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Our nameless heroine has no memories. She knows so little that her common sense is gone. She isn't afraid of demons. She has been dragged into the demon realm for unknown reasons. She's being stalked by a friend that looks human, and his demon master desires her. Luckily, she is captured by another influential demon.

At first he seems very nice. He doesn't welcome the stranger warmly, but he doesn't throw her to the wolves. She would die for sure out in the open. The ruler of this castle, Nemalla, doesn't know she's someone else's prey. He really becomes her protector by accident. He even investigates the cloud in her memories, out of pity. It's....a refreshingly normal reaction. Our confused heroine doesn't get special treatment right away, BUT the male leads personality gets established. He's not unreasonable, for a demon.

His kindness is not too good to be true. We see his life outside of his conversations with our protagonist. He's a feared and fearsome leader that doles out capital, cannibalistic punishment with his own hands. He is weighed down by loneliness, because he never expected to rise so high. He was trying to survive, but success left him alone with many enemies.

He is never overtly awful to her, even though his daily life demands a manly/harsh attitude.

The lore is a ton of fun.

Our heroine is ugly. Her features are hideous. She has no tail. No soft fur. Her white skin is gross and unseemly. She does not elegantly blend into the dark, the way a sultry demoness would.

We get hints.

Nemalla is attracted to her, even though her looks are repulsive to any demon.

It starts out very innocently. Nemalla likes her company. He's used to fear and hate, but having a friend is a precious new experience. It soothes his mind. When he shoos our protagonist away to focus on work he regrets it. He muses over how to invite her back over for...him.

He doesn't just want her to regain her memories.

He wants to hang out.

Our protagonist must regain her memories on her own. Nemalla can only help her so much. That's the rule binding her amnesia curse together.

She remembers her name when he takes her to his gorgeous personal garden, to impress her.

Simona.

He tells her to stop.

Names are power in the demon realm, but she gives it to him.

He does the unthinkable.

He shares his name with her too.

He explains the gravity of their exchange.

Knowing a name means you can influence that being, in this particular realm.

Nemalla knows many names, because he is powerful.

Simona has nothing, and she has foolishly given her name away.

He considers...showing her. Punishing her to give her a reason to think. To be less innocent, but he doesn't do it because of his perverse attraction and his loneliness.

Nemalla was imprisoned before. He was at the bottom, with less than nothing. There's an extremely creepy scene. It kind of comes out of nowhere, and it's a red flag. It is why I'm reviewing this series.

Nemalla sees himself covered in blood, back in his chains.

Simona appears, glowing with ethereal light.

He looks at her like she is his only savior, and the illusion snaps away.

Nemalla isn't dreaming.

He had that visceral vision as soon as she touched his hand.

Simona has a friend named Alter.

He kisses her while she's asleep.

He grabs her while he's wearing a mask, and he torments her. He tells her nothing. He lusts over her in the shadows, and his master wants her too. I don't care if he's hot he made a terrible first impression, and the way he treats Simona screams "annoying yandere". You know what I mean. The kind of persistent guy that exists to be slapped around by the real male love interest. He's not that intimidating.

Hopefully his master will be better.

Boom.

Lore drop.

Nemalla was born a prince. The son of a queen. That queen...became lovers with a demon outside of her marriage. The bastard prince was eventually thrown in the dungeon, with his mother.

She died there next to him.

It's implied that she loved her half demon son, and he loved her, and that makes their story even sadder.

It also explains why Nemalla is attracted to Simona neatly. (He likes demons too)

It's nice that it's clear he likes HER, not just her body.

The master who wants her has not revealed himself yet, but I have no doubt. I have total faith in Nemalla. He is absolutely going to tear the other men after her into shredded demon beef.

“I strove to create a unique interval between each theme’s first and second note. If each major theme had a unique first interval, listeners would be able to identify that theme in only two notes, the smallest amount of musical information possible. This would be an exercise in efficiency! The more iconic I hoped a theme would be, the rarer should be its opening interval. […]

“Each of these themes has a unique quality in sound and tone, but by beginning with a distinct first interval, they all become instantly recognizable in a matter of seconds.” Bear McCreary, Bear’s Blog

On The Boat [0:07 in the clip below], a tiny voice echoes the first two notes of Sauron’s theme (the “sinister downward third,” as Bear puts it):

Here is what that exact voice sounds like in all its glory:

I was genuinely disturbed when I saw where it was placed in episode 1 …

The little voice is Sauron himself, calling from afar. Galadriel (in a trance) is immediately pulled back by his lure. Thondir, who sincerely cares for Galadriel’s well-being, notices that something is horribly wrong, and desperately calls BACK to her, as if to counter the pull, and snap her out of whatever trance she is in. He knows that this is not normal. Someone is ‘tapping into the powers of the Unseen World.’

