Sauron transforms to resemble Celebrimbor, his former alter ego Halbrand, and even Galadriel himself. He gains the upper hand when he stabs Galadriel with the cursed crown of Morgoth, the original dark lord of Middle-earth. Galadriel escapes Sauron by jumping off a cliff into the water, but the crown leaves her with a spiritual wound that Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) must heal after the elves lose the Battle of Eregion. Sauron and his new orc army are victorious, and the elves gather in a new haven protected by their rings. After all the elves are reunited, including the warrior-archer Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), they can once again take a stand against Sauron.

The second season of “The Rings of Power” ends with this final scene – and the elves’ demonstration of power ends the season on a hopeful note. “Do you know what I call her? I call them the Aveng Elves,” Córdova said diversity in an interview breaking down the season's penultimate episode, published September 26.

What's notable is that the finale also finally reveals the identity of the Stranger (Daniel Weyman), who fans have been theorizing about since before the series came out. As many people have suspected, he is actually Gandalf. In a scene with fellow magician Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), the powerful wizard regained his memory and got his wand.

Prime Video hasn't officially renewed the third season of “Rings of Power” yet, but Córdova said it should be out soon. He hasn't seen any scripts yet, but he told them diversity where he hopes to see Arondir next.

“This season Arondir was a little quieter than in the first season, but I think he has already proven himself at this point. “I would love it if he got a tactically higher position,” said Córdova. “I think he's ready to command, to strategize, to be in those spaces and to make sure his input is heard and used. I would like to see him included in the story along with the other characters. At the moment he was a bit on the fringes of the story, but in the end I'll stick with the established characters we know from the books. I think it would be very rewarding to see how these two worlds collide and how that would potentially humble relationships. These supervisors have to actually connect with people, so I'm really looking forward to that. I have my ideas, but if I tell you one and it's actually what they're thinking about, I'm afraid they'll think I screwed up and did something else.”