The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Season 2 – Episode 2
Episode title: Where the Stars are Strange
Original release date : August 29, 2024
Plot: Darkness falls over Khazad-dûm. Sauron and Galadriel each seek new allies. The Stranger and Harfoots encounter a growing threat.
* * *
[Disa] A mountain’s like a person.
Sing to it properly, it will reflect your song back to you, showing you where to mine, where to tunnel…
And where to leave the mountain untouched.
[Prince Durin IV] Father…
It’s more than we ever imagined.
King Durin, there is a…
Enough!
Seize the Elf.
[Prince Durin IV] Elrond is as much a brother to me as if he’d been fired in my own mother’s womb.
[yells] How dare you!
Invoke your mother’s memory to defend your decision to betray your own kind?
It’s you that’s betrayed our kind!
You profane the crown you wear!
[metal clinks]
[echoing clang]
Leave it.
It’s not yours anymore.
[Stranger] From shadow you came.
To shadow I bid you return!
[screams]
[acolytes scream]
You had that dream again last night, didn’t you?
[Stranger] In the dream, there’s a kind of… branch.
Under the stars.
[indistinct whispering]
It appears we’re being followed.
[groans softly]
[Poppy] I was sifting through Sadoc’s old book.
I think it’s some kinda directions.
Welcome to the lands of Rhûn.
Why you looking at it like that?
Like you’ve been here before.
[Stranger] Only in dreams.
[horse whinnies]
Tell me your name.
I have had many names.
[grunts]
[Elrond] Where is Halbrand?
[Galadriel] He is gone. And I doubt he will return.
And should he ever, none of us are to treat with him again.
Elrond just informed me your companion was not who he claimed.
[Galadriel] He is not what I thought.
He is Sauron.
[Gil-galad] It is to be given directly to Lord Celebrimbor.
He must be informed that Halbrand is Sauron.
[Mirdania] Forgive me, my lord, but a messenger has just arrived.
Do we grant him entry?
[rumbling]
[whooshing]
[sinister music playing]
[music crescendoes, ends]
[indistinct chatter]
Mole-tail stew, mole-tail stew…
Oh.
Wait.
Too dear.
What?
We’re not paupers.
You’re the one said we’d be wise to tighten our purse strings.
Or were you not including yourself when you said that?
Hmm?
You married a prince.
But now you’re bound to an outcast.
I’m bound to the Dwarf I love.
And I wouldn’t trade his heart for a mine full of fire opals.
[sighs softly]
Be nice to have the opals, though.
[Disa] Aye. It would.
[chuckles]
[chuckles softly]
Have you tried to talk to your father…
Disa, you know he will never agree to see me.
That’s not what I asked.
Why should I be the one to ask for an audience?
He disowned me!
[rumbling]
[Prince Durin IV] He’s as stubborn as a stone leg.
[muffled] You’re gonna have better luck tryna bend a brick.
You may as well f…
Disa?
Brace yourself.
[rattling and rumbling]
I said brace yourselves!
Disa!
[all screaming]
[people screaming]
[Disa whimpers softly]
[chuckles]
[both grunting]
[rumbling subsides]
[screaming dies down]
[both panting]
[indistinct, panicked chatter]
[rumbling]
[ominous music playing]
Durin.
No.
No, no, no, no.
[opening theme music playing]
[rustling]
[birds chirping]
[in Sindarin] These lands shall bear you
sweet blossoms once more.
[in English] My dear brother.
[footsteps approaching]
[Galadriel] Lord Celebrimbor.
They did not tell me you had arrived.
What news?
I’ve had an unexpected visitor.
[sinister music playing]
He has returned already?
[Halbrand, echoing] Galadriel? Galadriel? Galadriel?
[wood creaking]
[twigs, leaves rustling]
Are they not the seeds you planted?
[exclaims]
[in Black Speech, distorted] Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky.
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone.
Nine for mortal men doomed to die. [grunts]
[screams]
[commander of the West] We should attack Mordor from the north.
