Something is wrong with the candles in Celebrimbor’s workshop. Things are even worse outside.

A man with a dirty face and messy hair, wearing a green robe, stares with concern at a burning candle.
Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) found a glitch in Sauron’s matrix.Credit…Amazon Studios

At the start of this “Rings of Power” season, Sauron — still in his Halbrand form — allowed himself to be captured in Mordor so that he could manipulate Adar into marching his orc armies toward Eregion. Sauron then arrived in Eregion well ahead of the orcs, transformed into Annatar and began manipulating Celebrimbor into forging rings for dwarfs and men, tainted with Sauron’s corrupting influence.

This has been Sauron’s big plan in Season 2; and in the penultimate episode, it’s all starting to come to fruition. Throughout this episode, a battle rages outside Eregion, while inside Annatar pushes Celebrimbor to complete the rings — at the cost of the elf-lord’s reputation and sanity. Sauron is getting one step closer to his ultimate goal: total control of Middle-earth and what he promises will be “a perfect and lasting peace,” very different from the cruel rule of Morgoth.

But does he actually believe his own pitch? Or is he more like some politicians, promising his future constituents whatever he has to in order to acquire enough power to never have to listen to them again? These are not idle questions. Whether Season 2 ends in hope or hopelessness will depend largely on whether Sauron can win enough small victories to tip the balance in his favor, forever.

These are the stakes in an eventful and action-packed Episode 7. Here are four takeaways and observations:

At the end of last week’s episode, we saw how Annatar had cast a spell to hide from Celebrimbor the reality of what Adar’s armies were doing to Eregion. This week, in a few remarkable scenes — notably and disturbingly quieter than the combat throughout the rest of the episode — we see more of how this illusion looks from Celebrimbor’s perspective as he works on the next set of rings, on what appears to be a lovely day.

But there are glitches in the mirage. Celebrimbor keeps seeing the same mouse scurrying in the same way across the same stretch of floor. The gems in his hammer come and go. His candles never burn all the way down. Sometimes he catches a reflection of himself that shows how haggard he actually looks.

Finally, Celebrimbor confronts Annatar and accuses of him of malicious trickery, howling, “No emissary of the Valar would do this!” He smashes a window, revealing the true horrors happening outside. But it’s too late. Annatar has effectively seized control of Eregion, having convinced the elves that Celebrimbor has become dangerously delusional. The city is already in ruins. And the worst is yet to come.