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The latest episode of Rings of Power was explosive in many ways. It featured the crescendo of the Numenoreans finally arriving in Middle Earth, the attack of the orcs on the people of the Southland, and the eruption of Mount Doom which finally brought Mordor to the world. And in a desperate attempt to foil the enemy, and prevent them from inserting the weapon of Sauron into the keyhole that released the flood, Galadriel and Halbrand undertook a breathtaking pursuit of Adar through the forest. The scene felt reminiscent of Arwen’s race to the Ford of Bruinen when the ring-wraiths were after Frodo. Galadriel even echoes the same iconic command to her horse that Arwen used: “Noro Lim,” meaning run swiftly.
When the elf and the future king capture Adar, Halbrand is instantly tempted to take his life. There is some mysterious past trauma that happened between them, which led the future king to do some terrible things. He has been running from them ever since. In a cruel, almost jeering fashion, Adar asks him: “Did I cause someone you love pain? A woman? Perhaps a child?”
But Galadriel steps in and stops Halbrand from killing Adar. Halbrand listens to Galadriel, despite all the heartaches he has clearly suffered at the dark elf’s hands. This shows that there is more between the two than comradeship. There is a kinship between them, and they can relate to each other in a way that none of the other characters can. There is a suggestion here that Halbrand once had a family, perhaps a wife and children whom he dearly loved, but that they were taken from him, and it has haunted him ever since.
Galadriel later tells Halbrand, “Whatever it was he did to you, whatever it was you did, be free of it.” They share a glance that communicates a longing there, a feeling that they can’t quite put into words, and Halbrand responds:
Galadriel admits that she felt it too. In the pause that comes after it, it is clear that there are a million things they want to say to each other. Perhaps if they had seized the moment, they might have found love with each other that no test could break. Unfortunately, Isildur’s friend Valandil comes to find them and tell them that the Queen has summoned Halbrand. His arrival interrupts the spell, and the moment passes.
“I never believed I could be. Until today. Fighting at your side, I felt, if I could just hold on to that feeling… Keep it with me always, bind it to my very being, then I…”
There is so much left unsaid, but Halbrand and Galadriel both seem to have reached the same conclusion by the end of the conversation. They feel a need to be near each other, and their relationship is taking an unexpected turn. It is unclear at which point in the future Galadriel will meet Celeborn, the one to whom she is destined to bind herself. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that she and Halbrand won’t share some more intimate moments before that fated day arrives.
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