The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel survives the eruption of Mount Doom

After the shocking eruption of Mount Doom that seemingly devastated the Southlands, fierce warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) found a way to survive in the penultimate episode of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The seventh installment’s title also offers a pretty big hint – The Eye – that may be teasing the Eye of Sauron, whose creation was never fully solidified in The Lord of the Rings canon.

The episode also reveals that little Harfoot reaches their destination with the mysterious (and huge) Stranger (Daniel Weyman), as tension mounts between Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and Durin (Owain Arthur).

The episode picks up right where last week ended — with the destruction of the Southlands by the Mount Doom eruption.

The final shot of last week’s episode showed Galadriel standing upright in the face of this destruction, though the episode left her fate unknown.

The very first shot of The Eye shows Galadriel opening her own eye, her body covered in ashes but somehow still alive as she slowly rises to her feet.

Small fires burn all around her as she is startled by a horse galloping through them… his whole back is on fire – as Galadriel moves out of the way.

She sees the bodies scattered across the bleak landscape, hearing some cry for help as Galadriel calls Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) and Elendil (Lloyd Owen).

Instead, she hears Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) calling his mother Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) as Galadriel approaches him and asks if he is injured.

He’s obviously stunned by her presence, but says he’s not hurt as they walk away together as we see more of the fiery destruction.

Isildur (Maxim Baldry) tries to pull a pinned-down Valandil (Alex Tarant) out from under a collapsed roof, while asking where Ontamo (Anthony Crum) is.

Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai Robinson) emerges and helps Isildur lift the roof and allow Valandil to break free… but then they find the unresponsive Ontamo beneath him.

Both Isildur and Valandil watch their every move, but Miriel tells them he’s gone and leads them to help others trapped.

They remove the door of a house while the roof is on fire and try to get them out before the roof collapses on top of them.

Isildur tries to reinforce the roof with another beam while Miriel leads the others to safety, and as they get out, Miriel heads back to Isildur when the fiery roof collapses… although Valandil pulled her out when he called for Isildur, who is still inside during the collapse.

The show made history long before its first two episodes debuted on Thursday night, as it is considered the most expensive series ever.

The show’s beginnings date back to July 2017, when a grueling lawsuit between Warner Bros. — the studio behind the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies — and the JRR Tolkien Estate was settled.

Both the studio and the estate began offering the television rights to the franchise to streaming services, with Amazon quickly becoming a frontrunner.

Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos previously mandated the streaming service Prime Video that he wanted a large-scale franchise.

Bezos was also reportedly a huge fan of the franchise and personally was only involved in the rights negotiations alone, which were eventually acquired in November 2017 for a whopping $250 million.

Amazon has also signed a deal with the Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust, who are believed to have given the green light to more than five seasons of the show.

With an estimated production commitment of between $100 million and $150 million per season, Amazon is expected to pay $1 billion for the production costs and the rights, when all is said and done.

The series was created by Patrick McKay and JD Payne, who had previously worked only as uncredited writers on 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond.

The duo pitched a series set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, a history obscured in a five-minute prologue during the Lord of the Rings movies.

They wanted to extend this to about 50 hours of television, including the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the dark lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Numenor, and the eventual alliance between men and elves.

However, there will be characters that fans will recognize, most notably Galadriel, played in the LOTR movies by Cate Blanchett, with the much younger version as Morfydd Clark.

There are rumors that a white-haired character shown in the trailers, played by Bridie Sisson (previously thought to be Anson Boon), is actually Sauron himself, although the producers have not confirmed that.

Executive producer Lindsey Weber wouldn’t confirm or deny Sisson’s character, but she did hint at his parentage to Time.

“We enjoy all the speculation online and can tell you that Bridie Sisson is an incredible actor,” Weber began.

“We also thought fans would love to know that her character travels from far east – from the land of Rhûn…” Weber teased.

The new episodes will roll out simultaneously around the world, with the first two episodes on Thursday at 6:00pm PT/9:00pm ET/2AM UK.

The final six episodes roll out weekly at 9pm PT/12 AM ET/5 AM UK, and the eight-episode season finale arrives on Thursday, October 13 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.