We enter here, between the Ered Lithui and the Ephel Arnen.
[commander of the East] It would be wiser to attack Adar from the east.
What of the whereabouts of Sauron?
Our spies indicate that Sauron was last seen traveling into Mordor.
We believe he intends to supplant Adar and claim his armies.
If we move swiftly,
we may be able to crush two spiders with one boot.
And what says the Commander of the Northern Armies?
Galadriel?
[gasps]
[voice shaking]
Um, we should send ships up the Anduin,
invade Mordor from the west.
See to the preparations.
It does not take the eye of an eagle
to see your thoughts have flown far afield.
What troubles them?
Sauron may well have traveled to Mordor,
but we cannot be certain that is where he remains.
What makes you say that?
Sauron…
sees himself not as master of a barren waste,
but of all Middle-earth.
He seeks to rule it not only through conquest,
but by bending the minds and wills of all its peoples to his own.
And for that, he needs not armies…
but Rings.
And he cannot craft them without Celebrimbor.
Sauron is alone, without army or ally.
Eregion is protected by two rivers
with miles of curtain wall of dwarven stone, ten-foot thick.
Rest assured, Celebrimbor and the secrets of his craft
are safe.
[thunder rumbling]
[foreboding music plays]
I tell you, some veiled evil closes in on Celebrimbor.
Sauron’s plan is in motion even now.
I know it.
How?
Since the wearing of this Ring, I have felt…
perceived…
glimpses of the unseen world…
as dreams unbidden, coming forth to crowd my waking mind.
You believe the Rings have kindled your ability
to see that which has not yet come to pass?
Have they kindled yours?
I have seen mountains crumbling.
Waters running dry. And clouds. Black. Gathering over white towers.
Then send me to Eregion.
Galadriel…
If Sauron is there, I will send word…
You cannot face Sauron again.
It is said that once the Deceiver obtains a being’s trust,
he gains the ability to sculpt their very thoughts.
To deceive not only their heart and mind, but their eyes and ears.
To alter their very reality.
You have already been affected once.
Yes.
He knows my mind.
And I know his.
Which is why I must face him.
Why I alone can slay him.
You once considered him a friend.
Halbrand was not a…
Sauron.
You cannot face him alone.
Supposing… I was not alone?
[bell tolling]
[ethereal operatic music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Lord Celebrimbor regrets to inform you he’s unable to grant you entry.
Mightn’t I speak with him directly?
[Mirdania] My lord is occupied.
But he wishes you good fortune on your journey.
Are you asking me to leave?
The Lord of Eregion is asking you.
Perhaps I’ll just wait here.
Just in case he changes his mind.
Is he gone?
No. He refuses to leave, my lord.
Well, he can refuse all he cares to.
I promised Lady Galadriel before she left that I would never treat with him again.
Was there something more?
I believe he’s injured, my lord.
Let him be.
He’ll leave soon enough.
Messengers from Lindon should arrive with news any day.
[flies buzzing]
[dramatic music playing]
[chains clinking, rattling]
[dramatic music swells]
[horse snorts]
[wings fluttering]
[chittering]
[ominous music playing]
[disembodied voices whispering indistinctly]
What tidings from the white wings?
Sauron’s shadow is deepening.
It is said he has taken a new form to deceive his enemies.
And the Istar?
I hear whispers from salt scavengers and mûmakil thieves.
Whispers of an old man in rags, traveling east with two halflings.
He is lost. Vulnerable.
[Dark Wizard] But he will not be for long.
We must reach him before he learns to harness his powers.
Perhaps, the blood I wasted to bring you before me
should have been spent on more useful servants.
[stone door slides open]
[female messenger acolyte] Master.
One of the trackers you sent out has returned.
[Dark Wizard] Have you found him?
[Bränk] I didn’t just find him. I know how to capture him.
Heal the curse upon our flesh, and I will bring you the Istar in chains.
What makes you think a mortal like yourself
could defeat an Istar
when my most powerful acolytes could not?
