'Rings of Power' woke up in hell this week

[Editor's Note: The following article contains spoilers for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" Episode 7, "The Eye".]

Given how sprawling 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' turned out in its opening season, one of the most surprising things it could do is pick up right there where he left off. After a surprising ending to the previous episode - one that saw an entire village transformed in an instant after a deadly volcano awakened - "The Eye" takes a raw look at the aftermath.

The episode's opening image, of an ash-coated Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), opening her eyes to the new horrors around her, is the series' fastest way to communicate that something goes wrong instantly. It's a simple idea, but one that, according to the episode's director, Charlotte Brändström, took great pains to pull off.

"I always wanted to do that very first shot with Galadriel, when she got up and started looking around. The hardest thing was that I wanted Morfydd to open his eyes and not doesn't blink, and tries not to get ash in her eye when covered. But she was patient and amazing,” Brändström said.

Once Galadriel becomes aware of what has changed all around her, audiences can see that the bright, sunny landscape surrounding what was once part of the Southlands has become a waking nightmare. There's a thick haze of smoke around everything, drenched in an austere color just at the intersection of yellow, red, and orange. It's a terrifying spectacle, all the more powerful because the series drew inspiration from real-world tragedies.

"We started studying the wildfires in California, especially around Paradise. We looked at a lot of photos of the city and the firefighters. We realized that people far away were living with this light very orange in the clouds for a long time. So we created this. We shot a lot of tests with a lot of dust and a lot of orange light. We tried different colors and found this one," Brändström said. /p>

Charlotte Brändström

Ben Rothstein / Amazon

To bring this idea to life, you needed a thick, consistent layer of faux ash that floated through the air and covered everything. The paper-based material that doubles as on-camera ash meant the crew (and the cast between takes) wore masks and eye protection during production on the indoor soundstage. For a show centered on the back and forth between good and evil, there's something poetic about the idea that if you removed the smoke and lighting, the setting would have looked like a much different seasonal land. ...