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By the end of the first season, Halbrand reveals that he’s been Sauron all along. The reveal is a big one for the show’s highly adapted and adjusted storyline. Galadriel is devastated. Númenor is clearly on Sauron’s radar now. Adar (Joseph Mawle) is in big trouble. While the Halbrand/Sauron bait-and-switch is interesting, though, it’s not what fans of the original source material expected. Not because Sauron doesn’t shapeshift or use other names and appearances, but precisely because he does do those things, just with another name and form.
In the original Second Age storyline, Sauron goes missing for a long time. When he’s ready, he reemerges, not as Sauron but as a pleasant-looking fellow named Annatar. This is the guise that he uses to approach the Elves and offer to teach them how to make some fabulously powerful Rings — not to preserve their fading state by spring, but rather to safeguard their realms over the long haul.
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What does all of this have to do with Halbrand’s words? “The Silmarillion” explains things by saying, “for Sauron took to himself the name of Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, and they had at first much profit from his friendship.” That’s right. Sauron’s source-accurate title is literally “The Lord of Gifts.” This gives a much deeper meaning to Halbrand’s “gift” to Celebrimbor. The question is, why didn’t they use the Annatar title on the show? While the answer remains unclear, it may be that they either didn’t want to reveal Sauron in the first season or possibly didn’t have the rights to use that name in the first place. Either way, the wink-nod mention of a gift is a fun Easter egg that doubles as a callback and a setup for the horrible reveal about to take place.