[Bränk] The Istar will surrender to me, because if he doesn’t,
I will slaughter the halflings he calls friends.
What about Doderick?
Doderick?
[Nori] All right, all right. Andwise?
[Stranger] It is a fine name. Nevertheless, it is not going to be mine.
I know.
Fredagard.
But don’t you see?
No one can give you a name.
It is yours already.
It is who you are.
And when you hear it spoken, you feel your heart glow.
You’ll hear it one day.
I’m sure of it.
We’ll find out who you are.
[Poppy] I knew it!
Says here if we turn northeast,
we can cut this leg of the journey in half.
Over there. Come on!
[captivating music playing]
[Stranger] My preference would be to avoid the path
on which we would run out of water the first day
and die of heat the second.
But perhaps that is just me?
How about Doderick?
You already said Doderick.
No, I didn’t.
[Stranger] Yes, you did.
[Poppy] Yes, you did.
Ah, how fares the forager this time?
All I found was a scorpion and a clump of cactus.
The scorpion stung me, I fell over, and, well… [clears throat]
That’s how I found the cactus.
That’s how you found the cactus.
Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, magic some more water into being?
He’s afraid he’d lose control again without a gand.
So we find a gand. S’plenty of sticks all over the place.
Don’t think it works that way, Pop.
Silence.
[horses approaching]
What is it?
On the wind. Can you hear that?
Almost sounds like…
Hooves.
[horse chuffs]
[Nori grunts]
[grunts]
[breathing heavily]
[breath trembling]
[snake rattling and hissing]
[hissing]
[Kilta breathing heavily]
[Kilta] They’re still close. Mount up!
[Poppy breathing heavily]
[Poppy] Who were they?
[Stranger] I don’t know.
They’re watching our trail.
Meaning, we’d be wise to find another.
We already have.
Nobody goes off-trail.
Nobody walks alone.
Nobody walks alone.
[female stone singer 1] Every garden has withered since the earthquake.
[female stone singer 2] It’s not just the gardens.
Rumors abound of dark omens across all the Dwarven realms.
Some say the mountain was cursed when the prince let in that Elf.
You two wouldn’t be trafficking in conjecture, would you?
No.
Wouldn’t dream of it.
Good. ‘Cause a rumor’s like a songbird.
May sound filling from afar, but up close, it’s an empty feast.
Then it isn’t true?
That something terrible is happening?
We’re about to prove it isn’t.
[Disa] King Durin.
[both] King Durin.
Disa.
Narvi, your report?
[grunts] Sire.
Not long ago, a fire-mountain awoke.
And although it resides far to our south,
the ground-shakes it produced
spread through the bones of the earth all the way here,
collapsing our sun-shafts,
and with them, our ability to grow crops.
[grunts]
Now, the obvious remedy
is to set the dig-teams to work repairing the shafts
and sinking new ones. However…
Every Stone-singer you’ve brought here has failed to identify a safe path to dig.
I’m afraid that’s true.
With your approval, sire, we will find the light.
You have it.
[all singing in Khuzdul]
[rumbling]
[thudding]
[singing subsides]
[grunts]
[King Durin] For nine centuries,
the Stone-singers have fostered our sacred connection to this rock.
And in all those years, not once,
not once have they ever ceased to provide for us.
But now, whatever the cause,
the bond is broken.
The hand of darkness has closed around Khazad-dûm.
Dig carefully, Delve-master.
[sighs wearily]
Disa.
A moment?
Are you really going to make me ask?
Do you mean your grandchildren? They’re well.
They miss tugging your beard, of course, but…
You needn’t make this harder than it already is.
Funny. I keep saying the same thing to him.
Surely Durin knows I spoke in anger!
If that’s an apology I hear, King, try saying it to my husband.
Why should it be me who apologizes?
It was he who caused offense!
I tell you, he’s…
Stubborn as a root-bound parsnip?
One more quality the two of you have in common.
What you call “stubbornness,”
some Dwarves call “strength.”
