It needn't be said, but this scene in S1e5 is one of my favorites because the direction and multiple layers of visual storytelling are so neat. As we can recall this is one of the most charged scenes between Halbrand and Galadriel. Where here they are accusing each other of manipulating the other. The clear metaphor is chess and using each other like "pawns".
But I think the full view of this scene must be fully appreciated. Let's rewind to how it started:
Halbrand is summoned to meet with the queen and comes upon this— and it appears a chessboard is already set by the time he arrives. The 2 players here are Ar-Pharazon and Galdriel. Between them is Tar Miriel. The quickest and most obvious play for power would be to “take on" the Queen. That is chess. The Queen Regent, and by extension, the King are very vulnerable. The people of Numenor are discontent and there is political unrest. Certainly, that is Pharazon's scheme and Galadriel is not immune to that temptation either. She is also using it as leverage. And it is represented in this scene; the table between them as the game is underway. But Halbrand ignores it and barely pays heed to the Queen:
Would that not be the most decisive and really effortless (for him) play? Two quick moves. Checkmate. Game over. He could take the kingdom, the army and power, SO easily. But he's not looking at Miriel. He's looking at Galadriel.
He doesn't want the easy win. He doesn't want to remove the queen. He wants to crown this one.
Again, Galadriel is quick to point out that Halbrand was using her to appoint himself king. Unknowing that he could have easily done so (as Sauron), were power all that he wanted. But what he does next contradicts that.
It is the anti-chess move -- he takes himself off the board saying "Find another head to crown." It is the opposite of what everyone else at that table would have done. But it is not an empty gesture. It is an emerging pattern. He wants her. This untameable, unpredictable, headstrong woman. An uncrowned queen with no lands of her own, no army and no allies behind her.
I just love watching season 1 all over again for this reason. Because the breadcrumbs are delicious. At first, human!Halbrand's motives appear murky and cunning. And after the reveal, when the audience gains clarity, perhaps the truth is closer to Sauron being a deeply lost and misguided spirit fumbling towards the closest thing to love and light he had ever been chanced to cling to. I get emotional.
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