‘The Rings of Power’ Episode 4: Recap & Ending, Explained – What Changed Queen Miriel’s Decision About Galadriel?

The pace of the episodes is the single biggest issue with the Amazon series, “The Rings of Power.” Four episodes have passed so far, yet the story is still taking a majority of the time to build up the premise, and if they don’t increase the pace in further episodes, this particular flaw is surely going to bring an end to the hype. Unlike the previous episodes that focused on three storylines, “The Rings of Power” Episode 4 majorly focuses on the story of Galadriel and Arondir, though it follows the same plight that we had already witnessed in Episode 3. Galadriel, somehow, manages to convince Queen Regent Miriel to aid her in the battle of the Southlands and fight the evil lord, while Arondir finally gets to know the identity of the Orc leader, Adar, who lets him go in order to deliver a message to him. So, without wasting a moment, let’s follow what all happened in Episode 4 and what it could lead to in the upcoming episodes.


Episode 4: Recap

Episode 4 of “The Rings of Power” is titled “The Great Wave.” It starts with a scene where Queen Regent Miriel holds Numenor’s newborn babies and blesses them with good fortune. Soon, she sees the great wave crashing down on the big walls of Numenor and destroying everything. Later, we realize that the queen was actually dreaming about the destruction of her realm. Since Queen Miriel is letting an elf into her castle, the public is encouraged by Tamar to rebel against the crown. But Pharazon, the queen’s counselor, was informed about this by his son. He came right in the middle of Tamar’s audience and explained to them that one elf could never do any harm to Numenor. So, there was no threat, and since the people of Numenor trusted Pharazon, it wasn’t hard for him to convince them with the power of his words.

Later, we find Elendil helping Galadriel to manage an audience with Queen Miriel. Then Galadriel shows her the ancient scrolls she had stolen and expresses her fear of Sauron’s return. She demands the army to recover the Southlands from the hands of the Orcs. Miriel rejects her proposal as she is disgusted by Galadriel stealing the ancient stroll and Halbrand assaulting Tamar in broad daylight. Galadriel then asks the queen to take her to the true King of Numenor. Through her words, she hinted at a conspiracy that made Queen Miriel so angry that she put Galadriel behind bars, right beside Halbrand.

Next, we find Isildur planning to remove himself from the assigned post. But, in that process, he also removes Valandil and Ontamo from their position of authority. Valandil was so angry with Isildur that he accused him of achieving everything in life quite easily by being Elendil’s son. Soon after, we are introduced to Arondir, who is surrounded by Orcs. They were all waiting for Adar’s arrival. Adar comes and kills an injured Orc. Every other Orc leaves the place, and Adar talks directly to Arondir. Arondir wanted to kill Adar, but Adar set him free with a message for the survivors of the Southlands.

In the old watchtower, Bronwyn is struggling to shelter numerous people. There is a shortage of food for everyone. Theo suggests that they visit the village in broad daylight so that the Orcs could not find them. Bronwyn rejects his opinion, but Theo goes to the village anyway, along with Rowan. The village was deserted entirely; they grabbed whatever food they could; while returning, Theo tells Rowan that they should enter the tavern to see if there was more food or. Rowan lacked the courage to go inside the tavern, but Theo went in. Suddenly, the sunlight is dimmed, and Rowan fears being attacked by the Orcs. So, he leaves with the food. Theo was found out by an orc. Since Theo had the sword of Sauron, he attacked the Orc with it and hid in a well. At night, when Theo felt like he could escape from the village, one Orc suddenly attacked him. Arondir comes to the rescue and helps him escape through the forest. As Rowan has already informed Bronwyn about Theo’s whereabouts, she, too, came to the rescue. Soon, they left the forest and entered the open ground. It was a time of dawn when the sun appeared, and the Orcs could not help but stop following them.

In Lindon, the dwarves are building the towers Elrond and Celebrimbor planned. But Elrond soon discovers his friend Durin’s absence in Lindon. He goes to Khazad-Dum and enquires Disha about him. He feels that Disha is lying about his whereabouts. So, he hides in the distance only to find that Durin is talking to Disha about some old mine below the Mirrormere. Elrond goes to look for Durin in the mines and confronts him. Durin tells him that they have found a new ore in the mines, lighter than silk and harder than iron. Durin mistakenly names the ore Mith-Raud, but Elrond corrects him and says it is named Mithril. Soon, the old mines collapse, and because Durin is away talking with Elrond, he is saved. Disha chantes a plea to the rocks so that they would release the bodies of the miners. Later, we find that no elves died, they were just extensively injured. King Durin III shut down the whole vein, which made Prince Durin III so viciously angry. Elrond consoled him and told him not to quarrel with his father. Because when a father dies, a son only wishes to have more time with his old man.

