Taken from the elvish word Palantíri (meaning far-seeing), the Palantír that we see in Rings of Power is one of eight seeing stones (seven on Middle-earth). In the shortest, most reductive terms, it is basically used as a crystal ball in the series. In other Lord of the Rings stories, they are used for both communication and intelligence gathering.

This season he’s emerged as every bit as compelling and intriguing an on-screen presence as Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel, thanks both to Charlie Vickers’s restrained yet still somehow howlingly villainous performance — the man really knows how to gloat with his eyes alone — and to the unique way his character is written.