Adar. Maybe the most obvious choice at this point, Adar (Joseph Mawle) is a Dark Elf, one often called "father" by his Orc children, implying maybe he is Sauron.
The three figures who first appeared at the site of the Stranger's meteorite crash are known as The AsceticOpens in new tab (Kali Kopae), The Nomad (Edith Poor), and The Dweller (Bridie Sisson), the group's apparent leader.
The women, known as the Nomad (Edith Poor), the Ascetic (Kali Kopae) and the Dweller (Bridie Sisson) declare he is not actually Sauron, but "the other one, Istar."
Although the finale, “Alloyed,” opens with the reveal that the Stranger is Sauron, that's a fakeout, and the trio of white-cloaked women who were after him was mistaken. We later learn that Halbrand is Sauron, while the Stranger is one of the Istari — the formal name for wizards in Middle-earth.
Sauron's deepest fear was that Aragorn would use the Ring against him. With its powers of domination, Aragorn could comfortably take over the entirety of Sauron's dark army. Though this would eventually corrupt Aragorn, it would allow him to destroy Sauron and take his place.
In Tolkien's legendarium, Sauron does not come as Halbrand at all. He appears as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts (though he takes other names as well, including Artano the high smith and Aulendil, servant of Aulë (the Valar who created the dwarves).
In The Lord of the Rings, it is said that had Galadriel chosen to use her powers for evil instead of good, she would have been even more destructive and terrifying than Sauron himself. Galadriel was the greatest and most powerful of all Elves in Middle Earth in the Third Age.
It is therefore unlikely that Galadriel would have been able to save him or turn him towards the light if she had agreed to rule beside him. She even tells him this herself when she whispers: “No penance could erase the evil you have done.”
There is also the fact that, among the Elves, Galadriel was the only one who knew a few things about Sauron, as all of the other Elves that spent their entire lives searching for him were given the opportunity to go to Valinor. In that regard, Gil-galad, Elrond, and Celebrimbor didn't know anything about Sauron.
It begins after Sauron's master, the evil lord Morgoth, is defeated. Sauron may have gone into hiding, but he's still alive: the series will eventually show Sauron's creation of the titular rings of power—including the one ring to rule them all.
When disguising himself in the Second Age, he called himself Annatar ("Lord of Gifts"; anna = gift and tar = king, lord), Artano ("High-smith"), and Aulendil ("Friend of Aulë"). His name is sometimes seen written as Thauron (Þauron), an earlier pronunciation of Sauron.
The Sindar Elves in Beleriand gave Mairon the name Gorthaur, meaning "dread abomination," while others called him Sauron, meaning "the abhorred" or "the abominable," a play on his original name.
Though Galadriel doesn't share her news, Elrond is suspicious and wanders out to find the genealogy scroll that leads him to figure out that Halbrand is Sauron. Unfortunately, he finds this news too late, arriving back at the workshop just as the elven rings (the rings of power) are being completed.
She already feels an outcast after Gil-galad tried to send her back to the Undying Lands, and she fears that if she reveals what she has done, it will be the final nail in the coffin. Instead, when Elrond pulls her from the river Glanduin, and she races back inside to Celebrimbor's forge, she chooses to stay silent.
But when it becomes clear to Galadriel that Halbrand/Sauron cannot tell the difference between “saving” and “ruling” Middle-earth, she rejects his proposal.
Sauron Feared Galadriel
Tolkien also stated that Sauron saw Galadriel as his equal, and therefore, in his rise to power he feared that she would go after that power herself. As we saw in The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel told Frodo that the One Ring would consume her and turn her into a Dark Queen.
Galadriel Was Ashamed Sauron Tricked Her
This was the practical reason that Galadriel would keep Halbrand's secret to herself, but it's likely there was an element of pride as well. Before the events of The Rings of Power, she had spent centuries hunting down Sauron to the detriment of her reputation.
Thus, Galadriel's dark form in Jackson's The Lord of the Rings personified what would have occurred had the Lady of Lothlorien given in to temptation and taken the One Ring for herself. She would have succumbed to evil because the Ring was indomitable, even with her power.
All other men in the trilogy, even the underestimated and underappreciated Faramir, and his mighty brother Boromir, fall short of Aragorn's heroism. That is why Aragorn is the only one who could challenge Sauron in the Palantir, and win.
Regardless, Glorfindel remains one of the strongest characters in The Lord of the Rings, with powers similar to that of the Maiar after being, essentially, brought back from the dead to aid in the Third Age and the War of the Rings.
Galadriel was arrogant and rebellious in her younger years, but she later founded and ruled the kingdom of Lothlórien. She grew to be one of the most powerful Elves in Tolkien's universe thanks to the wisdom she gained throughout her long life.
After he was attacked by the orcs, they transported his lifeless body to Mordor at Sauron's behest. Sauron revived Isildur with one of the nine rings, and then tortured him until his spirit was broken and he became a Nazgûl.
While incredibly intelligent and powerful, Sauron's greatest weakness was his arrogance. He constantly underestimated the power of his enemies, which often led to his plans being thwarted and his armies defeated.
His biggest mistake, obviously, was his failure to realize that someone might try to destroy the Ring. This was his tragic flaw, in creative writing terms, and is the reason there's a story at all. He didn't guard the Sammath Naur or Cirith Ungol properly.
Sauron appears most often as "the Eye", as if disembodied. Tolkien, while denying that absolute evil could exist, stated that Sauron came as near to a wholly evil will as was possible.