Spoilers for Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 4 – “Eldest” – are ahead! If you are not caught up, you can stream the series with an Amazon Prime subscription, and catch new episodes every Thursday as they air on the 2024 TV schedule.
The rings are fully in play on Rings of Power, and because of them, the elves are on a mission. In Episode 4, Galadriel, Elrond and their task force began said journey, and they ended up on the edge of Orc territory in a big battle with the creatures. In the end, Morfydd Clark’s iconic Lord of the Rings character gave her ring to the elves, told them to run, and distracted the Orcs. Ultimately, she ended up facing the creatures’ leader, Adar (Sam Hazeldine), and if you ask me, it seemed like she was trapped.
However, based on the trailers for the Lord of the Rings prequel, and the opening sequence of Episode 1, which showed Adar trying to assassinate Sauron, she actually might not be in danger. On top of that, when I spoke to Morfydd Clark and Sam Hazeldine during CinemaBlend's interviews for Rings of Power, I asked them about their characters’ relationship, and they teased a partnership not a captor and hostage situation.
So, it would seem we’re going down an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” route with Galadriel and Adar, as Hazeldine, who took over the role of the Orcs' leader for Season 2, told me:
We've got to kind of explore the possibilities of combining power against evil, and see what we can do, because we're all under threat. So, it's a very frayed relationship to start with, and...the elves and the Orcs are not friends. So, this is sort of a very tentative exploration of what we can do together.
Now, Galadriel being caught by Adar’s chain, and her pointing a flaming arrow at him, doesn’t seem like the start of a cautious partnership. However, if you listen to the Orc leader’s words, the purpose of his catching her is ambiguous, as he said in Quenya:
A star shines on the hour of our meeting, Lady Galadriel.
Now, Galadriel looked scared in the seconds leading up to the episode's end. However, in one of Rings of Power’s trailers, there is a shot of her and Adar walking together (as you can see in the screenshot below), and Hazeldine’s character is doing a voice-over at that moment, saying:
Sauron is my enemy as much as yours.
So, we know Galadriel and Adar share a common enemy, and it’s clear that Sauron is upping his game this season as he manipulates Celebrimbor into creating the rings. Therefore, a partnership between the elf and Orc leader makes sense.
Morfydd Clark then further solidified that their characters will create a sort of alliance through their shared trauma in Season 2, telling me:
And Adar understands her in a way that her elves don't, because he's been deceived by Sauron. So, they're bound by this awful they're bound by their lowest point, which is always tough.
She makes such a good point. In Season 1, we were with Galadriel as she was deceived into thinking Sauron was the heroic Halbrand, and the betrayal deeply impacted her. Plus, we know that Adar has a storied and terrible history with the evil being. So, even though the elves and Orcs historically haven’t gotten along, this partnership seems like it could benefit everyone trying to take down Charlie Vickers' villain.
Now, the question is: Will it actually work? Can they put their differences aside and work together? Clark and Hazeldine’s comments point toward yes. However, Galadirel’s reaction to Adar at the end of Episode 4 suggests that the path to successful collaboration could be long.
Thankfully, there are still quite a few episodes left in Rings of Power’s second season, and I can’t wait to see how the relationship between these two evolves. To see how that happens and how the Galadriel and Adar actors’ statements come to fruition, you can catch new episodes of the Lord of the Rings prequel every Thursday on Prime Video.