In the end, the voice is no longer a distant cry, but is at full-strength. Sauron tries to twist the motives of Galadriel’s friends, in order to make her believe that everyone else would hold her back. “All others look on you with doubt.” This directly calls back to Thondir, who (as Sauron might put it) mutinied against her and tried to drag her off to Valinor. Thus, we see his cunning.

Sauron vs. Thondir (and/or the Valar)

That small voice is not the only time Sauron sings.

"[…] in after years [Sauron] rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void." The Silmarillion: Valaquenta

Thondir and Sauron have a contest. From the first ‘yoo-hoo’ to Galadriel, to the sudden cut-off in the music, there are many instruments and voices competing against one another. Meanwhile, Galadriel is disoriented (one indication being the morphing of Thondir’s voice, like she’s underwater).

Thondir is one who knew that Galadriel’s obsession was not a good thing. Galadriel. Give me your hand, he says anxiously. He knows that whatever is happening is so dire, that he has to guide her by the hand in order to ensure her safety.

That is why he panics in the end. All others on the boat are already immersed in the light, seemingly unaware of anything else around them. In a desperate attempt to save Galadriel from peril, Thondir calls her name once more, and is the last one to look forward; but his arm is still stretched out to her.

All the while, Sauron pulls back on Galadriel. No, come to ME! he says in earnest, somehow more alluring and inviting. He says some other things, too, but we will discuss that in a few moments.

The music alone sounds like a type or version of the contest between Ilúvatar and Melkor [Morgoth], in the Ainulindalë. It is ‘A Shadow of the Past’, one might say. The entire story applies, but for now, let us focus on the end—

Ilúvatar’s music: “Deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came.”

Melkor’s music: “Loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice.” [bray: to speak or laugh loudly and harshly.]

"[…] but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern." The Silmarillion: Ainulindalë [Whether on purpose, or by accident, this is exactly what we hear in this music.]

Let us solidify the music in our minds, before watching the video. Just before the battle commences, there is a continuous, confusing stream of voices in the background, as if to clutter Galadriel’s mind, and it does not stop.

The clip below begins as the birds fly from Valinor through the clouds (which reminds me of the beginning of the Ainulindalë), and ends with Galadriel leaping from the ship.

“I hear it said that when you cross over, you hear a song. One whose memory we all carry. And you are immersed in a light more intoxicating than any sensation in all of Middle-earth.” -Elrond

1:17 – Galadriel looks back at the dagger. Sauron begins tapping into the powers of the Unseen World.

1:19 – "Do you know why a ship floats …"

1:24 – ” … and a stone cannot?”

1:30 – Gil-galad, Elrond, and Celebrimbor witness the Stranger soar across the sky. “Means [Sauron’s] time is near.” – Waldreg (1×04). 1:46 – Sinister downward third. 1:55 – Galadriel momentarily snaps out of her trance. 1:57 – Cluttering voices begin and worsen until the end. 2:04 – Sauron calls for Galadriel; Galadriel is immediately pulled back towards the dagger. 2:08 – The Battle begins.

2:13 – “Galadriel!”

[sinister downward third]

2:30 – “Give me your hand.”

2:42 – Sauron’s horns blare to drown out Thondir. Galadriel looks back at the sounds of said horns.

2:45 – ” … the lights shine just as brightly reflected in the water as they do in the sky.”

2:49 – Sauron’s horns fight against the strings.

2:51 – “How am I to know which lights to follow?”

2:55 – “Sometimes we cannot know until we have touched the darkness.”

3:02 – Sauron’s ostinato accompanies Galadriel’s theme, as she decides to touch the darkness again. Sauron is now SCREAMING: “Come to me!” Also, there’s the eye action again (see also Chapter 2).

3:15 – Thondir: “GALADRIEL!”

3:22 – Sauron has the mastery.

3:36 –

"In the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Ilúvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved, Ilúvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of Ilúvatar, the Music ceased.” The Silmarillion: Ainulindalë

The pull that Sauron had on Galadriel must have been incredibly powerful, in order for her to reject the light of her home, right on its doorstep.