Oh, I imagine it does take strength to carry a grudge so heavy.
To keep your wounded heart so tightly bound, it can barely beat.
Aye, it does.
It truly does.
No wonder we can’t hear the mountain.
Its King is deaf to the sorrow of his own son.
Still your axe, Disa!
[Disa] You want to show true strength?
Summon your son to you.
He’ll answer.
But leave it to him and the peaks of Zirakzigil will thaw
before this feud of yours will.
[pickaxes clinking]
[miners grunting]
[miner 1] No sunlight yet.
[clanks]
[miner 2] Another dead end.
We’re gonna have to work all night.
[Prince Durin IV, breathing heavily]
Oh, here we go.
[scoffing]
Growing blisters, I see. No shame in it. Even I’ve had ’em.
Oh, y’have?
[Barduk] Aye. When I was five!
[both laugh]
Aye, palace hands.
Been polishing jewels all his life.
[miners chuckling]
Don’t fret, Prince, only 13 hours to go.
Aye. It’s his fault we’re in this mess.
And his father.
Eh?
Lay a finger on me again, I’ll bite it off at the knuckle.
[miners chuckling]
[Barduk grunts]
[grunts]
[miners laughing]
[sighs]
[melancholic music playing]
How was the mine?
‘Bout the same.
Where are the weans?
Said they weren’t hungry. Again.
Well, I can’t blame ’em.
This rye tastes like last year’s bread.
It is last year’s bread.
Why not trade for fresh grain from the surface?
Splendid idea!
But who in the Dimrill Dale will we find to convince your father of it?
Don’t start.
Um… Let me think…
I said don’t.
Ah, climb off your high peak and apologize!
You’re giving me indigestion.
Good! Now listen to your guts!
I am!
And they still say I was right.
If he hadn’t have thrown Elrond out to rot,
we’d have food enough for 500 years!
You think this is about food?
We can’t hear the mountains anymore.
I’m afraid, Durin.
I’m afraid.
Disa… Come here.
[Disa sighs heavily]
We’re Dwarves.
We’ll find a way.
We always have.
How?
[indistinct chatter]
[Galadriel] Our letters to Celebrimbor have all gone unanswered.
I fear Sauron may be in Eregion.
The High King has consented to send me and a small party there,
to ensure Celebrimbor and his city are safe.
I’m asking you to join us.
[scoffs]
As you are so fond of reminding me, Galadriel,
I am but a politician.
And as such, you have the High King’s trust.
He believes in your steadfastness.
A dog is steadfast. And quicker to follow on a leash.
He refuses to send me without you.
[Elrond] And why is that?
You know the reason.
I’m asking if you know it.
The High King believes, that if I were to face the Enemy alone,
I may be vulnerable to deception.
And why would he think that?
Stop it, Elrond.
[Elrond] You’ve defied the High King’s orders before.
Why not do so now?
Because he is right.
Sauron used me.
And under his hand, I was played like a harp to a melody not of my choosing.
It was entirely of your choosing.
Sauron looked inside you,
plucked the very song of your soul, note by note,
making himself out to be exactly what you needed.
“The Lost King” who could ride you to victory.
You gave him everything he wanted and then thanked him for it.
And now he has done the same to Gil-galad.
And to every Elf in Lindon.
And that is why we need you. Help us navigate this labyrinth.
[Elrond] There is no navigating it.
The labyrinth is his.
As long as you stay in it, you’ve already lost.
He may well want you in Eregion…
Please, Elrond.
I cannot let him in again.
I cannot.
He never left, Galadriel.
In choosing to wear those Rings,
you have all chosen to become his collaborators.
I will have no part in it.
You promised me once,
“If but a whisper of a rumor” of what I feared proved true,
you would not rest until it was put right.
If our friendship ever meant anything to you,
please leave.
[Círdan] Do you not wish to live in beauty?
[Elrond] Master Círdan, I cannot trust these Rings.
What is beauty, when it is born, in part, of evil?
