The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ends with a lot of excitement, just like a series based on a great fantasy book should. After the big battles and important character moments, the tired but strong heroes decide to fight Sauron’s (Charlie Vickers) growing evil with light.
However, not every hero survives. Celebrimbor’s (Charles Edwards) survival seemed very unlikely after the events of the second-to-last episode. Even though Rings of Power changes some parts of J. R. R. Tolkien’s stories, showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay still keep Celebrimbor’s fate close to the original:
Sauron tortures him before killing him with a spear. The themes of Celebrimbor’s brutal death are similar in both Tolkien’s writings and Rings of Power, but the details are different. Tolkien’s version is dark enough to compare with Game of Thrones.
What Happens to Celebrimbor in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Books?
In Tolkien’s book Unfinished Tales, Celebrimbor creates the elven Rings of Power after working with Sauron, who is disguised as Annatar. They make the seven dwarven Rings and the nine Rings for Men together. After finishing their work, Sauron leaves Eregion to forge the One Ring in Mount Doom.
While he is gone, Celebrimbor discovers Annatar’s true name and his real plans. The three elven rings are made without Sauron’s influence and have a different purpose than world domination. Celebrimbor gives the Three Rings to High King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker) and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) for safekeeping.
When Sauron finds out what Celebrimbor has done, he attacks Eregion in revenge. He tortures Celebrimbor to find out where the Three Rings are, shooting him with orc arrows.
Celebrimbor never tells Sauron where the Rings are and dies from his injuries. Angry, Sauron hangs Celebrimbor’s dead body on a pole and uses it as a war banner against Elrond’s (Robert Aramayo) army.
Why Did ‘The Rings of Power’ Change Celebrimbor’s Ultimate Fate?
The events that happen after Celebrimbor’s death in the Season 2 finale explain why Rings of Power changed his brutal fate while still honoring a famous image from fan discussions. Charlie Vickers told Vulture, “to be able to re-create that [iconic] image was my highlight of the show so far.”
Making this moment more private and less dramatic also respects the complicated relationship between Celebrimbor and Sauron. This relationship adds a lot of emotional weight to this season. Patrick McKay told Vanity Fair after the finale:
“We wanted to honor the intention of that and the thematic core of [Celebrimbor’s death in the books]. The idea that he’s shot full of arrows and hung on a pole, and paraded around by an army… it felt exploitative to a relationship that was so deeply personal between the two of them.
We’re not quite going as far or as out there as the lore. It’s rumored in the lore that happened, right? Tolkien always presents ‘accounts’ of what happened. That’s why sometimes the stories differ.”
Still from The Rings of Power (Credit: Prime Video)
However, McKay hints that Tolkien’s graphic imagery might still be included in a possible Season 3. Regardless, in its original context, Celebrimbor’s tragic end is as brutal as George R. R. Martin’s style of fantasy violence.
The cruel brutality, the insult to Celebrimbor’s legacy, and how Sauron uses his brave partner’s body as a power tactic against the elves make Rings of Power’s version powerful. Still, Tolkien’s idea is much more frightening.
The Rings of Power Season Two concludes dramatically as heroes confront Sauron’s darkness. Celebrimbor faces a tragic end, being tortured and killed by Sauron.
While the show modifies some details from Tolkien’s writings, it maintains the emotional depth and themes surrounding Celebrimbor’s fate, honoring the original story’s intensity.
The popular series Homicide: Life on the Street is now streaming on Peacock. This important police show was made by Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson. It is based on the true story Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by journalist David Simon, who later created The Wire.
The show has a great cast, including Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, and Melissa Leo. Many of the cases in the show are based on real stories from Simon’s book.
One of the most shocking stories in the book is about Geraldine Parrish. This real case became a subplot about a woman named Calpurnia Church, played by Mary Jefferson, in the Season 1 episodes “Gone for Goode” and “Son of a Gun.”