So, here’s the clip. Notice Galadriel’s peculiar attachment to the dagger. Even Thondir knows that something is incredibly wrong with the way she cleaves to it. He is relieved when she lets go: Whew! Okay. Everything’s fine, or so he thinks (his concern breaks my heart).

What did Sauron say to her?

Remember that Galadriel is not bound to an oath, as she believes (see Chapters 2 and 3). When Sauron infiltrates her mind in episode 8, he tells her (in a horrifically convincing manner) what she believes; but it was not the first time.

Galadriel: “No penance could ever erase the evil you have done.”

Sauron: “That is not what you believe.” Galadriel: “Do not tell me what I believe!” Sauron: “No.”

Sauron was the reason Galadriel leapt from the ship, but she is not lying when she tells Elrond this:

“I leapt from that ship because I believed in my heart I was not yet worthy of it. I knew that somehow, my task here was not yet complete.”

This is what Sauron wanted her to believe, so he planted it to push her closer to what will get him what he wants. One might say that Sauron thinks that what Galadriel needs more than anything is to find him and save Middle-earth. However, he does not care about anyone but himself; it is for his own gain.

“[…] W.H. Auden wrote an essay on Tolkien, and he said something along the lines of, “Evil loves only itself.” [“Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself.”] So I think in his pitch to Galadriel, it cannot mean that he loves her or that there’s any kind of romantic relationship. There should be no ambiguity around the fact that Sauron is evil—he’s terrible, and he’s using Galadriel to enhance his power.” Charlie Vickers, The New York Times

Utilizing songs of power (with which he defeated her brother in a contest), the Master of Deceit calls to her, in order to convince her to leap from the ship, saying: You will not be worthy of a glorious rest until you fulfill the task to which you are bound. Find me, so that together, we can save this Middle-earth.

Transformed by Darkness

Here is my personal opinion: I have come to the tentative conclusion that The Epic Cue has something to do with victoriously tapping into the powers of the Unseen World, at a perilous cost.

Instead of the [G#, A], I am specifically talking about the [D, C#, A], indicated by the timestamps before each clip below. The perilous results of tapping into said powers, in each instance, are shown in the pictures associated.

In the case of The Boat, it was not Galadriel tapping into the powers of the Unseen World, but rather Sauron himself, as established above. He coaxed Galadriel to leap from the ship, in order to pursue a perilous path. “Sometimes the perilous path is the only path” (Galadriel 1×08).

0:06

There is something to be said about Sauron ‘having the mastery,’ as it says in The Silmarillion.

"[…] Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great; but Sauron had the mastery […]" The Silmarillion: Of Beren and Lúthien

In the beginning of the season, he is rebuilding his power, but knows much more about these things than the Stranger does at this point (who uses them instinctively). So, the Stranger’s cue is short-lived (playing over seemingly smaller stakes), while Sauron’s is mightier (involving higher stakes).

The Stranger taps into these powers at a cost, when he saves Nori, Poppy, and Malva from the three wolves.

Might I add that in both of these instances (the boat and the wolves) the ones using these powers are the only two known Maiar in the world.

Again, I am focusing on the [D, C#, A].

0:04

The next instance is a bit scary. Oh, sure, it is victorious, but not for anyone except Sauron. Depending on your loyalties, it could qualify as a perilous result.

If you are wondering what Sauron did this time, tapping into those powers, look no further than the title of the track in which this cue is found (taken from Episode 6): Transformed by Darkness. The track begins with the scene in the barn (which can fill up an entire chapter by itself, but we shan’t get distracted yet), where Adar says, “It would seem I’m not the only Elf alive who’s been transformed by darkness,” and ends with Theo’s dilemma (not an accident).

"When he saw that many [of the Noldor] leaned towards him, Melkor would often walk among them, and amid his fair words others were woven, so subtly that many who heard them believed in recollection that they arose from their own thought." The Silmarillion: Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor

The track includes the log conversation, where Galadriel tells Sauron to be free of whatever he’d done before, and that she felt the same thing he felt (after the ‘bind it to my very being’ stunt).

"[…] But there’s also a good case to be made that every step of the way, he sees her as his ticket back to power, and he’s playing hard-to-get to get her to dig in; to get her to do what he needs her to do.” Patrick McKay, TROP Podcast

He carefully crafted the words and ‘songs’ that he used, so Galadriel would trust him. This led her to say exactly what he wanted her to say: “I felt it, too.” All of this he could use as leverage in the end.

It is the same Epic Cue, as featured above, just shifted up a half-step, from [D, C#, A] to [E♭, D, B♭].

Behold his costly victory: