‘The Rings of Power’ revealed the most epic shot in ‘Lord of the Rings’ history

The season two finale for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was quite the spectacle.

Major spoilers ahead for The Rings of Power season 2 finale.

From the fall of Eregion to the demise of Adar, the episode was littered with death and destruction. One character’s demise, however, while sad, gave us one of the best visual moments of the series.

At the beginning of the season finale, Prince Durin catches up to his father, King Durin, who single-handedly breaks through the mountain rock to discover a chamber filled with mithril. But that wasn’t the only thing the chamber had in store. King Durin woke something deep within the mountain, too—a Balrog, one of Morgoth’s demonic servants, which would eventually come to be known as Durin’s Bane.

The redemption of a King

Fans of Tolkien’s Middle-earth will have seen this creature before, in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In Peter Jackson’s film, the fiery Balrog was a fearsome sight, engaged in a fight to the death with Gandalf the Grey. Thankfully, the folks over at Amazon didn’t tweak the design too much. A humongous horned creature wreathed in flames, the Balrog is feared by all who look upon it. Luckily, it also gave King Durin the clarity he needed. The King finally saw the consequences of his greed, enough to muster the strength to remove his ring of power and face those consequences head-on. Literally.

In an emotional moment, with father and son finally seeing eye to eye in the face of pure evil, King Durin sacrifices himself in the most epic way. The last glimpse Prince Durin—and the audience—see of the Dwarven King is him launching himself, axe held high, straight at the monster. It’s a visually and emotionally strong moment in the series, comparable to Gandalf’s stand against the same Balrog in Fellowship of the Ring.

One of the trickiest shots in the show

Showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne spoke to Deadline about this very shot, stating, “This was actually one of the most technically challenging sequences we’ve ever done in the show.” According to McKay, this was mainly due to figuring out the lighting in the narrow cave. “It’s quite a beautiful look,” Payne added, “You see it on the face of Peter Mullan, who plays the king, as the blue shifts to orange and hopefully the audience is going, oh no, it’s coming.”

This particular shot is one that was thought up some time ago, with Payne explaining:

“The image of the king leaping into the void, and sacrificing himself to buy the kingdom more time and put the genie back in the bottle, that was an image that came in the very first writers’ room five years ago in Santa Monica. And that tableau of the dwarf making a leap with his ax for the valor, and that being the last thing Durin IV ever sees of his father. We’ve spent five years crafting story to build and hopefully we earned that moment.”

The moment felt well-earned to me. I wasn’t sure whether to cry or let my jaw hang open in amazement. It offers the character some redemption and finally allows us to see King Durin in all his glory, fighting until the very end.