Spoiler alert! This article discusses plot details from the first two episode of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
The elf Galadriel made a major decision at the end of the premiere episode of Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” by taking a leap of faith, and actress Morfydd Clark told TheWrap what was going through the character’s mind when she jumped ship.
After King of the Elves Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) told Galadriel that her fight was over, she was sent with the warriors she commanded back to Elven ancestral home Valinor, as an eternal gift.
Although Galadriel struggled to accept the king’s decision, and even had a long conversation with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) about it (he told her it was time to lay down her sword), she set off on the ship bound for the paradise anyway, despite her concerns Sauron was still out there. But, just as she and her battalion were crossing over into the light, Galadriel decided to make a leap of faith (in herself, and her knowledge) and jumped into the sea to return to Middle-earth, aware her battle is far from over.
“So something I really focused on with Galadriel was the guilt she was carrying,” Clark told TheWrap about the scene (you can watch her discuss the moment in the video above). “I kind of was really interested in, ‘You can’t escape your history.’ And you particularly can’t when you were there for all of it. And she just feels like, to me, that she didn’t deserve to go back yet; her work wasn’t finished.
“I remember speaking with Rob Aramayo a lot about the magnitude of that leap,” she continued. “And then yeah, it was a big move. Very big move, first of all. And … she doesn’t know she’s going to do it until the moment she’s in the water.”
The leap was just one of the many surprising plot twists in the first two episodes of the series, which Prime Video made available to subscribers across the globe on Friday. And, as the second episode showed, the seas she jumped into were full of danger.
Galadriel survived the attack of a sea worm, but a lightning strike on the raft she occupied alongside Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) sent her sinking into the deep. While Halbrand had shown no interest in the welfare of his previous raft companions after the sea worm incident, he made the decision to dive into the water and save Galadriel from drowning.
“Yeah, I think he saved her at that point, and when they meet, because she will increase his chance of survival dramatically. And I think that’s all it is at that point – that he knows that there’s something about this person and she’s clearly very powerful and skilled, and he might die without basically.”
Watch Clark discuss Galadriel’s epic Episode 1 sword fighting, and Vickers talk his character’s human shame in the video above.