‘Rings of Power’ Episode 8 Recap: ‘Alloyed’ Combines the Best of Middle-earth in a Thrilling Finale
Michael Nordine author If, like your humble correspondent, you immediately assumed that The Stranger who fell from a star all the way back in the series premiere of “The Rings of Power” was Sauron, “Alloyed” is here to prove you right — or is it? The season finale drops that bombshell just moments after it’s begun, but just as not all who wander are lost, not all major plot reveals are to be trusted. We learn of The Stranger’s true identity via those three otherworldly women who’ve been tracking him for several episodes now — two of whom seem to be called the Ascetic and the Nomad— and who offer such grand pronouncements as, “You fell from the stars, yet you are greater than they” upon finally encountering him. But he isn’t immediately won over by them, especially when they attack Nori as she and her fellow Harfoots try to rescue him — including their leader, Sadoc Burrows, who’s mortally wounded by a well-placed throwing knife. It’s a mournful loss, not least because the hobbitses have always represented Middle-earth at its most wholesome, but in his final moments the elder is nothing if not content. “The missus will be waiting,” after all.