Spoilers below.
We all have that one friend who says they’re over their toxic ex, but we know that they’re not, especially when we catch them lying, breaking the trust in the friendship. Unfortunately, Galadriel is that friend, which explains why Elrond acts like a jerk towards her.
Though she swears to destroy Sauron, Galadriel still wears a ring that is part of Sauron’s grand scheme. Elrond is unconvinced and voices his distrust of Galadriel and the ring throughout the episode.
Episode 4 opens with Galadriel annoyed that Elrond is leading the task force she initially created, giving him a bit of attitude throughout their journey. With four other Elves on their team, they travel towards Eregion (in the most picturesque scene that looks like a New Zealand tourism commercial) and find that the bridge connecting them to the city is destroyed. As the navigator suggests other routes, Galadriel senses evil, intensified by her ring, and warns them of the southern path. Elrond ignores her warnings and tells her, as they head south, “This company won’t take counsel from that trinket, nor will you.” Burn.
Joke’s on them; they should have listened to her little trinket. As they travel through the dark forest of Tyrn Gorthad (or the Barrow-downs), the Elves find the bodies of their messengers who failed to deliver Gil-galad’s message to Celebrimbor. They are then attacked by barrow-wrights, the evil undead, who kill one of the Elves. The remaining crew defeats the barrow-wrights and mourns for their fallen.
Galadriel tries to reason with her former bestie, telling him that the ring will help defeat Sauron. She begins to experience more visions, including Elrond being held captive and seeing Sauron’s hot, evil face. She makes Elrond promise that defeating Sauron comes first—even above her own life—which he accepts.
The Elves find Orcs marching towards Eregion and must return to Lindon to warn the High King of the impending threat. Suddenly, an orc arrow accidentally strikes one of the Elves (the orc was shooting at a wild horse). As Galadriel puts pressure on the soldier’s wound, her ring magically heals him. Shocked by its power, she gives Elrond her ring as she provides a distraction, allowing the others to escape. She battles several Orcs but is ultimately captured by Adar.
As the Elven crew walks towards Lindon, the soldiers believe Galadriel sacrificed herself to save them, but Elrond responds savagely, “It was to save the ring.”
Back with the Stranger and the Harfoots, things are afoot for the trio, who have been separated due to the Stranger’s magic spell gone wrong. As he searches for Nori and Poppy, he becomes mesmerized by a branch on a tree. He attempts to break it off, but the tree slowly consumes him. The jolly Tom Bombadil appears, telling the tree to release the Stranger, which it does. Tom then welcomes the Stranger to his home, where he bathes and has a meal.
Many faithful Tolkien readers will recognize Tom as he explains to The Stranger that he had been on this Earth for many years, even before rivers and trees existed. Though he is an observer of the world (and doesn’t get involved), he has some magic to control the nature around him. The Stranger asks Tom to teach him this magic and how to wield a staff, but Tom doesn’t think he’s ready yet. Tom recalls encountering another wizard, one that became dark and evil with power but needed a powerful ally like Sauron to dominate all of Middle Earth. The Stranger realizes that he must be the one to challenge the Dark Wizard and Sauron.
Cut to the Dark Wizard with the bronze skeleton rider, who updates him on the Stranger’s whereabouts. Rather than have the riders face the Stranger again, the Dark Wizard instructs them to capture the Harfoots instead.
Nori and Poppy wake up in the desert and are found by a Stoor named Merimac, who takes a liking to Poppy (and the feeling is mutual). He takes them to his village, where Nori reveals she’s looking for her wizard friend. The Stoors only know of one wizard–the Dark Wizard–and they do not mess with him, so the villagers decide to expel Nori and Poppy—until Nori mentions Sadoc Burrow. A villager tells the girls the story of a Stoor named Burrows, who took a caravan of followers to find a forever home for all Stoors (and Harfoots), one that they called the Sûza a.k.a. The Shire. Nori tearfully tells them that the Harfoots are still wandering without a home.
The bronze skeleton riders arrive at the Stoors’ village looking for the Harfoots, but the Stoors refuse to give Nori and Poppy up. The rider leaves with threats of the Dark Wizard dealing with the Stoors himself.
Meanwhile, back in the Southlands, Arondir and Isildur lead a search party to find Theo but come home empty-handed. Estrid, whom Isildur heavily flirts with, suggests going north. Arondir is suspicious of her and proves to everyone that Estrid is a wildman follower of Adar. The reveal takes aback Isildur, but you can tell he continues to have a thing for her. She is hand-cuffed and watched by Isildur and Arondir during their search for Theo.
She proves herself to be helpful after Isildur and Arondir are sucked into the mud by a creature and she attempts to save them. But Arondir, being who he is, kills the beast from inside its stomach, freeing himself and Isildur. Estrid is granted freedom from her chains and shares a (to me, quite cringey) moment with Isildur before she goes into survivor mode again, threatening him with a sword. Just when the lovestruck Isildur promises to protect Estrid, she’s ironically knocked out by an Ent, who perceives the sword as a threat to the forest.
Arondir calls out to the Ent, telling them the swords are meant to fight Orcs, not trees. The Ents are grief-stricken by the damage to their home by the Orcs. One of the Ents even blames all beings of Middle Earth, including Orcs, men, Dwarves, and Elves, to which Arondir asks the Ents for forgiveness, promising that he will ensure the trees will have peace. They accept and lead him to Theo and the other captured wildmen, including Estrid’s missing betrothed, which leaves Isildur heartbroken.
Theo thanks Arondir for keeping his promise to Bronwyn and protecting him. Now that Theo is safe, Arondir must keep another promise made and stop the Orcs, which could mean Arondir may eventually run into his fellow Elf friends again!
Laura Sirikul is a freelance entertainment journalist and copy editor based in Los Angeles. Throughout her career, she has written for Entertainment Weekly, NBC News, the Los Angeles Times, and many more outlets. She has appeared as a TV and film expert on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and BBC World News. She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and Critics Choice Association.