In the show, Calpurnia is accused of having several husbands and family members killed for insurance money. However, the real story is even more shocking than what happens in the show.
The case started as an extortion case where Geraldine’s name was not mentioned at first, but a search uncovered much more. Some details were likely left out of the show because they seemed too unbelievable.
Geraldine Parrish Was “The Case to End All Cases”
In Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, David Simon calls the Geraldine Parrish case “The case to end all cases, the investigation that raises the act of murder to the level of theatrical farce.” The main investigator on this case was Detective Donald Waltemeyer, who inspired the character Meldrick Lewis, played by Clark Johnson, in Homicide: Life on the Street.
According to Simon’s book, the case started when a 28-year-old woman named Dollie Brown reported that her uncle wanted $5,000 to keep her from being killed by a hitman. The police did not understand why anyone would want to kill Dollie, who had no money.
However, someone had already tried to kill her twice. At first, Waltemeyer thought Dollie’s two attacks were just bad luck and that her uncle was trying to take advantage of her fears. He had Dollie wear a wire, arrested her uncle for extortion, and closed the case.
The police only looked at the case again when Rodney Vice, a suspect in another murder, tried to reduce his sentence by giving police information.
He said he knew a hitman who had worked for a woman named Geraldine for several years. He told police that Dollie would not die no matter how many times the hitman tried. Waltemeyer checked with Dollie and confirmed that her aunt was Geraldine Parrish.
After Vice talked to the detectives, they began reviewing open murder cases from the past three years. The murders of Geraldine’s brother-in-law and an old woman who rented a room in her house were never solved, and there was no known motive.
Still from Homicide Life on the Street (Credit: NBC)
As reported in The Washington Post, the two hitmen Geraldine hired for those murders were arrested. After solving two murders, the police realized this case was much bigger and began a special investigation into Geraldine.
When detectives talked to Geraldine’s family, they were shocked by what they learned. None of the family members seemed surprised, and everyone knew what Geraldine was doing.
Many family members, tenants, friends, and neighbors had signed insurance policies where Geraldine was the beneficiary. They discovered that her family members feared her partly because they believed she had special powers and practiced voodoo.
Geraldine Parrish Terrorized Family, Tenants, and Even Married Her Own Nephew
A search of Geraldine’s house found a huge collection of papers showing all the insurance policies she benefited from, but it also uncovered several marriage licenses. Police found out that Geraldine was married to five men at the same time.
Two of these men lived with her and were taken downtown as witnesses. The police could not believe the details when they talked to the two men. One man, Johnnie Davis, was forced into marriage and lived in the basement while Geraldine took his disability checks each month.
The other man was Geraldine’s nephew, Milton Baines, who did not want to marry his aunt. Geraldine threatened him with a voodoo curse if he refused. Another husband, Reverend Rayfield Gilliard, was already dead when the investigation began. According to The New York Times, he died just fifteen days after marrying Geraldine. She received his social security benefits, his house, and about $1,000.
In Homicide: Life on the Street, they simplified the story by having Calpurnia’s niece tell the police that her aunt demanded $5,000 from her. The niece also revealed that Calpurnia had five husbands and life insurance policies on all of them.
Later, in the episode “Son of a Gun,” the detectives go over how many life insurance policies Calpurnia benefited from. By condensing the case into just a few scenes, the show did not fully capture how wild this investigation really was.
The thorough investigation took six months of Waltemeyer’s career and reopened many unrelated cases from the past three years.
Still from Homicide Life on the Street (Credit: NBC)
The Calpurnia Church storyline is one of many cases in Homicide: Life on the Street that came from David Simon’s non-fiction book. While the show is famous for its realism, sometimes the real story is stranger than what is shown.
Homicide: Life on the Street is now streaming on Peacock. The series is based on David Simon’s book about true crime stories, including the shocking case of Geraldine Parrish, who married five men and took out insurance policies on them. The real stories are often stranger than fiction.
Homicide: Life on the Street is available to stream in the U.S. on Peacock.
