Winners
1. Evil in Middle Earth
Adar officially renamed the Southlands as Mordor, thus confirming what many viewers already knew. After serving centuries in obscurity, evil now has a stronghold in Mordor that will serve as such for centuries to come. As word spreads, many evil creatures will flock to Mordor to strengthen the foothold of evil in Middle Earth.
2. Chancellor Pharazon
Despite not appearing in this episode, Chancellor Pharazon comes out of the loss in the Southlands as one of the few winners. Given that the Numenorians were divided about the expedition to begin with, this crushing loss will almost certainly sway public opinion firmly back towards the conservative policy they’d held for years. With the Queen Regent blinded yet insistent on returning to Middle Earth, Pharazon will have an opportunity to seize power that I doubt he’ll pass up.
3. The Stranger
Despite the group of witches being closer to his trail as ever, the Stranger is a slight winner in that he finally has some direction after spending all season wandering with the harfoots.
Losers
1. Elendil
Regardless of whether Isildur is still alive or not (I believe he is), Elendil believes him to be dead. This means that Elendil led the Numenorians to defeat in the Southlands, he lost his son, and his queen was blinded all within the space of a few hours. To add insult to injury, the Queen Regent still insists on returning to Middle Earth after they regroup in Numenor. What a bad streak…
2. Prince Durin
Prince Durin’s insistence on mining mithril to help the elves sees him cross the line with his father, the King, to the point where he is now stripped of his title. The mining has also inadvertently led to the awakening of some demon at the bottom of the mountain.
3. The Harfoots
It was already bad enough that the harfoots were unknowingly headed towards what is now Mordor, but for them to have their entire fleet of wagons burnt to the ground in front of their eyes makes this episode one giant L for them.
4. The Elves
Elrond’s failure to gain King Durin’s approval to supply the elves with mithril leaves the elves’ hopes of restoring their lifeforce in shambles at a time when evil in Middle Earth has reemerged. That they have no idea about what’s going on in the Southlands makes matters worse.