No less beautiful.
Not to me.
Would you cast Rúmil’s verses into the flame,
because the poet was a drunkard?
Rúmil was a drunkard?
[chuckles softly]
Do not ask of Daeron. [scoffs]
Insufferable.
But a voice,
a voice that could make the very sun weep tears of fire.
Judge the work,
and leave judgment concerning those who wrought it
to the judge who sees all things.
That feels impossible.
It is called humility.
And it is difficult for most.
But it is the truest form of sight.
I wish I could know your peace.
You can.
We do not yet fully understand these Rings.
But look at the power they exert over every form of life.
In Sauron’s hands, they could work an evil beyond reckoning,
dominating the minds and wills of all.
This is why they must remain in the hands of Elves.
You are wise to fear this power, Elrond.
But do not let that fear blind you to the ways it can be used for good.
For it is not your enemy, that bears these Rings…
But your most trusted friends.
If you believe they have strayed, do not abandon them,
but rather open your eyes and guide them…
Before the darkness spreads across Middle-earth,
and blinds us all.
[wind whistling]
[all panting]
[grunting]
You need to rest.
[pants] Certainly not, I…
[grunts]
[Nori panting]
Wake up!
[grunts]
What are you doin’? Get back here!
[Poppy] I saw it. I know I saw it. C’mon.
[Nori] Poppy, he’s not breathin’ anymore!
There! Yes! Nori, I can see it!
[Nori] See what?
Water.
How could someone who hasn’t eaten in so long
still weigh so much?
[both grunting]
Quick sticks!
[grunts]
Please, oh, please, oh, please.
Hurry, Poppy!
[grunting]
Come on!
[water splashing]
[grunts]
I got it.
[bell dinging]
[Nori] Come on.
[pealing rapidly]
Come on.
You’re going to be all right.
[bell continues dinging]
[coughing]
[Nori sighs] Great goats, you’re alive.
For a moment there, I thought we’d lost… we’d lost you.
[water splashing]
We’re none of us, going to lose each other.
[Nori and Poppy panting]
I’d be crying ‘cept my eyes are too dry.
[gasps]
[all chuckling]
Oh…
[panting]
What is it?
You don’t think…
It is not dissimilar from the staff I saw in my dream.
Um, Nori…
[horse whinnies]
[sinister music playing]
[horse whinnies]
[Gaudrim breathing heavily]
Oh, we were just having a drink of water.
[Kilta, in Rhûnnic] Pängul niganvil!
[Kilta grunts]
[arrows whistling]
[all exclaiming]
[Gaudrim grunts]
[both breathing heavily]
[Gaudrim grunts]
[in English] What are you doin’?
Nori, get down!
[speaking Quenya]
[rumbling]
[Kilta and Gaudrim grunt]
[Kilta exclaims in Rhûnnic]
[exhales]
[horses whinny]
[speaking Quenya]
[Kilta and Gaudrim scream]
[Stranger yells]
[Nori and Poppy coughing and yelping]
[Stranger grunting]
[bell clanging]
[Poppy in English] Stop! Stop! Make it stop!
[Nori yelping]
Why isn’t he stopping it?
He can’t!
[Nori and Poppy scream]
[Nori] Help us!
[Stranger] Nori!
I’m coming!
[grunts]
[Nori and Poppy screaming]
Hold on! Hold on!
[Nori and Poppy screaming]
[Stranger yells] Nori!
Nori!
It’s gone.
Has it?
I have called it ithildin.
Made from our last sliver of mithril.
Out of the moonlight, it is all but invisible.
It is.
Quite invisible.
Our visitor, is he still…
The night is cold, my lord.
Shall I bring him a shawl?
[ominous music playing]
[rain pattering]
[thunder rumbles]
Whatever the reason for your presence here,
if you do not leave willingly, you shall be removed by force.
I can treat with you no longer.
She said you’d say that.
Galadriel? You have spoken with her?
Well, haven’t you?
I have not.
Not since she left for Lindon.