We see Earien, sister to Isildur, becoming close to Kemen, son of Pharazon. Isildur later tells her about what had happened with Valandil and Ontamo because of him. Later, Galadriel is told to leave Numenor, but she escapes from the prison guards. She soon finds out the whereabouts of the true king of Numenor, Tar-Palantir. He is bedridden, suffering through the last days of his life, and Queen Miriel takes great care of him. Galadriel apologizes for doubting Miriel’s intentions. Miriel later takes her to ‘the Palantir.’ After touching the Palantir, Galadriel, too, experiences the same visions as Miriel regarding the destruction of Numenor. Miriel informs her that the visions started right after Galadriel had arrived in Numenor. So, she had asked her to leave, as she thought Galadriel was the reason behind it. However, when Galadriel is escorted into a boat and she leaves the place, the leaves from the White Tree start to fall off. Miriel realizes that the only way to save Numenor is to keep Galadriel by their side. She convinces the people to help her. Numenor will provide the ships to help Galadriel battle against the enemy. We find Isildur, Valandil, and Ontamo willingly join the force; Tar-Palantir recovering from his illness; and the relationship between Durin III and Thranduil greatly improving, thanks to Elrond.


‘The Rings of Power’ Episode 4: Ending Explained

Firstly, Adar is an Elf, betrayed or outcast, but his appearance clearly shows that he carries the hate for the Orcs and the kindness of the other Elves. Even in his first glimpse, we see a twisted pair of eyes, one less kind than the other. He is called “father” by the Orcs. So, as described in “The Silmarillion,” Morgoth kidnapped some of the elves and then used dark magic to transform them into Orcs. Some theories suggest that Adar is the first Elf whom Morgoth had transformed into an Orc, and he made him ageless just like an Elf. If we follow this, it is quite clear why the other Orcs regard him as “Father.” Adar is inevitably responsible for creating more Orcs to help the devil’s cause. Also, he carries a mark on his forehead, some sort of burn. This may suggest two things: one that he had resisted Morgoth, and the other is the process that turns elves into orcs and leaves that mark. But, anyway, we will soon find out more about Adar’s origin in the later episodes.

Also, Queen Miriel misunderstood Palantir’s message. She thought Galadriel was the reason Numenor was about to face destruction, as the Palantir started to show her the vision only after the arrival of Galadriel. But it was either a coincidence, or the Palantir hinted at a solution to Queen Miriel’s problems after Galadriel’s arrival. But anyway, the White Tree finally made her realize that only by siding with Galadriel could Numeron actually be saved.

The ending of “The Rings of Power” Episode 4 suggests that Galadriel is finally ready with an army to fight against the devil. Also, Halbrand’s motive is yet to be revealed, whether he is Sauron or just a random successor of a random realm. Adar set Arondir free to deliver the message to the survivors that they should surrender their lands, or they would have to face the consequences. The war is moving fast, closing in, and Galadriel is all set. There is no mention of the Harfoots in the episode, which obviously triggers some important points about the Meteor Man. The ending of the episode hints at the arrival of Sauron. Theo is saved and tries to hide the sword of Sauron when Waldreg comes. He shows him the marks on his arm, the same as Theo’s. Theo got the marks while cutting himself with the help of the broken sword. This process allows the sword to attain its full potential. Waldreg shows Theo the marks and tells him that this is no sword, but a power crafted by the master of their ancestors. Here, “master” means Sauron, and their ancestors were the servants of Sauron. Earlier, in the first episode, Revion told Arondir that Southlanders used to serve Sauron, so this incident between Waldreg and Theo proves the authenticity of the statement. It is only a matter of time before the Southlanders show their true colors once Sauron arrives. The more Theo uses the sword, the closer their doom gets.


See more: ‘The Rings Of Power’ Locations Introduced In Episode 1 And 2, Explained In-depth


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Shovan Roy
Shovan Roy
Shovan Roy is a creative content writer. Formerly he used to write film reviews on an international film festival website named Beyond the Curve International Film Festival. He also interviewed global directors. He also interviewed one of the characters from the show 'Trailer Park Boys', Mr. Bernard Robichaud, platformed in Netflix. Shovan tends to write through the third person narrative and he loves to do psychoanalysis. He can't say that he has mastered it but that is some sort of hobby of his. Film is a platform where he loves to spend most of his time learning.

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