With the The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power finale now streaming, the true identity of Sauron has finally been revealed and it's exactly who many have been expecting...
*SPOILER ALERT*
So, who was it? Who is Sauron?
Drumroll please...
It's... Halbrand (Charlie Vickers)!
Yes, the mysterious blacksmith and presumed heir to the Southlands was actually no King at all, but was instead the missing Dark Lord, who is now very much back in the driver's seat as he aims to set his master plan to create the Rings of Power in motion.
The hour began with a major fake out, however, as the white-cloaked withces initially claimed that The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) was the real Sauron, but, it's later revealed that he isn't the Dark Lord at all, but, as was heavily rumored, is an Istari - a powerful wizard like Gandalf and Saruman.
His storyline sees him captured by the three witches, who believe him to be their Dark Lord and attempt to restore his memories, but Nori (Markella Kavanagh) and the harfoots manage to free him. When the witches realize The Stranger isn't Sauron, they go on the offensive, but he's able to defeat them all with his increasingly powerful elemental abilities. Sadoc (Lenny Henry) is lost in the battle and they all ultimately return to the harfoot community to mourn him, before Nori and The Stranger bid farewell and embark on their own journey to learn more about his origin and purpose in the fight against evil.
As for the season's biggest reveal, it took a while, but when Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) finally begins to suspect that there's more to Halbrand than meets the eye after he shows an immense amount of interest in Celebrimbor’s (Charles Edwards) smithing project, offering suggestions on combining the precious mithral with other metals to stabilize it into some kind of small, wearable shape...
While Halbrand gets chummy with Celebrimbor, Galadriel does some digging into his lineage and uncovers that his stories have been full of lies and he's not the real King of the Southlands, as previously presumed, so she heads out to confront him and receives the shock of a lifetime. He confirms his identity as the Dark Lord Sauron and enters her mind, giving her visions of her dead brother and their first encounter.
Sauron offers her a proposal to join him to rule and heal Middle-earth, and we even get a quick tease of the Dark Lord in his full battle armor, albeit in only a reflection in the water. Galadriel unsurprisingly refuses his offer and when she awakens, he's gone. The villain later resurfaces in the episode's final moment, walking into Mordor and setting the stage for what should be an unbelievably epic season two.