Then you know nothing of what’s happened?
Nothing of the Rings?
What of the Rings?
Have they worked?
You’d do better to ask her.
[Celebrimbor] She’s not here.
You are.
What about the High King?
Surely he wouldn’t neglect to send word of…
Oh, I see.
It’s the oldest tale there is, isn’t it?
The true creators toil till their knuckles bleed
and then they come along, take whatever profits them most,
and forget all about us.
I applaud your patience.
Where are you going?
There’s no cause to stay where I’m not wanted.
Wait.
Halbrand. Please. Tell me.
The Rings. Did they work?
They worked wonders.
Then, the Elves…
[Halbrand] Yes.
And, uh, Lindon?
Yes.
[sniffles]
[whimpers]
Are you weeping?
No.
[laughs]
I am reveling.
You have not the slightest inkling…
how this feels.
After all this time, after so many centuries,
to finally create something.
I’m going to open a First Age bottle.
I have been saving it.
Celebrimbor…
Are you my friend?
Yes, of course.
Why?
Because there is no place for half-truths
between those who’ve worked so close as you and I.
Oh…
And yet there is much you do not know.
Much I want to tell you.
Only…
You’re afraid.
You see? I’ve never been able to hide anything from you.
Well…
Be at ease.
Whatever it is you wish to say to me, I shall receive it with an open heart.
I did not come here to toast the Elven Rings.
But to plead with you to make Rings for Men.
Rings for Men?
[Halbrand] You saved the Elves.
Uh…
Elves are not Men.
Men are covetous.
The risks of, of corruption are far greater.
Even if I did wish to forge more Rings,
the Dwarves would never provide the mithril.
I think you’ll find the Dwarves facing a dilemma all their own.
What dilemma? What are you talking about, Halbrand?
My name is not Halbrand.
What?
When Galadriel discovered the truth, she cast me out.
And I dare not risk the same happening with you.
[thunder rumbling]
I… I take it then you are not a King.
No. Not a King.
Not a Southlander.
Not even a… mortal.
[scoffs]
What are you?
There are forces in this world beyond evil, Celebrimbor.
And sometimes, they send aid,
in the form of an envoy.
A… A messenger, sent to bring guidance to the ears of the wise.
Uh…
What sort of guidance?
Mordor’s rise was but the beginning.
At this very moment, all Middle-earth balances on the brink of the abyss.
Soon, every realm will fall.
Not just Elves, but Dwarves. And Men.
The darkness is growing stronger.
And the Rings of Power are our last hope of restoring the light.
You and I have work to do.
[chuckles softly]
You cannot expect me to believe
that you are a, a messenger from the Valar sent to…
[thunder rumbling]
Halbrand?
Halbrand!
[shudders]
[sinister music playing]
Halbrand!
[breath trembling]
[Halbrand] I have walked through the dust and the deserts of far-away lands,
in search of an artist possessing the craft to save all Middle-earth.
A storm is coming, Celebrimbor.
I can bring you the knowledge none other possesses.
I can unlock your grandest abilities.
And when our work is complete,
never again will the world overlook you as the mere scion of Fëanor
but forevermore revere you…
The Lord of the Rings.
You need not bow to me.
But I have beheld your natural form.
Rise.
Our work begins now.
What am I to call you?
[Halbrand] I am your partner.
No more, no less.
A sharer of gifts.
Annatar.
Annatar.
Lord of Gifts.
You summoned me.
You have new orders, Commander.
You depart for Eregion at first light, with five of our bravest Elves.
I…
Thank you for reconsidering.
It is not I, you ought to thank.
[Galadriel] Elrond.
I am very grateful you have decided to join my company.
I’m afraid you misunderstand, Galadriel.
Elrond’s task is not to join your company.
But to lead it.
[dramatic music playing]
[knock at door]
What is it? Is it Elrond?
It’s some sort of invitation… from Lord Celebrimbor.
He wants the Dwarves to come to Eregion.
[closing theme music playing]
